Careless Mistake
by Kelli
Part 15
Early July 2004...
"I think it's supposed to be really hot today," Britney said as Rob got the stroller out of the van.
"Yeah, I can tell already," Justin said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "What do you expect, it's July in St. Louis."
He walked over to where Britney was standing, holding the baby while Rob opened up the stroller for them.
Mackenzie was looking around at all of the commotion going on around her. She was looking one way and Justin leaned down a little so that when she looked toward him he made a face at her, which made her giggle. She threw her body back and laughed, so Britney had to do some quick maneuvering so she didn't drop her.
"Mackenzie.....stop, you're becoming such a wiggle worm," she said, holding her head up with her free hand.
She set the baby down in the stroller and pulled the canopy over her head to shield her from the sun while Justin buckled her in. Justin pushed the stroller and Britney walked next to him as they headed toward the zoo entrance. Rob walked behind them, keeping a distance between them.
"I wonder sometimes if we could go to a place like this without Rob or Q...." Britney said softly so that Rob couldn't hear her. "I mean it's the middle of the week at the zoo....how many people are going to bug us?"
"It's not a chance I want to take with Mackenzie, Brit," he said.
"But I think they bring more attention to us....now people will look at us where before they might just ignore us because they thought we were just another adorable, cute family," she giggled.
He smiled at her. "Cute and adorable, huh? I think they would look then."
She kind of nudged his arm with her body.
"You know what I mean."
"I know but this isn't new to us....."
"But it's new with Mackenzie. I always feel like I want to shelter her from the media and I hate feeling that way."
He took one of his hands off of the stroller and put it around her back. "I know."
They walked into the zoo and Justin found a place to get a map so they pulled off to the side to look at it.
"Anything you want to see?" he asked, looking it over.
"Let's just go this way," she said, pointing toward the left of the map, "and see where it takes us...."
"Sounds good to me. What do you think Mackenzie?" he asked, folding the map up.
They heard her make a louder noise and they both laughed.
"I think she knows her name."
"Sure she does, she's a smart girl," Justin said, pulling the stroller back out onto the pathway.
They decided to go into the River's Edge which was where the elephants and hippos were. Mackenzie seemed to be enjoying herself but Justin and Britney were the one's who were really having fun.
When Mackenzie started to get fussy, Justin stopped pushing the stroller and they pulled over to the side where there was some shade.
"Maybe she's just hot," he said.
Britney knelt down and felt her. "She seems okay, considering how hot it is. She might be wet."
She reached in and unbuckled the belt and took her out. Mackenzie stopped fussing.
"Or maybe she just wanted to be held," Justin chuckled.
"Next restroom I want to go change her though."
Mackenzie reached over and grabbed a chunk of Britney's hair.
"Okay, don't pull too hard," she said, trying to remove the hair from her grasp.
They started to walk again and Mackenzie was "talking" more and more. They'd stop and look at one of the pits with the elephants and Mackenzie would get louder, which made a few people look over at them and smile. As far as they could tell only a few people recognized them.
Finally they reached the end of the River's End and there was a restroom. Justin went over and bought something for them to drink while Britney took Mackenzie and the diaper bag into the restroom. Rob stood outside the door to make sure Britney and the baby were fine.
"Your daughter is adorable," an elderly lady sitting at the next table said to him.
He smiled and turned to face her. "Thank you."
"How old is she?"
"She's just at four months."
"That's a fun age. I'm here with my daughter and grandson. He just turned two."
"Oh terrible age I hear," Justin kids as he chuckles.
The woman laughs. "Well yes, it usually is."
They're still continuing with their small talk when Britney rejoins him.
"Much better, daddy," Britney says as Mackenzie reaches out for him.
He grabs her and kisses her cheek. He holds her up in the air and bounces her around a little, which makes her laugh.
Britney sits down and takes a sip of the soda Justin bought.
"Margie is here with her grandson," Justin says, nodding his head toward the lady he had been conversing with.
"I was telling Justin how beautiful your little girl is," she said.
"Oh well thank you. This is her first time to the zoo," she laughed.
"I'm sure she's enjoying it. And you two seem to be enjoying it as well...."
"We are. It's amazing how you become a kid again when you're seeing things through a child's eyes."
Margie nodded. Her daughter and grandson joined her so they said goodbye and headed toward the pathway.
Britney leaned back against the table and watched as people walked by. Justin still had Mackenzie on his lap and they seemed to be doing fine.
"Where should we head next?" she asked, looking his way.
"Let's go toward the middle of the zoo, I think it's time for them to feed the seals."
"Oh that will be fun. Maybe Mackenzie will learn new noises from them," she laughed.
"Just what we need a four month old sounding like a seal," Justin said as they both stood up.
"You want to put her back?" Britney asked, moving the stroller around.
"No, I'm fine holding her."
They found the ponds with the seals and watched as they were fed. They were noisy indeed and it made Mackenzie squeal even louder than she normally does. She started to wave her arms up and down, which made Justin and Britney laugh.
"I'm starving," Britney said, rubbing her stomach.
"Watching all that fish being thrown to the seals made you hungry?" Justin teased as he put Mackenzie back into her stroller.
"Yeah, totally," Britney said, rolling her eyes.
They found a place to grab a hot dog and some chips and sat down under a shade tree overlooking a pond in the middle of the zoo.
"This is nice," Britney said, looking at Justin.
He looked over at her and smiled. "Yes it is."
"Why do you have to go on tour?" she pouted.
