Corinne awoke on Sunday to the sound of a voice on her answering machine.
“Hey, Baby, it’s Kevin! Uh, I wanted to let you know that I’m at Brian and Leighanne’s house. They invited you, me, the guys and some other people over for a barbeque and that’s where I am right now! So get your butt over here! I’ve been trying to reach you for hours. Where are you? Anyway, I hope you and Nick talked and everything is okay. He isn’t here by the way. Call me on my cell and I can pick you up if you want, otherwise, I’ll see ya here. Oh and the address is 2515 Hacienda Drive… well, you remember where it is! Love ya, bye!” Click.
Corinne looked around here, still groggy. Where was she? Oh, yeah, home finally. Oh, that’s right; she remembered now. She looked over at her alarm clock. Noon! No fuckin’ way! She never slept that long! She must have been zonked! She remembered crashing around midnight last night. It must have been the alcohol that affected her. She felt a small headache and went to her medicine cabinet to medicate it away.
Yawning, she turned on the coffee pot and got into the shower. Dressed only in a towel, she listened to Kevin’s message again and sipped her coffee. Okay, she would get dressed and drive over there. She did remember where it was. She had met Kevin there once before only five or six weeks ago. Beautiful home.
Corinne arrived at the Littrell residence looking radiant. Wow, valet parking she thought as a gentleman took her car keys. Classy. She made her way up the steps and gave her name to the security person at the gated entrance. All this for a barbeque, she laughed to herself. The high price of privacy when you’re famous. Once allowed to enter, Corinne walked towards the front door only to be greeted by Kevin.
“Hi, Sweetheart! You made it! I’m so glad. How are doing?”
“I’m okay I guess.”
“Good. You look beautiful by the way.” He kissed her.
“Thanks. You look handsome, too.” She smiled at him.
They walked inside and Corinne greeted everyone. She always marveled at the lovely simplicity of their home and told Leighanne as much. There were about 50 people there; more people than she cared to be around today. She would have rather just stayed at home. But she was here, so she milled around, saying hi to those she knew. Aaron Carter was there with some girl and he waved at her. “Hi, Corinne, how’s it goin?”
“Good, Aaron, and you?”
“Awesome!” He said and continued with his smoozing.
“Hey, Corinne, you made it!” Howie appeared and gave her a hug.
“Howie, hey, good to see you!” She gave him a kiss on his cheek. He had brought a lovely escort and said hi to her to as he introduced them.
She spotted AJ surrounded by a couple of hotties and made her way over to him.
“Hey, Alex, how’s it hangin’?”
“Corinne! Shit, it’s good to see you!” He gave her a hug. “How was the trip to Big Bear?”
“Just what I needed, thanks.”
“Wait a minute, what the fuck is this?” He exclaimed loudly and grabbed her hand. The glint from the sun hitting the diamond had caught his eye. Kevin was behind Corinne and smiled.
“No way! Are you ENGAGED?!”
Corinne had forgotten she was even wearing the ring. She wasn’t in any state of mind to notice it this morning; in fact she had almost blocked out the fact that Kevin had proposed last night.
Oh God…
“What is this? Did I hear that Corinne is engaged?” Nick appeared out of nowhere. He gasped as he saw AJ holding up Corinne’s finger sporting a huge rock.
“What? You don’t know, Bro? Isn’t this from you?” Alex seemed confused.
Nick shook his head. “No, I think I would know if I had gotten engaged, at least I hope I would. I’m guessing that my brother, Kevin here is the lucky one. Am I right, Kev?” Nick spat out the words “my brother”, his face red hot with anger. How the hell was Kevin engaged to his girlfriend? How the fuck did that happen?! He stormed off, looking for the nearest bartender.
“Kev?” AJ said and Kevin nodded.
Corinne saw Nick’s reaction and ran after him. She caught up with at the bar downing another beer.
“Nick, I can explain…” She pleaded. Oh God, Oh God, this wasn’t supposed to happen! She was supposed to talk to Nick first and break it to him gently. Shit, she didn’t even know she was even going to break up with him, if truth be told. Watching him standing there, her heart lurched, pounding wildly, knowing she was still incredibly in love with this man. Damn, if he didn’t look good… too good…
“Save it, woman. I’m in no mood to talk to you right now.” He said angrily, not even looking at her.
