I knew this performance was going to rock, it had taken me so long to convince everyone involved that it was a good idea so if it backfired it backfired on me big time, it might actually cost Leon his chance at the top. Now I was wondering if I had actually made the right decision.
The audience had quietened down when the music started and I held my breathe when Leon began.
“Like the wallpaper sticks to the wall,” he sand looking to stage left.
He walked out but his first line was drowned out by the applause and screams of the audience. They both concentrated on the song, interacting with each other and with the audience and when Nick smirked right at me I wanted to screw him then and there, live tv show be damned. He looked so good in his suit, with his bow tie undone hanging loosely round his neck.
“Me and my shadow
Closer than smog is to all of L.A.
Closer than Ricky to confessing he's gay??
Not a soul can bust this team in two
We stick together like glue,” they both harmonised.
I tore my gaze away from him after about a minute when Simon nudged me, right I was hear to judge Leon’s performance not Nick’s. Good interaction with the audience, good interaction with Nick, hadn’t missed a beat on the chorography, overall his best performance yet.
“And when it's sleeping time,” Leon sang.
“That's when we rise,” Nick harmonised paying close attention to a few backstreet fans that were in the audience.
“We start to swing,” Leon replied executing a perfect, complicated dance step making Nick jokingly roll his eyes at him before he sang his next line.
“Oh you think you're so jazz you.”
Before I knew it they were coming up to the finish and I knew I wouldn’t be the only one who was disappointed, I was glad that these things were taped because I was so going to watch this back over and over.
“Life is gonna be wow-wow-whee! For my shadow and me!”
There was applause but it died out quickly when it obvious the performance wasn’t over. Nick was sat on top of the steps with Leon at the bottom.
“Can we do that again?” Leon asked excitedly.
“No, I'm too tired,” Nick said faking a yawn.
“Please Nick,” Leon begged but Nick shook his head.
“No, I'm swung out.”
“I'll give you some money,” Leon said standing up.
“I don't need money,” Nick said shrugging his shoulders.
“What about a cup of tea?” He offered as if that would make him change his mind but again Nick shook his head.
“I'm not thirsty.”
Here was the big finish.
“I won't tell anyone you're gay,” Leon said winking at the camera making both him and Nick laugh along with the audience before they launched into the last few lines of the song again.
“Before we get finished, we'll make the town roar
We'll hit all the late spots, and then a few more
We'll start out at Stringy's and maybe Groucho
Life is gonna be wow-wow-whee!
For my shadow and me!”
Most of the audience were on there feet as were all us judges and it took Dermot two attempts to quiet the audience down to hear out comments.
“Louie your comments,” Dermot asked.
“I liked it, although it wasn’t as good as the Robbie and Jonathan version it was still enjoyable.”
“Sharon?” Dermot asked next.
“I think you should take it on the road,” she said receiving huge applause for the audience. “ If I was only twenty years younger I would be after the pair of you,” she said blowing them kisses making Nick laugh and Leon blush.
“Willow? I think your going to be a bit impartial here aren’t you?” Dermot said.
“Oh contraire, Leon excellent vocal’s not a note missed, on the other hand the supposed polished professional had two slip ups,” I said looking at him as he mockingly looked shocked. “Ok alright I’ll retract the last statement,” I said when I received a large amount of boos. “Overall I loved it and I do believe I am owed a considerably amount of money from people who said it wouldn’t be successful,” I said handing over to Simon.
“Hated the idea from the get go,” Simon said receiving a large amount of boos and hisses, it was like being at a pantomime. “Let me finish,” he said standing up so he could fish out his wallet from his pocket. “Willow ten quid for you,” he said paying up on the bet we had made. “Leon I’m going to give you my honest opinion, that had to be the…best performance you have done to date. You looked comfortable on stage, you interacted well with the audience, you harmonized well and you actually looked like you were enjoying it which is important because if you look like your having fun then your audience will too.”
“So Leon what do you have to say to those comments?” Dermot asked.
“I’m just…wow, thank you and I guess I need to thank Nick too,” he said turning and shaking his hand.
“Nick how do you think he did?” Dermot asked.
“Well considering I flew in yesterday and we haven’t had a lot of rehearsal time I think he was amazing and I had a lot of fun.”
………………………………..........................................................................................
She snaked her arms around me from behind planting a kiss on my back when she caught up to me during the hour in which the public could vote before the winner would be announced.
“Thank you,” she said when I turned to her, linking our arms as we walked towards her dressing room.
“For what?” I asked.
