The next day Nick and Hannah decided to go through the copy of their new CD. They hopped down to the recording studio and popped in the CD to listen. They went through the CD with Hannah making comments here and there. After the last song finished, Nick turned to Hannah,
“So what do you think?” He swiveled back and forth in one of the chairs crossing his arms.
“My honest opinion?” She asked and Nick nodded his head.
“Well, it’s not your best work. Millennium was much better, but you have some great songs on here, but you also have songs that personally suck.”
“Well don’t hold back.” Nick said sarcastically.
“You wanted my honest opinion and I’m telling you what your fans will think. Now ‘The Call’ is great, in fact it should be one of the first songs you release. The third song, ‘Loving you forever’, is awful. You can tell that you guys hate that song, it really shows. Also personally there are too many slow songs, are you really trying to put the fans to sleep? And I know Brian has written a bunch of songs, maybe you should look into those, fans love it when you guys write the songs you sing. Also I think you should replace, ‘Dancing with you’ and ‘Forever’ with something else. There are too many marry me songs. I know Brain and Kevin just got married, but really, it’s not what your fans want, okay? Now keepers are definitely, ‘The Call’, ‘Get another boyfriend’, ‘Shape of my heart’, ‘Everyone’, ‘More than that’, and ‘Answer to our life’. They’re great, you guys love singing them, all of you love them and you sound great on them.” Hannah crossed her arms waiting for a response from Nick. He sat there for a minute letting what Hannah said sink in.
“Okay, you’re absolutely right. It’s nice to know that I’m not crazy.” Hannah laughed,
“That’s good.” Nick just stared at her, she was so beautiful he could watch her forever. He knew it was now or never to tell her how he felt about her. He stood up,
“Well there is one song I have been working on with Howie a bit. He had a great melody and I found the words for it. Do you want to hear it?”
“I’d love to, where’s the demo?” she asked and Nick pointed to his head.
“It’s all up here. Come on I’ll sing it for you.” Nick held out his hand, which Hannah took and he led her to a seat that was right next to the piano in the recording studio. Nick sat down at the piano. Hannah was facing Nick,
“You learned to play piano?” she asked amazed.
“Yeah,” Nick said shyly, “Kev’s been teaching me.” Nick searched and found his place on the keys and began the song.
“Remember when, we never needed each other, the best of friends, like sister and brother. We understood, we’d never be alone.”
Nick continued on singing to Hannah rarely leaving her eyes. Hannah knew that Nick meant every word of the song. Tears sprang to her eyes as they did in Nick’s. Suddenly everything made sense to her. For the past couple of weeks there had been this strange confused feeling of emotion in her. Now she knew what it was, she had fallen in love with Nick. Nick finished the final chorus of the song,
“What can I do to make you mine? Falling so hard, so fast, this time. What did I say? What did you do? How did I fall in love with you? Everything’s changed, we never knew. How did I fall in love with you?”Nick looked to Hannah for a response. She finally said,
“That was wonderful Nick.” He took her hands into his own.
“Hannah, I’ve wanted to tell you this for so long, I just never knew how. You are the most important person in my life, you know me and understand me like no one else does. I think in some way I’ve always loved you. It just took me sixteen years to realize it. I want to be with you more than anybody in the world. I love you Hannah.” Hannah smiled through the tears that were slipping down her face.
“You know, I’ve been having this feeling inside that was confusing me and it heightened when you came to visit, but just now I realize what it was. I had fallen in love with you too, Nick.” Nick smiled and kissed Hannah gently. There were fireworks everywhere. After the kiss they looked at each other and no words needed to be said. They were both thinking the same thing. Nick kissed Hannah again and pulled her onto his lap, holding her tight. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world. Someone knocking on the door interrupted them. Hannah jumped up to answer it. It was Mike,
“It sure took you guys a long time,” he stared at Nick and then at Hannah knowing something was up between them, “to answer the door.” He finished suspiciously.
“Sorry we were in the studio. It’s hard to hear in there.”
“Oh, well what have you guys been up to?”
“Oh nothing, just listening to music.”
“Really,” Mike said not believing a word his twin was saying, “well the gang was going to go see a movie before heading over to the bar, you wanna go?” Hannah glanced at Nick and then said,
“Um, I think we’re gonna stay in tonight. We’ve got some things planned already cause I have the night off, but thanks for the offer though.” Mike was unsure of the situation and planned on asking Hannah about it later. He let it slide for now.
“Okay well I guess I’ll let you get back to your music. See ya later, bye Nick.” He waved over Hannah’s shoulder at Nick who waved back.
“Bye Hannah,” he kissed her on the cheek and quickly whispered in her ear,
“We’ll talk about this later.” He stood up and smiled at Hannah who nodded.
“I’ll show myself out.”
“Bye Mike.” She said as Mike turned and left. Hannah stood there and watched her brother leave. Nick surprised her when he came up behind her and encircled his arms around her waist.
“So,” he said quietly, “what do you have planned for tonight?” She smiled and turned to face him.
“I don’t know. Have some dinner, talk, get to know each other a little better?” Nick moved in closer.
