“I gotta go.” Nick stood up and grabbed his keys off of the coffee table in the living room of the beach house.
“Who was that?” Lanie asked, staring at him wide-eyed.
“Katelin,” Nick replied. “Something’s up.”
Lanie threw her hands in the air, disgusted. “Something’s always up when it comes to her. You always go rushing back to her and I’m fucking sick of it.”
“I’m not doing this right now, Lanie,” Nick stated, walking towards the front door. “Something’s going on right now. Something serious. I’m not going to argue about this.”
“Fine, Nick,” Lanie followed him outside and stood on the front steps with her arms folded across her chest. “But I’m getting pretty fed up. I’m not always going to be content with coming second to them.”
Nick turned around and glared at her. “You will always come second to my son, Lanie. Everyone will always come second to him. He is the most important thing in my life and he always will be. So get used it.”
“Yeah, well I will not get used to coming second to his mother.” She spun around on her heel and slammed the front door of the house, disappearing from his view. Nick shook his head, slowly, and climbed into his car, prepared to make the hour and a half drive back to Tampa.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Christine had landed at Laguardia Airport in New York City and began to make her way towards the rental car window as she heard a familiar voice calling her name. “Christine!”
Christine spun around towards the voice and glanced, questionably, towards the voice. “Paul? What are you doing here?”
“Your sister sent me to get you,” he replied. “She didn’t want to leave the hospital.” Christine gave him a nervous glance before following him towards the baggage claim. “How is my mother?”
“I’m not sure, actually,” Paul answered, pulling her bag off of the conveyor belt. “They wouldn’t really tell us anything. And then I left to come here. I told Melissa to call my cell with any news.”
“Good.” Christine followed him out to the car. “Because my cell died on the flight up here.”
“Really?” Paul questioned, a slight hint of amusement in his voice that went unnoticed by Christine. “That’s just too bad, now, isn’t it?”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Kevin sat at his kitchen table, the only light that illuminated the room was the one above the table. A half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels sat in front of him, next to a small shot glass. How could she do this to him? Was this her fucked up way of telling him that it was over? Just going and marrying someone else?
His phone, both his cell and the one in his house, had been ringing off of the hook for hours. He knew it was her calling. And probably all of the guys. He just didn’t feel like talking to any of them. He was genuinely surprised that Brian hadn’t shown up on his doorstep yet. That was the first thing he had expected. When he had seen the paper this morning, he had seriously thought that he was hallucinating. It took him a while for it to register in his mind that this was real. That she had really gone off and married another man in the blink of an eye.
The shock of it all kept him from showing his face at rehearsal earlier in the day. He just knew he wouldn’t be able to stand the sympathetic looks he would be getting all day. And he knew if he had to endure just one minute of it, he knew he’d flip his shit on one of the guys and that wasn’t fair to them. They weren’t the back-stabbing, cheating, lying whore that she was.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
“Where are you going?” Ang asked Brian, walking down the stairs as Brian was about to walk out the door.
“I’m going over to Kev’s,” Brian answered. “I’ve been calling and calling and he’s not answering. I’m worried about him. This isn’t like him.”
“Brian,” Ang reached out and grabbed his arm. “His fiancee just up and married some other guy. He has got a damn good reason to be acting the way he is. Maybe what he needs is to be alone for a while.”
“I just want to make sure he hasn’t done anything stupid,” Brian told her, reaching over and pulling him into his arms. “He’s my cousin.”
“I know,” Ang’s voice was muffled since her face was buried into his chest. “You’re such a good person, Bri.”
Brian grinned. “I know. What can I say? Anyway, I won’t be late. I promise. What are you going to do?”
“I think I’ll go relax in the jacuzzi upstairs,” Ang wiggled her eyebrows. “Maybe I’ll wait for you.”
“You’re killing me, babe.” He pulled the door open. “See ya.”
“Bye honey.”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
“Damnit!” Brooke yelled, tossing her phone down on the hotel room bed.
“What’s wrong, Brooke?” Justin asked, sitting down next to her. “Still haven’t gotten through to him?”
“No!” Brooke cried. “Not to him. There’s no god damn flight to Orlando. To Tampa. To Atlanta. To Miami. Anywhere in the damn vicinity until tomorrow afternoon.”
“Maybe you should just let him cool off, Brooke,” Justin suggested. “And then try and talk to him.”
“I can’t do that, Justin,” she exclaimed, jumping up. She began pacing back and forth across the room. “Don’t you understand? Kevin is my entire life. I love him so much and look what I did to him.”
“Are you positive that he knows?” he asked, staring at her, sympathetically.
“How could he not by now?” She collapsed down on the other bed, her head in her hands. “One of the guys had to have seen it by now, even if he didn’t. Somebody’s bound to tell him.” She grabbed her cell phone. “I need to find a god-damned flight out of here and get to him.”
“Why are you so anxious to get out of here, Brooke?” Justin stood up and walked over to her, kneeling down in front of her. “Don’t you see that you and J.C. are meant to be?”
Brooke jerked her hands away from him. “We’re not to be, Justin! J.C. and I were never meant to be. Kevin. I’m in love with Kevin. I’ve always been in love with Kevin.”
“You’re kidding yourself, Brooke.” Justin stood up and walked over to the door. “I don’t when the hell you’re going to realize that. You need to figure out who you really belong with.”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
She turned the knob on the front door, laughing quietly to herself. This was just too damn easy. How stupid could this girl be? Leaving the door unlocked. At night. While she’s all by herself. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She quietly stepped inside the house, hearing the water running in the upstairs bathroom. How easy it could be. She would never even knew what hit her. But that would have to wait. Right now, this was too much fun. Torturing her like this. She tip-toed into the kitchen, reaching in and pulling the letter and picture out of her purse. Grinning wickedly, she hung them on to the regrigerator. She admired her work for a minute before deciding she better get out of there before it was too late.