A few days later, the Backstreet Boys tour finally rolled through Kentucky. It had been a while since Brian had actually been able to perform in his hometown. Naturally, he was excited for this stop. There were certain places in the States where the atmosphere was different—Orlando, Kentucky and LA—the Backstreet Boys home base where they originated, where two of them had grown up and where most of them now lived. It was understood that there would be plenty of people in the audience that Brian had grown up with, people who he loved and didn’t get to see quite as often as he would have liked.

To top it all off, his mother was finally going to meet the woman that he’d fallen in love with. With any luck, she would fall in love with Noelle too.

On the night of the big dinner, Noelle had slept fitfully. She was notably nervous about meeting Brian’s family. She felt like she had big shoes to fill even though Brian had told her that she didn’t need to try to fill anyone else’s shoes, she just needed to wear her own.

When Brian jumped out of bed in the morning and got into the shower, Noelle spread across both sides of the bed and quickly drifted off. She was wakened moments later when her cell phone rang on the bedside table. A lack of sleep kept Noelle from fully opening her eyes. She blindly grabbed at the phone, hitting the lamp and knocking over the room phone off of the hook.

She pressed the button to answer the call and mumbled, “Hello?”

There was a pause on the other end. Noelle sighed and repeated, “Hello?”

Finally, the sweet voice of an older woman replied, “Oh, you must be Noelle. I’m sorry, I was expecting my son. Is he available?”

Noelle’s eyes popped opened as she realized that it had been Brian’s phone that was ringing, not hers. Usually Brian kept his phone on the bedside table on the side of the bed that was closest to the door. In their new hotel room, there had only been one table.

Without thinking, Noelle ended the phone called. Then, she panicked. She couldn’t believe that she’d just hung up on Brian’s mother!

You stupid idiot, Noelle thought to herself as she jumped out of bed and rushed toward the bathroom where Brian was still showering. Not the first impression you wanted to make, Noelle.

She thought about calling Brian’s mom back herself, but decided to make Brian get out of the shower and smooth things over.

Noelle busted into the bathroom and flung the shower curtain back. Brian jumped right out of his skin and flew back against the tiled shower wall. It was incredible that he didn’t slip and break his leg.

“Noelle!” Brian yelled with a smirk on his face. “You scared the hell out of me! If you wanted to join me all you had to do was ask.”

“I don’t want to join you, horn dog,” Noelle replied in all seriousness. She held up the phone. “You need to call your mother… immediately.”

Brian narrowed his eyes at her, confused. “Why do I have to call my mom?”

“Because she called and I answered accidentally and I hung up on her,” Noelle explained. “Thank God it wasn’t Leighanne or something. That could have been just as bad.”

Noelle grabbed Brian’s dripping wet arm with one hand and a dry towel with the other. She thrust the towel toward Brian. “Call her!”

Under normal circumstances, Noelle would have been turned on by the gorgeous, wet man in front of her. Today, she knew that the Blackberry in her hand was going to be ringing at any second, which totally negated her hormones.

Brian climbed out of the shower with that smirk still on his face.  He ran the towel through his hair and then wrapped it around his waist. He took the phone from Noelle just as it started to ring again.

Brian laughed and answered, “Hi, Mom. I hear that you’ve met Noelle.”

“Let me speak to her!” Noelle whispered as she followed Brian out of the bathroom anxiously.

“No,” Brian continued speaking with his mother, still smiling. “It wasn’t a bad connection; you just caught her while she was still sleeping. She’s kind of clumsy like that.”

“Brian!” Noelle whispered again, this time grabbing at the phone. She knew that Brian was teasing her, and though she could partially see the humor, she didn’t really appreciate it. “Let me speak to her!”

“Hang on, Mom,” Brian laughed. “Noelle wants to speak to you.”

There was a playful twinkle in Brian’s eyes. If he wasn’t so darn cute, Noelle would have to hit him. Instead, when Brian held out the phone and puckered his lips for a kiss, Noelle obliged and then took the phone.

“Hi, Mrs. Littrell,” Noelle spoke when she brought the phone back up to her ear. “I’m sorry about hanging up on you. I’m a really big dope sometimes.”

On the other line, Jackie Littrell couldn’t help but to laugh. Noelle sounded like a sweet girl. She’d made Brian happy again, but understandably, meeting the new people in Brian’s life was nerve-wracking. Brian was in the middle of a possibly messy divorce and the way he spoke, Noelle sounded like she was becoming a barrel of nerves. Jackie wanted to be one of the people to make it easy on her. If Brian loved her like he said he did, Jackie was sure that she would love Noelle too.

“Don’t worry about it, Sweetheart,” Jackie finally replied. “I was just calling to make sure that everyone was still planning on stopping by this evening.”

