* Chapter 32 *

"Where exactly are we?" I asked as I stared at the huge three-story mansion that was shaded with a few large trees.

The lawn was huge and it was surrounded with a large majestic cement fence that matched the house perfectly. Arti didn’t answer as she walked past me and up to the open front door. I stood there and watched her disappear from view.

"LIZ!!!!" I could hear someone scream as I looked out over the huge lawn at the ocean in the distance.

I turned my head in time to see a flash of blond hair running towards me. I was tackled from the front and stumbled to keep my balance, along with his.

"Aaron?!? What are you doing here?" I asked happily as he took my hand and pulled me towards the house.

"What are you talking about? I live here," he replied.

"You live here?"

"Yeah. Remember? I told ya that we were moving to LA?" he asked as we walked up the path to the large pine doors that adorned the front entrance of the house. "This is our house."

Jane met us at the door with a big smile.

"Hi Mrs. Carter," I said as I rushed by with Aaron still pulling me along anxiously.

"Hi," she called after us as we headed through the large living room.

Everyone was in the living room sitting and talking happily.

"Hi," I said with a timid smile and a wave with my free hand before Aaron led me to the stairs.

"We can play MarioKart and Tekken and Mortal Kombat and..." he trailed off happily while we headed to his room.

"How about a tour of the house first?" I suggested with a smile when we stopped in front of his closed door.

"Ok."

He led me back down the stairs to the main level and past the living room, through the kitchen, and into a room that looked like a study. After we went through all of the rooms on the first floor, we progressed up to the second floor.

"This is Leslie’s room. I don’t think she’ll let you in," he said, pointing to a closed door.

I walked over and knocked on the door softly. After a few seconds, a girl with shoulder length brown hair opened the door a few inches.

"Hi Leslie. I’m..."

"You’re Liz. I know," she replied as she opened the door all the way. "Nick talks about you non-stop and he worships the picture of you two that he has at his house. By the way, I loved your performance with Meggie D on MTV...it was awesome," she said with a smile as she motioned for me to come on.

"I’ll be right back," I told AC before Leslie shut the door behind me.

The room was decorated in various pink and purple tones, just like any other girl’s room. She walked over and plopped down on her bed.

"I hate these stupid things that my parents put together. There’s always the same old boring people at them..." she said as she stared at the ceiling.

"You haven’t met my friends yet..." I replied with a little laugh. "You can go downstairs and meet them if you want."

"Ok...I’ll go make my appearance while you get stuck wandering the house with Airboy," she said with a taunting smile as she walked over to the door.

"See ya later Leslie," I said happily as she went towards the stairs and AC and I headed towards the other rooms.

After my tour of the house was finished, I convinced AC that it was almost time to eat instead of playing video games all afternoon. We went down to kitchen to see what was going on because no one was in the living room anymore. Jane was in the kitchen looking flustered so I decided to stop and see if I could help.

"Hey blondie, you can go outside. I’m gonna see if your mom needs help," I said to AC before he scurried off to the door leading to the back patio.

"Hi," I said happily as I walked in the kitchen to find food and things scattered on the counters. "Need any help?"

"Actually, yes!" Jane replied with a relieved look on her face.

"Ok. What’re we making?"

"Umm...sandwiches, salads, grilled chicken and steak, drinks."

"Ok. I’ll take care of the grilled chicken, steak, and I’ll make my mom’s awesome potato salad," I said as I found a pot of potatoes on the stove that were peeled and cooked.

"That would be great! But...are you sure you want to run the grill? I could get Bob or one of the guys to do it."

"No. I’ll be fine. See, what they don’t know is that I worked as a cook in a restaurant for a while so I actually know how to run a grill the right way," I said with a smile. "But that’s our secret."

"Our little secret," she replied with a smile before she started working on making the sandwiches.

I went over to where the potatoes were and started cutting them into half-inch cubes. Jane got a large bowl out for me so I would have something to make the salad in. After I finished with the potatoes, I cut up the celery, pickles, and eggs before putting everything into the bowl. I spooned out some salad dressing (not mayo) and squirted in a good amount of mustard before mixing it all together.

"Perfect," I said after I tasted a fork full. "Try this."

She tried a little fork full when she came over to grab the dressing from the counter.

"That is pretty good," she said with a smile before she turned back to the counter that was covered with bread slices.

I put the large bowl of salad in the fridge before starting my next task.

"Where are your spices and stuff?"

"Over there in that cupboard," she said, pointing to a small cupboard by the large fridge.

"Found ‘em. Thanks."

I pulled out a bottle of lemon pepper seasoning, a container of meat tenderizer, and a large bottle of BBQ sauce before making my way to where the meat was sitting out on plates. I picked up the plates and waited for Jane to show me where the grill was on the patio. As I stepped out onto the patio, I saw everyone else enjoying a fun game of volleyball on the back lawn.

"It’s over here," Jane called out to where I was standing.

I looked over to where she was and a saw a grill that was built into a brick structure.

"Wow!" I said as I made my way over to the table to set the plates down. "Now that’s what I call a grill!"

It was a large grill with two different sides to it...one with a grill and the other with a flat grill for cooking hamburgers and things like that. It reminded me of an old chuckwagon style grill from the way the dark red bricks looked around it. Jane had already lit the thing by the time I got over to it so it was well on its way to being hot enough.

"If you need anything else, just holler," Jane told me before leaving for the kitchen.

There were small cutting tables built into either side of the grill and there was even a small bucket-like thing where the clean cooking utensils were kept. I quickly brought the plates from the table to the cutting boards. I put the steaks on first because it would take the longest to cook. After dousing them with BBQ sauce, I headed down to where everyone was playing VB.

"Sorry to bother your game, but how do you all like your steaks?" I asked loudly.

"We get steaks?" AJ asked in a weird voice.

"Yeah..."

"I’ll cook ‘em," Kev said out of nowhere.

"Sorry...no can do...that’s already taken care of," I hollered back to Kev.

When I was finally told how they liked their steaks cooked, I went back up to the grill and checked the meat. It wasn’t quite ready to turn yet, so I decided to get the chicken ready. I opened up the chicken breasts and sprinkled them with some lemon pepper seasoning before putting them on the large grill too. I was totally consumed in cooking the meat, so I didn’t hear Brian when he came up behind me.

"Houston, we have a problem," he said while he watched me poke at the steaks to see if they were done on that side yet.

"What’s that?" I asked as I turned the steaks over gracefully.

"YOU are cooking the steaks that WE have to eat," he joked playfully.

I turned the chicken over and sprinkled it with more lemon pepper seasoning.

"Brian...you are something else," I said with a laugh as he leaned on the brick next to where I was standing.

"Liz. About yesterday on the elevator...I am soooo sorry for what I did and I totally deserved everything you said to me," he said quietly so only I could hear what he was saying.

"No...I’m sorry that I totally flipped out," I said as I turned to face him.

"It was all my fault. You reminded me so much of my ex-girlfriend all dressed up like that that I just couldn’t help myself...I know that sounds stupid, but I’m sorry," he said sadly while he looked down at the ground.

"Brian..." I replied as I grabbed his hand and gave it a light squeeze. "I said it’s ok...now go have some fun," I told him while pointing to the others playing VB.

"Thanks Liz," he said with a smile before he headed off to join back in the game.

I turned my attention back to the meat on the grill. I turned the gas off after a few minutes. When all the meat was done, I put it on two clean plates that Jane had brought out and took them back in the kitchen. She had put all the food and things on the huge dining room table as a buffet style meal.

"Time to eat!" I yelled out the door at everyone.