Are you sure I can leave you alone with this?" Bailey asked Joe as he placed the burgers her mom just made on the grill in the backyard. "I don't want to come back out and see the grill up in flames!" her hands were on her bare hips as she eyed him. They were still in their bathing suits from earlier.

"Hey! I can handle it. I've grilled stuff before." Joe replied, sounding a little offended after placing the last burger on. "Watch and be amazed."

"Sorry, I can't. I have to go inside and help my mom." Bailey gave a little wave before heading in the house.

"She totally digs me, man." Joe stated, only half jokingly as he looked over at Kevin who was sitting over in the sun by the pool.

"Sure, whatever you say." was his reply.

Back in the house, Bailey and Nick were in the kitchen making baked beans and macaroni and cheese. Bailey was on bean control as Nick stirred the cheesy noodles.

"Yum, smells good." Joe complimented as he walked into the kitchen.

"Thanks - WAIT! Joe, the burgers!" she exclaimed.

"Chill, Kevin's got it." he chuckled. "He told me to move and that I was pathetic."

"Hm, so he speaks the truth." Nick commented. Joe went to respond, but the doorbell rang.

"Hey Joe, can you get the door? My mom said she invited a few people for this cook-out thing." Bailey asked as she stirred the beans next to Nick. Joe nodded, then made his way to the front door.

He swung it open to see Jake standing there with a dozen red roses. Two seconds later, he closed the door in his face and walked away. "Wrong address." Joe informed, walking into the kitchen, trying to hide his smirk. A few moments later, the doorbell rang again.

"BAILEY! GET THAT!" her mom yelled down the stairs.

"Joe, take care of the beans." she said, then walked away without waiting for his reply. He went to stop her, but then just sighed and let her go. Bailey got to the door and opened it to view the same thing as Joe; Jake with flowers. "HA!" she cackled in amusement before closing the door in his face, for a second time, but he put his arm out and stopped it.

"Look Bailey, hear me out." Jake pleaded.

"No, I'm not going to. What don't you understand?" she questioned, looking into his gorgeous, blue eyes.

"Is that Jake?" her mom asked as she cam down the stairs. "Let him in, Bails. I invited him over. -Oh, and the Smith's are coming too."

Bailey rolled her eyes before trailing back into the kitchen. At this point, she didn't care about Jake anymore. She didn't care that he was there, only because he wouldn't pull anything with her mom there and also because Joe would be by her side. She planned on acting the same as she usually did, with or without Jake. He wasn't going to ruin this.

"Mom invited him for the cook-out." she stated quietly to Joe. She noticed him tense up. "Don't worry, it'll be fine. Just ignore him, that's what I'm gonna be doing." she informed. "Joe, the beans!" she exclaimed as she noticed them bubbling. Instantly, she removed them from the stove and placed them on the counter. "You're unbelievable, you know that?" she stated, looking at him. He shrugged his shoulders. "I love it." she smiled.

"I think Nick's got it from here." Joe said, then grabbed Bailey's hand and pulled her with him out to the backyard as Jake and her mom appeared in the kitchen. "I can't even believe he's here. Doesn't he get the hint?" Joe ranted to himself, letting go of Bailey's hand and walking up to the edge of the pool.

"Hey." Bailey said softly behind him, causing him to turn around to look at her. "Don't even think about him. He's nobody. Look, I know you don't believe me when I say I don't care anymore, but I really don't. Jake isn't my problem anymore. I'm done with him." her voice was filled with honesty.

"But how can you just forget someone like that?" he asked.

"Well for one, the feelings weren't truly there to begin with. He was just a friend and my mom, for some reason, loved him. Then it went from there. We dated and I couldn't say no. I mean, I loved having someone there with me, but there was never truly a connection." she paused. "And this, of course it hurt to find out that he slept with another girl when we were together because there was that feeling of betrayal, but I'm over it." Bailey looked up into his eyes. "Plus, I met this other guy who is just. . .indescribable. He makes me forget about everything and everyone when I'm around him."

Joe panicked for a moment as his mind raced about the other guy, but then it clicked once she smiled up at him. He was the other guy. He kept himself from kissing her right then, and wrapped his arms around her instead. He didn't want to move it too fast. Even if the chemistry was there, he didn't want to take that big step just yet.

