One Week Later:
Becca glared at Nick and Katelin as they goofed off together on the stage. They knew how precious their time together was. As soon as Katelin’s dad returned for Europe, Becca was surely going to tell him everything. Katelin just hoped that she could get to him first and be able to plead hers and Nick’s case.
Ang walked into the girl’s dressing room and noticed the bouquet of a dozen red roses sitting on the table. She didn’t even bother looking at the card, knowing they were probably for Brooke or Katelin. Those two, in the last week, were constantly getting showered with gifts from Kevin and Nick. It almost made Ang sick to her stomach.
“Hey,” Brooke said as she bounced into the room. “Ooh! Who are the flowers for?”
Ang shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t look at the card. Probably for you or Kate.”
Brooke picked up the card and glanced at it. “Guess again, girlie.” She handed it to Ang. “Actually, they’re for you.” Ang grabbed the card from Brooke and began reading.
Ang,
Words can’t even express how much I love you and miss you. I know there’s something else going on with you and I can tell that you’re scared. I just wish that you could talk to me about it. I just wish that I could be there for you with whatever is going on. But until then, just know that I love you more than anyone or anything in this world.
Love,
Brian
“You okay?” Brooke questioned, noticing the tears streaming down Ang’s face.
“No,” Ang replied before running out of her room. She was on a mission to find Brian.
“Hey Angie!” Katelin called, seeing Ang running down the hallway. “Where are you off to in such a rush?” Ang just ignored her and kept going. “I wonder what’s wrong with her.”
“I hope she didn’t get another phone call,” Nick commented.
“What are you talking about?” Katelin asked, glancing up at him, curiously. “What phone calls?” Nick sighed. AJ had accidentally slipped to him the other day about them and made Nick swear not to tell anyone. Even Katelin.
“I can’t tell you, Kate,” Nick said, apologetically. “I promised AJ that I wouldn’t. Ang doesn’t even know that I know.”
Katelin glared at him and stalked into the girls’ dressing room. “Kate…” Nick groaned, following her.
Brian was laying down on the couch and tried to catch at least a few minutes of rest before they had to start getting ready for the meet and greet. He was just closing his eyes when the door to the dressing room flew open. Brian sat up and saw that it was Ang that just burst into the room with tear-stained cheeks. The two of them just stared at each other for a minute, both having so much to say but not knowing how to say it.
“I’m sorry,” Ang finally whispered.
“For what?” Brian asked. “What do you have to be sorry for?”
“For not trusting you,” Ang explained. “You were right, Brian. There is something else going on with me.” She paused, trying to keep herself from crying, but she wasn’t successful and the tears began pouring down her face. “I was just so scared that you were going to be ashamed of me. I didn’t know how to tell you.” Brian closed the space between them and wrapped his arms around her.
“What happened, Ang?” He questioned. He led her over to the couch where they both sat down. “You know that you can tell me anything. Please? I want to help you.”
Ang took a deep breath and wiped her tears away. “The night that I saw you in the club with Leighanne,” she began. “I pretty much flipped out. I started drinking way more than usual and it wasn’t too long before I was bombed. I made everyone promise not to ruin my fun so they all pretty much left me alone. Well, I started talking to this guy and then everything else after that is a blur until the next morning. We think that someone slipped something into my drink.”
“What happened the next morning?” Brian asked, carefully, not really sure if he wanted to know the answer.
“The next think I knew, it was morning and I was in bed with some guy that I don’t know,” she finished, hearing Brian suck in his breath. “I don’t know what happened, Brian. All I know was that I was naked, he was naked, and he was also dead.”
“What?!” Brian exclaimed. “Dead?!”
Ang nodded, tearfully. “Yeah. I didn’t kill him Bri. You have to believe me.”
“I believe you,” Brian whispered. “What happened to him?”
“He overdosed on something,” she responded. “I had the syringe in my hand but when Q’s friend examined it, there were a third set of finger prints on it. I didn’t have any other drugs in my system except whatever was in my drink and I hadn’t been raped. We still don’t know who the guy was. Eric and Q took care of everything and I don’t want to know about anything else. I asked them not to tell me.” Brian was shocked, to say the least. He didn’t know how to respond to all of this. Brian thought that she just cheated on him or something. Nothing like this.