This was no good. She just had to explain to him what was going on with her and Kevin!
“Too bad, Carter, you are damn well going to talk to me—NOW!” She demanded.
Startled, he turned to look at her. Almighty God, she was breathtaking. Her brunette locks were pinned back, cascading down her back in lovely waves, her face was flushed with anger and her exquisite body was well accentuated in a sleeveless tight fitting blouse setting off her full breasts and jeans hugging her muscular buttocks. All he wanted to do right now was take her in his arms, tell her how much he loved her and that he would marry her. He would marry her right now if she would have him.
But Nick Carter was proud and showing her his vulnerability right now was a sign of weakness in his mind.
“God, you’ve turned bossy since you’ve been gone. Why don’t you go back to Big Bear?!” His words belied his true feelings; inside he was so happy she was back and standing there right in front him; close enough to touch and touch her he wanted to do so badly. Crush those ruby red lips against his own, envelope her in his strong arms and tell her everything was going to be okay because they were together again.
“That’s it. You’ve pissed me off now. Let’s go.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him into the nearest bedroom. She didn’t know whose bedroom it was, but at this very moment she didn’t care. She had things to say and he damn well was going to listen.
Nick was so startled by her tugging on his arm that he nearly spilled the beer he had been drinking. He allowed her to pull him into the bedroom and when she closed the door, he set down his beer and pushed her against it, his mouth ascending roughly on hers, his tongue searching for her own, finding it and caressing it all the while his hands roamed her body, tugging at the buttons at her breasts to free them.
“Nick!” Corinne pulled away and clasping her gaping neckline. “Don’t you give a shit that Kevin proposed to me! Or do you think sex will solve everything!”
Nick stood there and said, “Gee, thanks for reminding me of that, Corinne. I had fucking forgotten that one of my best friends proposed to you and you accepted! Yeah, that fact had escaped my mind!” Nick spat out angrily. He had gotten caught up in the moment, but had not suffered memory loss unfortunately.
“Nicky, I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.” Corinne collapsed to the floor and started sobbing. The tears racked her body and didn’t appear to want to let up anytime soon. Nick stood there, not knowing what to do. He wasn’t expecting this; damn it, she knew tears were no defense against him; he was useless when a woman cried…
Nick knelt beside her and took her into his arms, letting her cry it out. His heart was filled with an overwhelming love for this woman; there was no denying it. He had loved no other like her and probably never would.
Corinne finally regained control of her senses and dried her tears. “Sorry about that. I’m alright now.” She smiled weakly. They remained seated on the ground; Corinne’s back against the door; Nick’s against the bed.
“So, how was Big Bear?” Nick made a joke and Corinne laughed loudly.
She smiled at him through red eyes. “Thank you, Nicky, for that. I needed to laugh.” She blew him a kiss and he pretended to catch it.
“Well, Babe, you wanted to talk to me, go for it. It’s not like I’m getting away since you’re guarding the door.”
She laughed again. “That’s right. You’re not going anywhere, Mister until I explain what I’ve been going through the past few days. And I’ll try to make it brief as possible, but it could take a little while, so buckle up. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.”
Nick smiled at her and let her have the floor.
She told Nick just about everything; from the moment she arrived in Big Bear until the night she left; leaving out inconsequential details, but including the big ones like her smoking, drinking and her and Kevin IMing for two nights, her finding out about his infidelity last night, running into Chris and Celia and Kevin’s proposal. She did leave out the sex with Kevin, although, she was pretty sure he guessed that was a given.
“Wow, Corinne, I don’t know what to say. I guess we both screwed up.” Nick said finally. That was a lot to take in; he still had to digest it all.
“Yeah, but YOU screwed up first, Mister. I’m still pissed about that, by the way.”
Nick started get up to move to where she was and she said, “Uh, uh, uh. Stay put.”
Nick slunk back to his spot and said, “God, I just want to hold you right now, but okay. Baby, I am sooo sorry about that. I’m guessing Kevin told you all the gory details?”