Tingles surged through her body as his hands softly brushed against her bare back. No one had ever made that happen to her, ever. That was another sign to let her know she was falling.

As he held her, he couldn't stop thinking about her. Yeah, she was in his arms, but even then she still took up his mind. There hadn't been another girl to make him feel this way. Joe has had a few girlfriends, yeah, but he'd never felt so strongly towards anyone like this, and they weren't even going out, yet.


After a moment, the two pulled away from each other. Bailey could still see that Joe was still down. He smiled at her, but she could see right through it.

"Joe, really." she assured. "If you really want to, we can skip this thing and just - "

"So this is really happening?" Jake exclaimed from the backdoor. Kevin almost dropped the burgers on the tray in front of him at the sound of anger in his voice.

"Jake, stop!" Bailey yelled, turning to him. Once again, she felt Joe stiffen behind her. She looked back at him as if to say 'It's ok', then looked at Jake again who was making his way towards him.

"It's all because of you!" Jake shouted at Joe as he pointed at him. Bailey stood in front of him so he couldn't get to Joe. They were only a yard away from each other now. "You're the reason she let go of me."

"No, Jake. Stop!" Bailey put her hands out on his chest and put pressure on him to get him to step backwards. He was only inches away from her face as he started up again.

"It's ok, Bails. Let him go." Joe stated, expecting Jake to charge at him, but she didn't let him go.

"Joe! No. He needs to get over himself." she yelled, then pushed him back even more. Slowly they were making it to the backdoor.

"You know, this is the closest we've been in weeks." Jake stated softly, causing Bailey to pull away and smack him, hard.

"Go inside!" she yelled, he put his hands up in defeat and walked inside with Bailey on his tail.



"What in the world am I getting myself into, Kevin?" Joe asked, making his way over to the grill. He sat in the closest chair and ran his fingers through his hair in annoyance.

"Hey, I believe her when she says its fine." he replied. "Why don't you?"

Joe shrugged his shoulders. "I guess she just seems too good to be true. I mean, we just click so well, it's perfect. There has to be something wrong, or something that's not good." he tried to find the words in his mind, then groaned in frustration. "I don't know!" he exclaimed. "I really like her and I don't know what to do about it."

"Joe, you're thinking too much. Knock it off. Everything is fine! Stop hoping for something to be wrong. Maybe she's really the girl for you but you won't admit it."

"I just said that I liked her, I think that's admitting it." Joe snapped.

"Then do something about it."

After Kevin spoke, Joe made his way into the house. "Where'd Bailey go?"

"They went upstairs." her mom said, cautiously as she continued with the food in the kitchen.

Joe rushed up the steps and stopped at Bailey's bedroom door. He waited a moment, then swung the door open to see Jake moving in on Bailey, his eyes closed and lips puckered. Bailey attracted her attention to the door to see Joe; he looked crushed. Jake was now staring at him with a smirk.

"Joe." Bailey started, but he shook his head, turned away, then rushed downstairs. "I can't believe you." she screamed at Jake, then slapped him as hard as she could. She swore she heard him yelp, but she was out of the room in an instant after Joe.

"C'mon Nick, we're leaving." Joe tried to keep his voice calm as he walked through the kitchen and out the backdoor. "What did I tell you?!" he hollered at Kevin. He looked back at him in confusion. "If I hadn't walked in, they would've kissed. I told you she was still hung up on him!"

"Joe, calm down."

"I'll be waiting in the car." he muttered, then went back into the house.

"Joe, listen to me!" Bailey pleaded as he passed her to the front door. Joe completely ignored her and slammed the door behind him. That stung her, bad.

"Bailey, -" Jake started.

"Don't you ever come near me again, you hear?!" she screamed, her voice cracked a little as her anger rose. Moments later, Kevin came in. "I swear to God, I didn't do anything." she tried her best not to lose it right then. "Oh, he hates me now." she felt the water in her eyes starting to build up.

"Just tell me what happened." Kevin asked quietly, putting his hands on her shoulders for comfort as Jake watched down from the top of the stairs.

