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Chapter Fifteen

"What do you mean, you quit?" Kevin asked as AJ shrugged out of his hold.

"You know quit. Q-U-I-T. As in I'm not longer a Backstreet Boy. I'm tired of everyone sticking their nose in my business. Stick a fork in me. I'm done."

He began to walk down the alley. Brian and Howie dropped their hold on me; both of them looked stunned. Kevin started to follow him but I stepped in front of Kevin and crossed my arms.

"You know you're right," I yelled out. "Just go. We don't need to deal with your drama again this tour AJ. What is it, a ten year curse you go through? Or is it just in your genes to abandon people?"

I probably shouldn't have said the last bit, but damn I was mad. AJ stopped in his tracks. When he turned around, his face was contorted in murderous rage.

"How could you even say that?" he hissed.

"Gee, I dunno," I spat. "You have a pretty good record of running away from things when they get to be too much don't you?"

The alley suddenly erupted in mass chaos. For one second I heard AJ's feet hit the pavement and the next thing I knew we were back on the ground fighting as if we were dueling to the death. Other hands which I could only assume were Brian, Howie, and Kevin kept darting into the mix but no one was able to get a firm grip on AJ or me.

I vaguely heard the sound of a female voice before AJ punched me in the ear. I headbutted him directly in the mouth. After that was pretty much a blur. I heard something that sounded like a bug zapper and felt AJ drop. I was about ready to stand up and assess the damage when I suddenly felt like I had become part of an electric wire.

The world went black.

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I woke up in my dressing room completely disoriented. Brian's face swam into view.

"Are you going to calm down now or are we going to have to get you tested for rabies?" he said in only a half-teasing drawl.

"What happened?"

"Y'all were pretty much chewing each other's limbs off and we couldn't get in to stop you. So someone else took charge of the situation."

"Who?"

Brian couldn't hide an actual smile. "Addy tased both of your asses. I've never seen a stun gun so big."

My eyes widened. "I was tased?"

Brian nodded. "You both dropped like sacks of potatoes."

I looked around for AJ. Brian and I were the only ones in the room. Brian seemed to read my thoughts.

"Kevin's talking to J. I volunteered to talk to you. What in the world started this?"

As angry as I was at AJ, I just didn't want everyone to know, especially since Rochelle was at home freakin' clueless.

"I don't want to talk about it. It's between me and him."

Brian sighed. "No, right now it's between all of us."

"He's just doing something I don't approve of."

Brian looked surprised. "Nick, do you know how many times you've done something we don't approve of?"

I shook my head. "It's not some stupid little thing like leaving sticky popsicles lying on your bunk or replacing the whipped cream with shaving cream. This is much more serious."

"Does it effect the day-to-day operation of the group?" Howie asked. I hadn't even seen him camped out in the corner. Very sneaky.

"No, but..."

"Then I think you just need to let it drop," Howie said. "Do you know how many times I've wanted to quit since we got back in the studio? You just have to get over it."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why the hell would you want to quit?"

Howie gave a wry smile. "I don't know...I just don't think my services are needed as much as they used to."

I opened my mouth to respond but he waved me away. "Don't worry about it. I'm not going anywhere. I have a wife who tends to be even more rational than I am."

The door opened and Kevin walked into the room.

"J's not going anywhere. I've calmed him down. He wouldn't tell me what this was all about though," Kevin said. He looked at me. I just shook my head.

"Well I think we're done here for today. I sent AJ back to his apartment to cool off. Addy and I are going back to the hotel--"

"Yeah about her. She's crazy Kev. Who walks around tasing people? I mean, Liv did one time, but she had a good reason."

Kevin grinned. "I'd say Addy had a good reason. Plus, I need a little bit of crazy in my life."

I shook my head. Kevin gave me a pointed look.

"Listen, tomorrow we're going to start all over. Business as usual. Okay? Get a good night's sleep."

Kevin walked out of the room. Howie stood up.

"Leigh's waiting for me. So..."

"See ya tomorrow How," Brian said. I nodded.

Finally it was just Bri and me.

"You're not driving down to your condo are you?" he asked.

"I was planning on it."

Brian gave me a smile. "Oh c'mon. When was the last time that you and me both were ridin' solo?"

Even though I felt like I had just been a human punching bag, I laughed.

"What are you saying?"

Bri grinned and batted his eyes.

"Let's have a sleepover!"

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"You're lucky Kevin's not here," I said.

We were sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of Brian's coffee table. The TV was turned to the NFL channel and the coffee table was covered with pizza, beer, chips, salsa, and molten chocolate cake. Brian had a piece of pepperoni slapped to his forehead; I had a line of beer sloshed down the front of my shirt.

"After the day we had, I think we need to drown our sorrows," Bri rationalized. "And you know as well as I do that once we get on the road we're going to look like the Tin Man and Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz."

The first thing I did after I dropped my bags off in Brian's guest room was to survey my battle scars. I had a busted lip and a wicked bruise on my cheek bone. Other than that I didn't look too bad. AJ must be losing his touch. Except when it came to screwing behind his wife's back.

Dick-head.

"Leave some beer for me," Brian said as I took a sip from my mug. I set it down and pointed to it with the tip of my pizza slice.

"It's one mug. We're not going out and partying. I'm pretty sure I'll be fine. After the day I had, I needed it. The rest of the pitcher's yours. I've leaned moderation."

"I just don't want you to get all drunk, think I'm Liv, and try to molest me," Brian said with a grin. I laughed.

"Trust me. There's not enough alcohol in this world to make me think you're Liv."

