| Chapter 48 "Brian, I don't think there's anything we can do," Kevin said. Brian stared at him, "There has to be something. He can't just disappear, someone's seen him surely." "Well he's not answering his cell," Howie said putting his phone down. They were in Brian's living room, where they'd been for two hours now. As far as any of them knew, Nick had dropped off the face of the earth. He hadn't taken any security with him, and no one, not even his family knew where he was, or had any idea of where he might be. Tara sat in the corner watching. She could tell that Brian was angry, he felt like some of Nick's hurt was because of him, and he had to do something. But alas, there was nothing he could do, and that made him even angrier. Howie was worried, but not so much that Tara couldn't see the love in his eyes every time he looked at Kira. Tara smiled, happy that Howie had found what he was missing in his life. And then there was Kevin. He was frustrated, if you want to call it that. More like extremely pissed that Nick had taken off like that, and extremely worried too. Kevin always felt like the big brother, especially in situations like these, and the fact that he could do nothing but wait on Nick to contact them was eating him up. "Tara?" Brian said. She snapped out of her thoughts, "Yeah?" Brian smiled at her, "Honey, in all the time you were with Nick, did he ever talk about wanting to go somewhere, or a favorite place?" She thought for a minute, in all that time she couldn't remember them ever having a conversation about that. "No, I don't ever remember him saying either one," she said. Brian looked lost, his best friend was who knows where hurting and he couldn't help him. Tara closed her eyes and thought for a long time. Brian reached over and touched her hand, "You OK?" She looked up at him and smiled, "Yeah, I'm just thinking. If we look for him, the media will have a hay day with it. And he's not gonna come back until he's ready, so the only thing we can do is pray for him, and trust that God will take care of him while we can't." The guys looked at her knowing what she said was the only thing they could do. "I think we should start now," Kevin said. They all got up, joined hands and began to pray. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nick jerked awake to the sound of the alarm blaring from the table next to the couch. He slammed his hand down on it, and rolled over to face the TV which was still on. The interview was just coming on. He sat up and got as comfortable as he could. He pulled the blanket around him, he was still cold. Oh that's great, now I'm getting sick, he thought. He watched as the special came on. They showed some footage from last years concert, then went into the interview. "God I look awful," Nick said, shocked at just how distraught he looked on camera. The interview played exactly how it was taped, John had added in some pictures from Bri and Lee's wedding, and some footage taken from an awards show that he and Tara had gone to. Nick watched Tara intently. She looked a little nervous, but handled the cameras well. It was at the part where Nick took over and started talking about Brian and Tara loving each other, Nick wiped his face as the tears reappeared. He clutched the blanket and watched the rest of the interview. John really did a good job editing it, and at the end they had some live fan reactions to the news. "That is the most wacked up thing I've ever seen. I mean I can't believe that Nick just gave her up like that," one fan said. Yeah, neither can I, Nick thought. "I think that's the most romantic thing I've ever seen," another fan said. He watched as they asked a few more fans their opinion, all in all it was about fifty percent understood, and fifty percent where angry at either Brian or Tara for getting together. "Management is gonna have fun with this," Nick said as he turned the TV off. He got up wrapped the blanket around him and walked over to the window. The moonlight was bright and he could see the beach clearly. He watched as the light danced on the waves. He stood there for a long time, letting the tears come. He saw some movement and focused in. It was the girl from the next house. She was walking down the beach in the opposite direction. Nick reached over and turned the lights off so she wouldn't see him. He watched her for a long time. She seemed to be talking to herself, and very upset. He wondered if he should go out there and see if she was OK, but then she'd know he'd been watching her. She finally turned and headed back to her house. She stopped at the door and looked in his direction, Nick backed away from the window until she was inside. Once she was inside, Nick walked back to the window and watched her move around the house. He knew he shouldn't be invading her privacy like that, but there was something about her, he just couldn't put his finger on. She sat down at a desk and started working on a laptop. Nick still couldn't make out her features very well, he could tell that her hair was just past her shoulders, and she was maybe about Tara's height, that was about it. Nick coughed, Yep, I'm definitely getting sick. He looked back down, but she was gone from the desk. He scanned the rooms, but didn't see her. He was freezing so he went to the bedroom, added two more blankets on the bed, and crawled in. He clutched the extra pillow, whipping his tears away with the corner of it, and fell to sleep. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Leighanne sat on the couch playing with Tyke and Litty. She had watched the interview, and thought over all that it went well. She was about to go to bed when the phone rang. "Hello," she said. "Leighanne, this is Marty," he said. Leighanne thought it was odd for the producer to be calling this late. "Hi Marty, what's up?" she asked. "You are never gonna believe this! The film got picked up by Fox, they wanna premier it in two weeks!!" Marty said excited. "You're kidding?!!" Leighanne yelled, she was so excited. "Yeah, and they want you and Gary to do some promotional stuff, like talk shows and radio, starting tomorrow afternoon," Marty said. Leighanne's excitement left, "Um, Marty, we're not doing them together are we?" "Yeah, why?" he asked. "Well we aren't exactly on good terms right now," she said, downplaying it immensely. "Listen Leighanne, this is like a one in a million shot here. If the studio wants you to do this, you gotta put aside your differences and do it," Marty said sternly. Leighanne cringed, but she knew he was right, this could be the one film that jump starts her career. "OK, where do I have to be," she asked. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Howie and Kira walked into Nick's house. They had been at Brian's almost all day, and had stayed to watch the interview. Then they had gone out to eat, and went for a drive in the country. They were both tired. "Babe, I'm gonna go take a bath," Kira said heading up the stairs. "OK, I'll be up in a minute," Howie said. He watched her disappear upstairs, then grabbed the phone and dialed the number. "Hello," Kevin said. "Kev, it's Howie," he said. "Damn D do you know what time it is?" Kevin said annoyed. "Yeah man, I'm sorry. Listen I need a favor," Howie said. "Like what kinda favor?" Kevin asked, intrigued. Howie checked to make sure Kira was still where she was suppose to be. "I need Kristin to take Kira out, like go shopping or something tomorrow," Howie said. "And just why do you need to borrow my wife?" Kevin asked smiling. "It's a secret, I just have some things I need to do and I don't want Kira to see," Howie said. "Like what kinda things?" Kevin asked laughing. "Damn it Kev, will you ask her or not?" Howie said knowing Kevin was pumping for information. "Yeah, yeah, I'll ask her, hang on," Kevin said. Howie could hear Kevin and Kristin talking, then laughing. "Yeah, she'll call Kira in the morning and set it up," Kevin said. Howie smiled, "Thanks man." "So when we gonna find out what all this is about?" Kevin asked. "Soon, now go back to sleep," Howie said. Kevin laughed, "OK, see ya." Howie hung up the phone and smiled. He got up and walked upstairs. "Kira?" he called. "In here," she said. Howie walked into Nick's room and into the master bath. Kira was in the tub, surrounded by a sea of bubbles. "What took you so long?" she asked with a smile. "Had something I had to do," he answered. Kira looked at him, "Really, now what could be more important than a nice bath before bed?" Howie smiled and bent down next to the tub. He took the wash clothe from her hand and began to wash her back, gently kissing her neck. Kira turned to face him. "I love you," Howie said. She smiled, "I love you too." Howie watched as her smile turned into an evil grin, and before he knew it she had pulled him into the tub, clothes and all. Chapter 49 |