Chapter 13

Emily had been working for Brian for two months and felt like she finally was used to the fame. There was never any more mention of her in the tabloid, mainly because she was never seen in public with Brian or AJ. No one knew who Baylee was if it was just the two of them. The tour schedule was insane. Brian’s album had been released and was a big success. He was balancing a promotional tour of his own along with a few concerts with the Boys. Leighanne was currently in Paris for two weeks and Emily was left at home with Baylee. The two were getting along very well and Emily was having a blast taking care of him.

“Baylee are you ready to go visit Daddy this weekend?” she asked.

“Yeah! Where are we going?”

“We’re going to meet him in Orlando. Do you know where that is?’

“That’s where Uncle AJ and Uncle Howie live!! Do we get to visit them too?”

“Yes, Uncle AJ will be there along with Uncle Kevin, Uncle Howie and Uncle Nick.”

“Will Mommy be there too?”

“No Sweetie, Mommy is in Paris! Remember I showed you that picture of Paris?”

“Yeah. I miss her though.”

“I know you do, but she’ll be back before you know it!”

Brian had called her this morning with the final travel arrangements for the weekend. The tour was going to be going to Orlando and then they had 3 days off before heading out west. The plan was for Emily to meet him before the show for Baylee’s favorite part, the sound checks. Then she would take him back to the hotel before the concert started where Brian would join them as soon as it was over. Emily had never taken a child anywhere by herself before and was feeling a little anxious about it as she began packing Baylee’s suitcase.

A few days later, it was time for them to leave. She got Baylee to the airport with almost no problems. He was mad because he didn’t want to ride in his car seat, but he just wasn’t big enough to go without it. They got onto the plane without any problems and were just getting seated when a flight attendant asked Baylee if he would like to go visit the pilot.

“Really?” Baylee got excited.

“Sure!” Emily said.

They followed the attendant into the cock-pit where the pilot introduced himself and showed Baylee how he steered the plane and talked on the radio. Then he gave Baylee his own set of wings to pin to his shirt.

“I gotta show these to Daddy!” he exclaimed.

“He’ll be so jealous! I’m jealous too!” Emily said as they took their seats again.

Their flight was quick and Baylee was growing more excited by the minute. She was sure that he must have annoyed everyone around him on the plane with his constant chit-chat. Emily led him down to the baggage claim area to get their bags. Emily spotted their suitcases coming.

“Baylee, Miss. Emily is going to go get your bag. You stand right behind me and don’t move, ok?”

“Ok.” Baylee agreed.

Emily bent down to get their bags and turned back to him.

“Ok Bay….” He wasn’t there.

“BAYLEE!” she called.

Still nothing. She scanned the crowed.

“He was just here! He couldn’t have gone far!” she said. “Unless someone took him…..”

Chapter 14

“Oh my God! BAYLEE!” she called. She couldn’t find him anywhere. She was starting to panic now, barely able to catch her breath, her heart pounding in her ears.

She had just spotted a security guard and was on her way over to him for help when she heard a dog bark. Looking over at the dog, she saw him. He was sitting down next to the dog, petting its head.

Emily hurried over to him. “Baylee! I told you to stay right behind me! You scared me to death!”

Baylee looked at her for a minute. “You’re not dead, Miss. Emily.”

“I will be when your father finds out I almost lost you.” She muttered under her breath.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing Baylee, come on, we have to get going.”

Emily found the van that was parked outside waiting for them. She got Baylee buckled in and sat back to catch her breath. She was still incredibly shaken up and had to keep covering her mouth for fear of throwing up in the van in front of Baylee. When they arrived at the venue, they were quickly escorted inside and Baylee quickly located Brian and went running up to him. Emily followed behind him.

“DADDY!”

“Hi Baylee!” Brian scooped him up.

“Look! I got pilot wings!”

“You did? Oh you’re so lucky! I’ve always wanted pilot wings!”

Baylee giggled. “Daddy,” he whispered “I think Miss. Emily is mad at me.”

Brian’s faced changed to a serious look, glancing her way before asking, “Why do you think that?”

“Because when she was getting my suitcase, I went to say hi to a puppy and then she came up and said I scared her to death!”

Emily quickly explained what happened and followed it up with profuse apologies.

Brian looked at her white face and knew that she was still scared to death.

“It’s ok, Emily. He does that to me all the time. Next time you’ll just be more careful. Now why don’t you go relax while I take Baylee to get some lunch?”

After they left, Emily sat down on a bench outside the hospitality room and closed her eyes.

“Emily? Are you ok?”

“Oh God…it’s AJ.” She thought.

She looked up at him and started to say something, but before she could, she jumped up and ran into the bathroom.

“Was it something I said?” AJ said to no one as he ran after her. He cracked the bathroom door open.

“Emily, everything ok?”

Her reply was simply to vomit into the toilet.

“Ew! Can I get you anything?” God, I hate puke! He thought to himself.

More vomit.

“I’ll be right outside if you need me, ok?”

Still more vomit.

After about ten minutes, she emerged from the bathroom looking pale and sweaty. Please don’t let him be out there! She thought to herself.

