“Morning Daddy!” Aaron shrieked, opening the doors to Nick’s old room, running inside, and jumping on to the bed where Nick was sleeping.
Nick rolled over groggily, his face softening at the sight of his son’s smiling face. “Morning Air.”
Aaron glanced around the room and then towards the open bathroom door. “Where’s mommy?”
Nick sighed, deeply. How do you explain to a four-year-old that his mother kicked his father out last night? “She’s home, little man. At our house.”
“Why?” Aaron wasn’t confused. He had never seen his parents not sleeping in the same bed before.
“She wasn’t feeling well,” Nick lied. He was not about to explain his marital problems to anyone, let alone his little boy. “Come on.” Nick stood up from the bed and grabbed Aaron’s hand. “Let’s go see how your brother and sister are doing.”
“Okay!” Aaron happily latched on to Nick’s hand and followed him in to the guest room where Brian and Kayleigh were sleeping.
“Why is Nick’s car in the driveway so damn early?” Angel asked, as she stumbled in to the kitchen.
Jane looked up from the newspaper she was reading. “He came here late last night. I haven’t talked to him yet.”
“I have a feeling things didn’t go too well with Kate last night,” Leslie pointed out. “That would be the only reason to explain why he was here.”
Nick chose that moment to enter the kitchen with his three children. “I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t talk about this behind my back. Or while my children can hear, for that matter.”
Jane glanced at Angel and nodded towards the family room. “Come on, kids,” Angel said, taking Brian and Kayleigh from Nick’s arms. “Let’s go watch some cartoons.”
Nick watched Angel disappear from the kitchen with his kids and then collapsed in to a chair, with a deep sigh. “Aaron been up long?”
Jane shook her head. “No. Only about an hour.” She looked at her son, pointedly, noting the red tinge around his eyes. “What’s wrong, honey? Why did you show up here at one thirty in the morning?”
“Because my loving wife kicked me out of the damn house,” Nick spat, angrily. “I’m so damn sick of her moodiness.”
Jane glanced at Leslie. “Honey, do you mind leaving us alone for a few minutes? I need to talk to your brother.”
“Why can’t I hear?” Leslie whined.
“Out, Les,” Nick commanded. Leslie reluctantly stomped out of the room.
“Where were you last night, Nick?” Jane questioned, after Leslie was out of sight.
“I wasn’t doing anything wrong!” Nick exclaimed, standing up and walking over to the fridge. He roughly yanked the door of the refrigerator open, searching for some orange juice. “I was just having a friendly drink. Purely platonic.”
“Mandy,” Nick mumbled.
“What?!” Jane yelled. “Damnit, Nickolas. Don’t tell me you’re that stupid.”
“What are you talking about mom?” Nick slammed his glass of juiced on to the counter. “She had a question about her new contract. She asked me for some advice.”
“I don’t care,” Jane replied. “That’s why she has lawyers, Nick. You know Mandy more than any of us and you know that she schemes. She could have asked anyone for that advice, Nick. How could you do that? You know how your Kate feels about her.”
“That’s ridiculous, mom.” Nick sat back down across from his mother. “That was how many years ago? Seven? They should both be over that by now. Katelin’s just acting like a baby.”
“She’s hurt, Nick,” Jane said, softly. “She went through all of this trouble for last night and you never showed up. And then to find out who you were with? She had every right to kick you out. I hope you understand that.”
Nick didn’t say anything for a minute. The truth was, he did understand. But he was sick of the attitude she was giving him about everything. It wasn’t just the party that he missed. It was everything. The songwriting, the recording, the promoting, and, soon, the touring. She would find something wrong with everything. She would never let it rest. This was his life. Being a Backstreet Boy. He loved it and it was his own fault that they had lost a few precious years of making music. Now he wanted to make up for it. Work overtime to make this album the best one that they had ever done. Katelin just didn’t get that. She wanted to be first in his life when it came to anything that he did. And she was. But this was something he needed to do. “I do understand, mom. Last night I fucked up. But you don’t know half of what is going on with us. This might be the worst fight we’ve ever had but it is not the first. Every day it’s something different. She rides me about the hours I spend at the studio, the lack of time I spend with her. With the kids. I’m sick of it, mom. How do I make her understand?”
Jane sighed at the distress apparent on her son’s face. She felt bad for him. She really did. Nick was a hard worker when it came to music and no one understood that more than Jane herself. He gave 110% to this group. But she also felt bad for Katelin. For some unknown reason, whenever anything went wrong between the two of them, Katelin was always left to pick of the pieces by herself and she didn’t want to see anything like that happen again.
****** ****** ****** ****** ***** ******
Katelin rolled over, cursing the ringing phone by her bedside. She reached over and grabbed it, praying that it wasn’t her husband. She couldn’t talk to him. Not yet. “Hello?”
“Kate?” She heard Brian’s voice. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
“It’s cool, Brian,” Katelin replied, rubbing her tired eyes. “Nick’s not here.”
“Why not?” Brian asked, surprised. He glanced at the clock. It was only nine in the morning. Nick was never up and out this early. “Don’t tell me he didn’t come home last night.”
“Oh he came home alright,” Katelin snorted. “We got into a little bit of a fight and he left.”
“A little fight and he left?” Brian questioned, doubtfully. “For some reason, I don’t believe that, Kate.”
“Okay.” Katelin attempted to keep her impending tears at bay. “We had a huge fight and I threw him out. Happy?”
“Aw Kate,” Brian soothed. “I’m sorry. What happened?”
“He came home at midnight,” Katelin explained. “Reeking of alcohol. He was with Mandy at a bar all night. Fucking Mandy, of all people.”
“Ooh.” Brian flinched. “I’m sorry, Kate. That’s just wrong. He shouldn’t have done that.” He held up his finger to Leighanne, who was dying to know what was going on, signaling for her to be quiet. “I’m assuming he’s at his parents?”
“Yeah.” Katelin squeezed her eyes shut, trying to stop the tears from flowing down her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Brian. I really can’t talk anymore.”
“It’s okay, Kate.” Brian felt awful for her. Nick may be his best friend but Katelin had been through way too much in the last few years because of him. She didn’t deserve it. “I’ll talk to you later. Feel better.”
“Thanks, Bri,” she replied, tearfully. She hung up the phone before he could reply and covered her face with her hands. Why was it that when their lives finally seemed to be perfectly on track, everything went to shit again?