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Author's Chapter Notes:

Sorry for the long hiatus! Life has been happening. Hope you enjoy and drop me a line to let me know what you think!

 


 


Once he’d picked his lower jaw back up off the bar, Nick started to stammer nervously. “Y-you were talking about me?”


 “Mmmhmm,” she answered through tight lips.


 "But....but why?”


 Annie bit her bottom lip in an attempt to stifle her laughter. Jealous Nick was pretty entertaining. “Well...”


 “Well, what?!” he shrieked.


 “Kevin seems to think you’re quite the catch.” She took another sip of her pina colada and waited for his response.


 Nick looked at the two empty beer glasses in front of him and reached for his untouched bottle of water. He flushed as he struggled to unscrew the cap, his hands still shaking after Annie’s (or was it Kevin’s?) declaration. As he took a large gulp and shook his head in an attempt to clear it, then gave her a little smirk as he placed the bottle back on the bar. “Well..... I’d say Kevin has impeccable taste, wouldn’t you?” Ah! There was the cool and confident Nick she knew. She’d been missing him the past couple of days. So, why was he making her so nervous? “I mean, he’s your favorite and all. You trust him, don’t you?” He inched a little closer and boldly put his head on her shoulder, his quick alcohol intake obviously lowering his inhibitions.


 Annie looked down at him and shook her head incredulously. “It’s not him I don’t trust.”


 They were interrupted by the sound of muffled giggling coming from behind them. Knowing he’d been spotted, Nick groaned as he relinquished his spot on her bare shoulder, disappointed to have had such a short stay there. “Five minutes. Ten, tops,” he said quickly as he placed his palms on the bar and pushed himself off the stool. Annie busied herself with ordering another drink and fiddling with her straw, occasionally stealing glances at Nick and the group of seven or eight fans gathered around him just a few feet behind her. She watched with admiration as he dutifully signed autographs, posed for pictures, and made small talk, then politely excused himself.


 “So....” Nick said as he sauntered back towards her. “Which one of us is it that you don’t trust? Me? Or....you?”


 Annie gulped and blinked her eyes at him. “I plead the fifth,” she answered shortly, reaching for the rum and Diet Coke she’d opted for instead of a second pina colada. She mirrored Nick’s actions from earlier and downed about half of it in one gulp.


 “Um...what?” Nick blinked rapidly and placed his hands on the bar on either side of her, effectively pinning her in. “You don’t trust.... yourself? With me?”


 “I plead the fifth,” she squeaked, her heart clambering in her chest at his close proximity.


 “Heh,” Nick laughed with a smirk as he removed his hands from the bar and gave her a little breathing room. “Annie Morgan, you’re full of surprises,” he said, shaking his head incredulously. She downed the rest of her drink. “Whoa, slow down there, champ. It’s...” He looked up at the clock on the wall above the bartender’s head. “Almost three in the morning and we have a full day left on the ship tomorrow. You don’t want to miss any of the Backstreet Cruise experience, do you? We can get plastered tomorrow night,” he said with a wink. Annie rolled her eyes and hopped off her bar stool, only to stumble directly into Nick’s arms. He steadied himself as her hands landed on his biceps and hooked his hands around her waist. “I could definitely get used to tipsy Annie,” he mused with a wink.


 “Walk me to my room, Carter. And by my room, I mean my door.” She pulled away and tapped her forefinger on his chest pointedly. “Got it?”


 “Yes ma’am.”


 __________________________________________________________


 


 “Nick, what are you doing?” Nick jumped at the sound of Howie’s voice behind him in the dressing room that was typically reserved for the cruise ship entertainment staff. He turned around quickly and discreetly tucked both hands behind his back as he looked down at the older man.


 “What? Nothing. I’m doing nothing,” he insisted.


 Of course, Howie wasn’t fooled. He’d seen that whole “Nick caught in the headlights” look before. In fact, during Nick’s teenage years, he’d seen it at least daily. “So, what are you holding behind your back?”


 “Nothing.” Nick quickly shoved the contents of his right hand into his left and pulled his right hand in front of his body, his long fingers spread wide. Then he put it back behind him and repeated the process with his left.


 Howie rolled his eyes. “You’re talking to me, Nick, not my two year-old son. Now what’s behind your back?” He grabbed one of Nick’s wrists and pulled. The younger man easily relinquished an empty hand. The other wrist proved to be more difficult, but with a hard tug and a grunt, Howie pulled Nick’s right hand out from behind his back just as the pen and paper Nick had been holding fluttered to the ground. With an exasperated flourish, Howie stooped down and picked up the folded red piece of paper. “What’s this?” he asked as he unfolded it carefully.


 “Nothing.”


 “Grr...” Howie growled in frustration. “You may not be talking to my son, but I feel like I am. Now, why do you have a little piece of red paper with Annie’s name on it?”


 “Nothing,” Nick responded quickly.


 Howie suppressed a chuckle. “That’s not even a valid response to my question, Nicky.”


 “Stop calling me Nicky!”


 “Stop acting like a child! Now what are you up to?”


 Before Nick had a chance to answer, Jen, Q, Brian, and AJ sauntered into the dressing room. “Okay guys, who’s ready for Backstreet Karaoke Duets?” Jen asked enthusiastically. “Brian, I think this was an awesome idea! I mean, what girl didn’t grow up dreaming about singing a duet with her favorite Backstreet Boy?”


 Brian gave her a knowing smile and took over for her. “So does everyone remember how this is going to work? There are ten names of random ladies who signed up for karaoke on folded pieces of paper in this..... Hey, where’s the fish bowl?”


 Nick sprang into action and retrieved the bowl from the table behind him, then held out his hand to Howie. Howie’s eyes widened in realization as he looked down at the red piece of paper in his hand. “She’s going to kill you,” he asserted quietly as he dropped it into the bowl of brightly colored paper.


 “Who’s going to kill him?” AJ asked excitedly.


 Nick laughed nervously as he handed the fish bowl to Brian. “Oh. nobody.”


 “Nick what did you do?” Brian fished out the red piece of paper and clumsily unfolded it with one hand, then read the name on it. “No. Absolutely not,” he declared. “She did not sign up for karaoke.”


 “Aw, come on B-Rok. She needs to let loose and have a little fun. Besides, it might be some good exposure for her, and don’t you think it would be nice to have at least one woman who can actually sing up there?” Nick pleaded.


 Brian contemplated the idea for a moment and sighed as he dropped the paper back into the bowl. “She’s going to kill you.”


 “And I’ll kill one of you if you pick that red piece of paper out of the bowl. There’s one red one, and it’s mine. Got it?” Nick said, eyeing his bandmates warily.


 AJ rubbed his palms together sneakily. “Oh, this is going to be fun!”


 “I’m serious, AJ,” Nick hissed.


 “And she’s seriously going to kill you. I’m just glad I’m going to be there to witness it!”


 Nick shrugged nonchalantly. “I think she’s going to like it.”