“For agreeing to do that. It was the only song I could think of to get him through this duet where he would be comfortable with the style of the song, and with Rob not being available-” she said before I cut her off.
“I was second choice?!” I exclaimed and she put her hand to cover her mouth when she realised she hadn’t told me that earlier.
“I…Well he did sing it with Johnny, you sang it better and looked hotter if that makes any difference,” she said leaning up to kiss me.
“Hmm well… alright I guess I can let it go for now,” I joked kissing her back when we were inside her dressing room. I deepened the kiss pushing her up against the door making her moan in my mouth. She trailed her hand down my back, fingering the KAOS tattoo that was hidden under my shirt but then she pulled away abruptly.
“We can’t,” she said pushing me backwards.
“Why not? The door locks, we can be quiet,” I said smirking to her and I could see her contemplate it in her head.
“No,” she said shaking her head.
“You know you want to, I bet you’ve practically been wet since the performance, I saw the way you were checking me out,” I said seductively as I sat on the arm of the couch and I knew I would be able to break her by the way she was biting her lip and how her breathing had grown heavier. I reached out for her arm and pulled her to rest between my legs. “You look so fucking hot tonight babe,” I whispered to her as I traced a line from her neck down to her breast and when she sighed I knew I had her.
Chapter Thirty Two.
“With the amount of spray and grips it shouldn’t have just fallen out,” Marie the hair stylist said when I tracked her down to redo my hair because strands had fallen away making it look messy.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” I lied knowing full well why it had happened, shooting Nick a warning look when he started to chuckle from behind me.
“Oh here you are, I’ve been looking for you,” Sharon said walking into the room. “What happened to your hair?” She asked and then eyed Nick up in the corner. “You might want to pull your zipper up sweetie, makes it less of a giveaway,” she said to him when she noticed his fly was undone. I cracked up laughing I had never seen him blush so much in his life!
“Anway,” she continued, “I wanted to ask if you were planning on coming back next year? It’s been nice having another woman on the team.”
“To be honest I haven’t really thought that much about it. I might do but I’ll more than likely be touring with him,” I said nodding my head in Nick’s direction.
“Well think about it, it would be great to have you back,” she said before turning to Nick, “She has five minutes, keep your hands to yourself,” she joked making him blush again.
“I’ll get Jess as well, she’ll need to touch up your make up, you’ve got a bit of stubble rash,” she said looking at me through the mirror, a smirk on her face.
“Thanks,” I replied blushing.
………………………………..........................................................................................
The after show party was in full swing by the time we arrived, I had only wanted to head back to the hotel to change as I didn’t feel comfortable in the expensive gown I had been wearing, but that had ended up in more sex and as he pulled me against him so we could squeeze through the crowds to the bar I could feel that he was hard again.
“Has someone slipped you Viagra?” I asked him when we reached the bar making him smile devilishly at me.
“You’re my Viagra darling,” he winked sleazily.
“Oh god what a line,” I said rolling my eyes. “Corona?” I asked him when the bar tender came to take our order and he nodded, “Two coronas please.”
“I want you,” he whispered into my ear throatily.
“Well you can’t have me yet, your going to have to be a good boy and wait, you think you can hold out?” I asked grabbing his bulge making him gasp out.
“If you do that then no,” he said when I handed him his beer.
“Come on sexy lets go bust some moves,” I said shaking my hips at him.
………………………………..........................................................................................
She turned her head to look at me and smirked. She knew exactly what she was doing and how turned on it was making me and she wiggled more in my lap making me even harder.
“Uh sorry?,” I said to Sharon when I realised I had been too distracted to hear what she had said.
“I said when are you leaving?”
“A few days, we’re going to do some sight seeing, any place I should take her to earn some brownie points?” I asked while Willow spoke to Leon.
“Fifteen for dinner, that’s Jamie’s place, I can call and get your reservations if you’d like, and the London Eye, she’ll like that,” She replied over the din of the music and she was just about to say something else when Willow jumped up off my lap and started pulling me towards the dance floor. She loved this song.
When we were in the middle of the throng of people who were on the dance floor she pulled my arms around her waist and then wrapped hers around my neck, grinding her hips into mine, smirking at me as she danced and sang along.Well somebody told me
You had a boyfriend
Who looked like a girlfriend
That I had in February of last year
It's not confidential
I've got potential
Ready? Let's roll onto something new
Taking its toll and I'm leaving without you
Cause heaven ain't close in a place like this
I said heaven ain't close in a place like this
Bring it back down, bring it back down tonight
Never thought I'd let a rumour ruin my moonlight
“You’re drunk,” I said to her.
