"George, can I talk to you?"

George stops unloading some equipment off of his bus and turns to look at me. "Sure."

"Have you talked to Brad's mom about coming to the show tomorrow?"

He scratches his chin. "I just talked to her again yesterday."

"And?"

He shakes his head. "She won't budge. Don't worry, I have a plan that one of my nephew's is supposed to help me with."

I smile. "Good, I hope it works. I just can't believe that she wouldn't want to see her son perform. Is there more to it that I don't know?"

He lays a hand on my shoulder. "No, she's just like that. Trust me, she wants to see her son play so badly but as I'm sure Brad has told you, like the first five times she saw him play at different places weird things happened to family members."

I nod. "Yeah he told me."

"So, she quit coming…she said she was jinxing the family," he softly chuckled.

"How long has it been since she's seen him?"

He shrugs. "A few years I guess." He looks behind me. "Hey."

"Hi guys," Brad says, walking up behind me.

"Hey."

"I thought you'd be with your family."

"They're getting settled in the room," I nod over at the hotel.

"So, if you're free today, I'd love to take you and your brother and sister to the zoo or something. How about it?"

"Ashleigh would love that. I'll find out what the plans are and let you know."

"Good," he smiled.

"I better go check on them…see you guys."

"Bye," they both said.

"Can we go on the train?" Ashleigh asks. She's up on daddy's shoulders as we walk around the zoo.

"We'll see," he says.

Just then his cell phone rings. He picks it up, looks at the display and clips it back on his belt.

"You're not getting that?" Cody asks.

He shakes his head. "It was business…it can wait."

I smile. That's just another thing I love about my parents…when they spend time with their family like this, they try not to let business intrude on family time.

"Okay, where to next?" Brad asks, looking at the map.

"It's hot, let's get something to drink," Cody says.

"Good idea. There's a concession stand over there."

As daddy and Cody get something for us to drink Brad, Ashleigh and I look at the birdcages that are under the shade.

"I wish I could walk around holding your hand," Brad whispers to me.

I feel myself blush slightly. "I wish so too," I say looking into his eyes.

He smiles at me and touches my arm.

"Sissy look at this one."

I walk over to Ashleigh and look at the Macaw with her.

A few hours later, daddy is now carrying a very sleepy Ashleigh on his hip, her head is resting on his shoulder.

"I think we're going to go back to the hotel now," he says.

"You still up for more sightseeing?" Brad asks me.

"Sure," I shrug.

"Okay, we'll have the car drop you off wherever you decide to go next and then drop us off. Cody, you coming back with me or staying with Brad and Adriana?" daddy asks.

"I want to go back and play video games."

"Of course," daddy says. "Let's go then."

Brad has the car drop us off at the Missouri Botanical Gardens and makes arrangements for it to pick us back up in a couple of hours.

"Have a good time," daddy says.

"I will." I kiss his cheek on the way out.

"This is fun…thanks for taking me around a little bit today," I say as we're walking through the Gardens.

"It's my pleasure. I'd ask you out to dinner tonight but maybe that's pushing it."

I glance up at him. "I'd really love to but…"

"We might be seen," he says looking off in the distance.

"Well that and I really want to spend time with my family. I don't know how long they're staying."

"I understand."

But his voice said otherwise.

"Do you even know where we're going?" I laugh.

"Yep, I'm taking you to the Japanese Gardens…they're beautiful."

We find the garden and start walking through it.

"Oh come here," he says taking my hand and pulling me toward a bridge.

"Wow, look at those big fish," I say looking over the railing.

He pulls some change out of his pocket and gets some food out of a machine.

"Here, you can feed them."

He hands me some pellets and I throw them into the water. We start laughing as the fish all scramble for the same food. When we're finished with that he takes my hand again and we walk to the other side of the bridge to a little island. There's a little semi-enclosed hut off of the pathway that we make our way too.

"I thought we should cool down a little and sit in the shade," he says sitting down, so I sit down next to him.

"Not a lot of people here today, huh?"

He shakes his head. "I thought it might be fairly safe that we wouldn't be recognized here," he winked at me.

I laugh. "True, I think we're safe."

His face grows serious and he starts leaning in towards me.

"I've been wanting to do this for so long," he whispers.

I close my eyes. "Me too."

I feel his lips touch mine and open my mouth a little. I turn a little so that I can get a better angle and then I don't know what possessed me to do it, whether it was the heat or what but my tongue touches his lower lip. His arms that are wrapped around me now pull me closer and his tongue touches mine. I guess that was the sign he needed. I run my fingers up his shoulders and into his hair.

After a couple of minutes I pull my face away slightly so I can catch my breath and I realize I somehow ended up sitting on his lap. I don't remember that happening. I touch my forehead to his.

"You're so incredible," he says brushing strands of hair away from my cheek.

"I'm just like any other girl…"

He stops me. "No you're not. Trust me, I went out with an ordinary girl…you're not like that."

"I…I don't know what to say. I like you a lot, Brad. You're an amazing guy…"

He smiles. "Thanks. I like you a lot too."

He's now playing with my earring.

"What are we doing?"

"Right now? I must be loosing my touch because I thought it was obvious."