Brian took a chip and scooped up some salsa. A red splotch landed on his shirt before he made it to his mouth.

"So how are things at Casa de Carter?"

I smiled. "Pretty good. I can't believe how big Noah's gotten since we've brought him home."

Brian scooped up the salsa on his shirt with his finger and sucked it off.

"Tell me about it. I can't believe Baylee's going to be ten in November. That freaks me out."

I grinned. "I saw Kayleigh on Regis and Kelly. She's getting big."

"I know. She started crawling right before I left."

I grinned. "Oh, it's going to be fun having her and Brooklyn on tour."

"You know how we did those turtle races that one time?" Brian asked. I nodded. "We need to do baby races."

I grinned. "My daughter's going to whoop your daughter's diapered butt."

"Not a chance. Kay's like the Danica Patrick of crawling."

I rolled my eyes and eyed the cake. I really wanted cake.

"Where's your forks?" I asked.

Brian pointed behind him with another chip. "Kitchen."

We both turned and looked at the kitchen. It seemed like an unnecessarily long walk.

"Hunh," I said.

Brian handed me a chip.

"Here, dig in."

I glanced at the chip. I looked back at the kitchen.

"Oh, what the hell."

I dug the chip into the cake and went to town. Surprisingly the little mix of salt that ended up on the sweet cake added a little something. Until the chip broke. I stared at it forlornly. Brian shrugged.

"Oh well. Plan B."

He dug his fingers into one side; I worked on the other. I knew for a fact Leighanne would have had a cow if she saw the both of us eating like barbarians.

But I have to admit that it was kinda nice. I licked the gooey chocolate off my fingertips. I was reminded of Brooklyn playing with her mac and cheese in her high chair. No wonder she always looked so happy; finger foods were fun.

We devoured the cake until there was nothing but crumbs left. Feeling incredibly bloated, I leaned back against the couch. Brian did the same.

"We probably should clean this up," he said.

I belched. "Yup."

I was hoping that while we lapsed into silence Rosie the Robot from The Jetsons would roll through the living room and make everything disappear.

We didn't get so lucky.

Slowly we both got to our feet. Brian retrieved a trash bag and I pitched in glasses, plates, and crumbs. After we were done, Brian walked the bag back to the trash. We hunkered back down on the floor and finished watching the game.

"Are you still not going to tell me what's going on between you and AJ?" Brian finally asked. I groaned.

"I can't Bri," I said. "Someone else deserve to know first."

Brian turned to me. "Is it Rochelle?"

I didn't meet his eyes. "Just let it drop, okay?"

Brian didn't press any farther and for that I was glad. After the game was over he handed me the remote.

"I hate to be a party pooper but I promised Leigh that I would get on the video cam in about a half hour. I better shower before then."

"You're going to shower to get on the computer?"

Brian grinned. "Lets just say that the kids are going to be asleep."

I wrinkled my nose. "I do not want to think about you in the next room showing off your Kentucky Wildcat on Skype."

Brian laughed. "I've upgraded to a private webcam connection, thank you very much. But, to tell you the truth, ever since Kayleigh was born Leighanne's insatiable."

I pointed a finger at him. "Watch it. That's how Liv was and the end result was Noah."

Brian snickered. "Unlike you, I'm not careless."

I pointed at a big blob of spaghetti sauce on his elbow. "Oh really?"

Brian looked at it for a second, then he licked it off.

"Problem solved." He gave me a little fingertip wave.

"Sweet dreams!"

"Fat chance!" I called after him. He disappeared into the master suite. I heard the shower turn on.

I headed to the guest bathroom and took my own shower. Just as I stepped out, my cellphone rang. I smiled when I saw the caller was Liv. Her's was a voice I needed to hear after the day I had.

"Hi, Livvy," I said as I brought the phone to my ear.

"Hi, babe," she said. "How'd your day go?"

I played through the events in my head. Where did I start?

"It went fine. How's everything?"

"Good. I had Noah lying on the playmat this afternoon and Brooke came up and actually touched him without screaming when she thought I wasn't looking."

I smiled. "Progress."

Liv laughed. I loved the lightness of her laugh. "Tell me about it."

I glanced at the clock. "You're not sleeping?"

"Noah woke me up for a feeding. I just put him back down but I was feeling restless. You were on my mind."

I smiled and headed out of the bathroom. I sat down on the edge of the bed, my towel slipping as I did.

"Oh? I hope it was good thoughts."

"Mmm-hmm."

"Did it have anything to do with me and you naked?" I asked hopefully.

It had been about seven weeks since Noah was born and I hadn't even dared to do anything more than kiss Liv. Between Liv's need to recuperate and the fear of another slip-up, those thoughts were like a cold shower to my libido.

But with 3,000 miles between us and a mug of beer in my stomach, my libido was feeling a little ornery. And her voice was sounding awfully sexy.

"Add in some whipped cream and chocolate sauce and I have lots of good thoughts of you naked in mind," Liv whispered. I could almost see the playful smile on her lips. "What are you wearing?"

It was so cute to hear her say it; I laughed softly. "Just a towel," I said teasingly. "What about you?"

I knew for a fact she was probably wearing one of my old shirts, a nursing bra, and some comfortable granny panties that wouldn't irritate her incision.

"Right now?" she said. "Absolutely nothing."

I had a feeling she was lying, but damn it was a good lie. I felt my temperature go up a few degrees. The palm of my hand that was holding the phone got sweaty. I let the towel completely fall as she mentioned something about oil.

This was going to be a long phone call.