"Here's your room," Tony says as we walk down the hall of our hotel.

He hands me the key.

"Thanks," I say with a yawn. "So, what's the schedule?" I ask scratching my head.

"You rest tonight and we have a radio interview in the morning…early."

I groan and roll my head.

"Then we have a fairly easy day. Maybe you can go shopping or something."

"Cool," I say as I perk up a bit.

"But then you have ten short interviews in the evening."

"Ten?"

"Yes…short," he reiterates. "Like fifteen minutes each."

"Okay," I sigh. "Goodnight Tony. Thanks."

He pats me on the back and watches me enter my room.

"Good night," he says before I close the door.

I stare at the empty room before me.

They all look the same. I wish I could have stayed at our house out here, but of course, someone might catch on.

"I'm tired of hiding," I say through my teeth as I walk into the room and set my luggage down on the bed.

I'm greeted with a dozen peach roses.

"Aww," I say, expecting that they're from daddy. That's just the kind of thing he would do.

I read the card and find out they're from Uncle Lance.

I'll pick you up at 7:30 pm for dinner…tonight.
Love, Uncle Lance.

"Tonight?" I sigh.

I look over at the digital clock on the nightstand and see that it reads six o'clock.

I sit down on the bed, pick up the phone and dial.

"Hello?"

"Hey mama," I say with a smile on my face.

"Hey sweetie. You at the hotel?"

I hear Ashleigh singing in the background.

"Yes," I giggle. "Tell Ash that those aren't the words."

I usually tease Ashleigh about her incorrect lyrics to songs. She's only six, what difference does it make to her?

"Oh stop. Any plans for tonight?"

"Like you didn't know," I say staring at the card from Uncle Lance.

"I don't know…am I supposed to keep track of your schedule now? It changes hourly sweetie," my mama teases.

"You don't know that Uncle Lance is in town?"

"Oh, your daddy might have mentioned that to me. So you're doing something with him?" she asks, sounding pleasantly surprised.

"Yeah, he's taking me to dinner. I wonder if Aunt Joy will be there?" I ask biting my finger.

"That would be nice, wouldn't it?"

"Tell daddy I said hi," I say.

I could hear the tone in her voice change…that meant daddy was in the room.

"Adriana says hi," I hear her say.

"Hi snowball," he says in the background.

I laugh.

"He's such a goob."

"That he is."

"So you have dinner tonight and then what's tomorrow?"

I tell her the schedule that Tony gave me.

"And Wednesday is the Tonight Show, right?"

"Yep. I guess I'll be doing that most of the day. I don't know…Tony gives me my schedule a day at a time which is probably better for me."

"Yeah sometimes too much can be overwhelming."

"I better get ready for dinner," I say.

"Okay baby. We love you."

"I love you guys too."

We hang up the phone and I lie back down on the bed.

"Oh no you don't girl…you'll fall asleep," I tell myself as I stand up and go into the bathroom to take a shower.

 ~*~

"How is she?" Justin asks after Britney hangs up the phone.

"She's fine. Uncle Lance is taking her out to dinner tonight," Britney says, raising her eyebrows.

"You don't say?"

He's sitting in a lounge chair on the deck.

"Is Joy there too?" she asks moving closer to him.

"Uh, I don't think so. I think she's in Mississippi with the kids."

"Hmmm. Okay."

She sits down on the end of the chair Justin's on.

"Was he supposed to be there on business?" she asks.

"I suppose. Why?"

"He didn't fly out there just for her?"

She starts to rub the inside of his leg.

"She is his business now, you know? She's going to be huge, Brit. Lance is going to try to be there for her as much as he can. Johnny used to do that for us."

"I know…I just don't want her getting special treatment because she's our daughter."

"I think that's getting a little old," he says, looking down to try to find her eyes.

She raises them to look at him.

"What? I don't want her to look back one day and wonder if she made it on her own or if she made it because she's a daughter of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. She's Ana now. And she's going to knock their socks off."

"Damn straight," he says proudly.

"Hey Uncle Lance," I say as I open the door.

He leans down and gives me a big hug.

"Hey munchkin. Let me look at you," he says holding me away from him for a second. "Gorgeous. I think you got prettier since the last time I saw you and I don't know how that's possible," he says tapping my nose.

I laugh. "You're my manager, you're supposed to say that," I say as I let him into the room.

"No, first and foremost, I'm your Uncle who loves you…then I'm your manager," he winks at me.

"I'm glad you're my manager. I would be a nervous wreck right now if you weren't."

"Your dad would be a nervous wreck if I weren't."

"That too," I say with a smile.

"You hungry?" he asks, holding out his arm for me to take.