He chuckled and reached over to touch her cheek. "I thought the same thing before you went on your tour. It will be okay, just wait and see."
"How?"
"You'll be done with your tour....so you and Mackenzie come out on the road with me."
He glanced down at Mackenzie who was now sleeping.
"But what if I already had plans?"
He quickly looked back up at her. "You do? I didn't know that. When we looked at our schedules before yours was free when I was touring..."
She almost smiled at how sad and shocked he looked. "No, I said what if. I mean I think there are a couple of things that will take me back to LA. A commercial and something else," she said with a flick of her wrist.
"Well two times out of three months isn't bad," he said before taking another bite.
"It's not fair for us to hire a nanny...." she said, staring at the picnic table.
"We have to do something, Brit....I'm going to have rehearsals in a few weeks and I won't be here again....."
She shut her eyes. "I know...."
"So why isn't it fair?" he asked.
She opened her eyes and looked at him again. "Because there really isn't much time in between your rehearsals and then me being done with my tour. We'll only need one for a few weeks and look at how far we've survived without one."
"Just interview with this woman....for me?"
"But you haven't even talked to her...."
"If I like her?" he gave her a pleading look.
She stuck her lower lip out, which he couldn't resist so he leaned down and gently kissed her, suckling on her lower lip before pulling away.
"Doing that won't change my mind," she said smiling.
He laughed. "I didn't do that to change your mind I did it because I wanted to kiss you."
By the time they're finished eating Mackenzie woke up with a scream.
"Uh oh, someone's hungry," Britney said as she starts to get the bottle out of the bag.
"I'll go see if they sell milk," Justin said before going back into the snack shop.
Britney picks up the still crying Mackenzie and tries to calm her down.
"Bingo," Justin said when he comes back with a small carton of milk.
He opens it and pours it into the bottle. By now Mackenzie's face is red, nothing Britney did could make her stop crying.
"She's going to be a singer," Justin said proudly as he handed Britney the bottle.
"Why do you say that?" she laughed and put the nipple in Mackenzie's mouth.
"She's got good lungs....I could hear her all the way in there," he said, nodding his head toward the snack shop.
Britney laughed and wiped away a tear that was near the corner of Mackenzie's eye.
"Poor baby," she said, leaning down and kissing her cheek.
Mackenzie only blinked as she stared at her mom while being fed.
They were able to walk through about another half of the zoo when they decided that Mackenzie had had enough, so they headed back to the car.
"That was fun," Britney said as she buckled the baby into the car seat.
"Yeah, I'm glad we had another day here. I've always loved St. Louis," Justin said looking around the parking lot.
"Hey, is Nelly in town?" Britney kidded.
Justin laughed. "Actually........I have no idea. I could give him a call," he said scratching his chin.
Britney turned around and pulled on his shirt so he moved in closer to her.
"No way....you're mine tonight. We leave early in the morning so I'm taking advantage of your company as long as I can."
She leaned up and kissed his lips. Rob cleared his throat so Justin pulled away and laughed.
"I guess that's our cue to leave."
When they got back to the hotel Mackenzie was asleep again so Justin laid her down in her crib.
"So....what are we going to do with the rest of the day?" Justin asked as he sat down next to Britney on the couch.
"Well....." she said, turning toward him. "Let's pick a subject to talk about....just like we used to."
Justin laughed. "Oh yeah, I remember that. Let's see.....let's talk about our future."
Britney's face grew serious. "Really?"
He nodded as he took her hand. "Yeah. I mean we made up yesterday but what does it really mean?"
"It means I'm with you, heart, mind and soul....what else is there to talk about?"
His eyes softened when she said that. "How many more children we're going to have.....when we're going to have them...."
Britney's eyes got big and Justin laughed. "I'm kidding, Brit."
"Oh okay," she laughed. "I mean I just got back into shape after Mackenzie...."
He leaned down and kissed her. They kissed for a little bit and when they pulled apart Justin asked something that had been on his mind.
"Brit? Remember when you were going to tell me how you felt about me yesterday and you started the conversation about that guy?"
"Yeah?"
"What were you going to say about him?"
"I was going to say that one of the dancers pointed him out to me and when I realized what a nice guy he was and that he was pretty accepting of Mackenzie...." Justin tensed up, "that I looked at him differently....or tried to," she corrected herself. "But that it only made me think of you. You were the only right choice for me."
"But of course I jumped to conclusions and didn't let you finish," he said, running a hand through his curls. "Stupid me, we could have made up a lot sooner," he chuckled.
Britney laughed. "Yeah well.....actually I wasn't too sure of how you felt either."
"What do you mean?"
"Well when I started to explain things to you, you seemed excited and then there was a way you said something," she said, trying to think back. "Oh yeah, it was when I mentioned that guy, you wondered if you were going to like the story and suddenly it dawned on me that you could mean that in the opposite way I thought."
"Like you thought I didn't want to hear that you wanted to get back together with me?" he chuckled.
"Right. I was thinking one way and suddenly I doubted that you were thinking along the same lines I was...."
"So that's why you got so quiet," he smiled at her.
"Yeah," she shrugged. "I thought communication was something we were supposed to be working on," she said, rubbing the back of his hand with her thumb.
"It will take time, but we'll get better at it."
"There is something that I know we don't have to get better at," she said moving in closer to him.
He smiled right before her lips reaches his. "Really?"
She nodded and when she did, her lips barely brushed his. She licked her lips and in doing so, licked his as well.
"Really."
Her mouth closed over his.
