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Chapter Sixty Two – Manitoba

“Where are we going?” Leigh asked. It had been a busy day. After a successful morning with a cup of ginger tea, I had worked several hours on posting the first Nick’s Corner 2.0 clip, concert photographs and little snippets of rehearsal footage. Then it was off to sound check, a quick dinner, and the concert. Now we were bouncing along in a big van, and like Leigh, I had no clue where we were going.

“Manitoba has over 100,000 lakes,” Nick explained. “Since we have a free day tomorrow, we thought we’d treat our lovely ladies to something special. He glanced back at his laptop. “Lake Winnipeg is in the top 20 of the world’s largest lakes.”

I laughed. “Where are you getting this information?”

Nick grinned. “Wikipedia.”

“So are we going to Lake Winnipeg?”

I received another grin. “Maybe.”

About a half hour later, our bumpy trip ended. Nick and I were the last ones out of the van. I heard ooh’s and ahh’s from the other girls; I looked at Nick. Yet another grin.

“Patience.”

When I stepped out I joined in. “Ooh.”

A huge houseboat was docked at the lake; string after string of large white lanterns were strung along the entire boat.

“We thought that instead of a hotel, we could stay at the S.S. Backstreet,” Brian said.

“A five bedroom houseboat seemed about right,” Howie said. Leigh help onto James with one arm and clung to Howie with the other, her face lit up in excitement. I can imagine my face looked pretty similar.

As Nick and I walked past Brian and Leighanne I heard her whispering to Brian. “Baylee’s supposed to be grounded!”

“Aww, c’mon, Leigh.”

I didn’t see Brian’s face but moments later Baylee ran past us giggling like a free bird. Brian and Leigh’s dogs and Bitsy took off after him, jumping over each other and barking like crazy.

AJ was already twirling Rochelle around on deck. She held onto the beret she wore, her head tossed back in a laugh.

“James can sleep in the fifth bedroom with Baylee,” Howie explained to Leigh. She looked at him uncertainly.

“I don’t know…”

“Oh, c’mon Leigh the guys dying to get some; humor him for one night,” AJ said. Even through the darkness, I could see Leigh’s beautiful complexion redden.

After we all staked claim on a room, we met back up on the deck. It was going on one a.m., but no one seemed especially tired. Leighanne and Leigh went to put the kids down while the rest of us pulled pillows from every room and curled up to enjoy the calming evening air.

Nick was the first to fall down on a huge mountain of pillows. I sank down beside him; he pulled me close. A few minutes later I heard Leighanne and Leigh’s footsteps heading towards their respective husband.

The quiet lasted only a few moments; AJ, always the talker, spoke up.

“Hey Nick, truth or dare?”

Nick laughed. “What?”

“Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“Have you ever worn woman’s lingerie?”

I laughed. Somehow I thought I knew the answer.

Nick groaned. I looked at his face; the answer was written all over.

“Yes.”

AJ laughed. Rochelle jabbed him. “Hey, don’t make me get out the pictures, McLean.”

He shut up quickly.

“Brian, truth or dare?”

I saw him grin over at Leighanne. She rolled her eyes. “Dare,” he said.

“I dare you to go into the bathroom and make a shirt out of toilet paper. You have to wear it for the next half hour.”

Brian grinned. He ran off down to the bathroom.

“And you have to sleep with that,” Leigh reminded Leighanne. She made a face.

“Don’t remind me!”

“Liv, truth or dare?” Rochelle asked.

I looked over at her surprised. “Me?”

“Anyone else here named Liv?”

I smiled sheepishly. “Truth.”

“Have you ever kissed another girl?”

Three male heads swiveled in my direction. I laughed. “What?”

“Inquiring minds want to know,” AJ said.

I smiled sweetly. “Yes, I have.”

AJ scoffed. “I don’t believe it. You’re too goody goody.”

“She’s not that goody goody,” Howie said. “Not with a mini-Carter on the way.”

At that moment Brian walked back up on deck. His toilet paper shirt was an absolute train wreck; even so, he took a moment to model for the crowd before sitting down.

“My turn. Let’s see Howie, truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

The game continued for the next couple of hours. The highlights were Nick giving AJ a lap dance and AJ diving off the boat into the water. By three a.m., I was leaning against Nick half asleep.

“Guys we’re going to bed,” Nick whispered. He scooped me up.

“Night guys,” I whispered.

The mass of pillows and blankets were shuffled into their perspective room. Nick set me down and climbed in next to me, throwing our pillows back on the bed as he went. He leaned over and kissed me softly.

“Night, Liv.”

“Night, Nick.”

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God bless days off. We slept in extremely late. The guys made breakfast for the girls. With Brian’s help, Baylee made a special heart pancake for Leighanne. Then he made a rehearsed speech that I’m sure Brian had drilled in his head about not saying “bad” words. AJ stood up and repeated the same speech. I believed Baylee; AJ was a whole ‘nother story.

“Liv, are you going to stay in Florida once the tours over?” Leigh asked.

I looked over at Nick. “I, er, we haven’t really talked about that. I’m supposed to go back to work at the library full time September 1.”

“Where are you going to live after the baby’s born?” Rochelle asked.

Again I had no clue. I was lucky to know what I was doing the next day let along months down the road.

“We’ll take it one step at a time,” Nick said confidently. “I’m hoping to work on my next solo album in September and October.”

“Me too,” Brian said.

Nick and Brian began an in depth discussion on different songs they had written for their new albums. I saw Howie glance at his watch.

“We need to head back to the busses,” Howie said. “We were supposed to be off the boat at noon; it’s one.”

After a quick race to grab stray sock and other articles of clothing, we were on our way back to the busses. We said goodbye to Manitoba and continued our journey east to Ontario.