[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
Chapter 53

Claire was glad to go to work the next morning, knowing that staying busy would help keep her from missing Nick. She did just that, working a full day and then going to see Casey, and it worked – she hardly thought of him until she set foot inside his house at the end of the day. The loneliness hit her the moment she walked through the door, and as she made her way through the foyer, past the sweeping staircase and into the large kitchen, she missed her old apartment almost as much as she missed Nick. His house was beautiful, but it seemed too big and too empty without him in it, and she didn’t like living in it alone. Her apartment had been cramped and run down, but she’d always felt comfortable there. It was homey.

This house, without Nick, did not feel like home.

Nevertheless, she tossed her car keys down on the counter and opened the refrigerator to figure out what she was going to have for dinner. She spotted the leftover lasagna from Sunday night and pulled it out, sticking it in the microwave to heat up. Just as she was sitting down with a plate of it, she heard her cell phone ringing from inside her purse. Her first instinct was to ignore it – it was after seven; she was hungry, damn it – but, realizing it might be Nick, she jumped up and made a mad dash to answer it.

Digging it out of her purse, she glanced at the screen briefly, and her excitement instantly faded. It was only Dianna. She almost dropped the phone back into her purse without answering – Dianna was such a talker; she’d never be able to eat – but thought better of it and pressed the talk button. “Hello?”

“Claire! Turn on E!!”

“Huh?”

“E! The E! Channel! Turn it on, right now!!” Dianna’s voice screeched in her ear.

“Okay…” Confused, Claire obediently hurried into the living room and turned on the TV, flipping to E! just in time to see a red graphic that said “E! Flash” appear on the screen. “What exactly am I supposed to be-?”

“Just watch!” Dianna hissed.

Claire watched a quick segment about the Olsen twins, knowing that couldn’t be what Dianna wanted her to see. She had a feeling it was something about Nick, and the feeling wasn’t a good one. Nothing could have happened to him, right? If it had, she’d know by now, wouldn’t she? Someone would have called her… Dianna at least would have said something… she wouldn’t be finding about it on E! News...

She gasped out loud and dropped the phone as a picture flashed onto her TV screen. It was Nick… and her. There they both were, plain as day, wrapped in each other’s embrace. They were in the airport, she realized; this was one of the photographs snapped by the paparazzi who had stalked them there yesterday morning. As she stared at it, open-mouthed and indignant, she heard a voice over reporting, “Before hopping a flight to Los Angeles Monday morning, Backstreet Boy Nick Carter was seen cuddling with his girlfriend, who is reportedly now his fiancée.” Claire gaped as the picture changed to one of her alone, walking out with the security guards, and then zoomed into a blurred close-up of what she realized was her left hand. Pixilated and fuzzy though the picture was, the ring on her finger was pretty obvious. “E! News was unable to contact Nick’s publicist for confirmation on the engagement.”

As the picture changed to one of Nicky Hilton and the voice-over started gossiping about her next, Claire reached down with a shaky hand and picked up her phone. “Did I just really see myself on the freaking E! Channel?” she mumbled.

“Can you believe it?!” Dianna cried incredulously. “I don’t know whether that’s really cool or really freaky!”

“Me neither,” Claire laughed, still shocked by it. “It’s just… weird. I wonder if Nick knows. I should call him…”

“Call him! I’ll let you go; I just wanted you to see it! I almost spit out my Coke when I saw the teaser for that!”

Claire laughed again. “Well, thanks for calling me. I think I am gonna try Nick’s cell… I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Okay, girl. Later!”

The phone went dead, but Claire, forgetting all about her dinner, immediately punched in the speed dial for Nick and hoped that he would pick up.

***

Another sign that things were getting back to normal in Nick’s life was the annoyed glare Kevin gave him when his cell phone started ringing in the middle of their meeting. If looks could kill, Nick definitely would have been dead; Kevin’s eyes could be awfully piercing. In a strange way though, Nick welcomed that familiar look. A year or two ago, none of the guys would have looked at him like that; they’d probably have expected him to drop dead for real. It was nice to have them treating him like the same dumb old Nick who forgot to put his phone on silent during meetings again.