I giggle. "No, I mean in general."

"We're dating. Is that okay?"

I pull away a little farther and look down at his lips. "Yeah. I just don't want to rush it." I squint and shake my head. "No, that didn't sound right. I just have a lot going on in my life and to start something like this on top of all of that is kind of overwhelming so if I freak out a little it's not you."

I get another warm smile. "I understand. I don't want you to freak out so I'll try to take things slowly."

"Thanks," I say shyly.

"I just might not be able to help myself. Let's go. We have one more place I want to stop at."

We both stand up and he takes my hand and leads me back out of the Gardens.

I begin to giggle as we're walking.

"What?"

"I just realized we have a thing for these types of Gardens, don't we?"

"Well, it's a nice place to bring a date when you want to make out with her among the flowers."

I slap his arm and he laughs. "That and the fact that I don't think we'll bump into too many of your fans, like we said."

"Uh huh," I laugh.

The car pulls into a subdivision.

"Where are we?"

He just smiles.

"Is this your home?"

"Maybe," he shrugs. "The third one on the right," he tells the driver.

Suddenly I'm nervous.

I look around at the houses surrounding me. Looks like a nice middle class neighborhood to me. The car stops and we get out.

"Do I look okay?" I ask smoothing out my top.

He laughs and takes my hand. "You look fine."

We walk around to the side of the house and Brad knocks on the door before he opens it.

"Mom? You down here?"

"I'll be right down," a voice yells from somewhere in the house.

"Come on in," he tells me as we walk into the kitchen.

"Hi sweetie," a woman says as she enters the kitchen with her arms open.

He hugs his mother and then pulls away.

"Mom, this is Adriana Timberlake. Adriana, this is my mother Anne Rowe."

"You're the one who my son and brother are playing for?" she asks as she takes my hand between her own.

I smile and nod. "Yes I am."

"Well, aren't you a cute little thing. I've watched you on TV. You are very talented."

"Thank you."

"Of course, Bradley is very talented too. You're lucky to have him playing for you," she says touching his cheek.

"Mooom," he whines.

I laugh. "Of course he is. My manager only picked out the best."

"Come in and sit down. Would you like something to drink?"

"No thank you. We just grabbed some lunch," I say as I follow her into the living room.

I stop and look around at all the pictures on the wall. Brad walks up behind me.

"No fair, I haven't seen any embarrassing photos of you."

I laugh. "Because there are none. My parent's didn't believe in cameras," I kid.

"Your mom will show me…they love to do those kinds of things."

"Wasn't he a handsome little boy?" Anne asks when she sees what we're looking at.

"Very," I say.

"Oh God," Brad says as he rolls his eyes.

We sit down and start talking about different things. At one point Brad runs upstairs to get something out of his room so I take the opportunity to plead with his mom.

"I heard you're not going to the show."

She waves her hand. "I know it's silly but something always happens when I see him perform. I'm not going to take that chance."

"But it would mean a lot to Brad. He's really disappointed that you aren't going to be there."

She looks at me.

"I'm very proud of my son…he knows that."

I quickly nod. "I'm sure he does so why don't you show it to him by going? He'd be so happy."

Her eyes begin to get watery. "I'll think about it," she says softly.

"He probably tells you he understands but deep down he really just wants his mom to see him do what he loves to do."

"I found it," Brad says coming back downstairs. "It was exactly where you said it would be," he said shaking his head. "How do mom's do that?" he asks me as he sits down next to me.

I shrug and laugh. "It's a gift I think."

He laughs and looks at his mom. "Mom, you okay?"

She smiles and nods. "Yes I am more than okay because you're here." She reaches out and touches his leg. "Are you two staying for dinner?"

"Well…" Brad starts.

"Oh I insist."

"Adriana's family is in town so she wants to spend some time with them. She doesn't get to see them much."

"How many of them are there? They can join us to. George will be here."

"Uh, there's my daddy and brother and sister. Really you don't have to go through all that trouble."

"Mama's making pork steaks, aren't you?"

"No, you're bar-b-cueing the pork steaks and I'm fixing the rest," she smiles at her son.

"Pork steaks?" I ask.

"It's a St. Louis thing, apparently," he shrugs. "No one else has heard of them."

The doorbell rings and Brad goes to answer it. When he comes back in the room George is behind him.

"I had to fight off Jim and Troy to come here," he says leaning down and kissing his sister's cheek.

"You should have brought them," she says.

Brad laughs. "Mom pretty soon you'll have the whole crew here for dinner."

"You never answered me on staying for dinner. Go call your family," Anne says shushing me into the kitchen.

"I'll use my cell, I've got daddy's number on here."

I dial the number in memory and wait for him to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hey daddy. I'm over at Brad's house and his mom invited us to dinner here tonight. I told her I'd ask you guys."

"That sounds nice. Your sister just woke up so give us a little bit to get there."

"Okay, I'll send the car back for you."

"Okay. Does she need us to bring anything?"

"Um, he wants to know if he should bring anything," I ask Anne.

"Oh no no no…just a healthy appetite."

Daddy laughs. "I heard her. See you soon sweetie."

"Okay bye."

I smile and nod.

"I'll go tell the driver," Brad says.