Chapter Two
He wasn’t quite sure why he was so nervous, though as he drove the airport, he felt butterflies way down in his stomach. The phone call from Aunt Elisabeth had come as a surprise to him. He’d truly expected her to call him and tell him to forget the whole thing, that Kate would be staying home in Pennsylvania. But that had not been the case.
While Aunt Elisabeth seemed to think that per haps Chris was not cut out for the job, Uncle George thought that perhaps he was just what Kate needed. And Kate… well, she’d been overjoyed at the news. He hoped that he’d not made a mistake with this, but he truly felt that having her come to stay with him was the right decision.
He’d just have to wait and see though.
When he pulled up to the entrance of the airport, he threw the car into park and turned in the seat to grab the ball cap out of the back. He slid it down over his eyes and undid his seat belt before climbing from the car. Pressing the button to lock the vehicle, he shoved his keys into his pocket and headed inside, anxious to find Kate and get the hell out.
He headed inside, tugging the hat down even more over his eyes, praying that he would not be recognized. While he didn’t mind autograph sessions, getting mauled in the middle of an airport was not his idea of exciting. He paused slightly to check and see the status of her flight, and was pleased to see that it had just landed. He quickly found his way to the correct gate and sank down onto one of the hard plastic chairs as he waited for her.
It wasn’t long until the brunette appeared, her eyes wide as she glanced around, no doubt in search of her cousin. Not wishing to draw attention to himself, Chris stood and made his way over to her quietly. “Hey there lady, ready to get out of here?”
At the sound of the voice, Kate spun, her eyes wide, though her features immediately softened when she recognized her cousin. “Chris!” She threw her arms around her neck, burying her face against him as she squeezed tightly. “You have no idea how much it means to me that you’re letting me stay with you,” she said, pulling away to glance up at him, a genuine smile on her face.
“I think I have an idea,” he said with a wink as he dropped an arm around her shoulder. “You want to grab your things and get out of here?” He asked.
She nodded, offering him a smile as the two headed towards baggage claim. “Are we going to your house when we leave here?” She asked hopefully.
“I’ve got to stop by the studio first,” he said. “It’s on the way though. I’ve just got to drop some stuff off for the other guys.”
“Oh,” she said with a slight bob of her head. “That’s my bag there,” she said, pointing to the little black bag.
“That’s all you brought?”
“Well yeah,” she said with a nod. “Mom said if I needed anything else, she’d send it.”
“Cool,” Chris said with a nod, stepping forward to grab the black bag before turning back to his cousin. “Let’s hit the road, kiddo.” Reaching the car, Chris popped the trunk and dropped her little black case and carry-on in before slamming the lid. He rounded the car and climbed into the driver’s seat as Kate pulled her seatbelt down over her chest. He glanced over at her, offering her a smile. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“I’m glad I’m here too,” she said with a nod as she leaned back against her seat, having a content sigh.
~*~
Pulling into the parking lot of the studio, Chris threw the car into park and flipped his sun visor down, grabbing the papers he’d tucked under it. “You going to stay in the car?”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’ll come in with you,” she said with a smile. “I’ve never been inside of a place like this before.”
“C’mon then,” he said, offering her a smile in return. “I’ll show you around inside.”
Unbuckling her seat belt, Kate pushed the door open and climbed out, tucking her hair behind her ears. Closing the door to the car, Kate waited until Chris had rounded the vehicle and then she fell into step beside him, her hands slightly clammy.
She’d never met her cousin’s friends before, and while she wasn’t sure that they’d all be in the studio, she was sure she was bound to run into one or two of them. She just wished she’d thought to put on a bit of lip gloss beforehand! “How often are you guys here?”
“Well, it depends,” he said with a shrug as they made their way to the entrance. “When we’re recording, we’re here nearly every day. And now, we’re here quite a bit because we’re getting ready for a tour, but it’s a different part of the building.”