“Doi,” she said cracking into a big smile before she bought her lips up to mine, kissing me passionately only pulling away when she became breathless. I knew the look in her eyes all to well and smiled to myself when she grabbed my hand and started to pull me off the dance floor. I soon became confused when she headed towards the bathrooms, she said she would never have sex in a club, that it was too tacky and sleazy.
“Where are we going?” I asked but she just carried on like she didn’t hear me.
I pretended that I hadn’t heard him, I knew this was one of his fantasies, to have noisy sex in a really public place but he had never gotten the courage to do it in fear of it being publicised, a scandal that he didn’t really need a few years ago with all that was going on with his family. He hadn’t really been in the media for something bad in a while though, not that this was bad but it would be shocking for my blonde angelic backstreet boy to be heard having sex in a public bathroom.
I pushed him into the stall roughly before squeezing in as well and closing the door behind me. Then I pounced on him, kissing him passionately until I could feel the burn in my lungs alerting me that I needed oxygen.
“Are you serious?” he asked his blue eyes wild.
“Nervous about living out your fantasy baby?” I whispered seductively as I snaked my hands into the front of his pants, stroking him making him moan above me before he realised how loud that had been. “Your so hard Nicky, is that for me? Are you excited that people might be able to hear? Will they hear how I can make you cry out? Are you gona scream my name so they know who is doing this to you?” I asked making him look at me wide eyed. I knelt down in front of him as I undid his zipper and then pulled down his pants, raising an eyebrow to him when I saw he wasn’t wearing any boxers.
“Opps, guess I forgot,” he shrugged before closing his eyes and resting his head back against that stall wall when he felt me close my lips around the head of his cock. I licked and sucked and grazed my teeth along his shaft but he was being far too quiet, he was even managing to control his breathing so it wasn’t loud. I looked up to him, his eyes were squeezed shut, he was really concentrating hard at being a good boy.
That had to change.
I moved my hands from cupping his balls to stroke the sensitive skin between them and his ass. A throaty moan escaped his lips, and he opened his eyes looking down at me as my fingers moved further towards his ass. We had never done anything like this before, we had never even really talked about it but I knew as long as I kept my mouth on his cock he would agree to anything.
I kept my eyes on him letting him know he could trust me, it would also be my queue to know if I was going to far, or whether he liked it and at the moment I couldn’t really tell either way so I kept going. I fingered his hole and he moaned so loudly closing his eyes in satisfaction so I kept going.
But after a few seconds his hands came to my head pulling me off him and I wondered whether I had gone too far.
I pulled her up kissing her roughly, pushing my tongue into her mouth while I tugged at her pants, trying to get them down. It wasn’t that I didn’t like what she had been doing, it had been fucking amazing, but I knew if she kept it up I would have come so hard and I wanted, no needed to be inside her when that happened.
“Fuck me Nick,” she said, helping me to pull her underwear down, my hands found her centre and I rubbed her clit a few times making her moan louder then usual and I knew that she was doing it purposely, she wanted people to hear.
I pulled her up and pushed her against the stall wall so we could balance while she wrapped her legs around my waist and I slid into her making both of us cry out.
“Your so hot around me, fuck,” I said when she clenched her walls around me.
“You feel so uhhhhh,” she moaned when I started working my way in and out of her.
I knew this was going to be over quickly, we had had a night full of foreplay what with her sitting on my lap and dancing sexually. I was trying to hold out as long as possible but it was getting harder and harder with every thrust and her crying out every time I pushed into her was driving me insane.
Both our eyes grew wide when someone started banging on the stall door.
“Keep going, don’t you dare stop,” she said running one of her hands through my hair.
“This is security open up now.”
Fuck we were going to be in so much trouble.
I felt her walls clench around me and she screamed my name at the top of her lungs as she came pulling me along with her.
“Open up now,” Security said banging on the door again and she slid down off me as we both pulled our pants up quickly looking at each other trying not to laugh. She ran her hands through her hair quickly before unlocking to door and slipping out and I followed behind her.
“I’m going to have to escort you off the premises, I also have to inform you that you are no longer welcome at this establishment,” the beefy doorman said as we followed him out of the bathroom where people were stood wide eyed as we exited.
By the time we reached the cold outdoors we were in full blown giggles, trying to hold one another up as we hailed a cab.
“I can’t believe we just did that,” he said through laughter.
“If this gets out, there is no way I’m going to be asked back to judge again next year.”
