Part 12
The show was absolutely phenomenal. AJ had arranged for Chelsea, Monique, and Annie to sit with his mother and step-father so he would know where they would be and made it a point to flirt with Chelsea as much as possible. It was abundantly clear to everyone watching that AJ had fallen head over heels for her.
After the show, the three followed Denise backstage where AJ greeted Chelsea with a bear hug. "How long is it gonna take you to take them home?" he asked as he held her tight.
"About half an hour home and half an hour back…depending on traffic," she answered as she looked up into his eyes.
"Why don’t you go ahead and go so you can get back quicker? I don’t want to waste a second with you."
"If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to get rid of me so you could go check out one of those girls who grabbed you while you were crowd surfing," teased Chelsea.
AJ laughed, "Not really. I just want more time with you."
"What time is your flight out tomorrow?"
“I told you, I’m not leaving that soon. I have another flight next Monday so we can have time together.”
“This should be interesting. Kevin’s staying too so we can talk to Annie and work all this out.”
“That’s cool. He can baby-sit for us so we can have some time alone.”
Chelsea hesitated then said, “He’s staying with us…on the couch.”
“Oh!”
Chelsea saw the look on his face….disappointment and she made a quick decision. “You can stay with us too.”
His eyebrows raised. “Where am I gonna sleep?”
“Well,” she said drawing it out as she ran her finger down his chest. “You COULD sleep on the couch with Kevin or…..”
“Or?”
“Or you could sleep with me.”
“I think I like that idea better.”
“I was hoping you would,” she purred. Kissing him lightly, she said, “I’ll call as soon as I’m almost back to the hotel.”
From behind the couple, a small voice started chanting softly, "Mama and Alex sitting in a tree," and Brian and Nick joined in, "K*I*S*S*I*N*G". Then the rest fell in, "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Alex pushing a baby carriage."
Chelsea was blushing furiously as she buried her face in AJ’s chest as he laughed, "Cute! Real cute!"
Annie tugged at AJ’s arm, "Are you gonna marry my mom?"
Kneeling down to be eye level with the little girl, AJ said, "I don’t know about marriage because that’s a serious thing but I would like to be able to date her. Do you have any objections to that?"
She seemed to be thinking it over as she looked from AJ to her mother and back again. Finally, she said, "If you can ALWAYS make her smile like this, I don’t mind. Mama’s always sad except when I do something really good."
"Well, I’ll see what I can do to make her smile more because she DOES have a beautiful smile," replied AJ as he looked up at Chelsea..
"You need to thank everyone for tonight and say good-bye so we can get going," urged Chelsea. "Its WAY past your bed time, missy."
Monique spoke up, "Chels, we can catch a cab home so you don’t have to leave."
"No, I’ll take you home."
"Besides, I’m gonna be a while here," said AJ.
"Chels, you leaving?" asked Kevin as he joined the group.
"I’m gonna run Annie and Monique home. You’ve got everything, right?"
"Yeah, I do. I’ll talk to you tomorrow." Kneeling down, Kevin took Annie’s hands in his and said, "Annie, it was a pleasure meeting you tonight."
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure. What’s on your mind?"
Annie hesitated and looked back at Chelsea. Then, looking at Kevin, she asked timidly, "Are you my father?"
Kevin wanted to shout ‘yes’ at the top of his lungs for the world to hear but he looked at Chelsea who was frozen in fear. "How would you feel if I was?"
She thought for a minute and then a smile spread over her face making her eyes dance. "I’d love it! All my friends have dads who do things with them but I don’t and sometimes, that makes me sad. Mama is the bestest mom in the world though."
Kevin smiled, "Yeah, she is pretty special. Annie, yes, I am your father and like you, I just found out tonight but don’t be mad at your mom, okay? She had a very difficult decision to make and she did what she thought was best for you and her at the time."
"Can I call you ‘Daddy’?"
"I’d LOVE it if you did," smiled Kevin as he hugged the little girl tight.
"Annie, how did you find out?" asked Monique curiously.
"And why didn’t you say something sooner?" asked Chelsea.
Annie pulled back but not out of Kevin’s arms as she looked up at her mother who was crying. "I did something I wasn’t supposed to do and I didn’t want you to know, Mama," she said reluctantly.
"What did you do?" asked Chelsea.
"I sneaked the envelope you keep in your dresser under all your clothes and looked at it," admitted the little girl with regret. "I’m sorry, Mama, but I saw you the other night looking at one of the pictures and you were crying."
AJ asked softly, "What’s in the envelope?"
"Annie’s birth certificate and pictures of Kevin and me together in Kentucky."
"Mama, I’m sorry I snooped in your stuff but I wanted to know what had made you so sad."
"Baby, it’s okay," answered Chelsea as she moved to take her daughter in her arms. "I’m sorry I made you go without a father for so long but I promise, no more. Kevin is spending the week with us and we’re going to work out something so that you can be with him too."
"Really?"
"Really!" answered Chelsea and Kevin together. Then Kevin added, "I’ll be by tomorrow, after you get out of school to spend some time with you."
"Mama, can I skip school tomorrow?"
"NO you may NOT!! Kevin will be there when you get home and you’ll get to spend plenty of time with him then. Now, we need to get going so we can get you into bed. Give the others a hug and let’s go."
As Annie said good-bye to the rest of the group, Chelsea turned to AJ. "I’ll try to hurry."
"Just be careful," whispered AJ as he kissed her. Looking over her shoulder, AJ said, "Marcus, make sure they get to the car okay."
"Already on it."
"I’ll see you in about an hour."
Good-byes said, Marcus escorted the three to Chelsea’s car and made sure they got away safely.