"Starving," I saw, linking my arm with his.

"Let's go."

He takes me to a nice diner about fifteen minutes from the hotel. It's small and quiet.

"So, how's Aunt Joy? She's not here with you, is she?" I ask, looking at the menu.

"No, she's at home with Theo and Amanda."

"That's what I figured. How are they?"

"They're good. Theo's playing baseball for the Varsity team."

"Oh, that's good."

"Yeah and Amanda is sticking with her ballet. She's wonderful…she was just in a recital the other day…beautiful."

I smile.

The waiter comes over and takes our orders.

"So, what brings you to LA?" I ask as I lean back in my chair.

"My soon to be number one act."

"Oh, I'd like to meet them," I giggle.

He smiles and then chuckles. "You need to build that self-confidence up young lady."

"I know. It's there, somewhere. I guess I…"

"You what?" he asks leaning forward a little bit.

"I don't want to be disappointed if things don't go as well as expected."

He reaches for my hand.

"I was around your mom when Baby One More Time came out."

"She was opening on your tour," I say, remembering the stories with a smile.

"Yep. She was nervous and timid…kind of like you are. She did what she had to do…she did her thing and no one else was out there doing that. The people ate it up…they loved it…they loved her. There's a feeling in the air," he says, drawing a circle in the air with his free hand, "and it's the same feeling so many of us felt 22 years ago."

I briefly close my eyes, taking in what he just told me. My heart was beating fast.

"Thanks," I say, smiling and opening my eyes.

 ~*~

"So we put these wigs on," Uncle Lance says laughing.

"I've seen pictures, I think," I join in.

"Oh no, please don't tell me your mom kept those. They were horrible."

He's holding on to his side from laughing so much.

"I think she keeps everything," I say rolling my eyes.

"You'll thank her one day," he winks at me.

I look down at my dessert fork and move it around on the table a little bit.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," he says, taking in my serious tone.

"I've read some old articles about mama and daddy. People always talk about how they were made for each other?"

He nods.

"How did they know? I mean these were total strangers writing an article about them."

He sits back and thinks about how to answer.

"You could see it in their eyes. Their eyes lit up when they were around each other. Hell, they glowed when they were around each other. It was the way they looked at each other. The little touches. Yeah," he chuckles, "I noticed that kind of stuff."

He adds that because he noticed my face…I had the look of, whoa you're getting a little too mushy going on.

"Everyone did," he adds.

"I mean I see it but I've been around them all my life. You know," I say leaning forward and lowering my voice a little bit. "I always thought all mom's and dad's were like them. My friends would always tell me how lucky I was and I never got it."

"Until?"

"I spent the weekend at a friend's house. Her parent's couldn't stand each other. They would give each other bored looks all day, would never touch each other. Everything they said was in an irritated voice and then at the end of the night they'd say 'love ya'," I say screwing up my face. "I thought…that's not the kind of love I know about. My parent's smile when they look into each other's eyes. They touch each other all the time. All the time, Uncle Lance."

He laughs.

"And when they say 'I love you', you know they mean it."

He smiles and nods. "I know. I was around it for many years, remember?"

"Yeah," I sigh. "Was that hard on you guys? I mean I know for awhile some of you were single, right?"

"Oh yeah. I was very jealous of it. I'm not saying that your parent's flaunted it in our faces…they were very discreet about their PDA's," he says winking at me. "But, the love was there, that you couldn't deny."

"So they never made out in front of you?" I kid him.

"Well…"

"Ewwww. Tell me," I say out of curiosity.

He chuckles.

"It was during the summer of um…2001, yeah the Pop Odyssey tour and your mom was around a lot that summer."

"Okay."

"And we all shared a toy room and a quiet room."

I nod.

"Well there was a little cubby hole thing in the toy room at one of the venues. I think there was a phone in there or something. Your mom and dad were in there…I don't think they realized I was in the room or that anyone could see them. They thought it was secluded enough."

"They were having sex?" I ask a little too loudly.

He screws up his face almost in horror. "Good Lord no…at least I don't think. I think there was just a lot of kissing going on."

"And groping," I add.

"Uh well yeah."

"Wow…mama and daddy getting it on," I laugh with a clap of my hands and sit back in my chair.

He puts a hand over his face. "No repeating this young lady," he says pointing at me.

"Promise," I say with a smile. "I'm still trying to find out about our nick names."

"Who's?"

"Me and Cody's and Ashleigh's. They're weird. I mean snowball, slugger and daffodil? And only daddy calls us that."

He covers his smile with his hand.

"You know, don't you?"

"I plead the fifth."

"I'll find out," I say, waggling my finger.

"I'm sure you will."