Chapter Thirty Three
I looked out at the scenery and smiled when I felt his arms snake around me from behind.
“If you look way over there you can see the Eifel Tower,” he said pointing out to the distance and like a sucker I looked to where he was pointing only to see an electricity pylon in the distance and when I turned round he was in hysterics.
“Goon,” I said elbowing him.
“I can’t believe you fell for that one. My mum’s got curly hair and brushes her teeth,” he said imitating Peter Kay who he had come to love whilst we had been over here. (AN: It’s a skit where he signals that someone is psycho, its very funny.)
“I can’t believe we only have three days left here,” I said looking out over London whilst we slowly moved in the Eye. The view was really good considering that it was so cold and overcast here now, even Nick had started to wear gloves and a scarf.
“Told you we could do it,” he said wrapping his arms back round me again before he placed a kiss to my cheek.
“I didn’t doubt that. It’s going to be weird going back to somewhere warm, I’ll actually be able to wear a swimsuit!” I exclaimed.
“Or nothing at all,” he leered.
“Come on horny,” I said pulling his hand as the doors to the capsule opened signalling that the ride was over, “Christmas shopping awaits.” He groaned and then took my hand as I pulled him through the crowds and towards the tube station at waterloo. He got a kick out of using the underground, it was something he classed as normal and he said he hadn’t got enough of that when he was younger. At first I had been a bit wary about him being noticed when we were in a confined space but no one had actually noticed him it had been me they had recognised from the show.
“Willow?” I turned when someone called my name and smiled at the young girl standing in front of me. “It is you, wow, its nice to meet you,” she said shyly.
“You to, what’s your name?” I asked as Nick reloaded our oyster cards so we could pass the gates to get the tube.
“Izzy. I just wanted to tell you that I think your songs are amazing and that you were a really cool judge, are you going to come back next year?” She asked.
“Maybe, it depends on what I’m up to but I would like to. Are you getting ready for Christmas?” I asked noticing all the shopping bags she held in her hands.
“I am finished as of today, all I have to do is wrap everything.”
“I’ve still got loads of people to get for and I have to drag him around with me, Nick really doesn’t like to shop,” I said as he made his way towards us.
“My boyfriend sat on his laptop and ordered everything.”
“Which is what I wanted to do,” Nick said giving her the infamous grin.
“But then you miss all the lights and you don’t get into the Christmas spirit,” Izzy said proving my point. “We’ll I’ll let you go, it was nice to meet you,” she said.
“You to and have a good Christmas,” I said smiling back at her.
“Two hours and that’s it, if you haven’t got it all in two hours we are ordering it on line,” he said grabbing my hand as we walked towards the escalator.
“Bah humbug.”
………………………………..........................................................................................
“I could live here,” she said as she sat in a pile of cuddly toys in Hamley’s and I laughed at her while I took a photo on my phone. “It’s the best place ever, well apart from Disney.”
“Your such a kid,” I said pulling her out.
“That is the pot calling the kettle black, so while we’re here what do you want for Christmas?” She asked.
“I have what I want for Christmas,” I said and even in my head that sounded Cheesy and I could tell she was thinking the same thing as she started making gagging noises.
“Oh god your not going to start singing the Mariah song are you?”
“I don’t want a lot for Christmas, there is just one thing I need, don’t care about the presents underneath the Christm-” She covered my mouth with her hand then, but I was still singing underneath it.
“Stop it,” she said glaring at me and then something caught her eye and she was off. I followed her through the crowds of others and found her placing a pirate’s hat on her head, she already had the patch on. “Ye walk the plank you squally wag,” she said pointing the sword at me and then she swung it and it made a noise like it was hitting against another sword and her face lit up. “So cool!” She exclaimed, “We have to get these,” she said picking up another set and I opened my mouth before I even thought about it.
“Why we haven’t got any kids.”
I so wanted to take that back.
Her face fell immediately and she out the swords back walking towards the cash register so she get the few presents she’d picked out for Baylee and the stuffed turtle she’d wanted to get Mason as a joke. She was in the middle of the transaction when I finally caught up with her.
“I’m sorry,” I apologised.
“For what?” She said throwing the cashier a smile as she took the bag she was handed. She was trying to shrug it off like nothing had happened but I knew I had hurt her.
“You know what for.”
“For stating the obvious? I’m not mad.”
“I didn’t think you were mad, I think I upset you and I didn’t want to do that.”
“I’m fine, come on we still need to go to Covent Garden,” she said as she walked out on to the cold street and I followed her.
………………………………...............................................................................................
