The large bus rolled along the highway almost silently, as it was the only vehicle on the road. Kevin watched through the window as houses and trees passed. Gazing out the window, he saw the sign that told them they were almost to their destination.
Kevin sighed as he considered what would happen when they arrived in Atlanta. Would she be there? Could she possibly still live in Atlanta? Sighing again, he pushed the thoughts from his mind.
It had been almost two years since Lily had left. Almost two years since he'd last seen her. After she'd first left Kevin thought that it would be easy to forget her, after all, it was only a one night stand. He'd had plenty of those before. But Kevin soon found out that forgetting her was a lot harder than he'd imagined.
He couldn't think of anything else but her for months. He was never bitter or solemn over her departure but she was never far from his mind, though he never spoke his thoughts aloud.
Hearing a sound, he turned to see Brian coming from the back of the bus.
"Hey cous, what's up?" he said cheerfully. It hadn't taken Brian long at all to get over Lily's leaving him. In fact, he was fine within weeks of the vacation. He'd never let it bother him because Lily hadn't effected him the way she did Kevin. Brian moved quickly after Lily and now had a girlfriend who he'd been seeing for a little over a year.
"Nothing much." Kevin responded. "Just anxious to get where we're going."
"I have an idea. I've already talked to the other guys and they want to do it. Lisa told me about this stable that's on our way into the city and I think it would be fun to stop by there and relax for a while before we have to get ready for the concert." Kevin nodded, knowing it would be a good idea because their stylist, Lisa always provided for them many ideas for places to go.
"All right, let's do it." he said and Brian got up to tell the bus driver the directions Lisa had given him.
***************
Lily grunted softly as she hefted the large saddle onto the horse. After it was in place, she quickly and expertly fastened it. Looking over her shoulder she watched the car approaching slow and come to a stop in front of the house. She watched as Hannah stepped from the driver's seat and walked around to the passenger's seat, opened the door and reached in. Lily smiled as she saw her emerge from the car with a young toddler.
Still smiling, she watched from a distance as her mother came out of the house and reached forward to embrace the child and then turn with him in her arms and enter the house with Hannah close behind.
Turning back to her horse, Lily mounted the mare fluently. She guided the horse out of the stable and headed out into the vast country side in front of her. As she rode, she realized it had been almost two years since she'd left the Bahamas by herself that day. Since then she knew she'd changed drastically.
After arriving in Atlanta, Lily had returned to her empty apartment and resumed her routine of spending her days writing and working on her new books. Hannah had immediately sensed that there was something wrong with Lily and after several tries, got the story from her.
The first few months that Lily was home, Hannah repeatedly tried to get her to go out and meet new people. Lily tried but didn't succeed to well because every man she met, she found herself comparing him to Kevin. Hannah had tried to set her up on blind dates but none of them ever came of anything, they were either not dark enough or not tall enough or his voice wasn't deep enough. In other words, none of them were Kevin.
Lily's depression worsened but lifted two months after she'd returned when she realized she was carrying Kevin's baby.
After she'd gotten over the shock of the news, her spirits lifted almost immediately. Lily realized she had a reason to be happy again. The news of her pregnancy thrilled her parents and they soon forgot that she would be an unwed mother. She only told Hannah the truth about the baby's father, leaving it a mystery to her family of her parents and two older brothers, Steven and Jason.
Now, a year after Jeremy Phillip Knight was born, they spent the weekdays in their Atlanta apartment and their weekends at the horse stables her parents owned on the outskirts of the city.
After Lily finished her ride, she returned to the stable and unsaddled the horse. After wiping her down Lily secured the mare in the stable and headed toward the house. She entered the house and saw her son sitting on the lap of her oldest brother, Jason. Jason and Steven both took after their father, Andrew Knight with dark hair and features and blue eyes; while Lily took after their mother, Connie with her red, curly hair.
As she entered the room, she watched for a moment as Jason played with Jeremy. Oblivious to her presence, the two laughed and carried on until Jeremy looked towards the door and saw her standing there. "Mama!" he exclaimed and wiggled until Jason set him on the floor.
"Traitor." Jason muttered with a smile. Although Jeremy could walk, he found it more efficient to crawl and did so over to Lily. She picked him up and Jeremy smiled a toothy grin at her.
"How's my little birthday boy? Did you have fun with Aunt Hannah at the park today?" the baby bounced up and down excitedly at the mention of his beloved Aunt "Annuh".
Lily smiled at him and set him on the floor to play. Lily looked at him and once again was reminded of Kevin, as she was everytime she looked at her son. He was a mirror image of his father, from his head full of dark hair to his unique silver-green eyes.
Lily snapped out of her reverie when her mother hung up the phone and called her name.
"Lily, honey, we have a large group coming in, wanting to ride. Do you think you can get five horses ready for them?"
Lily nodded and headed out again towards the stables and once she reached it, started saddling horses.
