Part 493
Arms laden with packages and bags, Howie followed Sarah into the hotel laughing and talking about their adventures shopping. As usual, they were so wrapped up in each other that they were oblivious to anyone else.
"Whoa! Dude!" laughed Nick as Howie practically ran into him. "Watch where you’re going!"
"Oops! Sorry, Nicky," laughed Howie.
"Ya know, there are OTHER people in this world besides your wife."
"Yeah, there’s my daughter but she’s not here right now. Here, help me get this stuff to the room," shot Howie handing an armload to Nick.
"What did you two do, buy out ALL of the baby store?" teased Nick seeing that most of the stuff was from ‘Tia’s Baby Stuff’.
"No, not all of it. Sarah wouldn’t let me." Howie gave Sarah a wink and laughed as she rolled her eyes. "There’s more stuff at the desk that we had delivered here."
Becca looked in the direction of the desk to see the pile Howie had been talking about. "WOW! Sarah, you HATE to shop!"
"I know but Howie FORCED me to go! And to make matters worse, the dork couldn’t pick a simple SOLID colored shirt to wear with his suit for the Benefit in New York. It took FOREVER to find a dress to match his suit." Sarah stuck her tongue out at Howie who had made a face at her.
"What color shirt is he wearing?"
"A striped one. Can you see ME wearing stripes? I’m already big as a house NOW!"
The two girls went on gabbing about what Howie and Sarah had bought as the guys gathered all the packages from the desk.
"Sarah looks to be in better spirits today," commented Nick as Howie gathered the stuff.
"She is," smiled Howie watching his wife talking to Becca and playing with Garrett. "She was just tired last night, that’s all."
"Becca said Sarah had a nightmare."
"Nothing major," shrugged Howie. "She was just punishing herself for the temper tantrum. She use to do this when she was married to Russell."
"And he let her get away with it?"
"That’s the point, Nick. Sarah knew I wouldn’t say anything about last night but Russell use to tie her to the bed and shoot her up as punishment. It was her subconscious punishing her for the tantrum."
"Oh, okay," said Nick thoughtfully. He rolled what Howie had said around in his mind and cocked his head sideways as if to ask a question.
Howie saw that Nick wanted to speak. "What is it, Nick?"
"I don’t get Russell. I mean, I know Sarah has her moments and can be headstrong and all, but to tie her to the bed and shoot her up…plus raping her just to keep her under control? I thought he loved her."
"He was desperately in love with her and he didn’t know how to hang on to her. He knew she’d never stay with him, that she would make something of herself, and he’d never have her."
"Or Jesse."
"I don’t think Sarah would have taken Jesse completely away from him. She’s the first to admit that Russell did love her."
"Man, he really screwed up."
Howie nodded his head, "Yeah, he did. Sarah use to care about him, before he started trying to control her. Look, don’t try to figure him out. He was messed up on drugs. Just be glad Sarah’s free of him."
Howie and Nick followed the girls onto the elevator where Sarah wrapped her arms around Howie’s waist. "Talking about me again?"
"Yeah, we were," winked Howie and he gave her a kiss.
"Not a bad topic," said Nick with his infamous smirk.
"No, not really but I could think of one or two better topics," said Sarah as she snuggled closer to Howie. "Have you two had lunch?"
The conversation now included all four as the elevator ascended to their floor. Plans for dinner were also discussed in hopes that the others would be there to join them.
Stepping off the elevator, all four were put ‘on guard’ as Billy’s entire security team greeted them.
"What’s going on, Billy?" asked Howie as Tommy took the packages from him.
"I want Raoul to take Sarah down to the next suite. We’ve already reserved it for Kevin, AJ, and Brian."
Howie put his arm around Sarah’s waist as he asked, "Why?"
"Please, Howie. Don’t question me," said Billy as a laugh could be heard behind the closed door of their suite.
Nick looked at Howie as the owner of that laugh opened the door and a large shadow was cast into the hall.
"Sarah, go with Raoul," commanded Howie softly but firmly making it clear that he didn’t want any arguments.
Becca started to take Sarah’s hand saying, "I’ll go with you, sis."
Sarah protested, "Howie, what’s going on that I need to be kept from our company?"