Ashley sighed from exhaustion, taking her reading glasses off and placing them on her desk as she tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She had been trying to read the assignment out of one of her nursing textbooks, but had been so tired that all of the words had started to blur together and she realized that she was just wasting her time. It’s not as if she would be in school much longer anyways because it wasn’t what Preston or his parents wanted. An unexplainable frustration and longing filled her. She glanced at the picture of Nick and the rest of the Backstreet Boys sitting on her desk and the feeling became even stronger. Thoughts ran rampant through her head. Was Nick right? Would she really be happy with Preston, or would it be a life full of regret?
The phone rang, startling her out of her thoughts. She picked up the cordless phone and held it to her ear, “Hello?”
“Hey, Brown Eyes,” Nick laid back drawl filtered through the line. He had gone to visit his family out in L.A.
Her heart skipped a beat at the sound of his voice. More confusion gripped at her conscious, “Hi. How’s your family?”
“They’re okay. Better than last time,” Nick answered. His trips to see his family didn’t always go so smoothly.
“No arguments with your parents?”
“Not yet. I’ve been trying to steer clear of money or career talks.”
“That’s good. When are you coming home?” Ashley yawned into the phone.
“I don’t know. I’ve got a few things going on here and I need to stay at least a few more days,” Nick answered.
“What kind of things?”
“Just, you know, stuff. Music stuff,” Nick tried to avoid the subject. He really didn’t want to tell her that his parents had been talking to him about his moving out to L.A. to be closer to them in order to work things out and that he had actually met with a realtor the other day. There was no point in telling her until there was something final, “So, what’s going on there?”
“I met with a wedding consultant today,” Ashley said and wished she hadn’t.
She knew the conversation that would follow.
“And?” Nick prompted.
“And nothing about this wedding is going to be what I want it to be. Preston’s mother is controlling everything about this, Nick. She’s already made out a guest list and while it is over 600 people, I don’t even know a fourth of them!”
“Don’t let her do that to. This is your wedding,” Nick exclaimed.
“It doesn’t matter, Nick. I’m not really all that into it anyway.”
“That’s bull. For as long as I’ve known you you’ve talked about what you wanted your wedding to be like. Even I know that you want your bridesmaids’ dresses to be purple and that you want an ivory wedding cake with white roses all over it. I know that you want to dance with your father to ‘Lullaby’ and that you wanted your fiancé to climb up to your bedroom window with a rose in his mouth to propose to you; that you wanted that moment to be private. Just you, him and the moment. Don’t you want that anymore?”
Ashley felt tears come to her eyes. She couldn’t believe he had remembered all of that. She laughed softly into the phone trying to hide her tears, “Lilac, Nick. I wanted the dresses to be lilac.”
Nick’s laugh came back to her, “Lilac, purple, same difference. Besides, you know I’m not A.J. He’s the one who knows that kind of stuff, not me.”
“Maybe I should take him shopping with me for my wedding dress.”
Nick could picture the smile that was on her face, “Only if you want to walk down the aisle in leopard skin.”
“Well, then maybe you could take me.”
“The only thing I can promise is that you wouldn’t wind up in fur.”
“Anything has to be better than fur,” Ashley reasoned.
“When was the last time you went shopping with me for women’s clothing?”
“Never, I hope,” Ashley, joked.
“You know what I mean,” Nick smiled. He heard Ashley yawn again through the phone, “Maybe we better get off. You sound tired.”
Ashley pouted, “But I miss you, Nicky.”
“I miss you, too, but I promised Angel that I’d take her out for ice cream and you know how kids are when you don’t keep your promises.”
Ashley sighed, “All right. I’ll talk to you later then.”
“You can count on it. Love you,” Nick said softly before placing the phone back on the cradle. He was sitting on a barstool in the kitchen and leaned his elbows onto the counter, his thoughts wandering. His mother walked into the kitchen, “Who was on the phone, Nick?”
“Ashley.”
“How’s she doing?”
“Mom, she’s marrying a jackass.”
“Ashley’s getting married?” surprise flashed across Jane Carter’s face, “Did you forget to tell me?”
“Whoops,” Nick smiled sheepishly.
“When did all of this come about?” Jane inquired sitting down next to her eldest son.
“I guess she’d been dating him since I left for Europe. She told me that he’d asked her to marry him, but she still hadn’t given him an answer yet.”
“Ashley’s getting married?!” Nick’s 16-year old sister, B.J. had entered the kitchen unbeknownst to her older brother.
“I was just explaining it to Mom when you butted in.”
“Sorry, it’s not as if I live here or anything. This isn’t even you kitchen, Carter.”
Their mother interceded, “Hey, let’s not fight here. Nick’s not able to come visit that often. I’d like to keep it peaceful.”
“Sorry. Anyways, like I was saying,” he glared at B.J. who had sat down on the barstool next to her mother, “So, she tells me she’s going to say yes and that she’s quitting nursing school.”
A perplexed look crossed his mother’s face. That didn’t sound like Ashley at all, “How old is this boy?”
“He’s not a boy, Mom. He’s twenty five, a Harvard graduate, and is going to inherit his father’s department store corporation or something.”
“Is he cute?” B.J. cut in.
“Beej,” Nick’s voice held a warning tone, “I just think she’s getting herself in too deep.”
“Well, Nick that’s not your decision to make,” his mother reasoned. “Yeah I know, but I can’t help but look out for her.”
“Nicky?”
Nick turned at the sound of his youngest sister’s voice, “Hey, Angelbaby. Ready to go get ice cream?”
She nodded eagerly.
Nick turned to his mother, “I’ll tell you more about this later.”
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