Chapter Seventeen

Nicole and Maggie walked down to the lobby finding the parents admiring the beautiful scenery of the Hyatt. She rushed up and hugged her mother first, then turned to her father and shared a hug with him. Tears began to form in Nicole's eyes and she laughed, "Oh my God. I'm crying." It just hit her how long it had been since she had seen them last. She had truly missed them.

She continued chuckling to herself and her mother's eyes began to fill with tears as well seeing her daughter cry. Her mother laughed too, "Quit it, would you? You're making me cry."

Her father snipped back at them, "Would you two stop this!" He was not even close to crying, but wanted to see the waterworks stop.

"You're a real sensitive '90's man, Dad." Nicole wiped at her eyes while her mother gently rubber her back, as she wiped at her own eyes. Nicole looked over at Maggie, "Well, you guys remember her." The three women laughed and Maggie shared hellos with Nicole's parents.

The four ventured through the lobby as Nicole showed them some of the seating areas and meeting rooms that were enormous and excellently decorated. They stopped by the restaurant and discussed ideas for dinner. Her father wanted to go out and find another place, while her mother thought it would be nice to stay here. She saw a dessert that had her taste buds reeling. Nicole suggested they found another place for dinner, but come back here for dessert.

While at dinner, the quartet ventured different topics, and a few were directed towards Maggie about Nicole. Her mother asked while chuckling, "So Maggie, how are those boys of Nicole's?"

Maggie first looked over at her friend as Nicole had swallowed her drink wrong and was coughing on it. Maggie then spoke, "They are wonderful, aren't they Nic?"

She chuckled when she looked over and saw Nicole shooting a look back, wondering where she was going with this discussion. The mother continued, "I bet you two are enjoying yourselves with these good-looking men."

Nicole's dad cut in, "Anne, would you leave the kids alone?"

Maggie almost choked on her bite of her pasta. Coughing, she grabbed for her water while Nicole patted her friend's back. "Are you ok?" Nicole asked. Maggie nodded her head as she sipped from her glass. "What happened?"

"Nothing. I'll tell ya later." Trying to change the subject, however unsuccessfully, Maggie turned to the parents to ask a question. "So how is home? How's Jason doing?"

Nicole groaned after Maggie's question, and again after she listened to her mother, "Yeah, I want to talk to you about that. Calm down, I don't want to ruin dinner. But we are going to discuss this before you leave town."

The mood of talk changed as the parents told some stories about happenings back at home. Laughing ensued, only dying down to sigh or take a drink. They waited around to pay the check then headed back to the hotel. Maggie decided to let Nicole have dessert alone with her parents and returned to their room after saying goodbye.

They were waiting for a table and Nicole's mother slung her arm through Nicole's and asked, "So tell me Nic, how are those boys you're working with?"

Nicole's groaned in return. "Oh come on Ma. Gimme a break."

"You don't tell me any tales of the road."

"That's because it's not as luxurious as you think it is. It's a job; I have to be up at 7am and work with Jessica doing everything for them."

Her father spoke up, "7am, that must be roughing it for you, eh?" He chuckled, referring to Nicole's late sleeping habits.

"Yeah, especially when you're up until 4am."

Anne asked, "What are you doing up that late?"

She shrugged oddly, "Oh, well. It's only happened like the last three days like that. Luckily I haven't had to be up too early, except for that first time." Her mother asked her what she was up so late for.

"Well, the first night was because the heat in my room wasn't working, so I went to walk around the hotel and locked myself out of my room. Then I was up the next night with the guys after the awards' party. And last night wasn't too late, but I just couldn't sleep much."

Just as their name was called for a table, Nicole saw a familiar face. "Ma, what is he doing here?"

Jason walked up, hearing Nicole's comment, and threw an arm around his sister's neck. "It's good to see you too, nerd." She smiled, realizing she could not always stay mad at her brother forever. They hugged each other; "I couldn't let you leave here without some harassment." He then ruffled at her hair.

"Quit it, would you." She moved away and swung at his arms. "Do you ever grow up?" The parents laughed, and were happy to see the kids talking. The four sat for dessert and coffee. Even though it was past ten when they got there, they stayed talking for at least another hour. She was "playing nice" with her brother even while he shared stories of his girlfriend.

Jason looked over his sister's shoulder, who was sitting next to him, and spoke, "Look Nic, it's your boyfriend." He was mostly teasing when Nicole turned to see Scott walk into the bar area. She rolled her eyes and sighed. Jason asked his sister, "What's up with that? You’re both here at this hotel. Talk about coincidences?" He raised his eyebrows in suspicions.

"Nothing. What were we talking about?" she turned asking her parents.