Corinne nodded.
“Well, I’m sure he didn’t convey to you how incredibly sorry I was afterwards. He begged me to you, but I said I was going to think about it. And believe it or not, I had decided to tell you the truth. You may not believe me, but it’s true. I had planned to tell you as soon as I saw you, actually. I had no idea you were coming back a day early. I was thrilled to see you here until I heard AJ yelling about that damn ring and your engagement to Kevin. It came as quite a shock as you can imagine. Let me see it.”
Corinne held up her ring finger, but with her other hand, she made the “stop” sign, so he knew he couldn’t make another move towards her.
“So, where does this leave us? Are you going to marry Kevin?” Nick said quietly, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.
“Will you promise to never cheat on me again and mean it?” Corinne asked.
Nick’s heart leapt with hope. “Yes! I promise with all my heart, Baby. You would be the only person I ever make love to for the rest of my life! Does that mean what I think it means?” He asked, hopefully.
“Not so fast, Mister. I have a few conditions. Are you willing to marry me?”
“Yes!”
“Yes? You are?” She looked surprised. She thought that blow the entire deal.
“Yes! Just a second…” Nick remembered he had put something in his wallet wrapped in a velvet pouch so he wouldn’t forget it when he saw her. He fished it out and held it up.
Corinne gasped. “Is that what I think it is?’
“Yes, Baby. It’s for you if you want it.” Corinne couldn’t stop staring at the beautiful ring. Tears sprang into her eyes. He wanted to marry her. She was touched beyond belief. She knew that a very big deal for him.
“Yes, I want it, but what about the rest?”
“Oh, well, I guess I’m already sort of on my knees, but I’ll get there, just a sec…” On bended knee, Nick said, “I love you, Corinne. I want to marry you. Will you please marry me?”
Corinne threw herself at him excitedly, kissing him all over. “Yes! Yes!” It was the proposal she had truly wanted. Nick laughed at her display and felt immense love for this woman. “I love you so much, Nicky!” she gushed, kissing him.
“Oh, wait…” Corinne realized that she was wearing Kevin’s ring still. Oh, shit! What was she going to do? How was she going to break the news to Kevin that not only she was not going to marry him, but she was going to marry Nick!
“Don’t worry about it, Baby. Why don’t you let me hang onto it until you feel comfortable wearing it. We’ve got time.” Nick said and took the ring back from her. She smiled at him thankfully.
All of a sudden there was a knock on the door. “Corinne? Are you in there?” It was Kevin. Corinne panicked, but Nick motioned for her to answer him. It was time to face the music.
Both she and Nick stood up and Corinne opened the door.
“Oh, hi! I was looking for you! Is everything okay?” He noticed her red, tear-streaked eyes.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Hey, I need to talk to you. Can you come in here for a minute?”
Nick walked by them quietly and Corinne shut the door.
“Kevin, I’m going to be honest and upfront with you, okay?”
“I wish you would.”
“I can’t marry you. I don’t love you the way I should. I’m so sorry.”
“I get it, you love Nick.”
She looked down, not able to face him. “Yes…” she whispered.
“I guess I’ve known all along that you really loved him, but I had hoped…” He couldn’t get the words “you loved me more” out. He was too choked with emotion.
“I am truly sorry. You have been wonderful to me. I wish you the best and pray you find someone who truly deserves you. I never did.” She said, removed his ring and placed it in his hand. “It was a beautiful ring and a beautiful gesture. Thank you.” She kissed his cheek and walked past him towards the door. She then paused and turned around.
“Hey, when I first walked in today, Leighanne introduced me to a woman named Kristen. She told me that she had set you two up on a date. Did you know about that?”
Kevin smiled. “Actually, we went out the Sunday you left.”
“Really? And how did that go?”
Kevin laughed. “Really well actually, but I didn’t ask her out again because…”
“Because you wanted to pursue me, right? Well, it looks like our break-up could be a blessing in disguise. Go ask her out again and be happy.” Corinne smiled at him and walked out. Kevin smiled, too. His past just walked out, but he was eager to go see his future. He exited the room, went right up to Kristen and asked her if she would do him the honor of going out with him…
