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Chapter 7
"Don't forget to get some maraschino cherries," Promise instructed. Grace nodded, rolling her eyes. She would never understand Promise's obsession of those things.
"You don't forget," she said. "They're your cravings."
"There's no need to be hostile," Promise said.
"Let's just shop," Grace suggested. The two separated, each taking a half of the aisles in the mini market. Grace proceeded to turn the corner, but she was cut off when a hard as rock chest slammed against her, and she stumbled backwards. She would have fallen, except two warm hands held her arms up and righted her. She looked up, and her eyes widened.
"I'm so sorry," AJ McLean apologized. "That was really my fault. I wasn't looking where I was going." He dropped his hands and shoved them in the pockets of his khaki shorts. Her eyes were fixed on his sparkling brown ones. She was very aware of his tight black wife beater, or rather, what it barely covered. He was too sexy.
"I'm Grace," she informed him, holding her hand out. He withdrew his left hand from a pocket and grasped hers. Her knees weakened.
"Nice to meet you, Grace," he said, smiling warmly at her. "I'm AJ."
"The well known AJ," she added, her eyes sparkling. He grinned.
"OH, so you know who I am?" he joked. She laughed.
"How can I not?" she replied. "My sister is in love with Brian."
"I can get her his autograph," he offered. "Maybe he'll even give her a hug."
"How old do you think she is?" Grace laughed. "She's my twin."
"Well, THAT was embarrassing," he said, ducking his head.
"Don't fret it," she assured him, smiling.
"Well, I know Brian will find your twin absolutely beautiful," he said.
"How do you know that?" she asked, laughing.
"Because usually what I find beautiful, he finds gorgeous, and since she looks like you, she has to be beautiful."
Grace smiled widely. AJ McLean was flirting with her. Faith would lose her mind when she found out that Brian was on the same island as her.
"Is Leighanne with you guys?" she asked, then turned red. "I'm sorry, that was a little too inquisitive, wasn't it?"
"Not at all, in fact, if I may," he said, leaning in close to her ear. "I think Brian's a little sick of her. He's been really depressed lately, and when me and Howie asked him about it, he let on that it's about Leighanne. Now if that's not sick of her, what else is it?"
Grace's spirits soared. Not only did Faith actually have a new found chance with the man she loved, but AJ was letting her in on a Backstreet secret upon knowing her for about five minutes!
"Wow, that's deep," she remarked. "Soap opera potential."
"Seriously," he agreed. "I mean, he's supposed to marry this woman! What's going to come out of it?"
Grace couldn't believe he was talking to her like they were old friends. He immediately made her feel included. She felt like she could say anything to him and he'd take it like she meant it. He was treating her like more than a fan.
"So, Grace, I'm very intrigued by you," he said. "How long are you staying in Maui?"
"The whole summer, you?"
"Brian's depression rubbed off on the rest of us. I mean, how often is HE gloomy? He's the one that keeps us in check, being on the road all the time. Now that something's up with him, it kind of made us miserable along with him. So management thought we need some, well no, a lot of time off, so here we are for the summer," he explained. "You've gotta love our management team, they ship us off when we have problems. Don't bother helping us, talking to us, just send us away. I think they might have wanted some time away from us."
Grace laughed. "How anyone could get sick of you guys is beyond me."
"We get sick of each other all the time," he said, shrugging. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "We were sick of Leighanne, too."
She wondered why he was whispering, unless Brian was around.
"The rest of you were sick of her?" she asked, and her eyebrow rose.
"Like I said, our attitudes and emotions rub off on each other. We were sick of her, so that must be why Brian grew bored with her. She's not exactly an interesting conversation in the making," he said. "In fact, she's as boring as toast. As dumb as a box of rocks."
Grace's eyes widened. AJ, upon seeing her look, laughed.
"Yes, it's that bad, dear Grace."
"I never imagined life wasn't great with the Backstreet gang," she mused.
"We don't lead perfect lives," he reminded her.
"Oh, I know that," she said. "I just thought, if Brian's getting married, he was happy, and you guys liked his fiancée."
"We'll get it all worked out," he said, shrugging. "Don't worry about it."
