Oreos
for Breakfast - Chapter 12
By
The Paperbag Princess and The Pumpkin
Coach
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I glanced out the window as we began our descent, hoping to get a clue from that. Land. So not a remote island somewhere. It was dark, so it was difficult to see anything.
Nick squeezed my hand and I smiled at him, giving him a quick kiss. "Wimp," I whispered, and he scowled at me.
"Shut up."
"Flying is cool," I teased.
"It sucks."
"You didn't seem to mind that earlier," I giggled, and he laughed.
"OK, the sex was good, I admit that. But it would have been just as good on the ground."
"Oh, no, it was great, knowing we were thousands of feet up, above the clouds…" I drifted off, looking out the window.
That was New York City.
I looked back at him and he laughed. "Did you finally figure it out, Rache?"
"Home?" I managed to squeak. Home? He was taking me home? I'd get to see everyone and sleep in my bed and pet my cat?
"It's not for very long," he admitted. "We have to leave early tomorrow morning, but I thought you'd like spending one night in your bed and…"
I cut him off, throwing my arms around his neck and kissing him madly. "Oh, bunny, this is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me."
He smiled, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. "I thought it would be nice to go back to where it all started," he said quietly.
Before it had to end. I knew it would, he was going back to his real life, and he'd make all the promises and he'd break them. He was too young and gorgeous and sexy not to.
I kissed him again. Fuck that. I was going to enjoy this, every second.
"Nick, it's amazing. How long are we there?"
"Just about 24 hours, we figured. We'll land in about half an hour, and James said it takes an hour to get to your place from Roosevelt Field?"
"James was in on this?" I shrieked, making him laugh.
"Everyone was in on this, Rache. I've been planning it for ages."
He was so sweet. I never wanted to give him up. Ever.
"I talked to James, and he told me Roosevelt Field might work, and Lola and one of my assistants made a lot of the arrangements, and I talked to your mom a lot…"
I hugged him tightly. "I love you so much, Nick."
"I love you too," he whispered, tucking a curl behind my ear and flashing me that Nick Carter smile that made my insides turn to jello.
I did, so much I didn't know what to do with myself. I just wanted to make her happy, one big thing so she couldn't forget all about me when I was back on tour and we'd be apart for weeks. I knew then she'd realize that I was only giving her bad publicity and she didn't need that. And Jeremy. I tried so hard not to be a brat about him, but I knew that once I was gone he was going to be trying to turn them all against me. Everyone always told me I wasn't good enough for her and they were right.
But we'd have this day, something neither of us would ever forget, this one big perfect surprise. Today it would be great, no matter what happened later.
She squealed again, looking out the window across from me at New York. "Home!"
She was even more excited than I thought she'd be. "We should get to your place around six?" I told her. "There's a car waiting for us at the airport. I got a convertible, because I thought you'd rather drive. Or I can, if you give me directions. We tried to get your car from James' place, but that started to become impossible, getting it to Roosevelt Field, and getting someone to pick it up at JFK when we leave and take it back, so I just rented one."
"What did you get?"
I grinned. "An Audi convertible."
Another squeal. I might not be able to hear by the time we got there. "You so rock."
"You have to let me drive it at least once," I whined, and she giggled.
"It's my present!"
"But I picked it out!" I defended, and she kissed me.
"You can drive everywhere. I don't care. Nick, this is so… perfect. Thank you."
She hugged me tightly, resting her head on my chest, and I kissed the top of her head. "Where did you think we were going?"
"Raleigh, since that's where we met and all."
Hmm. That might have been good, too. "Don't need to fly to Raleigh from Atlanta, not really."
"I thought you were trying to confuse me."
"I'm not that smart, Rache."
She giggled. "You're very smart, bunny. How the hell did you manage to keep this a secret? When did you start planning it?"
"After you were here for TRL and couldn't go home." We both knew I meant the day she had that meltdown. It was that night, during their show, I could see a little sadness in her eyes even when she was on stage, and I started to think maybe this was possible. And it worked out, their day off was right before I had to go back to my job, and everything started falling into place once I talked to James and Lola.
It didn't hurt that James was impressed that I'd come up with it, and her mom was just overwhelmed. Her family liked me, that was good. Maybe after today Jon would even believe that I never wanted to hurt her.