“Say something, please,” Ang begged. “Anything.” Brian didn’t say anything. Instead, he reached out and pulled her into his arms. To Ang, this gesture meant much more than words could ever convey. When they finally pulled apart, Ang wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. “There’s one more thing.”
“What is it?” Brian questioned. He didn’t know what else there could possibly be.
“Someone knows something,” Ang replied. “Someone’s been calling me. Blackmailing me. I don’t know what they know, but they know something.”
The Next Day:
Howie stepped out of the limousine and walked up to the front door of Christine’s house in Connecticut. They had two days off before the show in Lexington. The rest of the group was on their way to Kentucky now to spend Thanksgiving with the Littrells and the Richardsons. But he wanted to surprise Christine and be there for her and her sister and mother for the holiday. Howie had gotten a late night/early morning flight out of Memphis and flown straight to New York, where took a limo into Connecticut. It was still early in the morning and he wasn’t even sure Christine would be up yet. He walked up to the front door and peeked into the window. Seeing that someone was up, he knocked carefully on the door. A few minutes later, the door opened up, revealing a very-tired looking Evelyn DeMarco.
“Howie?!” She cried, surprised. “Oh what a nice surprise! Come on in.”
Howie gave stepped inside the house and then pulled his future mother-in-law into a hug. “Hi Mrs. DeMarco. I’m so sorry for your loss. I wish I could’ve been here.”
“Thank you, Howard,” Evelyn responded, teary-eyed. “I understand that you couldn’t be here. You have such a tough schedule.”
“I know,” Howie said, almost embarrassed. “But still…”
“Don’t you worry about it,” Evelyn told him. “And come sit down.” He followed Mrs. DeMarco over to the couch and they both sat down. “Christine is still sleeping. I don’t want to wake her up just yet. She was up pretty late last night. And I want to catch up with you. How have you been?”
“Good,” Howie answered. “Missing Christine, as usual. But the tour has been a lot of fun this time around. We have a lot of really awesome people working with us on this tour.”
“That’s what Christine was telling me,” Evelyn laughed. “It seems like some of the other boys have a sore spot for your dancers.”
“Yeah,” Howie smiled. “They’re all dating the dancers. Well, Krista was a dancer but now she’s pregnant.”
“I can’t believe AJ is going to be a father,” Evelyn commented. “He is definitely the last one I would’ve expected.”
“I think everyone else agrees with you,” Howie said. “I could even picture Nick before AJ. But he’s calmed down a lot. He loves Krista and this baby more than anything. I think they’re going to make great parents.”
“Howie?!” They heard a voice cry from the staircase.
They both looked up to see Christine standing on the stairs, looking like she just woke up. “What are you doing here?” She ran down the rest of the stairs and jumped into his arms.
“I wanted to surprise you again,” Howie told her. “I missed you so much and since I couldn’t get here last week, I thought better late than never.”
“You didn’t have to do this,” Christine told him as they walked over to the couch. Evelyn decided to give them some time alone and took her coffee out onto the porch.
“Yes I did,” Howie replied. “And I wanted to. I’ve missed you so much, baby.”
“I’ve missed you too,” Christine said, before placing a soft kiss on his lips. The two sat there and talked for a while about what they’ve each been doing. Howie could sense a nervous tone in Christine’s voice. He didn’t know what it was and why she was acting like that, but he was determined to find out by the time he left Connecticut.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
“I’m home!!!” Brian yelled as they all made there way up to the Littrell’s house. He ran up to the house and bounded into the door. “We’re here!”
“Brian!” Jackie Littrell exclaimed as she made her way into the foyer. She pulled her younger son into her arms. “Oh, I’ve missed you so much, honey.”
“Me too, mommy,” he answered in his best little kid voice. Jackie turned to Ang. “You must be Angela. It’s so nice to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“You too, Mrs. Littrell,” Ang replied, shaking her hand.
“Where’s my mommy?” Kevin asked, interrupting them.
“Your family should be here any minute,” Jackie replied. “Now everyone come in and introduce yourselves.” The entire group moved into the living room where Mr. Littrell, Harold, and Harold’s wife were all seated. A few minutes later, the Richardson’s showed up and all of the introductions were done.
