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After having had lunch with Baylee and A.J, Jo put the toddler in his bed for a nap, and went back into the kitchen to start cleaning up. To her surprise, she found A.J with foam up to his elbows cleaning the dirty pots. The plates and cutlery were already in the dishwasher, and the table had been wiped clean. 'This is something I could get used to' she thought with a smile.

"You didn't have to do this." she said.

He turned around with a smile, putting the last pot on a towel to dry. "Where I come from it's a rule that the cook never has to clean up afterwards."

"Nice rule. So where do you come from?"

"A broken home," he laughed "I was born in West Palm Beach, Florida. My dad walked out on me and my mum, so she had to raise me, with help from my grandparents. The usual."

"I'm sorry."

"Nah, don't be. How about you? Where do you come from? I know you're from Sweden but..."

"You want some coffee?"

"Yey, coffee, and a story! Nice!"

Jo giggled and reached for the coffeejar. When the coffee had started to brew, she sat down opposite from him at the table. "Yes, I'm from Sweden. Small town gal. Two parents, no siblings, happy home."

"Something's wrong with that picture. To perfect. Bad boyfriend?" He looked her deep in the eyes, then got up to take out some mugs.

"Nah, not bad, just not..." she stopped realizing she had been on her way to say "like you". 'Bad thought,' she said to herself. 'He's everything you don't need right now. I'm not supid, I've read the tabloids, the gossip. Bad choice, baby.'. Sighing she finished: "everything I needed."

"I'm sorry for that." He put down the mugs in front of her. "Milk? Sugar?"

"Just milk is fine. I'm sweet enough already." she said with a laugh.


He looked at her, swept his eyes from her face all the way down to her feet, poured some milk into her cup and slid it across the table towards her. Yes, she was sweet. She stood maybe an inch shorter than him. Her hair reached down to the small of her back in waves and curls, a colour that resembled ancient gold with a red shimmer to it. Her face was undenieably sweet, hazel eyes, rosy cheeks and pouty lips that kept the face from beeing just sweet. They were full and wore the only trace of make-up he could see in her face, a lip gloss with only a hint of red. Now that he thought about them, they made him want to kiss her. Her body had the beginning of what would be a deep, golden tan. It wasn't exactly perfect, she was just a little bit chubbier than his normal type, but with beautiful proportions. Her breasts were big, her waist was small, and she had a gorgeous butt. He smiled to himself. She wasn't wearing that much either. She'd just pulled a white tanktop over her yellow bikini, and the hotpant bikini-bottoms made his imagination go wild. He realized that he'd been staring at her and that he should say something.

"Sooo... The boyfriend?"

"Ex-boyfriend. We broke up just a couple of days before I came here."

"Tough. You been together long?"

She sighed. "Seven years."

He let out a whistle.

"Yeah. So, yes, it was tough, and it still is." She took a sip of her coffee. Not knowing why, she kept going. "He came to the airport. Proposed to me. Everyone was staring at us. He'd bought the ring of my dreams. And I turned him down. I just couldn't say yes. And now I'm wondering if I made a mistake, just throwing away seven years like that."

"Did you break up with him for no reason? Just out of the blue?"

"No. We had lots of arguments the last months. I wanted to get married. Start a family. He didn't. After awhile everything was a mess. We couldn't be in the same room without yelling. It was just too hard." Tears welled up in her eyes, and she ran out of the room.

AJ sat on his chair, wondering whether he should go after her or not, when the door opened and he heard two familiar voices. Brian and Leighanne were home. They came into the kitchen and both came to a stop when they saw the man sitting at their kitchen table.


Leighanne was the first one to react. "Alex! It's so good to see you! What are you doing here?" She noticed the mug in front of the empty chair. "Have you been teaching my son to drink coffee?" she laughed.

Brian smiled, too. "So many questions, so little time. Good to see you man, although I thought I got rid of you yesterday... Why aren't you at home with Shelley?"

"Good to see you too, guys. Well, Shelley... She kinda threw me out of the house. She was sick of me never being home. I was hoping I could stay here for a while. Don't want to be alone really. Not that I'm really upset about this, but any given reason to relapse, you know."

"Yeah, we know, and we won't let that happen to you. Of course you can stay here." Brian patted him on the shoulder.

"Thanks, it means a lot to me. And no, Leigh, I wasn't teaching your son to drink coffee. I sat here talking to your new nanny, and we got out into deep waters. The ex-boyfriend. She ran off just before you guys got in, and I think she was crying. I'm sorry."

"I'll take care of her. You boys can have a man-to-man talk about how mean girls are." Leigh smiled and walked towards Jo's room.


