Part 550
Stepping off the bus, Sarah was greeted by Marcus, Raoul, Tommy, and Carlos.
"Hey, guys! What’s up?" asked Sarah trying to be cheerful despite still having the urge to hurl her toenails.
"We are at your beck and call today. Whatever your heart desires, we’ll get it," explained Raoul as he held out his arm for her. "We are under STRICT orders to make sure you take it easy and don’t do ANY work."
"Hmph," grunted Sarah. "THEY have some nerve putting me under guard on my day off. THEY never take it easy on THEIR day off."
All four men knew Sarah wasn’t serious by the look in her eye. Laughing, they ushered her towards the area set up for breakfast and where the guys were already seated eating their breakfast.
"Go on and sit," instructed Tommy.
"I need to get my plate… or are you four suppose to do that too?"
"Nah, Kevin and AJ got it for you," smirked Marcus.
"Oh goody," said Sarah with a roll of her eyes. "I certainly hope you four haven’t eaten. There will be plenty on my plate for even Nick to be stuffed."
Sarah headed over to join the guys and Howie stood to give her a kiss. "What kept you, ‘Angel’?" he whispered.
"The usual."
"Are you okay now?"
Sarah nodded her head as she sat down between Kevin and Howie.
"Good morning, baby," greeted Kevin giving her a kiss on the cheek.
"’Morning, ‘Boo’." Sarah looked at her plate and was relieved to see they hadn’t piled it with a ton of food.
AJ saw the look and said, "We figured you’d have a hard time this morning with the nausea so we went light."
"Thanks, ‘Bone’." Looking around, Sarah noticed Becca wasn’t around. "Nicky, where’s Bec and Garrett?"
"Bec’s feeding him and trying to get him settled. Billy fixed her a plate and took it to her earlier. GT isn’t feeling well so she’s gonna try and get him back to sleep."
"Nothing serious is it?" asked Kevin.
"I doubt it."
"It’s probably the constant on the go," said Sarah. "Look at us…we’re all tired. Imagine what it’s like for Garrett. It would probably be worse too if Bec wasn’t nursing him."
All five nodded their agreement and talk turned to the video again. The director and producers wanted the video done by mid-afternoon before the sun began to set and cast shadows. Sarah continued to voice her disapproval of redoing the video knowing what the fans wanted but she knew their hands were tied.
Becca joined the others mid-way through breakfast.
"Garrett asleep?" asked Sarah as Becca sat across from her.
"Yeah, finally. Billy’s gonna stay with him. I didn’t want to miss anything," gushed Becca.
It was quite obvious that Becca was excited about this. Sarah shook her head. "YOU were one of the fans who wanted to see totally wet, totally legal Backstreet! Why the change of heart?"
"I got to see that and YOU had a blast watching me drool and pant. Now it’s MY turn. I know what this song does to you…whether the guys are wet or not…and I can watch YOU turn to a puddle when Howie sings…."
Howie crooned, "I can’t imagine life without your love…And even forever don’t seem like long enough."
Sarah sighed dreamily as Howie wrapped his arm around her and hugged her tight while the others laughed. It was no secret how Sarah felt about this song. It was her favorite by far of all their songs mainly because they’d sung it at the wedding.
The director’s assistant came to the table to announce it was time to get started. Each guy finished their breakfast and made their exit, all except Howie. He hung back with Sarah so they could have a couple minutes alone.
Turning to face her, Howie took her hands in his and fingered her rings. "I’ve made sure you have a seat by the director. I want to be able to see you when I sing."
"You don’t have a special camera focused just on me, do you?"
Howie grinned, "Don’t know what Nick or Becca or Kevin or AJ might have done."
"Ho-wie," whined Sarah.
Putting his hands up in defense, "I HONESTLY don’t know, ‘Angel’. I simply want you to enjoy the day. You were so sick last time that by the time you WERE feeling better, you had missed everything."
Sarah was still skeptical. "Are you sure? I mean, I do have FOUR bodyguards all of a sudden."
Howie laughed, "Okay, so Kevin, AJ, and I did THAT but I know you. Given half a chance, you’ll go back to the bus and work and you promised me to take it easy today. You’re as bad as I am about working on your day off. Please, Angel, you said it yourself that the constant traveling is wearing us out and YOU are just as vulnerable as Garrett. You need to take it easy."
Sarah started to run her fingers through his hair but was stopped by a hair-stylist screaming, "DON’T TOUCH HIS HAIR!"
Giggling, "Oops! Forgot!" Sitting back to get a better look, Sarah smiled approvingly, "I like this look."
"Come on, ‘Angel’. I need to go get in place for the group shot."