They tried to continue the conversation until the parent's attention was taken to someone behind Nicole. She turned to see Scott standing behind her. He placed his hands on her shoulders. "Hey, it's the Andrews crowd." Nicole grew increasingly uncomfortable, wishing he would leave the table. "How you guys doing over here?"

Nicole didn't speak, but her mother did. "We're doing fine, Scott. We didn't know you'd be in town."

He smiled brightly for them and spoke with a twinkle in his blue eyes. "Yeah, neither did I, until a few days ago actually."

"What hotel are you staying at?" Anne was just trying to make conversation with the young man. She always liked Scott and saw his being in town at the same time as her daughter as being hopeful.

"Right here."

"What a coincidence." She looked at her daughter and began to ask if he would join them.

Nicole interrupted, "I've got to be up early tomorrow." She began to stand up as Scott placed his hand on her back. She turned to him and gave a slight smile. "I'll walk you all out," she said as she grabbed at her purse for some money, and left more than enough for the check. She didn't want to sit to wait for the check.

Anne spoke up, "Well, it was very nice to see you Scott." He returned the comment and insisted on all of them going to dinner tomorrow, on him. "Oh, that's very nice of you, but I believe Nic has to work tomorrow night." She nodded to answer her mother.

"Ok, but if I see you all together again, you better take me up on this." He flashed his winning model smile and Nicole couldn't help but smile in return. He turned to her and spoke softly, "Don't forget to call me back now." She realized she would have to talk to Maggie about this. She nodded in return.

He left the table after saying goodbye and Nicole walked out to the lobby. "I forgot something upstairs for you, Mom. Come on upstairs. I'll get it for ya." She mostly wanted to show off her spacious room to her mother, but did also have some postcards from a New York art museum she visited. Her brother was leaving because he had to work early in the morning. They shared their goodbye and a hug before he left. Her father was going to wait in the lobby for them.

They ventured upstairs and entered her room. After she found the cards, the two ladies exited into the hallway and ran into AJ and Maggie talking out in the hallway. Nicole thought to herself, "Oh no. She is not meeting the guys. She will bother me forever about this."

Maggie tried to distract him, but was unsuccessful. He turned around seeing Nicole and her mother. "Hey, Nic." He walked over to them. "You gonna introduce me to your sister."

Her mother beamed, but Nicole groaned. "J, you are unbelievable. Mom, this is you know who. You know who, this is my mom, Anne."

AJ was definitely more than courteous, shaking her hand and complimenting her on raising someone as "lovely as Nicole." Maggie began to chuckle again, but wouldn't divulge why she was laughing anytime she heard Anne's name. "Well, you gotta go, Dad's waiting," Nicole was speaking to her mother, looking at AJ.

"Your dad's here and you're not introducing us all to your family?"

"J. Leave it."

"Oh, come on. I told ya, I want to meet the people who pitied you through adolescence." Her mother laughed. But once again, Nic groaned. "Alright, alright. I'll leave you two to leave." He shook Anne's hand again and told her it was nice to meet her.

Nicole and her mother made it all the way to the elevators until she ran into another one of the guys. It was Nick and Brian, who of course insisted on introductions. She got tired of this, not wanting to make a deal about them all meeting her family.

They were in the elevator when her mother asked why she didn't want her own parents to meet her "employers." "I dunno. It's just weird. You guys will know the Backstreet Boys, and of course I'll hear about it later from you all. I can just hear Dad coming up with jokes."

They exited the elevator to see Kevin sitting in the lobby, just a couch away from her father. She mumbled, "Great." Her mother asked what it was, and she replied shortly with a nothing.

Fortunately, for Nicole, they weren't talking. She walked over and both the men stood up. She looked funny at her father then at Kevin. Kevin now had the weird look. She spoke, "Hi." At the same time, both men said hello in return.

Anne came up behind, noticed Kevin, most definitely recognizing him, and said to her daughter, "Well, we’ll let you get back to your stuff now." She smiled largely at her daughter knowing he was the one Nicole thought was the most attractive of the boys.

Nicole felt bad, so she decided to introduce, after all, she knew Kevin would be nice enough to them. "Kevin, these are my parents, Tony and Anne. Ma, Dad, this is Kevin."

He shook both their hands; "It's nice to meet you both." He was charming, as always in Nicole's opinion, and smiled at both. "Anne." She turned her attention to the good-looking man with a response of "uh huh." "That's my mother's name." Nicole began to laugh realizing this was what Maggie had been laughing at. Her mother and Kevin's had the same first name.

They all looked at the laughing Nicole. "Nevermind. I just remembered something about Maggie."

Kevin spoke to the parents; "You've raised a great daughter."

"Why thank you," the mother was beaming with the compliment both him and AJ gave.