Part 12
Sarah planned the party with Kevin's help. They had everything set and only a few last minute details had to be taken care of on the day of the party. Sarah took that day off to take care of those things and to get Howie's birthday gift.
When she returned home from doing those errands, she found Howie's car, Kevin's truck, and Nick's car in the driveway. She was a little surprised because she thought they had rehearsal but she was glad they were there so they could help her get ready. As she headed up the sidewalk, Sarah met AJ and Nick carrying boxes of her stuff out to Kevin's truck
"Hey, baby!" greeted AJ with a kiss on the cheek.
"'Bone', what are you two doing?"
"Putting your stuff in Kevin's truck."
"Why?"
"Because Howie told us to," said Nick.
"Since when did you do everything Howie told you to do?" teased Sarah.
Nick shot back, "I don't unless it has to do with you."
"Speaking of my boyfriend, where is he?"
"In the house," said AJ. "He's on the phone with your roommate."
Sarah went into the house and found Kevin and Brian on their way out with more of her stuff. Kevin stopped to give her a kiss on the cheek and a 'I-know-something-about-you' grin.
Howie was in the living room when Sarah found him. "Howie, what's going on?"
"You're moving, 'Angel'. You said as soon as the divorce was final you'd move in with me."
"But..."
"I spoke to your attorney this morning and the papers will be delivered to OUR place this afternoon"
Sarah couldn't believe what she was hearing and stared at Howie in disbelief. "How? When?" was all she could manage.
Howie grinned. "After I asked you to move in with me last week, I decided to find out what was going on with your divorce. I called your dad to find out and he put me in touch with your attorney along with permission to get the information. He was really relieved to know that I wanted to help. Seems Russell was the one holding up the divorce."
"I don't doubt that but if he's been holding out all this time, what made him change his mind?"
By now, all the guys were back in the room and Brian spoke up, "We had our lawyers talk to him and 'convince' him that it would be in his best interest to settle all of this and quickly."
Sarah had to sit down on that. All the guys knew by now about Russell and Jesse. It still amazed her though that they would go to such lengths for her. She looked from one to the other as tears started streaming down her cheeks.
Nick whined, "You promised she wouldn't cry, Howie."
Sarah laughed through the tears, "But they're GOOD tears, Nicky."
"Well....then...okay."
Sarah was surprised that Nick let her get away with calling him 'Nicky' and she went to him first to hug him. Then she gave each of the others a hug ending with Howie. She put her arms around him and kissed him, a long, deep, 'I love you so much' kiss. The guys shifted uncomfortably where they were standing; Nick fidgeted with his shirt, Kevin looked at a picture, Brian twiddled his thumbs, and AJ began whistling.
"Okay...Enough already. Either carry this to the bedroom or break it up We've got things to move and a party! Let's get on with the show," said AJ.
Sarah and Howie pulled apart and Sarah laughed, "AJ, you need a piece of ass...BAD."
"Are you offering?" shot back AJ.
"NO!" said Sarah emphatically. "Guys, I don't know how to thank you. You've all been such good friends from the day I met you."
Kevin said, "You can thank us by just continuing to be our friend."
"No problem there."
"I just talked to Becca and told her what was going on. She's thrilled for you and said she'd call when she got back to town. All you need to do is go make sure we got everything."
Sarah did that and when she returned, the other four had already left. "Where is everyone?"
"Already gone. Now, you and I have one more thing to do and we're headed to OUR place. I want you to follow me and don't try to pass me."
"Where are we going?"
"And no questions."
"You're up to something, Howard," said Sarah suspiciously.
"Yep...making my 'angel' happy."