I had heard and felt her get out of bed and assumed that she was going to use the bathroom but when she didn’t come back straight away I got up. Even though the hotel kept the rooms warm I still needed something to take away the small chill so I pulled on the bathrobe that was thrown across the end of the bed.
I opened the door quietly, the room was in darkness so I couldn’t really see her but I could hear her crying and that broke my heart. Ever since I opened my big mouth earlier she hadn’t been right, she been distant and quiet and not even watching Scrubs had cheered her up. I went to walk across to her but the floorboard creaked and she turned her head slightly.
“Go back to bed Nick, I’m fine,” she said trying to sound composed.
“You don’t sound fine,” I said.
“I am, just not sleepy that’s all, go back to bed,” she said trying to hide her face as I finally made it in front of her.
“Well I’m not tired now,” I said sitting on the coffee table and she quickly wiped away a tear that slipped down her cheek.
“Just leave me alone.”
“I can’t do that, I’m not going to leave you here to cry by yourself.”
“I don’t want your pity,” she said bitterly.
“I’m not here for that Will, I’m here to apologise,” I said placing my hand on her leg but she pulled away quickly.
“For what its not your fault I cant have kids.”
“I should have thought before I opened my mouth, I never meant to hurt you, what can I do to make this better?”
“You can’t do anything Nick, you can’t fix this so just leave it alone, leave me alone to deal with this,” she said wiping away more tears. I realised that it wasn’t just today, she had been hiding this from me since we had got back together and I felt so blind that I hadn’t realised sooner. “Go away,” she almost yelled at me but when I sat on the couch next to her she didn’t hesitate when I pulled her into an embrace.
“This is just so unfair.”
“I know it is but we’ve got each other,” I said as I rocked her gently.
“You could still…you coul-”
“Don’t start that again,” I said pulling her away from me so I could look at her.
“I would understand,” she hiccupped.
“The only family I would want would be with you.”
“But I can’t give you that,” she nearly sobbed.
“Willow please don’t do this to me again, don’t walk away from me again,” I whispered panicked that that was what she was going to do.
“I’m not I just I don’t even know why I’m getting this upset about it it’s not like we were even close to thinking about having kids together.”
“That was always the plan though wasn’t it? You can admit it,” I said.
“No. Well only if we had both wanted to,” she said playing with the hem of my t-shirt that she was wearing.
“We could adopt, we could have a family that way,” I said and I didn’t even know where that had come from, there was no way I was ready to be a father yet.
“You’d be okay with that?” She asked still not looking at me.
“Yeah but I er…” I hesitated, I didn’t want her to think that I wanted that right now.
I could tell he was panicking and I could have jumped in earlier to reassure him that I wasn’t ready for kids just yet but it was so much fun to watch him squirm. I finally looked up to him and smiled and I thought I saw him gulp.
“We don’t have to start looking now Nick,” I said and he smiled sheepishly at me.
“We’re not there yet are we?” He asked taking my hand in his.
“No we’re not but I hope we will be someday,” I said leaning my head against his shoulder.
“No one I would rather be there with,” he said kissing my head, “Come one lets go to bed.”
Chapter Thirty Four.
I walked over to where he was sat in the departure lounge, frowning when I saw the look of uneasiness on his face while he was reading a magazine.
“What’s up baby? Stock market crashing?” I joked putting the bottles of water in my carry on bag. He looked up to me and sighed, handing me the page that he had been reading. It was the Celeb’s spotted page of Heat magazine and in the bottom left corner was a grainy picture of us that had been taken by a camera phone being escorted out of China Whites. The Caption read “Spotted Backstreet Boy Nick Carter and X factor Judge Willow Abrams getting down and dirty in the bathroom of China Whites, when will Celeb’s learn sex in public bathrooms is not classy.”
“Shit,” I said looking up to him a small smile playing on my face.
“It’s not funny,” he said.
“It’s a bit funny,” I said as I started to giggle.
“Your Dad is going to kill me,” he said and that made me laugh even harder.
“He doesn’t read trashy magazines like this,” I answered.
“He’ll still find out and then he’ll kill me, then he’ll kill you when I tell him it was your idea.”
“Don’t you dare,” I warned.
“What? It’s the truth,” He said.
“It was your fantasy your twisted man,” I said pointing my finger at him.
“Yeah FANTASY, I wasn’t the one who made it reality was I?”
“You didn’t seem to mind,” I said back.
“I…well…damn,” he said knowing I had him there.
“Don’t worry about it baby, I think this is funny. Come on,” I said standing up when I heard our flight information called.