“Where’s Howie today?” Jackie asked.
“He’s visiting his fiancée,” Nick answered. “He’ll be back tomorrow.”
“How is Christine doing?” Ann Richardson asked.
“She’s alright,” Brian replied. “Her father died a couple of weeks ago but Howie wasn’t able to get out there for the funeral.”
“Well, dinner should be ready in about an hour,” Jackie told everyone. “Why don’t you all just relax for a while.”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Krista was laying down in one of the Littrell’s guest rooms, taking a nap when AJ walked in. He just stared at her for a few minutes, taking in her beauty. She was seven months pregnant now and looked as gorgeous as ever. He couldn’t believe that in two months, he was going to be a father. He was going to prove everyone wrong and be the best father ever. He was also surprised at how well the fans were taking the news. It didn’t get out until Krista was attacked in New York. But the fans had responded pretty well to the news, offering congratulations whenever they could.
AJ walked over to the bed and laid down next to Krista, careful not to wake her up. She shouldn’t have been on the road with them in the first place so he made sure she was able to rest. But he knew that she probably would’ve gone insane if she had to stay home alone one more second than she did. His mother was there but it’s not the same. AJ was sure that Denise had to be driving Krista up the wall. She smothered her almost at sometimes. She did it with good intentions, but she smothered her just the same. It was better than nothing though. Since the day over the summer when they had dinner with Krista’s parents, Krista hadn’t heard a word from them. She tried getting in touch with her dad but she wasn’t able to. Krista tried to be strong about it, but AJ knew that it had to be tearing her up inside. No matter what their differences were, he was positive that she never wanted them out of her life. And the baby’s life. She wanted their baby to have both sets of grandparents there for it.
“Hey there, baby,” AJ whispered, his face near Krista’s swollen belly. “It’s your daddy. How are you doing in there? I can’t wait to meet you. Your mommy and I are so excited for you. Do you know that?”
Krista’s eyes fluttered open and she saw AJ having a conversation with their unborn child. It was one of the sweetest moments she had ever witnessed and it was enough to bring tears to her eyes. She kept quiet and listened as he spoke to the baby.
“Do you know how loved you’re going to be? There are so many people that are here for you. There’s Uncle Howie, Uncle Brian, Uncle Kevin, and Uncle Nick. There’s Brooke and Ang and Katelin. They all can’t wait to meet you either.” Krista sniffled, causing AJ to look up at her. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
“I’m not sad,” she whimpered. “That was the sweetest thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life.”
“I just want him to get used to my voice,” AJ replied.
“Him?” Krista questioned, smiling. AJ nodded:
“Yup.”
“And why are you so sure that this baby is a boy?” she asked as AJ crawled up to her level.
“Just a gut feeling,” AJ answered, grinning.
“Did I ever tell you how proud I am of you?” Krista asked.
AJ shook his head. “Proud? Why?”
“Because I am,” Krista replied. “When I first found out that I was pregnant, I was scared to death, AJ. Scared of how I would handle it. Scared of how my parents would react. But mostly, I was scared that you weren’t going to stick around. It was nothing personal against you but I hadn’t been with you that long and most guys would’ve run. But you proved me wrong, AJ. And I can’t tell you how much that ever meant to me. How much you mean to me.”
The next morning, Howie was getting his stuff together because his flight was leaving in a few hours. The limousine would be here to pick him up any minute to make the drive from Fairfield to Laguardia Airport. He was flying into Lexington where he would meet up with the rest of the group for the performance that night. They had another show in Atlanta before they would be back in Florida for the last show of the tour in Tampa. He looked up and watched Christine out of the corner of his eye. She was sitting in a chair, twirling her engagement around her finger. Since he had arrived the day before, he knew that something was off with her. She seemed nervous and jumpy the whole time. At first, he thought it was just because she was run-down from the stress of the last few months, with her dad being sick and everything. But there had to be something else wrong with her and he was determined to find out.
“Christine,” he began. “What’s going on with you? You’ve been acting funny ever since I got there.”
“I’m fine,” Christine lied, not looking him in the eye.