AJ was still there as promised. “Sit here, I’m going to get you some water.” He said, leading her back to the bench.

AJ went into the hospitality room. “Is there any bottled water left?”

“I took the last one.” Brian answered.

“Sorry, it’s an emergency!” AJ grabbed Brian’s water and took off.

Baylee giggled.

“Here Em, drink this.” AJ handed her Brian’s water.

Emily took a few sips. “Thanks, AJ. God, now I’m thoroughly mortified.”

“Don’t be embarrassed, everybody pukes!”

“Not in front of you, they don’t!”

AJ laughed. “You got a complex about me?”

“No…”

Brian came out looking for his water. “AJ, what the hell, why’d you take my drink?”

Emily looked at her water, then back up at Brian.

“Sorry, Emily needed it.”

Brian looked at Emily, who was still looking a bit green. “You ok, Emily?”

“I’m fine. Just wasn’t feeling so good.”

“Baylee?” he asked her.

“Yeah. I held it back the whole van ride over here.”

“What did Baylee do to her?” AJ asked quietly.

Brian told him about how she thought she lost him at the airport.

“Shit! No wonder she puked her eyeballs out! It would have scared the piss out of me!”

“You sure you’re ok, Emily?” Brian asked, concerned.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

Brian went back to Baylee and AJ sat next to her.

“Jesus, you must have been scared to death!” he said.

“You have no idea! After all those warnings about watching him more closely because of crazy fans, all I could think was that someone had snatched him.” As she remembered it, she had the sudden urge to vomit again and ran back into the bathroom, nearly knocking Kevin over.

“Baylee?” he asked AJ.

“Yep.” AJ replied.

Chapter 15

Emily took Baylee back to the hotel and convinced him to watch a movie. It gave her opportunity to rest and kept him occupied. He had refused to take a nap, but she was hoping he might fall asleep during the movie. No such luck, unfortunately.

“God, Brian what did you feed him for lunch, pure sugar?” she thought to herself as she was trying to keep Baylee from jumping on the bed.

“Baylee, stop jumping on the bed! You might fall and hurt yourself.”

“Can I color?”

“Yes, you may color.” Emily got out his paper and crayons and set him up at the desk.

After dinner, Baylee was beginning to get tired and very cranky. Emily gave up trying to get him to go to bed because he was determined to wait up to see his dad. Emily went to the bathroom and came out to find Baylee jumping on the bed again.

“Baylee, I asked you to stop doing that, it’s dangerous!”

“I don’t want to!” Baylee said as he kept jumping.

“Baylee, I don’t want to have to ask you again! Now stop right now.”

“NO!”

Emily sighed as she walked over to the bed and grabbed him, placing him in a time-out. Baylee was not at all happy about this and refused to stay his three minutes. Emily would not give in and kept placing him back every time he left. They were still continuing their battle, Baylee was still screaming and crying, Emily running out of composure, when Brian walked in.

“What’s going on?” he asked, taking in the scene in front of him.

“She’s being mean to me!” Baylee said, pointing to Emily.

“Baylee was jumping on the bed and I kept asking him to stop but he didn’t want to, so I took him to time-out and then he decided he didn’t want to stay there.” He better not back down on me and rescue Baylee, Emily thought. She hated it when parents came in and undermined her authority.

Brian got a very stern look on his face. “Baylee, Daddy is very disappointed with you. I want you to go to your time-out right now and stay there until I come and get you. Do you understand me, young man?”

Baylee’s dramatic tantrum immediately stopped when he saw how serious his father was. He went straight to the corner and sat down, not making a sound except for the occasional sniffle. Brian led Emily into the other room.

“I’m sorry Emily. I’ll talk to him tonight.”

“It’s ok, he’s just really tired. I couldn’t get him to take a nap and couldn’t get him to go to bed. He was too excited to see you. I’m sure he’ll be better mannered tomorrow.”

“Listen, you’ve had a hell of a day and Leighanne told me to make sure to give you the weekend off!” he smiled.

“You don’t have to do that, I know you’re busy.”

“I’m not too busy for my son. It’s not just because my wife told me to, I was actually going to give you the weekend off anyway. My mom is coming for a visit tomorrow morning and we might take Baylee to Disney World or something fun.”

“Oh that sounds like a lot of fun! Please don’t hesitate to call if something comes up.”

“I promise I will, but I don’t think I’d be able to pry my mother away even if I had to leave!” Brian joked.

“She’s a proud Grandmother, what do you expect?”

“Nothing less, that’s for sure.”

Brian went to get Baylee and had a short talk with him before coming back in.

“Baylee has something he would like to say.” Brian said.

“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you, Miss. Emily.”

“Thank you, Baylee.” Emily said. “I’m going to go now; can I have a hug goodbye?”

Baylee gave Emily a big hug. “Do I get to stay with Daddy?”

“You sure do! Make sure to have lots of fun for me, ok?”

“I will!” Baylee had cheered up a lot with this news.

Emily said goodbye to Brian and went to her own room.

She had just changed into her pajamas and was about to go to bed when there was a knock on her door. She looked through the peep-hole and knew who it was as soon as she saw those brown eyes looking back at her.