………………………………..........................................................................................
I lifted my eye mask and glared at her but she just smirked back and continued what she was doing.
“Stop it,” I whispered as she continued pumping me.
“Your hard your enjoying it,” she whispered back so no one else on the flight would be able to hear us. “Enjoy it baby, sex in a public place, your fantasy remember?”
“Which we’ve lived out once on this trip and got caught,” I whispered my breath becoming more ragged as I got closer.
“They can hardly throw us out at the altitude we are can they?”
She scratched her nails down my hard length and I had to bit my lip to keep from crying out. I shifted onto my side to give her better access, I knew I wasn’t going to win this one, and even if I would have there would have been the problem of my hard on.
A few more strokes and I exploded in her hand, suppressing my moan by swallowing it. I felt her clean me up with some tissues and then she rubbed some across her hands before she kissed my nose.
“Night Nicky,” she said.
“Don’t think your getting off that easily,” I said trailing my hands down her stomach and into the top of her sweat pants tracing the lace of her panties with my finger, grateful that the blanket was concealing all of this. She was so wet but I wasn’t surprised she always got excited when she got me off by using her mouth or hands. I snaked my hands into her panties, rubbing her clit with my thumb a few times and she instinctively arched her back towards me. I trailed my hand further down and pushed two of my fingers inside of her, making her bite down on my shoulder to keep quiet. After about a minute she started to throb around me and I pushed my palm against her cit hard as she came.
“I love these new beds in planes,” she said smiling at me as I sucked her juices off my fingers.
“So do I,” I agreed kissing her.
Chapter Thirty Five
“I told you it was too big,” she said looking up from the magazine she was reading as I attacked the Christmas tree with a saw, trying to rid it of some of its height.
“It’s not too big,” I said lying through my teeth. Why was I lying? The truth was in front of me hell it was in front of her and but if someone said the sky was blue I’d tell them different. She just threw me a look that screamed “WHATEVER” and went back to reading the article. “You know you could at least help.” She threw the magazine onto the coffee table and dug through one of the boxes, sighing when she pulled out a tangled mess of lights. “I meant with the tree.”
“Oh no you got into that mess you can get yourself out,” she said sitting crossed legged as she began to try and untangle the lights.
Two hours later and we had just managed to get the tree standing straight with the lights on.
“I think it looks good like that, you know less is more,” I said falling back on the couch put she pulled me up.
“Oh no you don’t, here,” she said handing me a box of decorations. She then picked up the reams of tinsel that were laying haphazardly around the room from where she had thrown them out of the box and strung them around her neck.
“Nicky,” she said excitedly pulling on my arm, “It’s nearly Christmas!”
“Well duh,” I said throwing a babul to her.
“Aren’t you excited? Father Christmas is getting ready.”
“Willow I hate to break it to you but he doesn’t exist,” I said laughing at her mocked shocked expression.
“Coal for you this year then,” she said picking another ornament out of the box. She was quiet for a moment and I caught her looking at what was in her hand. It was the ornament that I had made for her on our very first Christmas together as a couple, it was hard to believe that this would be our Third Christmas together.
“Happy third Christmas,” I said holing up some old mistletoe from last year. She laughed and pulled me in for a kiss.
“I think we should watch a Christmas movie after we’ve finished,” she said pulling away from me and I rolled my eyes, “Nick stop being a humbug.”
“Fine, fine but don’t blame me of I fall asleep.”
………………………………...............................................................................................
“I’m thinking we should have taken my Mom up on her offer, what the hell were we thinking when we invited everyone to our apartment?” I said as I threw more random vegetables into the trolley.
“You mean what were you thinking,” he said quietly but I heard him and when I threw him a look he just smiled at me. “How many carrots do you think?” He said walking away from me which was probably a good idea.
“How many are coming?” I asked.
“Your folks so that’s four, Dad, Ginger and the kids so that’s eight, Aaron, Angel, B.J and Wes so that’s fourteen including us,” he said as he began to shovel them in a bag without even looking at the quality of them.
“So we need a shit load then, Nick can you at least look at them, that ones going brown already and Christmas is two days away,” I said as I started to pick up potatoes.
“Baby I hate to make you even more neurotic then you already are but haven’t you forgotten something?” He said and I just started at him. “The fact that tomorrow we have a wedding to attend, when the hell are we going to prepare all this food?” He asked but thankfully I had thought of that two days ago.
