Part 4
Smiling happily, Sarah said, "Hey, ‘Boo’! Are you ready for the show?"
Kevin’s heart soared, "You haven’t called me ‘Boo’ in so long! Yeah, I’m ready. Just killing time. I was looking for Howie when I saw you."
Sarah took his hand in hers. "Come on, walk with me."
"Get out of the water so I don’t get wet first."
Sarah laughed, "Oh, a little water won’t hurt you."
Kevin couldn’t help but laugh too and he said, "Hang on." With that, Kevin took off his sandals, rolled up his pants, and took Sarah’s hand again.
The two walked together down the beach as Sarah said, "I owe you an apology, Kevin. A huge apology."
"What happened? We were so close and all of a sudden you shut me out."
"I know and it wasn’t because of anything you did. It was because of something I did and I couldn’t let ANYONE know."
"But ‘D’ knew, right?"
"Of course…. but I didn’t want him to know. Kevin, this has to stay between us and you’ll understand why when I tell you everything."
"It’s not going anywhere, baby."
As they walked along, Sarah told Kevin EVERYTHING that had happened that day of the storm. Kevin listened silently, taking in what she was saying. It all made sense now.
When she was done, Kevin said, "That explains why you just about lost it over our April Fool’s joke?"
"Yeah. I thought for sure the police had found out something and were trying to pin it on Howie." Sarah said, "Kevin, I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to put you in that position. It was bad enough that Howie was there!! I blew you off because I was afraid you would be able to tell what was going on. You know me so well!!"
"Not as well as I thought I did. Baby, you’re one gutsy lady to do something like that."
Sarah laughed, "Not really!! It nearly killed me, Kevin, and it almost destroyed everything in my life."
"But you’re healthy and strong again and you’ve got ‘D’! I’m really happy for you, Sarah."
"Then why do you look like you’ve lost you’re best friend?"
"Sorry…don’t mean to look that way," said Kevin as he stopped her and pulled her to him. He cupped her chin in his hand and said as he gazed into her eyes. "Sarah, I love you with all of my heart but I know that you love Howie and I’m not going to stand in the way."
Sarah put her hands on Kevin’s, "Boo, if we had met first, I would be with you…you know that."
"Yeah, I do."
"And I love you for EVERYTHING that you did for me, standing by me through it all. You have been such a good friend and I don’t want us to EVER be less than best friends. You’ll always be my ‘Boo’ and I’ll always be your ‘baby’!"
Kevin leaned to her and kissed her tenderly. "Thank you."
Sarah looked up and saw Howie walking towards them. "It looks like its time for you guys to go."
Kevin turned and saw Howie too. "Yeah. You ARE going to be there, aren’t you?"
Sarah laughed, "You really think I’m going to come all this way just to sit in a trailer and WAIT for Howie?"
Kevin laughed as Howie wrapped his arms around Sarah. He said, "I guess not!! ‘D’, ….shit, I don’t know what to say. Thank you for not getting jealous."
Howie smiled, "You have good taste in women. How can I get upset about that? Besides, you were just worried about her, which it was a relief to know that I had you guys in our corner. Is everything okay now?"
Sarah turned her head to kiss him. "Yeah, I told him everything."
"You two have been through so much. I hope after this weekend, everything will be smooth sailing," said Kevin.
"For all of us," said Howie as they all spotted Nick headed down to join them.
The threesome started back towards Nick so that they could head out to where they were supposed to be. Sarah was going with them and would be with Howie the whole time they were taping. Ever since getting out of treatment, Sarah and the guys had grown closer than ever. It was just like before all the trouble started only better.
It was a lot of fun being with the guys and during the commercial breaks, the guys would sign autographs and talk to fans. The fans were just as eager to talk to Sarah as they were the guys because she always made sure NO ONE got ignored. She would hand stuff to the guys for the fans and made sure it got back to the right person too. She would even pull little children out of the crowd to meet the guys.
When the guys moved to the main stage on Duvall Street, Howie had a place picked out for Sarah so that he could sing to her. When they did ‘I Want It That Way’, Howie came to her and looked her in the eye as he sang, ‘You are…my fire….my one desire.." and Sarah could only smile. He knew what he was doing to her.
During the commercial break after their song, Howie went over to Sarah and Raoul helped her across the barricade. He sat down on the stage and Sarah stood between his legs. He leaned over to her and gave her a kiss as the fans cheered.
Sarah said, "You are so mean, teasing me like that."
