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Chapter Twenty One

The alarm on my cell phone went off at two a.m. I turned it off and rolled over.

"Nick, you've got to get up," Liv murmured. I pulled her closer to me and buried my face in her hair.

"I'm up," I mumbled.

She wiggled against my erection as she rolled over to face me.

"I mean all of you needs to get up. Your flight..."

My hand pressed against her hip.

"I have time," I whispered. I kissed her softly. This time she didn't argue. Her hands wrapped around my neck and I worked on the clasp on her bra, never taking my lips from hers.

My phone began to ring loudly.

"Damnit!"

I rolled over and picked up my cell. It was Kevin.

"WHAT?" I said impatiently as I connected.

"This is your wake up call," Kev said calmly.

"I'm AWAKE!"

"If you were awake you wouldn't be this grouchy."

Liv wiggled under the covers. I felt her tongue slide down my stomach. I hung up on Kev and turned the phone completely off. Addy was coming with Kev; this was the last time I'd see Livvy for almost a month. There was no way I was going to let him ruin my moment.

I felt Liv's lips wrap around me and the phone fell from my fingers.

I was suddenly completely awake.

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I got to the airport at four thirty in the morning. I had hoped to give Brooke a kiss and sneak out of her nursery undetected, but the little stinker woke up. Somehow she seemed to sense I was going away. I don't know who cried harder, her or me.

Yes, I'm a little whipped. So what?

Our flight was scheduled to leave at five fifteen. I checked my bags and convinced the guys at the metal detector that I wasn't a terrorist. I had learned a long time ago not to make any jokes about metal hips or anything. The last thing I wanted to do was stand there in my underwear with the entire airport watching and Brian laughing his ass off. Once was enough.

Finally I was cleared and headed over to where our small group was assembling. Howie was slumped in one of the chairs sleeping. I think Howie has logged more sleep hours at the airport and on the plane than the rest of us combined. James was sitting in the chair to Howie's right holding a huge ass cup of coffee.

"That daddy's coffee?" I asked James. He looked up at nodded.

"Daddy sweeeeepin," James said.

Leigh looked over at me from Howie's left.

"Don't you dare do anything to his coffee," she whispered. I scowled.

"Did he put you on coffee patrol?"

Leigh smiled. "It was in our marriage vows."

As I was turning around a big round thing flew past me and flew right into Howie's mouth. He lurched forward coughing and sputtering. He looked right at me.

"Damnit, that's not funny! What was that?"

My eyes widened. "I didn't do anything I---"

I heard loud laughter and turned. Brian and Baylee were crouched behind two seats with a bag of carmel corn.

"I did it!" Baylee said.

"Nothing but net," Brian said encouragingly.

Howie rubbed his throat. "Grow up Brian." He took his coffee cup from James and took a sip.

"What? I'm ma-ture," Brian said with a slightly French accent. "I'm just passing my wisdom onto my son."

"What wisdom is that?" Leighanne asked. She came from the direction of the bathrooms, holding Kayleigh.

"Daddy was showing me ho---"

Brian wrapped a hand around Baylee's mouth.

"Nothing. A guy thing."

He grinned charmingly. Leighanne yawned.

"It's too early for me to handle whatever you've done to corrupt him," she said. Bri blew her a kiss and she caught it before yawning again.

I looked around.

"Where's Kevin? He made a big stink about waking me up and he's not here yet!"

"He's here," Howie said. "He beat me here by a few minutes. He went to the Starbucks to get better internet reception."

I sank down into a chair. I was kind of hoping he'd be late. I would have loved to rub it into his face.

"The only one not here yet is AJ," Brian said.

We all lapsed into tired silence. After about five minutes Kevin and Addy appeared. Kev had his laptop case slinged over his shoulder. He looked way too happy for the morning. AJ was right behind him.

"You hung up on me," Kevin said, zeroing in on me.

"I was busy," I said with a grin. Kev rolled his eyes. Looking past his shoulder, I saw Sam walking away from security.

"You'd think these guys have never seen film equipment," he complained. I smiled.

"I was wondering if our tour-ographer was going to make it," I said.

"I'm notoriously late," he said. I laughed.

"Then you're going to fit in perfectly with us."

After a few minutes of chit-chat, the boarding call for first class passengers came over the loud-speaker. I slung my carry-on over my shoulder and took off up the ramp.

It sucked not being able to bring Liv and the kids, but bringing Noah to Japan wasn't feasible. No matter how well he was doing, Dr. Tresher was still cautious. Flying an eight week old across the world wasn't being cautious.

Between our security, tour manager, dancers, Sam, wives, children, and the five of us, we took up the whole first class section of the plane.

"Mind if I sit next to you?" Sam asked. I shook my head.

"Nope, no problem. Why don't you take the window seat?"

Sam grinned. "Sweet."

I was thankful that Sam had brought up the seating issue. Usually I was stuck with AJ on long flights. From the look on J's face as he passed by my row, I could tell he was relieved. He slid into the pair of seats across from me, taking the window seat. Brian sat beside him. Leighanne, Kayleigh, and Baylee sat behind them.