"You are so amazing," Rachel whispered, and I could hear tears in her voice. "Thank you."
I held her tightly. "You brought me here when I really needed it, and I'm trying to return the favor. You need a little break from the tour, don't you?"
She nodded against me.
I was going to miss him so much after tomorrow. I should call James now and get him to put Darien and Jeremy on alert that I was going to be impossible to live with when Nick wasn't around. The tour was great, it was fucking amazing, but it was never ending. We'd never been out for more that six straight weeks before, and we were at six now, with no end in sight. We just added European dates a few days ago, and that was fucking amazing, but that was more time living out of suitcases and not being with my family. And no shot of seeing Nick for about three weeks.
But I wasn't thinking about that now. Right now I was with Nick, and we were going home. I looked up at him with a smile. "Do we have a plan?"
"A plan?"
"Are we going to the Point house or the vineyard?"
He smiled. "Wherever you want, baby. The Point house is all open and has clean sheets and everything, your mom was out there yesterday. They have to open the vineyard at ten or something, and I think the girls have soccer practice, but other than that, whatever you want."
"I want to sail," I told him. I wanted to take the boat out to open water, where all I could see was the ocean in front of me for miles. No hotel rooms or crowded backstage dressing rooms. Just sun and water and the wind in my hair.
"Good," he grinned. "I was hoping you'd say that."
"And I might need to have sex in the middle of the afternoon with my beautiful boyfriend," I smiled.
"That can definitely be arranged."
"And…" I sighed. Everything. I wanted everything, all the things I loved about home, but I only had a day to do them. "Dinner at… no, dinner at the vineyard. I'll make Jon grill things for me, and we can watch the sun set over the vines. Have I taken you out into in the vines?" I asked him, and he shook his head. "Or we could watch the sun set at the Point, over the water?"
He laughed. "Whatever you want, Rachel. Just let me know."
So I kept talking, giddy and excited, and I think my rambling distracted him from the fact that we were landing. We tumbled off the plane, after thanking Dawn and Dan a million times, and a nice man met us at the bottom of the stairs and took us inside to a waiting cart. It was all very rock star. I know I had a huge, dorky grin on my face, but I didn't care. In 2 minutes we were outside again and the nice man handed Nick a set of keys and a map, motioning towards a bright, cherry red Audi convertible with the top down. Even at four a.m., it was nearly 80 degrees, so that was fine with me.
It was a totally sweet car, and I leaned over the door to check it out while Nick put our bags in the tiny trunk and said something to the nice man.
We had lots of nice people doing things for us tonight. Money was so great. But I was glad that Nick had rented us a car, it was going to be cool to drive myself somewhere, and go just as fast as I wanted and listen to my music and know where I was going. Not to mention having Nick next to me, fucking with the radio and making me laugh. I liked driving places with him, he was a fun distraction.
Hell, I liked doing anything with him. He made everything more amusing.
"Fuck!" he yelled, and I turned around to smile at him.
"What, bunny?"
"I forgot the CDs," he grumbled. "I picked road music, and I think I left them in the hotel room."
"We can listen to the radio," I soothed, and he wrinkled his nose at me.
"The radio sucks."
"Hey, I have the number 18 single in the country. Radio is awesome."
He rolled his eyes, tossing me the keys. "Yeah, you're the one that complains about morning DJs constantly."
Grinning, I got into the car as he slammed the trunk shut on our bags. "It's four in the fucking morning, Nicky. It's too early for annoying morning DJs. We'll play radio roulette, it'll be fun. It's only an hour or so home, right?"
"An hour and 21 minutes, according to the map," he informed me, jacking the seat back to fit his long legs under the dashboard. I glanced over at the map and shook my head.
"Just get me on the L.I.E., baby, I'll get us home."
He gave me a blank look. "What's the L.I.E.?"
The car purred into life and I sighed. "The Long Island Expressway, darling. It's a very narrow island, all roads lead to the L.I.E."
He frowned at the directions and I pulled out of our parking space. "Seatbelt, bunny."
"Oh, right." He tried to put it on, but didn't know what to do with the directions, and I just giggled at him, taking the papers from him and stopping the car at the entrance to the main road.
"Deal with the radio, Nicky, and I'll figure it out."
It only took me a minute, and I thrust the directions back at him before he found a decent station. "We're ten minutes from the L.I.E. Just sit there and look pretty, you're good at that."
