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"I bet there are 20 other women here," Lucy muttered to Kelley as they milled around nervously in the meet-and-greet room, her heart sinking. "We'll be lucky to get more than a quick handshake."

"Did you bring anything to autograph?" Kelley was fishing around in her purse with increasing desperation. "I thought I had one of my CDs, but I guess I left it." She rolled her eyes. "Mena's probably chewing on it right now. She's got this thing with sticking things in her mouth."

Lucy rifled through her wristlet. She could picture her old Millennium liner notes on her kitchen counter, clear as day. "Nope. I guess they can sign our passes."

The dull roar in the room suddenly pitched into a collective scream as the door opened, a burly, red-haired security guard at the front of the line.

"Ladies, ladies!" the guard shouted vainly as the guys filed in. "Form an orderly line, or I will form you into a line!"

Another guard herded them back behind a barricade. A barricade, in a room the size of a high school classroom. Lucy had been so sure no one cared enough to rip the clothes off the guys anymore.

Lucy and Kelley got no preferential treatment as contest winners. They were herded in with the rest of the VIP ticketholders, who squealed and snapped selfies and breathlessly held out CDs and posters for the guys to autograph in Sharpie.

"We were big fans," a wide-eyed Kelley said to Kevin as she held up her all-access pass. "This is totally insane."

Kevin's Sharpie darted across the front of the pass as he smiled down at first Kelley, then Lucy. "Are you two sisters? You could pass for sisters," he said with a grin as he side-hugged Lucy, whose heart had stopped cold and who could barely muster a dazed smile.

Nick grinned as he bent down to autograph Kelley's pass. She was too short for a hug. "It's nice to see some young fans here. I thought for sure it'd be all moms."

Kelley glared up at him. "For your information, bucko, I'm 29 years old, and I AM a mom. And don't even try to make a joke about it, because I've heard 'em all."

The blonde next to Kelley glanced nervously down at her. Howie tore his eyes away from her ample cleavage to roll his eyes at Nick. "Good one, big guy."

Brian was next. He smiled at Lucy, who returned a shaky reflection of his smile, a barely audible "eep" escaping her lips. "Y'all from St. Louis? We love it here. Gooey butter cake is the business."

Lucy swallowed hard, her favorite Backstreet Boy's easy charm and friendliness making her starstruck terror uncoil just a little. "Born and raised. I would've brought you a cake if I'd known it meant that much to you," she said lightly.

"Well, how 'bout a picture instead?" A.J. said as he finished signing Kelley's pass.

Lucy fished her iPhone out of her purse and handed it to a guard, who rolled his eyes and snapped the photo as the guys, already sweaty, squeezed into the frame with Lucy and Kelley.

"That was underwhelming," Kelley commented, examining the five scribbled autographs on her pass as the guard shooed them back out into the hall, where another guard waited to escort them back to their seats.

"What did you expect?" Lucy was gazing down at the iPhone photo, already composing an Instagram caption in her head.

Kelley stopped, tugged Lucy off to one side of the hallway and peered at her friend's pass. "You've got an awful lot of writing on yours."

Lucy held up her pass for a closer look. In messy script on the back was scribbled: "Gooey butter later? B. Littrell." Below it was a phone number.

The two women stared at the pass for a long moment.

"Well, that's not what I expected," Kelley said finally.