Several days later, as the tour bus sped along a highway in Spain, Nick sat down and flipped open his laptop. Emily, who Nick had asked to tour with them, had fallen asleep in his bunk and nobody else seemed interested in spending time with him at the moment, so he had decided to check his e-mail.
His heart almost stopped when his mail finally came up on the screen and a message from ‘BrownEyes’ was in his mailbox. Nick immediately clicked on it and her words filled his computer screen:
To: Babyblues@hotmail.com
From: Browneyes@hotmail.com
Nicky~
Hi! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to write you back. Things have just been so busy, you know with the wedding and everything. Bradley says to tell you hi and that he can’t wait for you to get back so the two of you can play Dreamcast. My last class for nursing school was yesterday. As much as I had dreaded it, I’m actually kind of relieved that I’m finished. At least that’s one less responsibility that I have right now. I wish that I could come out and see one of your shows, but there’s always something going on here, whether it’s Preston, or Bradley, or Mrs. Vanderbilt, or the wedding coordinator. I assumed that you forgot to mail in your R.S.V.P. so I went ahead and had them put you on the guest list. The total’s over 500 right now. You’ll have to sit right down in front during the ceremony so I can find you. Oh, and congratulations on the Grammy nominations. Five! I’m so proud of you, Nick. I wish that I could say something like that for myself.
I always knew you could do this. I better get going, though. I have to meet with the florist in a half an hour. Remember to get enough sleep!
~Hugs and kisses~
Ashley
After reading it once, Nick stared at the screen letting her words soak into his brain. How could she turn her emotions off like that? Nick didn’t understand how aloof and unreal she’d seemed. Behind Nick, Brian had entered the room and he spoke, causing a jump out of Nick.
“Whatcha up to?” Brian asked taking a bag of chips out of the cupboard. He glanced over Nick’s shoulder at the computer screen, “She wrote you?”
Nick nodded, not taking his eyes off the screen.
Brian skimmed the letter himself and then spoke, “So, I guess everything’s back to normal now? You know, you’ve got Emily and she’s got Preston?”
Nick rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, massaging the cramped muscles, “Yeah, I guess.”
“You guess?” Brian asked.
“No, you’re right. Things must be going back to normal. I’ve got Emily now.”
Brian shrugged and retreated back to the entertainment room of the bus, leaving Nick alone in the kitchen. He found Leighanne still on the couch where he had left her, but now A.J. and Amanda had joined them.
“You brought me chips,” A.J. said from where he was laying with his head in Amanda’s lap and taking the bags out of Brian’s hands, “Thanks, B-Rok.”
Brian barely noticed A.J. taking the bag out of his hands. He back down next to Leighanne, but his mind was elsewhere.
“B, honey? Is anyone home?” Leighanne tapped lightly on his forehead.
“I was just talking to Nick in the kitchen and Ashley had just e-mailed him,” Brian told them.
“And the problem with that would be what?” Amanda asked, letting her fingers play with A.J.’s green locks.
Brian stood up and shut the door, closing them off from the bunk area of the bus, “Does anybody else think it’s weird how Nick all of a sudden just forgot about Ashley and hooked up with Emily?”
“Nick needed to move on and he did,” A.J. answered.
“No, I see where you’re coming from, Brian. I mean it was really uncharacteristic of Nick to take some girl back up to his room the night he met her and then to bring her on tour with him. He gets this really distant look in his eyes if any of us even mention Ashley. Like he doesn’t even know who we’re talking about,” Leighanne agreed with her husband.
“So you all think that Emily’s his rebound girl? That he’s using her to get over Ashley?” Amanda asked.
“We all saw how Nick acted the whole month and a half after we left. We could barely get him out of bed. Now, in two days he’s all of a sudden become Mr. Happy Go Lucky. It just doesn’t make any sense,” Brian conceded.
A.J. sat up on the couch, “If this is what it takes for him to get over Ashley then I don’t see why we should do anything to stop it. Ashley’s already made her choice. She’s marrying Preston and Nick can’t change that fact. This is good for him. Emily is good for him. Ashley is not good for him. Nick doesn’t need anything that’s not good for him. If he wants to forget Ashley ever existed then I’m prepared to help erase the memory. Let Nick move on the way he wants to.”
“He did love her, A.J. I really believe that he did,” Amanda stated softly.
“Nick loved Ashley because she was the only person who never let his fame get in the way,” A.J. told her, “She was the only person that ever let him experience a normal life.”
“Is that the only reason you love me? Because I don’t let your fame get in the way?” Amanda asked defensively.
