Alaya backed her car out of her parking space, willing herself not to scream. Michaela was doing that and more in the back-seat, while Nate was singing "The Song That Never Ends."
"Nathan, please stop."
"...yes, it goes on and on, my friend!"
"Nathan!" She'd hardly gotten the word out before she'd heard the crunching of metal.
Michaela began to scream harder as the car was jolted forward.
"Oh, sh*t!" Alaya slammed her hand down on the steering wheel upon seeing a beautiful, and very expensive, BMW behind her, the front end dented.
"Mommy, that's a bad word," Nate corrected matter-of-factly.
It took everything in Alaya not to tell him to shut up. She got out of the car before she said something that she'd regret and walked around the back, her hands on either side of her face.
"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh."
The driver of the other car got out, not looking particularly happy, "Ma'am, maybe you should watch where the f*ck you're going!"
Alaya turned to him, realizing it was the guy who had found her son in the store only 10 minutes before, and began to cry out of sheer terror of what this would do to her insurance, "I am SO sorry ... oh my gosh, I am so sorry. Michaela was screaming and Nate was singing and I was frazzled and not paying attention. I am so sorry!"
His facial features suddenly softened. He cleared his throat and stuck his hand out for her to shake, "Nick Carter."
She let out a wavering breath, "Alaya Minoletti."
"Alaya," he repeated, never having met somebody with the name before ... and he'd met a lot of people. "Nice to meet you, Alaya."
"Uhmm ... yeah. Gosh, look at your car! I'll go get my insurance information..."
"No."
"What?" she turned around, having been heading back towards her car.
"No, it's fine. I'll take care of it. Is your car damaged at all?"
Alaya looked confused, but went up to her car to see a few scratches. "Just a couple scratches," she explained as she walked back over to him, shielding her eyes from the glaring Florida sun.
"Well, I'll take care of those too. Let me write down my number," Nick walked back to his car to get something to write on as Alaya stood there dumbfounded.
"Mr. Carter, you don't have to do this..." she said when he returned with a napkin from McDonald's and a pen, jotting his name and number down quickly.
"Call me Nick ... and it's no problem at all," Nick said as he handed her the napkin and she immediately stuck it in her pocket. "Make sure you call."
"Okay ... Nick ... I will," Alaya replied, though she doubted she would. How could she make him pay for her mistake?
"Have a good day," Nick smiled, giving Nate a little wave since his head was sticking out the car window with a big grin on his face. Nick got in his car and dialed AJ to come and pick him up, as well as a toe truck, watching as Alaya got in her own car and drove away carefully.
