The month flew by and every day I loved Brian a little bit more. And I didn’t have to feel guilty about Nick either. The house that the girls and I used to live in had some new patrons. One of them was a friend of mine, Julianne. She’s my age, which makes her Nick’s age. They hit it off really well, after the initial screams of “OH MY GOD, that was Nick Carter!” She had pulled me aside, back in to the house to yell this in my ear.
The time has come for me to saw a temporary good bye to Hope and Destiny. It was time to go meet my new in laws for the first time. As I packed I was constantly asking Brian what I should bring. The four of us, Kevin included were leaving the next morning,
“Calm down, Faith. My parents are going to love you.” Brian tried to calm me down.
“Yeah, well at least you don’t have to meet my parents. They still aren’t talking to me. But they do know about us, Shane and Seth made them watch MTV on Halloween.”
“Hey sweety, I wouldn’t mind meeting your parents. But it doesn’t look like that is going to happen any time soon.”
“Yeah I know.” I sat down on my suit case. “Will you zip it for me?” I asked sweetly.
“Sure.” He zipped it up and I jumped off.
“Now I have to pack Tommy’s stuff!”
“Uh, Faith, BJ did that yesterday.”
“Yesterday?”
“Yeah, look at what time it is.” Sure enough it was 12:30 in the morning.
“OK., well I’m set to go.”
“I’m ready too!”
“What time does our flight leave?”
“Not until about noon. But was do have an hour lay over in LA. Then it’s on to home sweet home.” Brian said with a smile.
“Yes! That means that I get to sleep!”
“Yeah, we get to sleep in.” And with that, we got ready for bed and fell asleep.
Much later that day……
We said goodbye to the other three guys and the kids. Then the four of us headed towards the airport. We took care of all the checking of baggage and got to our gate. The next thing I knew we were on a plane heading, towards LA and onto Lexington.
When we got off the plane in Lexington, Kevin and Brian walked in front of me. I, of course, had Tommy. The two men walked straight over to a small group of people as Tommy and I walked slowly behind.
“It’s good to be back home.” I heard Brian say as he hugged who, I assumed, was him mother.
“It’s good to have you home, baby.” She looked over his shoulder and saw me standing there with Tommy. “And this must be Faith.”
“Yes. Mom, Dad, Aunt Anne, Harold, I would like you to meet Faith.”
“Hello.” I said with a smile.
“Hello.” They all said.
“And this little tyke is Thomas Kevin Alexander Dee Carter Morrison-soon-to - be - Littrell.” Brian said in one breath. “A.K.A. Tommy.” Kevin laughed at the look on everyone face.
I tried to explain. “Well, I wanted to thank all the guys for helping me get through a really tough time. So I named my son after ALL of them. I named him Thomas, because Brian was the first of the guys that I met.”
“I like it. It’s unique.” Brian’s mom said.
“Thank you, Mrs Littrell.”
“Please, call me Jackie. And this is Harold, Brian’s father.”
“I think she kind figured that one out Mom.” Brian’s brother, Harold, said.
“Oh YOU be quiet. That’s Brian’s big brother. He is always giving Brian a hard time. Don’t pay any attention to him.”
“Oh, I have four older brothers of my own and I’m the baby of the family. I know how to deal with them.”
"Ohhhhoooooo. H you better watch it. Faith might end up hurting you.” Brian said, laughing.
“Faith, this is my mom, Anne. She’s also Brian’s aunt but you already knew that.” Kevin introduced me to the woman stading next to him.
“Well let’s go get all your stuff. Then we can go home.” Jackie said. I readjusted Tommy on my hip and started walking towards the baggage claim with everyone else. I walked next to Kevin and his mom.
Kevin was talking to his mom and tell her all about the time that he had been spending in Oregon. I wasn’t paying attention to him because I already knew what was goingn on. But I did hear Jackie talking to Brian, behind me.
“I like her. She seems real and sweet.”
“She is. She was really nervous about coming here for Christmas.”
“Well, we’re going to have to fix that!”
“Hey” a voice right next to me said. I jumped about three feet in the air. I turned to find Brian’s older brother walking next to me. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to starddle you.”
“It’s OK.” I looked up at him.
“I can’t believe that my little brother actually fell for a girl. I never thought it would happen.” I never thought I would fall for him. I thought to myself
“Well it did.” Was the answer I gave him out loud. He smiled at me. He then switched his attention to Tommy.
“And this is my nephew-to -be. May I?”