A.J. threw up his hands, “No, baby, you know that’s not true! All I’m saying is that Ashley was the only option that Nick thought he had. He could talk to her and she listened. He’s never known anybody else to be that way. She doesn’t want Nick though. She wants Preston, all twenty four million dollars worth of him. I for one am glad that she’s not leading Nick on anymore.”
“I think that she loved Nick just as much as he loved her, A.J.,” Leighanne reasoned, “She did let his fame get in the way, though. That’s exactly the reason she wouldn’t let herself be with him.”
“Huh?” a perplexed look crossed A.J.’s face, “That makes no sense at all.”
Brian leaned forward on the couch, towards A.J., “Ashley always thought that if she let herself fall in love with Nick that it would just end up hurting both of them in the long run. She didn’t want to be with someone who was home three months out of the year. She grew up in a family like that. Her parents were never at home with her and the last thing she wanted was to be in love with someone who couldn’t even come home for her birthday.”
“I see what you’re saying, Brian, but didn’t she give up nursing school for Preston? Couldn’t she have done the same for Nick and come on tour with him?” Amanda brought up a good point.
“Nick wouldn’t have let her quit nursing school in the first place, especially for him. That’s the difference between him and Preston,” Brian told them just as the door to the entertainment room opened and Nick stepped in.
Nick stared at them, daring them to go on. He had heard the last few things that his friends had said, “What about Preston? What’s the difference between me and Preston?”
“Nick, listen, we were just talking about how happy we were that you found Emily,” A.J. lied.
Nick nodded, “I guess that’s great, except that Emily has nothing to do with an S.O.B. named Preston.”
“We were talking about Ashley, Nick. Actually we were talking about you and Ashley,” Brian admitted.
“I’m with Emily now. Why don’t you guys understand that? Ashley is a thing of the past. I could really care less what she does or who she marries. Let Preston have her. After right now I never want to hear you guys talk about it again. I don’t want it brought up. It’s over and I’m with Emily,” Nick’s face contorted in an anger that surprised all of them and he reemphasized what he had just said, “I am with Emily. Get over it. If I never saw Ashley again I wouldn’t care.”
They all watched silently as Nick turned and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
“You don’t think he means that, do you?” Amanda turned back to the other three people in the room.
“He doesn’t mean it. It’s the hurt talking. That’s why Emily is not the best thing to happen to him right now. Do you see what I was talking about now, A.J.?” Brian responded.
A.J. nodded and said, “Does Emily even know who Ashley is?”
“If Nick won’t talk to us about Ashley, why would he talk about her to Emily?” Brian pointed out.
“This is one of the craziest scenarios I think I’ve ever heard of,” Leighanne mused, “First Nick loves Ashley, but Ashley’s engaged to Preston. Then Ashley loves Nick, but won’t be with him. Now Nick is with Emily and Ashley is with Preston, but Ashley loves Nick and Nick loves Ashley. It’s like a soap opera.”
“Yeah and the next thing we know Nick will be busting into the church right in the middle of the wedding to stop it,” A.J. joked.
“And he’ll punch Preston in the mouth,” Amanda said with a smile.
“Right. And then Nick will sweep Ashley off of her feet and carry her out of the church,” Brian rolled his eyes, “This is not All My Children.” “No. Not All My Children. It happened on Days of Our Lives, B,” Leighanne pouted prettily.
Amanda’s eyes lit up, “You’re right! It was when Hope was about to marry that guy Larry and Bo came riding in on his motorcycle!”
Leighanne nodded, “And when Jennifer was about to marry that one guy. What was his name?”
Amanda thought for a minute, “I can’t remember, but then Jack swept in and saved her from him. Wasn’t he like a psycho killer or something?”
“Ladies, does it really matter? I thought we were talking about Nick and Ashley. Not Jack and Hope, or whoever the hell you’re talking about,” A.J. threw up his hands.
“Sorry. We got a little off topic. Do you think they’ll ever be friends again?” Leighanne asked.
A perplexed look crossed Brian’s face, “Who? Bo and Hope?”
A.J. stared at Brian as if he had two heads, “No, ass. Nick and Ashley.”
“Oh. Well, I hope so. You don’t think it’s too late do you?”
“When you hurt somebody as much as they’ve hurt each other, there’s usually not much to salvage,” A.J. picked up the television remote and turned the T.V. on, “Think he’ll go to the wedding?”
“Who knows? But I for one don’t want to be the one sitting next to him if he does,” Brian commented.
A sad look crossed Leighanne’s face, “I think they were meant to be together. I mean, did you ever see the way they looked at each other? It’s never too late for true love.”
Leighanne’s husband brushed a stray piece of hair out of her eyes and spoke
softly, “Mistakes happen, baby. Even with true love some people don’t
realize what they have until it’s too late.”
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