“No you’re not,” he stated, kneeling down in front of her and taking her hands in his. “Something’s wrong. I can tell. What I don’t understand is why you won’t tell me.” Christine looked up at him and Howie could tell that her brown eyes were bright with unshed tears. “Aw, Chris, what is it, baby?”
“I can’t marry you, Howie,” she finally admitted, tearfully.
Howie’s eyes widened in shock. “What? What are you talking about Christine?” She slipped her engagement ring off of her finger and put it in his. “What are you doing, Chris?”
“I can’t marry you,” she repeated. “I’m sorry, Howie. I love you but I can’t go through with this.” She quickly stood up and ran to her room, slamming the door behind her.
Howie followed her and began banging on her door. “Christine, open the door. Come on!”
“What’s going on?” he heard a voice behind him ask. He whirled around and came face to face with Paul.
“Nothing,” Howie mumbled.
“I’m sorry, Howie,” Christine cried from the other side. “Maybe you should just go.” Howie’s shoulder’s slumped defeated as he heard the limousine driver ring the doorbell downstairs.
“Christine, open the door,” he pleaded.
“Why don’t you just leave her alone?” Paul suggested.
Howie whirled around and glared at him. “Why don’t you mind your own damn business?” Finally, the door opened a crack and Howie shoved his arm in, preventing her from slamming it again. He shut it behind him when he saw Paul taking a step to come in too.
“Why can’t you marry me, Chris?” Howie questioned, tears pooling in his eyes. “Don’t you know how much I love you?”
“It’s not that,” Christine explained. “It’s complicated.”
“Well, then explain it to me,” Howie begged. “Because I’m not sure that I understand.”
“I can’t leave here right now,” Christine told him. “My family, or what’s left of it, needs me. I can’t be in Florida.”
“So?” Howie asked. “What’s the big deal then? I’ll come here.”
“It’s not that simple, Howie.” Christine shook her head. “Why should you give everything up just to follow me up here?”
“Because I love you.” He told her. “It is that simple.”
“No it’s not,” she replied. “I won’t let you give everything up for me. You have your career and your family and your friends. And it’s all in Florida.”
“Christine,” Howie began. “When did this all come up? Why, all of the sudden, are you acting like this?”
“It’s not all of the sudden, Howie,” she explained. “It’s just what I need to do.”
“Since when?” He exploded. “Who gave you this crazy idea? Was it your mom? Your sister?” Christine shook her head, tearfully, but didn’t say anything. That’s when it hit him. “It’s Paul, isn’t it?” She didn’t say anything. “Fine,” he growled. “I get it.”
He started to turn away but Christine grabbed his arm. “Howie, let me explain.”
He shrugged her arm away. “Let go, Christine. I don’t know why you let him constantly make decisions for you. When you can make up your own mind, call me.” He turned around and stomped out of the room, resisting the urge to punch Paul in his smug little mouth, on the way out.
After Howie had stormed out of the room, Paul went in to try and comfort a crying Christine. “Get away,” she said, sobbing. She pushed him hard on the chest. “Get the hell out of here!” Paul shook his head, sadly, and walked out of the room, leaving Christine sobbing on her bedroom floor.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
“Hello?” Becca said into her cell phone.
“Rebecca? This is Mike Taylor. I got your message.”
Becca sighed inwardly. Finally, she was going to get what she wanted. “And let me just tell you, I don’t appreciate being interrupted on my vacation so this had better be important.”
“Well, if you consider your daughter important, than it is.”
“What’s wrong with Katelin?”
“Nothing really except for the fact that she’s completely disobeying your orders of staying away from my boyfriend. I have very good reason to believe that they are sleeping together again.”
“What?!” Mike exclaimed into the phone. “And how the hell do you know this?”
“Because they blatantly told me to my face,” Becca answered, smugly. “Now what are you going to do about this?”
Mike sighed. “I’ll be in Europe until December fourth. As soon as I get some things together in New York, I’ll be in Florida, okay?”
“Perfect,” Becca grinned.
“You do know that if I didn’t feel that Nick was so wrong for my daughter, I wouldn’t be helping you right now, right?”
“Yes I do, Mr. Taylor. And believe me, you have no idea how happy this makes me. Thank you.”