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As Jo woke up the next morning she still felt the taste of Alex on her lips. 'He knows what I've been through these last couple of weeks, and still he does this to me. He knows I'm not ready. And still... He kisses me. Why?' Since her schedule for that morning didn't have any openings for brooding, she shook it off as she got in the shower. Baylee would be waking up in half an hour, she'd have to be dressed and have breakfast ready by then. The others would probably be hungry too. 'So, pancakes it is.' she thought.


Breakfast was loud, as everyone except Nick, Lina and Alex were up, talking over coffee, pancakes and orange juice. Everyone laughed as Howie told the story of the kiss between Lina and Nick.

"They had no clue I was there, when in fact I'm standing a couple of feet away from them. It was cute though. She seems nice, and he could need a sweet girl for a while, considering his past..."


Jo wasn't willing to listen to this, so she took Baylee upstairs to get him cleaned up. Leigh came along and decided she would spend an hour or so playing outside with her son. So Jo got an hour off, and decided to wake Lina. She desperately needed to talk to someone about what had happened the night before. So she knocked on Linas door, and without waiting for an answer, walked in. She stopped just as soon as she saw the couple on the bed, covered her mouth with her hands to keep her giggles in. There, on top of the bed lay Lina and Nick, both half naked. She tiptoed out of the room again, gently closed the door, and started running towards the kitchen. Halfway there her giggles turned into laughter, so she had to stop running. She slid down the wall she was leaning on to sit on the floor, and laughed so hard tears came out of her eyes.


Alex opened the door to his room, to see what was going on. Wearing nothing but his boxers he went up to Jo and asked her what was happening.

"I just had the most hysterical moment of all times. I was going to wake Lina up, and guess what? She's there, in bed, but not alone. Oh no, not alone." She laughed too hard to keep on talking.

"Nick?" A smile widened om his face.

She regained some composure "Yup."

"Good for them. Listen, about last night..."

All of a sudden, this wasn't a laughing matter to Jo. "I don't want to talk about it." She got up.

"Why? Did I do something wrong?"

"No. I made a mistake, that's all." She walked away from him.

'Dang' he thought. 'That's the second time in like, what? Fifteen hours? But I've got good taste. That ass is... ' he let out a whistle after her, then went back into his room to put on some clothes.


Jo went out into the sunny back yard. Baylee was splashing around the pool, and Leighanne sat watching him, dangling her feet in the water. Jo sat down next to her.

"Baylee's such a cutie. He looks so happy."

"I know. I'm so proud of him."

They fell silent.

"So," Leighanne asked, "what happened last night?"

"What do you mean?"

"You, Alex, candlelight, him singing to you... "

"Well... How did you know?"

"Our bedroom window faces this way, Jo. We shut it, and pulled the curtains down when we saw you out here, but I'm curious!" she smiled.

"Brian made you?"

"Yup." Neither of them could hold back their laugh.

"Well... we..."

"Did you kiss him? Oh, my God, I sound like I'm in highschool. Well, did you?"

Jo nodded. "We kissed. Then I walked away. Oh, Leigh... I can't trust him. I've read the tabloids. I've heard the rumors. What if he's just playing me?"

Leighanne sighed. "Well, first off. Half of what the tabloids say are nowhere near true. The other half has been twisted and turned to suit whatever story they want. Rumors, well. Sometimes they're true. I won't deny that. Sometimes they're not. In the case with Alex, it's even harder. The substance abuse he went through changed his personality. Back then, many rumors were true. But when he went through rehab, he came out as an all new Alex. Now he's trying so hard to be trustworthy. I don't believe he is playing you. I think he's fed up with all the games. Talk to him. Listen to what he has to say. Then, if you want to, kiss him again, and tell me all about it!" She giggled out the last words.

"Oh, speaking of telling you all about something... You'll never believe what happened before I came out here..."


Jo still thought it best to avoid Alex. She didn't know what to say to him, she felt shy, she was embarrassed. So she kept busy, doing laundry, cleaning and playing with Baylee. When she heard footsteps coming towards where they sat on the grass, she froze. To her relieve, it was Lina who'd finally got out of bed, wearing sunglasses, tracksuit pants and a huge t-shirt. She told the entire story about the night before, and so did Jo.

"So he kissed you? And you walked away?"

Jo nodded, watching Baylee chase after a football. No chance that he would sit still longer than necessary. That kid was just bursting with energy.

"What are you? Stupid?"

"What? Stop it. Just because you got some last night, there's no need to be all snotty."

"For your information, I'm not snotty. And I didn't 'get' any last night. I might have gotten some if we hadn't fallen asleep, but no, I'm still a virgin."

Jo burst out laughing. "You? A virgin? Please."

"I will not be deflowered by anyone until the very day I get married." Lina laughed at what was one of their favourite jokes. "No buttons unbuttoned here until there's a huge rock on my finger."

"Well, then I'll have to buy you a rock, and see if I can unbutton some of those sexy sweatpants." A voice came from behind them, full of laughter.

Jo looked up. "Oh, well hello, mr. Nick. Lookin' fresh."

He wasn't. He looked as if he'd just gotten out of bed, and fumbled around in the dark for some clothes. He too was wearing sunglasses.

"Late one last night huh?" Jo smiled, and Nick bent down, getting a handfull of grass that he threw at her. Then he lay down on the blanket next to Lina. Jo kept teasing him. "I'm so disappointed in you Carter. No smart words, just handfulls of grass. That's a good way to keep me quiet."

"Go kiss Alex, won't you, and leave me to take care of this one right here." Lina giggled.

Nicks eyes flew wide open, and he stared directly into the sun, since he'd pushed his sunglasses ontop of his head.

"You made me blind, woman." he yelled at Lina, and quickly put his sunglasses down again. "You kissed Alex? That's great," he looked at Jo.

"I'm going to go inside with Baylee..." she murmured, and got off the blanket. "It's nap-time"

"Nap time sounds good." Nick placed his head in Lina's lap, and immediately started snoring.


Jo put Baylee down for his nap, and walking out of his room she came across Alex in the hallway. He looked really cute, in a casual white t-shirt and some ripped jeans. "We need to talk" she said.

"Yeah, I think we do."

Then, they heard Kevin's voice through the house. "Nick? Nick, where are you?, he turned the corner, saw them and asked: "You guys seen Nick?"

"No? Why?"

"I have." Jo said. "He's napping out in the back yard with Lina. Anything happened?"

"Yeah." He said, showing an evening newspaper. There in a picture on the cover, were Lina and Nick, kissing as they got out of Hiccup. He opened the paper, and there was an entire article on Nick and this 'mystery woman', with more pictures. "We have to have a meeting."