Jo threw herself across the bed, crying. The pain was to much to handle. Why had she turned Andy down? Why couldn't she just have stayed home? Married him. Because it wasn't right. She didn't want Andy to propose to her to make her stay. She wanted him to propose to her because he couldn't live without her, because he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. She had to call Lina. She would have all the right words to make her feel better. She picked up the phone, dialled and sat in bed listening to the signals going through. The answering machine took her call, and she cleared her throat.

"Lina, it's me. I... I just called to say I miss you. I need you to talk to." Someone knocked on her door. "Someone's at the door. Gotta go. Love you." She hung up, and opened the door. Leighanne was standing outside, looking worried.

"Alex said you ran out on him. Are you ok?"

"Yeah. I told him about Andy. I don't even know why, but I did, and I couldn't handle it. And a can't sit there crying my eyes out in front of him. He's a Backstreet Boy, for crying out loud."

Leighanne laughed. "He's a man. On stage he's a Backstreet Boy. Off stage he's a man, like any other one. If you're going to work here, you have to realize that. At home, Brian's not a Backstreet Boy. He's a husband, and a father."

"You're right, but making that transition is kind of hard, especially with A... I mean Alex, because I've wanted him since I was fourteen and saw my first Backstreet Boys video." She laughed. "You can't tell him this."

Leighanne giggled. "I won't. I promise. Now let's go get Baylee out of bed."

They walked into Baylee's room. "Leigh. I want Lina to come here."

"Did you talk to Candy?"

"Not yet, but I will. But what if she can't find a place to stay?"

"She can crash here until she finds a place of her own."

Jo gave Leigh a big hug. "Are you sure? You guys are so nice to me, I can't believe it's true."

"You better believe it, Jo. It feels as if you're already a part of our family. Now go call Candy, and I'll take care of Bay."

"Thank you. For everything."

"No need to mention it! Now go on!"


Rushing back to her room, Jo rounded a corner and bumped head first into Alex. He grabbed on to her to regain his balance, and to help her keep hers.

"Feeling better now? Why are you rushing?"

"Gotta make some calls. Sorry. About before..." She suddenly became very much aware of the fact that he was holding her, quite tight.

"It's ok." He looked into her eyes, and she was mesmerized. No one of them moved, they just stood there.


Alex was just as struck as Jo by the sudden wave of attraction. Unable to move he just held her close, enjoying the feeling of her soft body against his. What was it with this girl? He'd just met her, that very day, but already he'd made her laugh and cry. He hadn't thought about Shelley other than when he'd been reminded of her by Brian's question. Not exactly the usual reaction after the end of a relationship that he'd hoped would last. He'd been close to go to bar in the airport, but he knew that Brian wouldn't have taken hin in if he'd been drunk. Now? Not a thought about that sweet taste of Jack Daniels. Something had happened. Jo softly pulled out of his arms, smiled faintly at him and mumbled something about making some phone calls. She must have disappeared into her room, he heard the door close, but still didn't move. Leighanne rounded the corner with Baylee on her hip, and barely avoided to push him over.

"You ok Alex? You look like you've been hit by a bus."

He snapped out of his thoughts. "Huh? Oh yeah, Leigh, I'm fine." he said and took Baylee into his own arms. The child giggled as Alex tickled him. "I'm fine."

"Where are your bags? You can take that room there." Leigh pointed at the door across the hall from Jo's.

"They are in the living room. Me and this fella here had a look through them for presents."

"Oh. Did you find anything then, Bay?"

"A teddy! And a truck. Wrooom."

"That's nice, isn't it?"

Baylee nodded with a smile on his face. "Uncle Alex nice!"

"He is. You're so sweet, Alex."

He smiled at her and the child in his arms "Can't help it."


Jo had made the call to Candy, and found out they had, in fact, an opening at Carpenter. One of the girls in the reception had quit the same day, to move on to "Bigger and better things." as Candy said. Jo was ecstatic. Lina had been promised first call on the job, if she wanted it. She tried to call her friend, but got nothing but the answering machine, again.

"Listen", she said, "if you want you can come over here, I talked to a new friend of mine and she promised you a job at Carpenter Childcare Agencies, the agency that got me this job. It's just in the reception, but anyways. Call me back, would you. I really want you to come here! Pretty, pretty please. Love you. Bye!" She hung up, and spent a few moments thinking about Alex. Alex the man, not AJ, the Backstreet Boy. 'No way, he's way wrong for you,' she said to herself. 'You're still not over Andy. But you didn't think about Andy when Alex held you close, did you?'