Kevin and Addy sat in front of me and Sam. Howie and Leigh disappeared up towards the front like always. I think Howie does that purposely to get away from me. I don't know why; I'm a perfect angel.

I stood up to shove my carry-on above my head. The only thing I kept out was my Nintendo DS, my I-Pod, a magazine, and some pop-tarts.

A man can never have too many pop-tarts.

Sam was rooting through his bag. I had never seen so many electronics stuffed in a bag before.

"What is all that stuff?" I asked.

"Well, I've got the standard bad boy," Sam said. He hauled out the huge camera that could practically capture our nosehairs from three hundred yards away. "Then I have the video camera."

I leaned down and picked up a couple teeny tiny things.

"What are these?"

Sam grinned. "This is something new I want to try out with you guys. They're mini cams that we can pin on your clothes. The feed will download directly to my laptop and then if anything interesting happens I can splice your points of view to make a video even if I'm not around."

I took one and held it in my hands. It didn't weigh anything.

"Can I wear one now?" I asked. Sam laughed.

"If you want too, sure."

I clipped it onto my t-shirt.

I leaned down and stared at it.

"Dude, just do me a favor and don't pick your nose in front of it," Sam said. I looked over at him.

"I don't pick my nose."

"I disagree!" Brian piped up.

I rolled up my magazine and flung it at him. I overshot and it smacked AJ in the side of the face. I quickly slid down in my seat. AJ leaned over and gave me the death star glare. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him roll the magazine up.

"So, when he comes over and starts beating me, this camera is going to catch it all, right?" I whispered under my breath. "I might need evidence."

Sam laughed. "He won't come over and beat--"

Sure enough AJ leaned over Brian and started wacking me with it. Brian made a face as AJ's jean chain repeatedly swung at his nose.

"OW! OW! OW!"

After a full minute of full own magazine-smacking, AJ tossed the thing down on my lap with a smirk. I saw him sit back down and put on his headphones.

Kevin turned around.

"Will you please, behave. We're going to be stuck in here for twenty hours."

"Twenty two," I pointed out. Kev sighed.

"Just try not to do anything annoying."

He turned around. I peered through the seats. Addy had a magnetic chess set in a zippered case on her lap. I stifled a groan. I was going to have to sit behind those two for hours listening to them hem and haw over making a move. To me, chess was the most boring game on earth.

I sank back in my seat. Like I had a million times before, I listened to the pilot come over the speaker and say a good morning. One of the stewardesses explained emergency procedures and how to fasten your seat belt. I popped a piece of gum, closed my eyes, and relaxed as we took off into the clouds.

By the time the seat belt light flickered off and it was okay to move around the cabin, Howie was snoring and Kevin and Addy were hunkered over their game board. Brian broke open his bag of caramel corn.

"Can I have some?" I asked, holding out my hand across the aisle. Brian shook a good amount into my hand and then tossed a kernel in the air. He caught it between his teeth and then made rabid dinosaur sounds as he chewed it down. Baylee grabbed a piece and tried the same thing. His bounced off his nose and rolled under the seat.

I picked up a piece of carmel corn and studied it. It was light, but sticky. I glanced up towards the front. I could hear Howie but I couldn't see him. Luckily for me, Leigh stood up to take James to the bathroom. As soon as she passed, I stood up. I could see the top of Howie's head. I focused on the target, licked the piece, and took aim.

It stuck perfectly in Howie's hair. Grinning I repeated my shots like a fighter jet commando. Brian's eyes lit up, but he didn't stand up. I guess shooting sticky spit-ladened carmel corn at Howie set a worse example than projectiling a piece into his open mouth.

Of course, Bri wasn't completely useless. He gave a loud cough and I turned to see Leigh coming out of the bathroom. I sat down quickly and turned on my DS. My hands were sticky and I was trying not to laugh. I barely glanced up to watch her walk up the aisle and take her seat next to Howie. I counted off the seconds in my head.

One...two...three...

I heard commotion in the front. The snoring stopped. Then the voice got clear. Real clear. It was Howie.

"What do you mean caramel corn stuck in my---ARGH!"

Howie bounced out of his seat and walked down the aisle. He stopped and stared between me and Brian. I tried to look like I was concentrating on my game, but really my sticky fingers kept sticking to the buttons. Howie noticed this and leaned right down into my face. A piece of corn bobbed from the absolutely top of his head. I couldn't help it; I started to laugh.

"You just wait," he said, his voice deadly quiet. I was waiting for him to do his Robert DeNiro thing, but he didn't. He stood up and headed towards the bathroom.

As soon as the door closed everyone started to laugh; even AJ.

"Did you see the one stuck above his ear? Priceless," Kev said appreciatively.

I grinned. I was going to have to deal with Howie's wrath the whole flight, but I wasn't too worried.

As soon as he calmed down Mr. Sleepy Street would start snoring again and I could devise my next plan.