"I could sing for you, if I could find a decent radio station," he offered, fiddling with the dial as I pulled onto the road. He flicked over a station and I yelled.
"Hey! I like that one!" I started singing.
Why do you build me up, buttercup, baby?
I could only look at her for a minute. "Buttercup"? Or whatever the hell this song was called. It was some oldie, I would never have thought that Rachel would listen to anything like this.
She caught my look and pouted at me. "What, your parents never made you listen to oldies on long car trips? I love this one, it's got the little call and response thingies."
"My parents were never really into oldies. They thought they were hip."
She patted my knee. "This one is easy, just follow along."
"I know it," I protested. "I'm just surprised you do."
"What, you think I grew up on the Velvet Underground and Iggy Pop? Not hardly."
Smiling over at me, she started singing again. "I need you…"
I knew this part, and echoed her. "I need you…"
She gave me a grin that told me I'd done it right, and we went on singing.
More than anyone darlin'
You know that I have from the start
So build me up
(Build me up) Buttercup
Don't break my heart
"Who needs fucking boybands?" she said. "You and me, baby, we're taking this act on the road."
By the end of the song, we'd made up a dance routine. I loved singing with Rachel, and she'd been teaching me a bunch of stuff on the guitar. I teased her that I wanted to steal the acoustic guitar I'd gotten her, and she always protested. I'd have to get one for myself, maybe she could teach me things over the phone.
We'd call all the time, right? It wasn't like this was over and I'd never see her again, it was just going to be different. We'd figure that out, and it would still be good.
"I'm gonna miss this, Rachel," I told her, and she shook her head, shushing me.
"None of that. No talking about tomorrow!" Reaching over, she took my hand, squeezing it. "But, yeah," she said quietly. "I'll miss you."
We were quiet for a moment, then the radio cut to commercials and she let go of me, pointing at it. "Fix that. No fucking commercials!"
"See, this is why the radio sucks," I grumbled, leaning forward to punch the buttons.
"Well, sweetie, there are no record stores open at the moment, so we're a tad screwed."
We played with the radio and sang along for the next hour, and I couldn't stop staring at her. She'd pulled her hair back before we got off the plane, but it was too curly to ever stay in a ponytail without coming loose, so curls were still flying around her face, and she kept tucking them behind her ears, sighing at herself. I loved her hair, and I loved how it drove her crazy.
She was just so pretty, laughing and singing along, excited to be going home. There were practically no other cars on the road, so all I could see were the stars everywhere and Rachel. She was driving way too fast, but I didn't care. I just loved being here, next to her, listening to her talk.
Finally she swung the car off the road at an exit, and we pulled up to a grocery store. "Where are we?" I asked. Nothing looked familiar.
"About 20 minutes or so from home. This is the only 24 grocery store for miles, and it's only open 24 hours in the summer."
I started to get out of the car, but she caught me, kissing me before I realized what she was doing. Smiling, I kissed her back, pulling her close to me. "Did we just stop to make out?" I teased, and she laughed, moving away from me.
"No, we stopped to get stuff so I can make breakfast for everyone. But you're so impossibly hot, I just had to kiss you."
I laughed. Impossibly hot? Me? "I was just thinking the same thing about you," I told her, and she grinned, kissing me again.
I was definitely going to miss these kisses. But we weren't thinking about that right now.
She pulled away from me, getting out of the car with a laugh. "Okay, I could do that all day, but I think my bed at home will be much more comfortable. Let's get goodies so I can make waffles for my brothers this morning."
We were in the grocery store when my phone rang, and I pulled it out of my pocket, checking the number. Rachel's mom, shit, I was supposed to call her when we got in. But I forgot. "Sorry," I said, clicking it on.
"Are you here?" Kate demanded, and I had to laugh.
"We're at the grocery store. She wants to make waffles."
Kate laughed. "Jon will be very happy to hear that."
"So bring everyone over to the Point house when they get up, Rachel is buying a ridiculous amount of food here."
Rachel came around the corner with the cart and looked at me. "Who are you talking to? You were supposed to be getting bacon!"
"Your mom."
She grabbed the phone out of my hand. "Mommy! You were in on this, too." She giggled, throwing a couple of packages of bacon into our already full cart. We were only here for a day. "It's the best present ever," she said emphatically, smiling at me.