“Yeah sure.” I handed my son to him. “ He was beginning to get heavy." We were at the baggage claim. Brian told me that he would get mine and Tommy’s stuff, so I stood off to the side, with his brother.
“You know who he looks like?” Harold, asked, still holding Tommy.
“Well, he resembles a few people that I know.”
“He looks like Nick. Except his eyes are green instead of blue.”
“His father looked a lot like Nick. But that is where the simalrities end. Jake is a HUGE jerk.”
“Well, Bri will treat you right. I know he will. He always takes care of the things he values. The things he loves.”
“Come on you two. We’re ready to go.” Kevin yelled at us. We all walked to the front of the airport where we said goodbye to Kevin, Anne and Harold. Kevin was going to stay with his mom and Harold had to go back to work. We were all going ot get together on Christmas day.
We found the car and secured Tommy into his car seat. Brian and I sat in the back with him. A half an hour later we pulled up in front of a fairly large house. It was beautiful. “At last. Home again.” Brian said, smiling as he walked through the front door.
“Brian, why don’t you show Faith around. That way she knows where everything is. I put you all in the guest room right across from your old room. There’s more room in there.”
“OK, thanks Mom.”
We took all of our stuff upstairs and into the room that we were going to be staying in. Then, after I put the baby down for his nap, Brian gave me an animated tour of his childhood home.
When we went back down stairs, Brian announced that he was hungry.
“What else is new?” Jackie asked sarcastically.
“I swear, honey, you are almost as bad as Nick.” He laughed at my comment.
“We are going out tonight.”
“Oh GOODY!” Brian excalimed.
“Oh, boy!” Jackie and I said at the same time. We all laughed at this.
Then Jackie whispered to me "I'm glad I'll have someone else that has to put up with his antics too. This is what you get to look forward too, dear." I laughed.
"What are the two of you talking about?" Brian asked.
"Nothing. I was just telling Faith that maybe later we can look through some of the old photo albums."
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Not the photo albums! Mom, anything but that!" We laughed at him again and I decided that I should go and check on Tommy.
"I'll be right back." I excused myself and went upstairs and into the guest room that we were staying in. Tommy was wide awake, and looking around his new habitate. "Hey, there buddy. How was your nap?"
I picked him up and sat down on the bed. "So, what's new with you little guy? Do you like everyone here?" He just looked up and smiled. "That's my boy. Come on, lets go downstairs and see Brian." As soon as I said Brian's name, Tommy smiled again.
He knew who was who around the house on the beach. He knew Brian and Nick. He also knew BJ and Leslie. They were the ones that were around him the most, but he also knew everyone else.
We walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Well, if it isn't the litte guy!" Brian said when he saw Tommy. Tommy saw Brian and held his arms out. Brian took him from me and kissed my forehead.
"I'm going to bring my camera to dinner. I need some pictures of you three!" Jackie said, smiling.
"Are Kevin and Aunt Anne going to be there?" Brian asked.
"Yeah, they are going to meet us there."
"What time are we leaving?"
"Brian, quit asking so many questions."
"What? I'm hungry! I'm still on Oregon time and we would have already eaten."
"Brian, quit whining. Your setting a bad example for Tommy." Jackie said laughing.
"Brian, just hold on for a little while longer and we'll get you some food." Brian's father, Harold said, with a laugh as he walked into the kitchen.
"Yeah, Bri. You'll live. I promise." I said and smiled at him.
"Well, OK. If you say so."
"Uh! Why don't you listen to me like that!?" Jackie said.
"Oh, it's OK, Mom. I just do it so that feels like old times."
"Well, don't. Unless of course you don't want to leave right now." Harold said.
"LETS GO!" Brian grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the hall closet, where our coats were.
"Brian.....arm.......I think I might need it later in life.....LET GO OF ME!"
"Oh, sorry about that." he said as her let go of my arm and handed me my coat. It was COLD!
"Hey, over here!" Jackie said. Brian and I turned towards her voice. SNAP!
"MOM!!!!!!!"
"What?"
"Picture. Flash. Eyes. Can't see."
"Brian, I think it's time you learned to speak in complete sentences, I mean you are 23 now."
"You are just so funny, Faith."
"Yeah, I get it from you."
"Hey that wasn't very nice."
"Oh and pulling my arm out of the socket is?"
"OK, you two, lets go!"
"Yes, Mommy." Brian said, putting on his innocent little boy face.
I just laughed and followed him out of the house, making sure that we had Tommy's car seat with us.