Chapter Five
Brian frowned, processing everything Kara had told him. Things like this weren’t supposed to happen at all, much less to someone he knew. He loosened his arms around his baby cousin and pulled back to look at her. Something was still bothering him.
“Kara, why didn’t you call me?” He was hurt. She’d always come to him first, until now. “You know you could have called me, too.” True. She did know that, though he’d never voiced it before.
“ Yeah, but you just got married three months ago, and I-” She stopped. The expression on his face told her that nothing she said was really going to work. “Bri, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just had to get out of there, and I knew I could call Kevin last minute, and Kris would be cool with it.” Ah-ha! The wives finally came into the mix. Kristin WAS more laid-back about Backstreet crises… that couldn’t be denied. Brian sighed.
“I’ll accept that. Just promise me you won’t let something like this happen again without telling someone, okay?”
“I told Megan.” She reminded him, grinning. Brian hit her over the head with a pillow.
“ I meant one of us, you goof! But remind me to send her a nice Christmas present this year.”
“You got it, Bri-guy.’ She reached over and ruffled his hair. “Can we eat now? I’m starving!” He grinned.
“You’d better be DARN hungry, girl! You have to eat Nicky under the table!” She groaned, remembering the bet.
“ Oh, man! That’s right!” She grinned evilly back at him. “ Good thing I’m REALLY hungry- he’s going down!”
“There’s my girl!” He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. “Let’s go!”
“Bri, will you promise me something?”
“What?”
“When you tell Kev, remind him that the Ten Commandments forbid murder.” Brian chuckled dryly.
“It was hard enough for ME to remember, but yeah, I’ll remind him.” He set her down when they’d reached the back yard. “Hey, Frack! How many burgers you downed so far?”
“ Just two. The old man’s burning them again!” He stuck a thumb over his shoulder at Kevin.
“Hey! I heard that!” He turned around. “I’d like to see you do better!”
“No! They shouted in unison, then burst into laughter at Nick’s hurt expression.
“What?” Kara asked, confused.
“ The last time Nicky here tried to make dinner, the burgers were only good for one thing.” Kevin explained.
“Yeah- hockey pucks” AJ finished. Kara wrinkled her nose, and Nick blushed.
“That was a long time ago, guys.” He whined.
“That was LAST MONTH!” Howie corrected.
“Fine!” He eyed Kara. “Don’t we have a contest to finish?”
“Yeah, we do.” She looked at the other four guys. “What does winner get again?”
“Day at Disney World or the arcade,” Howie reminded her.
“That’s right. And loser?”
“Has to eat one of Nick’s CHARbroiled burgers!” AJ offered, grinning.
“She is NOT eating that poison!” Kevin objected. Nick opened his mouth to protest, then stopped, remembering that not even his dog would touch the things. He grinned brightly at his eldest bandmate.
“She better not lose, then.”