She hadn't stopped smiling since she figured it out, not really. "No, I want to cook. You can make dinner. Okay, see you soon. Love you!"
"What else do we need?" she wondered, looking at the cart, and I laughed.
"Rachel, we're making breakfast for what…" I counted quickly. "Eleven people. And four of those are kids. You have enough food here to feed an army."
"And lunch!" she protested. "If we go out sailing, there will be lunch."
"Somebody has to work, it's not gonna be lunch for eleven."
She pouted at me for a second. "Are you saying that perhaps I don't need two loaves of bread?"
"Yeah. That's what I'm saying."
She started to take it out, then shook her head. "It'll freeze. Let's go, before I buy anything else. And whattaya mean, we're making breakfast?"
"I can help!" Maybe. What the hell was she making? How hard could breakfast be?
She teased me about cooking and insisted on paying for all the food, even though this whole day was supposed to be a present. There was barely enough room for all the groceries in the rental's tiny trunk, but we made it work by moving our bags around.
She chattered on as we drove to the house, but fell silent as we got closer. "Rache?" I asked, stroking her face. "Are you okay?"
She looked over me, smiling. "I am so good, bunny. I'm just listening for the water."
We turned a corner and she pointed ahead of her. "There."
There was a small beach and the bay spread out around us, glittering in the early morning sun. I'd almost forgotten how beautiful it was up here. "Is that where we made out that one night?"
She laughed, taking my hand. "Yes. Good memory."
"Rache, I remember everything about that week."
So did I. Nearly every single detail from the moment he kissed me out on the Point until right now. Then, I didn't dare dream that I'd come back here with him, I just thought it was a little fling.
But now… we'd said 'I love you,' and he'd planned this trip because he knew how much it would mean to me. Maybe it wasn't a fling. Maybe it was more, maybe I could hope for my birthday and Christmas and his birthday and next summer and celebrating the day we first made love by coming here every year, no matter what.
Or maybe I was getting ahead of myself.
The road in front of us was hilly, and I pressed the accelerator, laughing when we dipped over the hill and my stomach dropped with it. Nick clapped his hands, laughing with me. "Again! Do it again!"
I giggled, speeding up. Dad used to do this on this road, and we loved it as kids. He was always careful that no other cars were on the road, and since it was barely six a.m., we could play.
"This is such a sweet car," Nick said. "You have to let me drive to the vineyard later. I think I can even do it without directions."
"Yeah?"
"Take this road to the main road, and make a right, then it's on the left. It's not rocket science, Rache."
The road evened out, and I let up on the gas, making him pout. "Hey… that was fun."
"We don't go fast here."
"Why not? It's flat."
I stopped the car, pointing to a spot on my left. "There used to be a tree there, but Dad's car wrapped around it in the crash. The guy came from that curve up there, the police report put his speed at about 90, and he took the turn wide and knocked Dad off the road and into the tree."
"Oh. God. Rache, I'm so sorry," he said quietly, reaching out for me, and I shook my head, hitting the gas again.
"I didn't show you that before?"
"No. I think I would have remembered."
"Oddly, Nicky, that spot doesn't affect me much. It can't, or I'd never be able to drive this road again, and it's the only way out of the house. Of all the things I obsessed on, it was never the details of the accident."
I looked over at him, and he was just staring at me, so sad, and I took his hand again. "Don't, bunny. Please. I'm so happy to be here, and I don't want to get lost in the fact that he isn't."
"Okay," he said quietly, raising my hand to his lips and kissing my fingers.
"What do you want on your waffles?" I asked, desperate to change the subject. Lame, whatever, I did not want to talk about Dad right now. "Strawberries? Syrup? Honey?"
"Strawberries," I told her. "What about you?"
How could that spot not freak her out? It freaked me out now. That's where it happened, right back there, not five minutes from her house? She'd never mentioned it before, I don't think she'd even looked at it before. At least not that I noticed.
I noticed other things, how she wore his sweater when she was upset or overtired, or sometimes she'd have to go find James and get a hug and whisper to him for a minute, I knew that was always about her dad. She'd told me that the deck at the Point house was where they had all their best talks, so that was a special place.
"Cinnamon and sugar," she said. "And lots of butter. Horribly bad for me."