“As far as I know, there have been no changes to that plan,” Noelle said with a slight chuckle. “Everyone’s really excited to see you again, and I’m really excited to meet you.”

“We’re all excited too,” Jackie replied. “I’m going to admit that it may be strange seeing Brian with someone else at first, but I promise you that it won’t stay that way.”

Noelle sighed softly and nodded to herself. She could appreciate Brian’s mother’s honesty about the situation. At least she wasn’t the only one that was feeling nervous.

“Well, maybe I could come by ahead of time?” Noelle was speaking before she could have a chance to swallow the words. “We have a rental car; Brian could drop me off early. We could get that whole awkward thing out of the way first. I could help you with dinner, even.”

“Well,” Jackie exclaimed happily. “That sounds like a great idea! Let me speak with Brian really quick and we’ll all work out the details of getting you over here.”

Noelle wordlessly handed Brian the phone. She didn’t miss the surprised look on his face or how that twinkle was still dancing in his eyes. A lopsided grin formed on Noelle’s face and she shrugged.

She wasn’t exactly sure what she was getting into, but she was overcome by the motherly voice on the other end of the line. She listened with half an ear as Brian told Jackie that he would drop Noelle off after lunch, and then he’d come back for dinner with the other guys.

One way or the other, this was going to be an interesting afternoon.

***

Brian glanced over at Noelle in the passenger seat, wringing her hands anxiously. She had changed her clothes three times and redid her makeup twice. Brian tried to tell her that she’d looked beautiful, but he realized that Noelle had to feel good before his words mattered. Once she was dressed, they hopped in the rental car and headed to Brian’s mom and dad’s house. Later, he, the other Backstreet Boys and Brian’s brother Harold would be joining them. The group would have been complete if only Kevin had been around, but he was in London doing a bit of theater work.

Brian reached over and took Noelle’s hand into his. “You okay?”

Noelle smiled softly and nodded. “I’m okay. I just really hope this goes well.”

“It’ll be fine,” Brian reassured for the umpteenth time. “Just be yourself and my mom will love you.”

“I know,” Noelle replied. “You keep saying that, but I’m going to be nervous until we walk through the door and things start running smoothly.”

Brian nodded, understanding that would be the case. Just then, he pulled down the long, hidden driveway toward his parent’s house. When Brian finally starting making money, one of the first things he did was buy his parent’s their dream house. It kept them protected from the fans that had started hounding them, and it kept them happy in their newly-found empty nest.

“Here we go,” Brian said as he parked the car. “You ready?”

“As ready as I’m going to be,” Noelle replied.

Brian brought her fingers up to his lips and kissed them softly. “Hang out for a bit, I’ll get the door.”

Noelle watched as Brian ran around the car and opened her door for her. It was one of the gentlemanly things about Brian to which she was becoming accustomed. If things between her and Brian ended up not working out, her next boyfriend had better watch out.

Noelle climbed out of the car and followed Brian down the long, circular driveway. She reached out and laced her fingers through his. Brian smiled at her and then leaned over to kiss her softly as they took the stairs up to the porch. Before they reached the top stair, the front door swung opened and Jackie greeted them with a big smile.

“Duckie!” she called to Brian, immediately using the nick name that she’d given him when he was young.

Brian let go of Noelle’s hand and wrapped his arms around his mom’s neck, squeezing her tightly. “It’s good to see you, Mom. It’s been too long.”

“It certainly has,” Jackie said as she pulled away.

Brian reached for Noelle and pulled her forward, smiling happily. “Mom, this is Noelle.”

Noelle extended her hand. “Hello, Mrs. Littrell. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

Jackie took both of Noelle’s wrists into her hands and beamed up at her. “You are just gorgeous,” she said as she pulled Noelle in. “Enough with the Mrs. Littrell stuff. You can call me Jackie. Now, come on in.”

“I’ve actually got to get going, Mom,” Brian said as Noelle started to follow Jackie into the house. “I’ve got rehearsal and some meetings, but I’ll be back later.”

Brian leaned in and kissed his mom on the cheek. Then, he leaned in toward Noelle and pecked her on the lips quickly.

“You’re going already?” Noelle whispered.

“Duty calls,” Brian whispered back into Noelle’s ear, “she loves you already.”

With that, Brian turned and bounced back down the porch steps.

Noelle turned to Jackie. “It looks like it’s just you and me.”

Jackie smiled and wrapped her arm around Noelle reassuringly. “How about we go inside and get to know each other, Doll? Let that big lug worry about us for once.”

Noelle laughed softly and followed Jackie into the warmth of her Kentucky home. She was starting to feel better already.