“Mom said she would stop by tomorrow, she’s going to prepare all the veg and cook the turkey, she and Mike are going to stay overnight,” I said as I manically drove the shopping trolley around to the dairy isle, picking up milk, cream and butter.
“Willow their coming for one meal, they are not staying for a month,” he said pulling out three cartons of milk.
“So your saying six was overdoing it?”
“Just a tad. Chill baby there are going to be plenty of people to help with the food and stuff,” he said picking up a bottle of chocolate milk.
“How old are you?” I said eyeing him as he slipped it in amongst the other food items.
“That’s the beauty of chocolate milk, everyone loves it,” he said shrugging his shoulders as we walked around the supermarket. He picked up a pair of reindeer antlers and stuffed them on his head making me laugh and I knew he was trying to de-stress me, he was doing a good job.
“Wrapping paper,” He said snapping his fingers like he had just remembered.
“Leaving things till the last minute?” I asked.
“No I have the presents just not anything to wrap them with,” he said wondering off.
I groaned when I saw the queue as the cash registers, we were going to be here forever. I stood and flicked through a magazine while I waited for my turn to load up the conveyer belt with huge amount of food we had.
“Boo!” I nearly hit the roof when I felt a pair of hands grabbed at my side.
“Chris you bastard your scared the crap out of me,” I said hitting him in the arm but he just laughed at me.
“Hey girlie, feeding the five hundred?” Autumn asked.
“Feels like it, you know you guys are more then welcome to come over as well,” I said when I looked at what they were buying, cheerio’s, cheeto’s, pop tarts, Oreos and chocolate milk.
“We are not going to conform to the conventional turkey dinner with all the trimmings. It’s junk food city and lots of bad movies for us,” Chris said wrapping his arm around Autumn. I still found it strange that they were a couple, they were just so completely and utterly different, Autumn was loud, to the point and could be quite obnoxious at times. Chris was far more quiet, calm and relaxed about things, I would never had put them together, Nick had said that they started hanging out when they were “babysitting” him after I had broken it off and they seemed to have hit it off from there.
“Sup Dude?” Nick asked high fiving Chris when he found me at the checkout counter.
“Hosting a small get together?” He said motioning towards the trolley full of food.
“I plan on sitting in the lounge bro, I mean erm I’ll carve,” he said remembering that I was in ear shot.
“Baby come one otherwise we are never going to get out of here,” Autumn said pulling at Chris’s arm.
“Boxing day at mine?” Chris said as he was dragged off.
“Totally, see you then,” I said waving. When I turned round Nick was busy piling items onto the conveyer belt and he had totally forgotten about the antlers on his head.
“What are you laughing about?” he asked.
“Oh just these,” I said pulling them off his head making him blush.
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“You can’t come in yet,” I said when she banged on the bedroom door for the fifth time.
“What’s taking you so long?” She called.
“I’m wrapping all your presents.”
“How many have you got me?” She asked excitedly.
“I’ll be out in ten minutes, just put the film on,” I said as I tidied up the bits of paper that I didn’t use. All of her presents were in a pile on the bed but there was one that I hadn’t wrapped, it stood on my beside table I didn’t know when I was going to give it to her. I picked it up and held it in my hands for a few seconds before getting up and putting it in my jacket pocket.
I picked up the rest of the gifts and headed for the living room where she was laying on the sofa underneath a blanket even though we lived in Florida and it was warm. I placed the presents under the tree and turned round to see her face glancing at them all.
“Do not touch them,” I warned as I went into the kitchen to get a beer. I returned just in time to see her dive back onto the sofa. “What did I tell you?” I said handing her a glass of wine. “It’s not too late for Santa to take them back you know.”
I sat down next to her and she threw her legs across my lap and put the bowl of popcorn between us.
“But there won’t be enough time for him to find someone else to give them too so I’ll just have to have them. Do you want to open one of yours tonight?” I asked but he was on to me.
“No because then you’ll want to open one of yours, so sit and watch,” he said pointing to the TV. I sat and looked at the screen for ten minutes but I wasn’t into the film so I glanced across to him, he was sat and looked quite engrossed. I slowly slid my hands up and down his leg waiting for a reaction, the sigh came a few seconds later. I moved closer to him then and he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “I guess I’ll tape this and watch it later,” he said leaning forward to reach for the remote.
Chapter Thirty Six
“You okay?” Kristin asked as she sat down next to me while I watched Willow dance with Baylee at the reception.
“Yeah I’m good, hey little man,” I said taking Mason from her.
“You seem quiet today, everything okay with you and Willow,” she asked.
“We’re great. Never been better actually.”