She was saddling the third horse when she saw the vehicle coming up the dirt road. She watched silently as the SUV slowed down and came to a stop in the driveway, next to the other cars.
Assuming that was the group that was scheduled to arrive, Lily uninterestingly turned back to the horse to finish saddling it but Lily felt like her heart would stop when she glanced up and saw who stepped out of the car.
Lily stood dumbstruck as first AJ McLean and then the rest of the guys stepped from the car and headed her way. Lily, wanting nothing more than to find some place to hide, stood very still as they approached her. AJ was the first to recognize her and Lily saw his eyes widen as he did.
"Lily!" he said surprised as he approached her and reached out to give her a hug.
From the back of the group, Kevin frowned as he heard AJ say the name that had been in the back of his mind constantly for the past two years. Still frowning, he felt as if the wind had gotten knocked out of him as he saw Lily step back from the group in front of him, smiling. Looking at her Kevin felt the two years since he'd last seen her slip away. He felt as if he'd just seen her yesterday, and she was just as beautiful as ever. Sweaty and disheveled after obviously just ridden one of the horses, she looked stunning in her overalls and green tank top and for the life of him, he couldn't tear his eyes away from her.
Lily felt Kevin's eyes burning into her as she nervously hugged the other guys and extended limited conversation and answers to their questions. "M-My parents own this stable." she stumbled after Nick asked her what she was doing there. "I come down and help them on the weekends."
The guys asked her a few more questions before deciding to let her saddle the other two horses. Lily tried desperately not to shake or show her nervousness but her hands were shaking so badly that it took her twice as long to saddle the two horses. As she finished she stood up and said quickly "The horses are ready. There is a path through the woods over there. You can have the horses out as long as you want just bring them back to stables when you get done."
The guys nodded and then mounted their horses and rode off in the direction Lily pointed in. Lily watched them leave and as soon as they were out of view, rushed back to the house and into the living room where her family sat.
"Hannah, can you come in here with me for a second?" she asked as she walked through the living room.
Hannah gave her a look of confusion but followed her into the kitchen anyway.
"He's here." she whispered as soon as they entered the kitchen.
"Who's here?"
"Kevin. The group Mom was talking about was the Backstreet Boys. They are all out riding our horses right now."
Hannah thought for a moment and then said quite calmly "Good. I think it's time he found out he has a son."
"Are you crazy?" Lily whispered fiercely. "Do you realize how much power this man has? He could very well take Jeremy away from me!" The end of her sentence trailed off but Hannah still caught the tears in her voice.
"OK, Lil, he won't know." Hannah said as she pulled her friend into a hug.
As they pulled away from each other they both heard the crash of thunder and looked out the window just in time to see the sky open up and pour rain.
"Good." Lily said "Maybe they'll leave now."
The two of them re-entered the living room and sat down on the floor beside Jeremy and began playing with him. She had just rolled the ball to him when they all heard the doorbell ring. Lily swung panic filled eyes to Hannah who's own eyes held sympathy because she knew that there was nothing that could be done now except hope that Kevin didn't realize that Jeremy was his son.
Connie Knight moved to the door and pulled it open to see the boys standing on the doorstep, soaking wet.
"Hello, Mrs. Knight." Brian said.
"Brian! Lily you didn't tell me this is who was here!" Connie exclaimed as she moved aside to let them come in.
"We hate to bother you," Brian was saying "But our car is stuck in the mud and we can't get it out. We were wondering if we could get some help."
"Sure, the boys can help you." Connie said, referring to Jason and Steven. "But let me get you some towels so you can get dried off." Before any of them had time to object, she was already on her way to get them towels.
Lily sat in the floor, praying Kevin wouldn't recognize Jeremy and was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't see Jeremy crawl over to the guys and stop in front of Brian.
"Who's this little fella?" Brian asked as he bent down to pick him up.
Lily tensed and stood up and walked over to them. "He's...uh..." Lily considered lying to them but that idea was quickly forgotten when Jeremy leaped out of Brian's arms and into Lily's with a high pitched "Mama!".
"He's my son." she said and saw the guys' eyes widen.
"How old is he?" Brian asked.
"He was a year old yesterday."
Lily looked at them and saw the same question on each of their faces, Who was his father. But before the question could be asked, Connie returned with an armful of towels, handing one to each of the boys.
As they toweled off, Lily sneaked a glance at Kevin to judge his reaction and nearly gasped audibly when she saw the fire in his eyes directed at her. The way he looked at her, with such fierce anger in his eyes told her that he recognized the resemblance in Jeremy. Lily stared into his eyes, transfixed and watched as his jaw clenched and unclenched in anger. She then watched as he tore his gaze from her and looked at his son. Lily nearly cried at the look of tenderness on his face as he looked at Jeremy. Looking back up at her briefly and angrily, he followed the rest of the guys and Lily's two brothers outside. As the door closed behind him, Lily didn't feel any form of relief because she knew that as surely as the sun would come up tomorrow, he would be back.