“Sorry,” he mumbled sheepishly, pulling his phone out of his pocket to shut it off. Before he did that, though, he couldn’t help but glance at the screen to see who was calling. His heart swelled when he saw Claire’s name. Making a split-second decision, he said, “Sorry, I need to take this call. I’ll be right back; keep goin’ without me.” He made his exit as quickly as he could, hoping she wouldn’t hang up. On his way out the door, he impulsively pressed the green button to answer his phone and said loudly, “Hey, Juliette, what’s up?

“Good evening, Romeo,” Claire replied, sounding slightly puzzled. “Wherefore art thou?”

“I’m in the hall,” Nick said in a loud whisper, once he was actually in the safety of the hallway. “Sorry, I was in a meeting. Juliette’s my publicist; I had to pretend it was an important call.” He smirked, pleased with himself, as he crept down the hall, away from the conference room.

“I’m not important??” Claire gasped in mock offense.

Ducking around a corner, Nick chuckled. “’Course you are. You know what I meant. Hey, but it’s not anything important, is it? You’re okay? The house is okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine. I’m really sorry for interrupting your meeting; I wasn’t thinking. It can wait if you need to go.”

“Nah, it’s fine. So what’s up? Just couldn’t go another minute without hearing my sexy voice?” he asked, dropping his voice half an octave.

She giggled. “Not quite. But since you mentioned your publicist… you haven’t heard anything from her, have you?”

“Uh…” Nick thought. “About what?”

“About… us?”

“Us?” He was drawing a blank.

“I just saw myself on E! News, Nick. There were pictures of us from the airport yesterday!”

“Aww…” Nick groaned, dragging a hand over his face. He hated paparazzi. He was used to them by now, but Claire wasn’t, and he could tell she was a little freaked out at seeing her picture on the entertainment news. “I’m sorry, babe. What’d they say about us?”

“That we were reportedly engaged and that they couldn’t get a hold of your publicist to get a statement. But the thing is, Nick, those people at the airport yesterday already saw my ring, and they asked if we were, and I said yes… I’m sorry; they just caught me off-guard, and I couldn’t lie; I mean, it’s not like they would have believed me anyway; it’s obviously an engagement ring-“

She was talking very fast, obviously upset. He cut her off by laughing. “Claire, don’t worry about it! You think they weren’t gonna find out? I’m actually surprised it took this long to get out. It’s no big deal; we got nothin’ to hide. I’ll call Juliette later and have her put out a statement confirming it, and that’s that.”

“Really, that’s it? So they’re not gonna make a big deal out of it?” Her voice rose with relief.

“Nah, they shouldn’t… I’m only the third Backstreet Boy to get married; it’s nothing new. It’d only be big news if I were marrying J.Lo or something.”

She laughed. “Okay… well, that makes me feel better.”

He smiled. “Good. Well listen, I should probably get back before they send a search party, but I’ll call you back later, aight?”

“Okay. Sorry again for calling in the middle of your meeting.”

“No prob; it was boring anyway.” Laughing, he added, “I love you.”

“I love you too. Bye.”

“Later, babe.”

Nick ended the call and was just setting his phone on silence when a familiar voice said, “So, you and Juliette are pretty close these days, huh?”

Spinning around, Nick found Brian’s elfin face smirking around the corner at him. “Eavesdropping on my conversation, were you?” he shot back, pretending to be angry even though he wasn’t. He knew Brian didn’t care who he had snuck out of the meeting to talk to; Brian couldn’t resist taking phone calls from Leighanne either.

“I love you… Later, babe,” Brian mocked in a lisping voice, batting his eyelashes. “I wonder what Claire would think if she caught you talking to your publicist like that?” He winked, and Nick rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, it was Claire, but if you must know, we were talking business. Apparently the paparazzi finally figured out the two of us are getting married.”

Brian chuckled. “Only took them twice as long as it did for them to find out that Leigh and I were engaged.”

“Yeah, those paparazzi… they been slackin’, man,” Nick said, shaking his head. They shared a laugh. “Well, come on, we better get our butts back in there, or Kev’s gonna kick mine.”

