Part 563
Nick sat back with Garrett on his knee, making silly faces at the baby and watching the various and sundry people come and go. Becca was still making her way through the lunch line when Kevin and Lynne walked close enough to grab. Thinking quickly, Nick reached out and caught Lynne by the hand.
"Nice of you two to join us," Nick said with a grin.
"Nick-" Kevin warned.
"Nah, really it is. But yanno, you almost missed lunch." Nick squeezed Lynne’s hand one last time before dropping it to play with Garrett. "Musta been quite some reunion, eh Kev?"
"Nick, I’m warning you-"
"But I’m sayin’, Lynne here is a sight for sore eyes. And GT missed his Auntie Lynne, didn’t you little guy?" He laughed as the baby made sucking sounds and tried to pull Nick’s hand into his tiny little mouth.
"He’s hungry," Lynne said unnecessarily.
"He’s always hungry, isn’t that right GT? Always suckin’ on something …" Nick pretended not to notice, but shot a sideways glance at Lynne who sounded like she was choking on something. "See? All I gotta do is stick my finger in his mouth and away he goes. Damn, he does that good."
Lynne was four shades of red now as images from Kevin’s room began to replay themselves in her head. Kevin growled in exasperation and would have gone off on Nick if Sarah hadn’t chosen that moment to show up.
"Hey, ‘Boo’," said Sarah as she set her plate down. "Feel better now that you can give ‘Madame Thumb and the Four Sisters’ a break?"
Nick choked on his drink as Kevin threw up his hands in frustration.
From across the table, AJ cracked, "Geez, ‘Train’. I’d have thought having Lynne here would have relieved some of that frustration."
"Nah, ‘J’, all it did was give the Toronto phone lines time to cool off," smirked Sarah.
Lynne was trying very hard to keep from laughing but Kevin was on the verge of exploding. Turing on Sarah, he growled, "I seem to recall the phone lines to Orlando being pretty damn hot more than once or twice and Howie having to…"
Lynne quickly reigned in Kevin’s temper. "Whoa, sweetheart!" she coaxed as she put her hand on his arm. "Don’t go off on Sarah."
Without taking his penetrating icy stare off Sarah, he barked, "Why not?"
"Because she’s the one who made all the arrangements and got me here."
Like a pin in a balloon, Kevin’s temper was popped and his eyes softened. "YOU?"
With a sweet angelic smile, "Yeah, ‘Boo’…me."
"Why?"
"’Cuz I’m a hopeless romantic and I KNOW what it’s like to be apart from the one you love. Why don’t you and Lynne go get some lunch? I’m sure you worked up an appetite."
Kevin shook his head and wrapped his arms around Sarah. Whispering, he said, "Thank you, baby."
Hugging him back, she spotted Becca joining everyone and she said, "You’d better hurry before ‘Blondie’ gets to the food."
Kevin gave her a kiss and headed with Lynne to go through the lunch line.
Sarah shook her head watching them as she felt Howie’s hand on her side.
"You sap," he teased giving her a wink.
"Uh huh!!"
Howie pulled the chair out for her and held it until she could get settled. Then he took his seat beside her and the conversation shifted. It was a playful atmosphere with everyone geared up for the last night’s show. Everyone had their own plans but no one knew exactly what the others were up too. It was going to be an interesting night, to say the least.