“Then why are you quiet?” She probed. Handing me a rattle to keep her son occupied while I bounced him lightly on my lap.
“Just thinking about stuff that’s all and I think I ought to give Howie the day off, I mean I can’t really rag on him on his wedding day can I?” I joked and she laughed.
“So things are good between you guys? Everything’s sorted?”
“Kris we’re good,” I said looking over to Willow who was attempting to be twirled by Baylee, she had actually got on to her knees to be able to get under his arm and he was having a wail of a time. That’s what I loved about her, that she could make herself look like a total fool or crazy person to make someone else have a good time or laugh. I chuckled and then glanced back over to Kris who had teas in her eyes. “Jesus your not pregnant again are you?” I asked.
“No, it’s just nice to have the old you back. I don’t like seeing you how you were.”
“Well I didn’t exactly want to be that way. I guess I should thank you actually for kicking her in the butt.”
“That would be your big brother who did that, I was just there when she finally let herself fall apart,” she said digging around in Mason’s bag for something else to entertain him when he began to fuss.
“What are two talking about?” Kevin asked handing Kris a glass of wine.
“Just how nice it is to have the old him back,” she replied smiling at him.
“Yeah until you start pulling pranks again.”
“Well I have to teach my nephew a thing or to. Right Mason? When your older I’ll teach you how to put suran wrap over the toilet seat, and about switching the shampoo with hair colour, we’ll make him crack,” I said to Mason who just gurgled and then stuck his fist in his mouth.
“Mason I‘m warning you now you will be grounded for life if you listen to him,” he joked.
I watched Baylee dance and clapped when he slid along the floor on his knees. “Baylee I think you could give your Daddy and run for his money,” I said pulling him up so he was standing again.
“Hey Baylee can I steal your partner?” Howie asked coming over to me. Baylee just nodded and ran off in the direction of Bri and Leighanne.
“Hey you, won’t your wife mind you dancing with me?” I asked as he wrapped his arms around me.
“Well she’s dancing with Alex and left me all alone.”
“I’m sure you’ll live.”
“Well actually I didn’t come here to dance I came her to kick your ass out, you never R.S.V.P’d,” he joked.
“Ahh see that’s where your wrong, I’m here as Nick’s guest so you can’t kick me out.”
“You got me, thank you for coming today,” he said as he twirled me around the dance floor.
“No problem. I’m really happy for you guys and glad that you finally asked her after how many years.”
“Yeah I know I know, I should have done it a lot sooner. He’ll get round to it too you know,” He said when he caught me glance in Nick’s direction. “ I know he’s said that he doesn’t want to get married but I think that with all you guys have been through things may have changed.”
“You think? Because I’m not pinning any hopes on that, anyway who says I want to marry him?” I said joking him off.
“You know you would say yes in a second, don’t you even try to deny it.”
“Well he’s not going to ask so I guess we’ll never know.”
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All it took was one song and a few beers, except for Jay, and they were like boys again. The four of them were up playing air guitar and singing wildly, Nick however was the only one to have his tie wrapped around his head.
“I look at him like that and I can’t believe that he’s 32 and has a child,” Leighanne said taking a sip of her wine.
“Nick will always be fifteen to me, it doesn’t take much for him to revert back to it,” I said turning my head when Kristin started laughing. What the hell was he doing? What the hell were they doing? “When they fall it’s not going to be pretty,” I said through giggles when Nick started wobbling with Brian on his back as he tried to continue to dance.
“Yeah well at least its that way round, if Howie and Leigh hadn’t of left you know that Nick would have tried to jump on Howie,” Kris said as she rocked a grizzly Mason. She looked stressed so I held my hands out for him and she gladly passed him across.
“You teething little guy?” I asked but he just grabbed hold on my finger and stuck it in his mouth.
“You going to your Mom’s for Christmas?” Kristin asked.
“No everyone is coming to ours, last tally was fourteen.”
“In yours and Nick’s apartment? Have fun.”
“Yeah I know stupid idea as Nick keeps reminding me but I knew that he wanted to see his Dad this year and my Mom is a total freak when it comes to Christmas so it was just easier. That was in theory the logistics of it our a bit trickier,” I said bouncing Mason to try and keep him happy.
“Come on sexy lets dance,” Nick said walking over to me, flushed from carrying Brian on his back with the tie still wrapped around his head.
“On the condition you take your head gear off,” I said as I handed Mason to Denise to give Kris a bit more of a break.
“Spoil sport,” he said taking it off and leaving it on the table.