“He’ll probably kick your butt anyway for forgetting to turn off your phone. Very unprofessional, Nickolas,” scolded Brian playfully, wagging a finger in Nick’s face.

Nick laughed; Kevin would probably use those very words too. “Well, I better go face the music then. Come on, Rok.” He slung his arm around Brian’s shoulders, and together, they walked back to the conference room.

***

For Claire, the rest of the week continued in much the same fashion. Every day, she worked and then went to the hospital to sit with Casey for a couple of hours before heading home. Every night, she made herself dinner, watched a little TV, read a chapter or two, and talked to Nick on the phone until she went to bed. The routine was monotonous, but it could have been worse. At least her life was predictable for a change. She welcomed the normalcy.

Friday after work, she met up with Dianna, and they hit Happy Hour at one of the local bars, then went back to Dianna’s apartment for a girls’ night in. Watching movies and sipping margaritas late into the night kept Claire’s mind off of Nick, and it didn’t bother her at all that he didn’t call.

On Saturday, her mom drove down from Gainesville to spend the day and discuss wedding plans with Claire. They met Kyle’s wife Amber, who was very eager to help out with the planning, at a small café near the beach for lunch.

“So do you two have a date yet?” Amber asked, as she unfolded her napkin and draped it over what little lap she still had left – she was seven months pregnant now and looked every bit of it. “Or at least a month?”

“We were thinking May…” Claire said slowly, waiting for their reactions. The date she and Nick wanted was only seven months away, and she knew they’d be cutting it close. There was so much to do before then. Her mother and Amber exchanged glances, but before either of them could say anything, she continued quickly, “I know it’s only seven months away, but I think we can do it. We want to get married on the fourteenth, which is a Sunday – that’ll make it easier to book.”

“May fourteenth?” her mother repeated, nodding slowly. “Well, I’ll call Father Saunders tonight and find out if that’s possible. I’m not sure how he feels about performing wedding services on Sundays; usually people are married on Saturdays or weekdays…”

Claire cleared her throat loudly. “Um, Mom? Actually, I’m not sure we want to get married at your church.”

Her mother paused. “Oh. Sorry, honey, I just assumed – well, never mind. Would you rather have the ceremony at one of the churches here in town? Maybe the one we used to go to when you were younger? Or did you mean.. not in a church at all?”

Claire hesitated just a second before answering, “Not in a church at all.” She knew her mom had been envisioning a traditional Catholic wedding ceremony for her, and she had nothing against that idea, but… “It’s just that Nick’s not Catholic, and I think it would be more comfortable for both of us if we got away from the whole strict church atmosphere,” she explained.

“Alright… well, where would you like to get married?”

“On the ocean. We thought we could rent a yacht, one of the big luxury kind, big enough for everyone want to invite, and take a private cruise. A wedding on the deck of a boat, at sunset… wouldn’t that beautiful?” Claire gushed.

“That sounds gorgeous, Claire,” agreed Amber, her face lighting up with enthusiasm at the idea.

Claire smiled at her, glad to have an immediate ally. Turning back to her mother, she added, “And I know it sounds expensive, but Nick wants to help cover the cost.”

“Oh honey… the bride’s family traditionally pays for the wedding,” her mother insisted and then smiled. “If this is what you want, we’ll make it work.”

Claire nodded. “This is what we want. And I promise, the ceremony itself will be traditional, but as far as other stuff goes, like where we get married and who pays for it… well, Nick and I haven’t had the most conventional relationship anyway, so it just fits that we break from tradition just a little,” she said with a smile of her own.

The three women discussed a few more details before their waiter brought out their orders, and then the wedding talk waned, as they all dug into their lunch. Claire was quiet as she ate, hardly tasting a bite of the food in front of her. Her mind was miles away, aboard a lavishly decorated ship deck. There she stood in a gown of white, her back to the setting sun, the long train of her dress blanketing the deck behind her. Beyond the rails of the deck, she could see nothing but ocean all around, its navy ripples sparkling dimly in the dying sunlight. And by her side stood Nick, tall and handsome in his black tuxedo, hand in hand with her.

***