Innocently, Howie said, "Like what?"
"Singing to me, telling me I’m your one desire."
"Well, you are. Wanna come on stage with me?"
"Nope…don’t want you or the others to embarrass me any! I’m perfectly happy to stand here, dripping wet…and not from sweat either…and watch you guys!"
Howie laughed, "I’ll make it up to you tonight, I promise."
The show continued and it was a relief when it was all over with. Raoul helped Sarah onto the stage where Howie and the guys were standing around talking to Carson and the other VJ’s. Howie introduced her to the ones she didn’t know and she joined in the fun.
Carson asked, "Sarah, are you going to join the guys tonight at the parties?"
Howie spoke up quickly, "No, we’ve got plans."
Sarah looked at Howie curiously, "We do?"
"Yes, we do."
Kevin and AJ came over to Sarah as she stood with Howie, Carson, and a couple other people and began to dance around her. She started laughing at their antics and joined them dancing to the music that the DJ was playing. The fans were wild watching them and before she knew it, Nick and Brian were there too. Sarah looked around for Howie who was shaking his head.
Carson asked, "Aren’t you going to join them?"
"Naw….let them have their fun. I’ll have a lifetime with her."
"So, I hear you saying…."
"Nothing official…YET."
"You gonna let us know when it is?"
"Tell you what…Meet us at Sloppy Joe’s tomorrow around ten."
"At night or in the morning?"
"At night and I’ll give you an exclusive."
"Cool! Can we bring the cameras?"
"Sure, why not!" said Howie happily.
With that, Howie joined the others and they headed back to the trailers to get ready to go back to the house. Howie had seen Becca leave her spot where she’d watched the show and knew she’d be waiting for them. He had to make sure that Kevin, AJ, and Brian didn’t go with them so that Nick and Becca could have some time together.
Fortunately, Howie didn’t have to do much. All three of them already had plans of their own and weren’t going back to the house right away. Ali and Vanessa were meeting AJ and Kevin for the parties MTV was hosting and Brian and Sonja were going out for a quiet dinner.
Before they parted company, Brian asked Nick, "Are you going to be okay tonight?"
Sarah spoke up, "He’ll be fine. I’m gonna cook us some dinner and we’ll play video games or something….maybe Monopoly."
Nick grimaced, "You KNOW I hate that game. Thanks, ‘Frick’. I’ll be fine. It looks like ‘Mother Sarah’ is going to take care of me tonight."
"You know, ‘D’ isn’t going to put up with your sorry butt much longer, hogging ALL his free time with Sarah," said Kevin. "Why don’t you just get on with your life?"
That irritated Nick and he said angrily, "Look who’s talking! You’ve been agonizing for the last five months because Sarah wouldn’t talk to you and she’s Howie’s girlfriend."
"Okay, you two. Cut it out," said Howie. "Kev, I don’t mind hanging out with Nick tonight. You guys go on and have fun."
AJ, Kevin, and Brian said their good-byes and headed out to meet the girls. Nick, Howie, and Sarah left together in the car waiting for them. The drive to the house was quiet. Nick and Sarah were both deep in their own thoughts about Becca while Howie was planning to propose to Sarah. None of them realized where they were until the car came to a stop.
Nick bounded into the house followed closely by Sarah and Howie and he headed to find his laptop. Howie and Sarah had both spotted Becca out on the beach as they were coming in from the car.
Howie asked, "Where you going, Nick?"
"I have to check my mail, see if Becca wrote me back."
"Nick, that can wait."
"No, I gotta check."
"Do it later, we have company," Sarah said.
Nick turned, and seeing no one, gave Sarah a confused look.
"Out there, down on the beach," Sarah thumbed over her shoulder.
Nick looked past them, peering through the glass doors, his eyes coming to rest on the only person there.
At the water's edge stood a solitary figure. Her back was turned as she gazed out over the water at the sailboats in the distance. The tropical breezes blew her hair every which way, as well as the gauzy fabric of the loose caftan that wrapped around her ankles.
"Becca?" He turned to look a Sarah and Howie. "Sarah-?"
"I think you should go welcome our guest, Nick." Sarah smiled at the disbelieving look on his face.
He turned to bolt through the door, but Howie grabbed his arm. "Nick, there's something you should know."
"No, man, I already know about Andrew, there's nothing else you could tell me that could make any difference." And with that, he was gone.
"Oh man, that’s where you're so wrong," Howie smiled.