Chapter 33
“Nick, over here!” Leighanne and Brian yelled spotting Nick in the baggage claim area.
“Hey, it’s good to see you two again, how’s it going?” Nick breathed hulling his bag off the belt.
“It’s great! Oh my god you are not going to BELIEVE how many people are here man, it’s so cool. People we haven’t seen in ages.”
“Oh yea, like who?”
“Kevin’s whole family, Kristen’s whole family, a lot of our old management, friends…come on let’s go so we can get back there. This is going to be so much fun man,” Brian patted his back and the three headed out to the car.
“So Nick, how is Han doing? Is she alright?” Leighanne asked turning around from the passenger seat.
“She’s holding up pretty well…it’s all very hard for her and I wish she’d talk to me more about it, but she insists that she’s fine. I don’t know, maybe this time alone with her mom is just what she needed.”
“Yea, probably,” Brian cut in, “I mean no offense Nicky, but you can be a little overbearing sometimes.”
“I am not!” he laughed.
“Uh huh, keep telling yourself that and maybe, just maybe, it’ll happen some day.” The three laughed as they sped onto the expressway.
Once they reached their destination, a resort up in the mountains, Nick immediately called Hannah. Frustrated at her not answering he figured she decided to go home for a little while, or at least he hoped.
The whole day passed by at a snails pace, as much as he enjoyed seeing a lot of the people he would much rather be back home. Taking it with stride he made nice with all the guests, friends, and family that were attending the rehearsal dinner, but inside he was just screaming to get out of there. Besides being stranded out in the middle of Mother Nature, he felt completely helpless. He wanted nothing more than to make things better between Hannah and her mom and promise her that it would all work out, but he couldn’t even get through to her over the phone. ‘Where is she?’
“Nick? Is that you?” a woman’s voice rang out.
“Huh,” he spun around to see Kevin’s aunt. “Aunt Maggie, how are you? It’s been so long.”
Hours later the rehearsal dinner was over and Nick was back in his room. “Nick, why don’t you call the main desk…maybe you’ve got the wrong number or something,” Howie suggested still sensing Nick’s nerves.
“I guess that’s worth a shot, if I had the number.”
“Ummmm Nicky, that’s why you call information bud, it’s not brain surgery here,” Howie laughed grabbing the phone and calling himself. “Here, there you go Nick, call her up,” he said passing him the number he had so cleverly retrieved.
Skimming it Nick realized that he had in fact the wrong number, “Woops.” He dialed in the numbers and lent back on the headboard, “Hello sweetie, did I wake you?” he said into the phone. Howie laughed and walked out of the room.
“Oh, no…it’s about time you called, I’ve been waiting to hear from you all day. I’ve been sitting here watching CNN on mute praying that they wouldn’t mention a plane crash. Dumbass you should have called me,” she yapped at him.
“I know I know, I tried actually but it seems I had the wrong number written down. Had to call information and then the front desk to get it. Is everything ok?”
“No everything’s not ok, I was just about having a heart attack.”
“Awww hun, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you, I’ve been freaking out all day thinking that you were ignoring me or not there or something.”
“Hmph, well how’s the wedding going so far?”
“Well tonight was the rehearsal dinner, it was ok.”
“Only ok, huh?”
“Yes, only ok. I’m ready to come back…I think I’m gonna leave right after the ceremony and skip the reception. I’m not in the mood to make face with people I could care less about. Besides the other guys there’s no one here I’m really interested in seeing right now, and even they aren’t top on my list.”
“No, you are not coming back here until Sunday, you promised.”
“So you and your mom are really hitting it off that well huh?”
“Well,” she stared at her zonked out mother, “she’s actually sleeping right now, has been all day…but that only means that I’ll need tomorrow to talk with her. So you’re not coming back until Sunday.”
“Ok, I’ll stick to the plan, I’ll leave Sunday morning. But don’t be mad when I call every five minutes tomorrow, now that I have the number and all…”
“You big baby, I’m fine, my mom is fine…and you’d be fine too if you’d stop worrying. Oh, the doctor said she’d be ready to go home on Tuesday.”
“Really? That’s great, that’s really great.”
“I know, I was really surprised…I had plans to walk her around the hospital and stuff today but I guess she just needed her,” she yawned, “rest.”
“And what about you, didn’t you sleep at all?”
“Sleep?! Ha! Not when I’ve been glaring at the tv all day Mr. I’m Too Stupid To Write Down the Right Number and Call Carter!”
“Yea yea, you know just as much as I do that it was you that wrote it down,” he teased, “But that’s not the important thing. What matters is that we’re both safe, your mom is doing well, and we’ll all be back together in 36 very long hours.”
“Awww, sounds so nice,” she smiled.
“Yes, indeed. Well beautiful it sounds like you’re in some desperate need of sleep so I’m going to let you go. But I’ll call you in the morning.”
“Ok, and you get some sleep too you worry wart,” she laughed, “I love you.”
“Love you too, and have sweet dreams…about me.”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that,” she giggled and hung up the phone.
Chapter 34
Crossing Paths Main
Homepage