“I think we know each other pretty well already.”
“Okay, but I wasn’t really talking about, well, talking.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him and he smiled. Hannah wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a kiss. It made her stomach flutter, never in her life had she felt like this with anyone. It was like pure heaven.
“Mmm, I could do this all night.” Nick said.
“I could to, but I think we’ll need our energy, so why don’t we have dinner.” Nick looked at his watch,
“Okay, pick you up at seven?” He smiled.
“Bring flowers.” She said with a wink as she walked away. Hannah left and went upstairs to get ready. Nick went into the kitchen to fix dinner only to find that Rosita had already had it ready for them. It was sitting in the oven. Nick set up a dinner table in the kitchen. He found candles and everything, when he was done he ran upstairs to get ready.
Hannah rummaged through her closet to find the perfect dress. She finally settled on a dress that was magenta and white and had a hibiscus flower print on it. It had thin straps and the neck was in the shape of a v. There were two layers of the skirt and each was at a different angle. It was perfect and she paired it with some matching strappy shoes. She left her hair long and wavy. She had just finished her makeup when there was a knock at her door. She looked at her clock and it was seven o’clock, he was perfectly on time. Hannah opened the door and there was Nick in a gray suit and a light blue dress shirt and a tie. He looked incredibly good. He smiled shyly when he saw Hannah and then he pulled his hand out from behind his back and produced a bouquet of stargazer lilies. Her absolute favorite flowers.
“You look amazing.” He said barely above a whisper. She took the flowers from him and smelled them.
“Nick they’re beautiful! Where did you get them? I didn’t hear you leave.” He winked and said,
“Every man has his secrets.” He held out his arm, “Well we better get going before dinner gets cold.” Hannah took his arm and he led her down to the kitchen where the table was all ready with dinner and the candles lit. It was so beautiful.
“Nick when did you do all this?” She asked as he pulled out a chair for her to sit down.
“I had some help from Rosita.”
“Oh.”
It was the most romantic dinner either of them had ever had. Nick was in seventh heaven with Hannah. He felt as though a thousand pounds had been lifted off his shoulders. He was so excited that Hannah felt the same way about him. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her or the smile off his face.
After they had cleaned up from dinner Nick led Hannah to the deck just off the kitchen. He turned on some soft music and pulled her to him and they began to dance, he held her close as they danced beneath the clear night sky that was sprinkled with thousands of sparkling stars. Nick whispered in her ear,
“Thank you, for loving me.”
“Thank you.” She whispered back.
“I never want this night to end.” He said. Something clicked in Hannah’s mind,
“What happens when it does?” She asked. Nick stopped, pulled away and looked at her.
“What do you mean?” he worriedly stared at her.
“I mean,” she said as she broke away from him and walked across the patio and held herself while looking out into the yard, “what’s going to happen when you go back to Florida and go on tour. I’ll never see you. This has been magical for me but maybe this isn’t the best idea.” Nick came up behind her,
“Hannah don’t say that.” He turned her to face him. She looked into his beautiful blue eyes and saw the hurt that tugged at her heart.
“I don’t know Nicky. Really I want to be with you but in reality it won’t work. Your life is in your career and I don’t want to interfere with that. You’ll be on the road most of the year, especially with your new album coming out. You’ll be so busy that you won’t have time to worry about me.”
“No, Hannah, we’ll make it work some how, I promise. Please don’t leave me.”
“Nicky I will never leave you. You’ll always have me, maybe not in the way that you want but I always be there for you.”
“I want to be with you. I don’t want to have it any other way.”
“Well you can’t always have it your way.” Hannah said shortly. Nick sat silent for a minute then his face lit up.
“Hannah, come on tour with me. That way we can be together.” Hannah looked at Nick,
“I can’t do that! I just started a business less then seven months ago, plus I just got my twin brother back in my life. I can’ drop my life and move on the road!” Hannah softened her voice, “As much as I want to do that I really can’t do that. It’s impossible.” Nick’s face fell,
“There’s nothing I can do to convince you other wise?” Hannah shook her head,
“I’m sorry. I have too much responsibility here.” Nick looked devastated,
“Well can we at least have the rest of the week to be together?” His eyes pleaded with her heart. “We can pretend that I’m not leaving and that we’re not going to be thousands of miles apart…”
“Shh.” She smiled and put a finger to his lips. “You’re not going anywhere. You’re going to stay here with me, forever.” She looked deep into his eyes and knew what she meant. Nick held her face in his hands and kissed he long and passionately. He then picked her up into his arms and carried her up to Hannah’s bedroom and laid her on to the bed. He kissed her sweetly and slid the strap of her dress down. Her chest rose and fell calmly. Nick’s eyes were locked with Hannah’s as he removed the dress slowly and threw it to the floor. Slowly in between kisses Nick’s clothes followed. At last there was no barrier between them.
“Are you sure?” He asked quietly. Hannah nodded. He kissed her as he entered her slowly. She felt safe in his arms as they joined as one in their love. They made love slowly and sweetly until they both came in one momentous moment. They both soon fell fast asleep wrapped in each other arms.