"Would you like to walk with me?" Grace invited. "I have to shop for food to stock our condo, and I'm afraid Promise would be upset if I met up with her empty handed. Of course, if you had to be somewhere, then I understand."
He fell into step beside her. "That's the great thing about this. We don't have a schedule at all. We have no plans. It's the first time in a while that we can do things on the spur of the moment."
Grace saw a cart of pineapples and grabbed some, thinking it would be fun to have the guys over to their large condo for a picnic on the beach.
"So besides all the confusion with Brian's hopelessness, how is being a Backstreet Boy?" she asked.
"It's awesome. It really it," he said happily. She smiled at his cheerfulness.
"I'll stop it right there," she said. "I know you're supposed to be getting a break from interviews, and I feel like I'm being too quizzical."
"You're not," he assured her. "There's a difference between being recorded, and someone just wanting to know."
"Oh, then I should turn off my mini-corder?" she asked innocently.
He laughed and gazed at her from overtop his dark sunglasses as she plucked a carton of milk and a jug of water from a cooler on the ground. Then she straightened and he flicked them back up and pretended to be looking somewhere else. She was very appealing, and he wanted to see her again.
As if she read his mind, Grace spoke up.
"I was thinking," she said. "Do you want to bring the rest of the guys and have a picnic with me and my friends tonight? I thought it would be fun, you know, with five guys and five girls, there's always someone to talk to."
He smiled easily at her. "I'll run it by the guys. I think they'll say yes, just because they don't have to write it in a little black book kept by our managers a week ahead of time, but they'll really have fun."
"Okay," she said. "Then just call me when you ask them. I still have to ask everyone else too, and get lots of food, because I KNOW the path to a man's heart is straight through his stomach."
AJ felt like she needed no food to get to his heart, but aloud he said, "It holds true with us."
Grace smiled, and he grinned back. Then, snapping out of it, she said, "So I'll give you the number, and you call when you get word."
Taking a pen out of her purse, she shook her head when he stuck his hand out palm up. She carefully wrote the number on his skin, laughing when he told her it tickled.
"I'll call you, I promise," he said. "And sorry again for running into you."
"I'm glad you ran into me," she smiled. She never once thought that he was one of those guys that never called.
"Ahhh," he sighed. "'Bumping into Love'." He was teasing, but Grace still felt on cloud nine as she watched him stroll away. She finished what was on her list in a daze and went to find Promise dreamily.
"I saw you talking to that hot guy," Promise said.
"He's so nice, too, seeing how he's famous," Grace replied. Promise stopped and turned around.
"How is he famous?" she asked.
"He's a Backstreet Boy," Grace explained.
"That is SO cool!" Promise exclaimed. "Does Faith know the Backstreet Boys are here?"
Grace shrugged. "I don't know how she would, since we've been here less than a day, but maybe she does. You never know with her."
"She'll be beyond excited when she finds out."
"Yeah…oh, hey," Grace began. "Let's have a picnic on the part of the beach on front of the condo tonight. We'll build a fire and play some music, because you know what?" She continued without waiting for Promise's guess. "I invited the Backstreet Boys, and AJ said they'll come. I even gave him our phone number."
"Wow, you guys got real close," Promise observed. She grinned at Grace knowingly.
"We didn't get close, we just became friends, you know?" Grace replied.
"Maybe you'll grow into more than that," Promise offered. Grace nodded.
"I wouldn't mind at all," she laughed. "Not only is he incredibly sexy, but he's such a down-to-earth guy, too."
"So back to the picnic," Promise said. "What kind of stuff do you eat in Hawaii?"
"I don't live in Hawaii, how am I to know?" Grace said. "Let's just eat steak. You can eat steak anywhere. And all men love steak, right?"
Finding Grace's logic reasonable, Promise grinned and nodded. She pointed out the steak bones in her hand woven basket.
The friends carefully planned out the whole menu, buying everything from
potato chips to pasta salad. Then they walked back to their condo and spread
everything out on the counter in the kitchen. Faith returned and helped them
put the food away, and she made no mention as to whether she knew the man
she was in love with was in Maui or not. Grace and Promise didn't say anything
either, they were too busy planning the picnic.
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