“Oh,” she said with a slight nod. As the two stepped through the large doors of the building, Kate’s eyes widened. “Wow,” she said, looking around. “How do you not get lost in this place?”
“Eh,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. “You get used to it,” he said, dropping an arm around her shoulder. “C’mon, we’ll drop this stuff off then I’ll take ya out to lunch.”
“Pizza Hut?”
“Sure,” he said with a nod. “If that’s what you want.”
Offering her cousin a bright smile, Kate fell into step beside him, glancing around in amazement as they made their way through the building. “Through there is the lounge,” Chris said, pointing to the empty room across the hallway from the recording studio.
“Are you ever in there?” Kate asked.
“Not much,” he said with a shrug. “JC’s kind of a slave driver, so when we’re here, we don’t have much leisure time.”
“Are you telling lies on me again?”
Glancing up at the sound of the voice, Kate found herself face to face with the most beautiful pair of blue eyes she’d ever seen in her life.
“Nah, would I do that?” Chris asked, feigning innocence.
“Yeah, pretty much,” JC responded with a nod. Turning his attention to Kate, JC’s lips slid into a lazy smile that caused the corners of his eyes to crinkle. “You must be the famous Kate.”
“Well, I don’t really know about the ‘famous’ part, but I’m Kate,” she said with a nod, returning his smile tenfold. Seeing that he’d extended his hand, Kate slipped her much smaller one into his palm, shaking daintily.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Kate. You’re all Chris has talked about over these last couple of days.”
“He’s lying. I was never that bad and I’ve always been his favorite,” she said, offering her cousin a cheeky smile.
“Relax, brat. I haven’t told him anything bad,” he said with a shake of his head. “But your lucky, because booooy do I have some stories! Like the one time when you thought it would be fun to run around na—“
Clamping her hand over Chris’s mouth, Kate silenced him quickly, a slight reddish tint covering her cheeks. “What Chris is TRYING to say is that I’ve always been such a pleasant little girl.”
Snorting behind her hand, Chris made a show of rolling his eyes and prying her palm from his mouth. “Yeah,” he said. “Something like that.” Shaking his head, Chris straightened up just a bit before turning his attention back to JC. “Where’s everyone else?”
“They took the day off,” JC said with a shrug. “Didn’t bother me any. I had some stuff I wanted to play around with so I decided to come in.”
“Oh,” Chris said, frowning ever so slightly. “I was kind of hoping to introduce Kate to everyone, but whatever. There’s plenty of time for that, I suppose.”
With a nod, JC’s eyes floated back over to Kate. “So are you excited about hanging out here for awhile?”
“Oh yeah,” she said with a nod. “I miss Chris when he’s not around, so it’ll be nice to spend some time with him.”
Offering his cousin a grin, Chris dropped an arm around her shoulder once more, drawing her to his side. “Well,” he said, turning back to JC. “We’re not here for long. I just wanted to drop this stuff off though,” he said, handing the papers to JC.
“Thanks man,” JC said, folding the papers and slipping them into his back pocket. “I was hoping you still had these.”
“Are we on for tomorrow then?”
“Yep,” JC said with a nod. “Nine o’clock. Wade said he was going to kick anyone’s ass who was late.”
“I’m shaking in my boots,” Chris said with a roll of his eyes. “You ready to go eat, kiddo?” He asked Kate.
“Yup,” she said with a nod.
“We’re going to Pizza Hut,” Chris told JC. “You want to come along?”
“Eh, I don’t know about that,” JC said, with a slight shake of his head. “I’ve got a lot of work to do and—“
“C’mon,” he said. “You’ve got to eat some time. It won’t kill you to take a break.”
“I guess I could probably go,” he said with a shrug, before he turned his attention to Kate, offering her that lazy smile once more. “Is it okay with you if I tag along?”
With a slight shrug, Kate offered him a smile in return. “Doesn’t matter to me,” she said. “You look like you could use a slice of pizza or six.”