"And 12 pieces of bacon?" I teased.
"Absolutely!" she asserted.
And her bedroom at the house, it used to be her parents, when they lived there. I knew it didn't look like that when they were there, she'd told me she bought all new furniture for it. She was okay in the bedroom, and on the deck. I guess she couldn't allow herself to still be freaked out by things, right? Or she'd never be able to do anything.
"Mom said they'd be at my place by eight at the latest, so we have enough time for a shower. All that sex last night, I need to clean up." She smiled at me and I grinned back. Sex had definitely taken my mind off flying.
She rambled on about what we were going to do today, and I knew it was because she was trying to take her mind off her dad, so I rambled back, making her laugh. And then, suddenly, we were there.
It looked just like I remembered it. I don't know what I expected to be different… maybe it was just that I was different. The last time I'd come here, Frank had been with us, and I thought that Rachel and I would never be anything more than friends. Now it was just me and Rachel, and it had never occurred to me to worry about a bodyguard. And Rachel and I were a lot more than friends, and that was better than I ever could have imagined a few weeks ago.
She just sat there for a minute, smiling at the house, and I had to kiss her. I put that smile on her face, a few phone calls and a credit card, and my girl was so happy. Sometimes I wasn't a total idiot, I could figure out how to make her smile.
I moved away from her, and she touched my face carefully. "I love you, Nick. Thank you so much for this."
I wanted to say something stupid, like "Your smile is thanks enough," or "Anything for you," but then I'd sound like Howie. "I'm just doing it to get your brother to like me," I said instead. I should have gone with sappy.
But she laughed, getting out of the car and grabbing her bag. "I'll bribe him with waffles and tell him how wonderful you are. Bates!" she cried, running towards the house. I turned to watch her, and Bates was sitting in an open window, looking at us.
"Hi, baby," Rachel said, putting her hand up to the screen. He leaned his head into her hand like she could pet him, and she giggled. "Did Mommy bring you out here last night?"
I grabbed most of the groceries and joined her at the door. "I bet she was glad to get rid of him."
Rachel pouted at me, leaning down and producing a key from under a ceramic turtle in the flowerbed next to the door. Hey, I thought that was the secret place her mom was hiding the key for me. Guess not. "Oh, hush," she said. "It's only a day, you'll live with him."
I opened the door and dropped my bag, picking Bates up before he tripped one of us. He purred, rubbing his head against my chin, and I buried my face in his fur. Maybe I could bring Bates on tour with me after Nick left. He loved me.
Or maybe Bates would try to kill everyone else on my tour bus. He didn't travel well. You had to pick him up when he was sleeping and drop him in the carrier, and then he'd whine the whole drive to wherever, even if was only from the vineyard to here. 12 hours from Bakersfield to Phoenix, with a wailing cat, no, Bates could stay here.
"I'll get the rest of the stuff, I know you want to go out on the deck," Nick said, heading back to the car, and I smiled at him. He knew me too well sometimes. Bates didn't want to let go of me, so I took him with me, walking through the house to the sliding doors that opened onto the deck. It was going to be gorgeous, we could have breakfast out here.
The light reflecting off the water was so bright I had to squint, and my sunglasses were in my bag somewhere. I took a deep breath, breathing in the salt air and the sun and home, and I felt more grounded by the second. My life was so insane lately, I needed this, and I needed to remember what was most important to me. I loved the band and I'd do almost anything to have us be successful, but if it all disappeared tomorrow, I'd still have this.
Even if Nick disappeared tomorrow, I'd have this house and my cranky cat and my family.
But Nick wasn't going anywhere, at least not yet. I heard the door slide open behind me, then his hand on my shoulder, and I leaned back against him. "It's so beautiful out here," he said quietly.
"Yeah," I agreed, and we stood there for a couple of minutes in silence, until Nick tried to kiss me and Bates tried to kill him. I just laughed as Nick whined, going back in the house to drop Bates and make sure he hadn't injured Nick. "Oh, can you imagine the boards if you showed up for the first show with stitches in your cheek?" I asked, giggling.
"If he scars me, I think I can sue for loss of livelihood or something," Nick grumbled, and I kissed him.
"Oh, he wouldn't dare. Who would harm this perfect face? Now stop pouting, we have to put away the groceries and shower and start breakfast."
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