"Jake and I were talking, then his stupid ass moved in for a kiss just as Joe opened the door." Bailey explained. "Yeah, it had to have looked bad, but Kevin, nothing happened. I didn't want anything to happen!"

"I hear you." he replied.

"Now you know how it feels, huh?" Jake called down from the steps.

"I'm gonna kill you!" Bailey, shrieked, then charged for the steps at Jake. Kevin immediately interfered and pick her up. She squirmed for a few.

"Put me down!" she yelled before he threw her over his shoulders.

"Come on Nick, we're leaving! Grab everyone's clothes too." Kevin called out as he grabbed the keys to the Cobalt and made his was out the front door with Nick tagging behind. Once they got to the car Kevin put her down on the passenger's side. "I'm driving. Get in." he said sternly.

Nick quickly climbed in the backseat where Joe was already sitting with his face in his hands. Bailey slipped in the passengers seat and they were on the road within seconds.

Bailey stared out the window as Kevin passed various cars fairly quickly. Normally she'd play the 'backseat driver' for the hell of annoying someone, but she obviously wasn't in the mood. She zoned out as she thought about how her chance with Joe was just screwed. He didn't believe her in the first place when she said it was cool, then Jake completely proved that.

'You shouldn't have followed him to your room, Einstein." her mind was active. 'I needed to end this. It was getting out of hand.' she thought back. 'Tell me about it. Now you have no one.'

As the image of Joe's saddened face standing in her bedroom doorway, the silent tears began to fall. Nick was the only one who noticed, only because he was watching her through the side view mirror. He kept it to himself.

The trip back to Philly was overflowing with awkwardness. No one said a word the entire fifty minutes back. Once Kevin parked the car, Bailey quickly got out.

"Just so you know, I'm going to Ross now and telling him that this is going to be my last show with you guys. It was fun while it lasted." Bailey informed, then quickly left the boys without a chance to respond. Within seconds, Bailey was already out of sight.

"Joe, you know nothing happened." Kevin stated as he climbed out of the car. "Now she thinks you hate her, hence her leaving. You're overreacting. This isn't like you at all!" he rambled, Joe looked up at him.

"Don't be afraid to fall. It might not ever happen again." Nick added.

- - - - -

'I'll tell Ross that my mom changed her mind and she wants me to come home. Yeah, yeah. I'll just take the train back home and everything will go back to normal.' Bailey thought. '-But then Jake's back home.'

She made a face at her own thought, then snapped back into reality.

"Ok, Ross will see you now." a young woman announced as Bailey paced in front of his temporary office door.

"Well, hello Ms.Baker! How was the visit home?" he asked with a jolly smile.

"Great." she smiled, even though is was complete bogus. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about." Ross looked at her questionably. "You see, - "

"Hold me, hold me. If I were to. I can't, can't, I swear I can't let you. It's all in your hands now I'll do what I can to you." her phone went off in her pocket. Immediately she rejected it without checking the ID, then continued.

"Ha, sorry about that." she chuckled. "I just wanted to say that - " her phone vibrated; she had a new text.

'Don't leave.' It was from 'Joe the Amazing'.

She was about to close it when it vibrated again.

'Stay with me. <3' Bailey couldn't help but smile down at the screen.

"Ms.Baker?" Ross questioned, her head snapped up to look at him.

"Oh, yes. I just wanted to say that the guys had a blast back home in Delaware and that they're all back in one peace." she retreated from the original plan as she quickly stood up. "Well, that's all. Bye!" she waved then rushed out of the room.

- - - - -

"She didn't reply Kevin! What if she's already talking to Ross? Even if he gets the slightest idea that something's up, she'll be sent home anyway!" Joe exclaimed.

"Well maybe you should've thought about that before you went a head and made her think you hated her." Joe glared at Kevin as he sat comfortably on the couch back on the bus. "If you would've just made your mo--" Kevin stopped as he noticed Bailey in the doorway.

Joe followed Kevin's eyes to look at Bailey himself. His eyes lit up and he charged at her with his arms open. He grabbed her face and planted a big kiss on her cheek before squeezing her. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." he mumbled into her hair. She smiled into his neck as her fingers dug into his back.

"You two are unbelievable." Kevin informed with a smirk.