Tossing Chris a look, JC laughed lightly as he cocked an eyebrow at Kate. “I do, huh?”
Immediately realizing that perhaps she should not have said that, her cheeks reddened for the second time that day. “Oops,” she said, offering a nervous little laugh.
“It’s cool,” JC said with a quiet chuckle. “Let me just clean up here and then I’ll be good to go.”
As JC stepped back into the recording studio to clean up, Chris and Kate followed so that he could show her around. “This is where we do our recording,” he said, and Kate had to fight to keep from “duh-ing” him.
“Are you in here much?”
“Not right now,” JC chimed in. “We’re getting ready for our tour, so most of our rehearsals are done in the dance studio down the hall.”
“How long do you practice?”
“It depends,” Chris said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Sometimes, if we’re having a good day, we’re two hours, tops. But on other days, it’s an all day thing.”
“Oh,” she said, with a slight nod. She glanced back up with a smile when JC announced that he was ready to go, and while she’d not gotten a chance to see the whole building, she was quite ready to go.
Allowing the two men to take the lead, Kate followed behind, humming quietly to herself as she glanced around at the different photos hanging on the wall. While she was quite aware of who her cousin was, she’d never really been apart of his public life. Getting to see Chris from this perspective was quite exciting for her. She just hoped that things worked out.
~*~
Having finished their lunch, Kate slid from the booth and followed Chris quietly to the register while he paid. Once everything was taken care of, the trio exited the building and headed to their vehicles.
“Well Miss Kate,” JC said, offering the younger woman a smile. “It was nice to finally meet you.”
“You too,” she said sincerely, a genuine smile on her face.
“Thanks for letting me tag along.”
“No problem man,” Chris said with a shrug. “So tomorrow at nine, right?”
“Right,” JC said with a nod. “I’ll see ya then,” he said, clapping a hand on his friend’s shoulder good-naturedly before climbing into his car.
Sliding into the passenger seat of Chris’s car, Kate turned to lay the left over pizza in the back seat before pulling her seatbelt down over her chest.
“Did you have fun?” Chris asked as he climbed in, tugging his own seatbelt down over his chest.
“I did,” she said with a nod. “Thanks so much for the pizza.”
“No problem kid,” he said with a smile. “You think you’re going to like it here?”
“I know I will,” she said with a nod. “I don’t think I can thank you enough for letting me come and stay with you.”
“You don’t have to thank me,” he said. “Just as long as you’re happy.”
“I am,” she said with a firm nod. The two lapsed into a comfortable silence as Chris drove. It wasn’t long before he pulled into the long driveway of his home, and Kate’s stomach gave an excited squirm. She’d been to his house a few times before, and she absolutely loved it.
“Here we are,” Chris announced as he threw the car into park and killed the engine. He unbuckled his seatbelt and stepped out of the car, rounding it to the trunk while Kate grabbed the pizza and climbed out. “Here,” he said, digging into his pocket and removing his house key. “Go on and unlock the door. I’ll grab your stuff.”
“Alright,” she said, accepting the key from his hand before heading up the walkway to the porch. She unlocked the front door and headed for the kitchen to deposit the pizza. Humming quietly, she returned to the foyer and saw that Chris had come in with her things. “Which room should I take?” She asked.
“Either,” he said with a shrug. “You can go on up and pick out a room, but after that, I want you to call your mom and let you know you got here okay.”
Though Kate’s mood had been quite enjoyable throughout the course of their afternoon, he didn’t miss the way her eyes flashed angrily at the mention of her mother. He said a silent prayer that things would not escalate and was pleased when she merely offered him a curt nod.
“Fine,” she said, grabbing her things and turning quickly, hurrying up the steps.
Waiting until she was out of sight, Chris headed into the living room and dropped onto the sofa, heaving a gentle sigh. While things had gone quite well with Kate, he knew that things were bound to change once they settled into a routine. He just hoped he was ready for it.
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