Part 54
The smell of cooking bacon and fresh coffee drifted through the house greeting Becca as she sleepily made her way to the kitchen. She found Howie and Sarah in there together fixing breakfast together.
"Morin’ Bec," greeted Howie as he gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"What are you two doing up so early?"
"We went to early mass with Howie’s parents. Where’s Nick?"
Howie laughed, "Sarah, it’s nine in the morning on a weekend when we
aren’t touring. Nick doesn’t know what this time of day looks like! The only
one worse than Nick is…."
"Kevin," laughed Sarah. "Okay! So it was a dumb question. So, Bec, what are the plans for today?"
"Just hanging out, I guess," said Becca as she sat down at the table. "I talked to Brian and Sonja and they’ll be here after services. Sonja’s still singing in the choir."
"Hope you don’t mind but I told Kevin and AJ to come on before lunch," said Howie.
"No, that’s fine," said Becca.
Sarah finished what she was doing and set the plate of bacon, eggs, and toast on the table for Becca and Howie to serve themselves. Then she got the juice for Becca who frowned.
"I REALLY wanted a cup of coffee," whine Becca.
"Oh, god!! A week back with Nick and you’re whining like him again," groaned Sarah. "Besides, you CAN NOT have coffee."
"Why not?" pouted Becca.
"It’s NOT good for the baby. Too much caffeine."
"Like you would…oops, you would know, wouldn’t you?" said Becca catching herself. "Damn…lately, I’ve been so scatter-brained!"
"You mean more than normal?" teased Sarah as she sat down with the two.
Howie grinned as the two girls bantered back and forth. He had missed this between the two of them and was relieved that it took no effort at all for the two to fall back into their old ways. Sarah was just as protective of Becca as always too.
The threesome ate the breakfast that Sarah and Howie had prepared while they talked about the benefit. Howie made it a point to tell Becca about the concert and Sarah’s performance. It was quite obvious how proud he was of her…his whole face lit up as he talked about the songs she sang.
AJ, Ali, and Kevin arrived around ten, hungry as usual and Sarah willingly went back to fix all of them something to eat, including Nick, who had made his way down to join the others. While she fixed breakfast, the guys talked about ‘guy’ things out by the pool and Ali and Becca kept Sarah company in the kitchen talking about the wedding, Sarah’s and Becca’s.
After breakfast was served and cleaned up, Sarah and Ali went to change into bathing suits to join the guys in the pool. As they made their way out, the guys assaulted them. Howie grabbed Sarah and AJ, Ali. Together, the guys threw them in the pool and started to go after them with squirt guns. It was complete chaos…typical of the guys when they were together and wanting to relax.
It didn’t take long and before they realized, someone was hollering for something to eat. Sarah and Ali managed to get away from Howie and AJ to sit by the pool and watch the guys horsing around while Nick went in to ask Becca for some snacks.
"How are you and AJ doing?" asked Sarah as she lay on the chair.
"God, Sarah…he’s wonderful but I’m getting a little worried about him. He’s REALLY starting to party A LOT!"
"Yeah, I know. Howie and the others are concerned too. D said he’s keeping some pretty late hours. I’m surprised that he’s here today."
"It took some doing but yeah, he wanted to come. I’m just glad he’s straight…for now."
"Not sure Becca would tolerate him if he weren’t. He can be pretty obnoxious. You know, when we were in New York, he slept on the plane going up and coming back but he stayed out ALL night."
"I know. He was suppose to call and he didn’t."
"You aren’t worried about him fooling around, are you?"
"Not really. Not much I can do if he does anyway."
Sarah looked at AJ and Howie playing in the pool. She loved AJ dearly and she had hoped that Ali would be able to convince him to straighten out his ways but it wasn’t working that way. Kevin had said it right. AJ was becoming a vampire and it was showing in everything he did, especially his singing. His voice was nowhere near as strong as it had been when she and Howie had gotten together. Sarah decided to change the topic of conversation so she could forget that it was beginning to look like they were headed down another rocky road with someone else. "Where’s Ness?"
"She went back to Fernandina for a while. Things with Kevin aren’t going to well."
"I got that message at the reception. She doesn’t blame me, does she?"
"No! It’s Kevin’s fault," said Ali as she eyed Kevin across the pool. Then she looked at Sarah. "What exactly went on with you and Kevin anyway…for him to be so in love with you? I mean, you and Howie are so close. It’s hard to imagine that you two ever had problems."
Sarah smiled as Howie winked at her from the pool. She said, "It’s kinda complicated but last year, things between Howie and me got rocky and to make a complicated story simple, Kevin was the one who was there for me. AJ and I were pretty close too."
"It’s obvious that you’re close with ALL of the guys, even with Brian."
"What can we do to get Vanessa and Kevin back together?"
"WE don’t need to do anything. Kevin needs to do it. He first needs to apologize."
"He’s been doing A LOT of that lately. God, he REALLY screwed up this past weekend, Ali. You should have heard some of the things he said to Becca."
"I can imagine after the way he treated Ness. Wonder if he’s even
interested?"
Sarah looked at Kevin as he met Becca at the door. "Yeah, he’s interested. He just needs a swift kick in the ass…which I’ll give him later."
"Hold on, let me get that."
"Thanks!" Becca smiled at Kevin who had suddenly appeared to hold the door open for her. Breakfast was barely over before someone had demanded snacks by the pool.
Probably AJ, she thought with a smile.
"Anything else?"
"I don’t think so, but thank you for offering." She deposited the plate of nachos on the picnic table and headed back for the kitchen to make a pitcher of iced tea. Lost in her own thoughts she was startled when Kevin spoke up right behind her.