Well it sounds like you're having a great time up there!" Bailey's best friend Sarah stated excitedly on the other end of the phone line. "You know, it pretty much blows to know that you were back home the day before I came back from vacation in Ohio. It's ridiculous!" it was going on the second hour of their conversation.

Bailey was back on her own bus in her bunk. The only reason she was up was because she received a call from her friend 8am that morning.

"Tell me about it. I needed you too! It was horrible, with Jake and everything." Bailey trailed off. "But everything is ok, I mean, with Joe and I." she had given Sarah an overview of the past four days of the tour in the first hour of talking.

"I wanna meet this kid." Sarah smiled into the phone. "You haven't gone 3 minutes without saying his name."

"Hey! I'm sorry that he's so interesting to talk about." Bailey replied smiling.

"- And who's that?" she heard Joe's voice on the other side of the curtain that closed off her bunk from the rest of the bus.

"Is that him?!" Sarah asked, getting a little excited. Bailey put the phone down and pulled open the curtain to see Joe standing at her eye level.

"Hey." she smiled and slid out of the bunk.

"No no, who's so interesting to talk about?" he poked at her.

"Ha, wouldn't you like to know."

"Fine, don't tell me." Joe stated, then turned away from her with his nose in the air. "- But no, I came in to say bye and that we're leaving for this conference thing a few blocks away. I already asked Ross if you could come with us, but he said he had stuff for you to do here, so. . ."

"He so likes you!" Sarah yelled on the phone. The volume was up loud enough for the two of them to hear her as it sat on her bunk.

Bailey went to gab the phone, but Joe snatched it before she got to it.

"Yellow?" He asked with the phone up to his ears.

"Blue." Sarah replied, knowing it was Joe. She tried to keep herself from laughing.

"Orange." he replied.

"Purple." Sarah came back.

"Periwinkle." Joe stood proudly as she heard her chuckle through the phone. "Ha, I win."

"Joe! Give it back." Bailey whined with her hand out, he shook his head.

"So, are you gonna ask my friend out or what?" Sarah blurted out, making the breath in Joe's lungs freeze.

"Uh, what?" he asked with an unsure chuckle.

"Joe." Bailey said again, he put his finger up, telling her to be quiet. She put her hands on her hips and stared at him.

"You heard me, Romeo. You better step on it before she moves on. If anyone knows her, it's me. Best friends since 1998, I think I'd know." Sarah said seriously as a grin spread across her face.

"Here." Joe said, quickly handing Bailey her phone back.

"Finally." she joked. "Well, I guess I'll see you later?" she asked.

Joe nodded, then moved in for a hug. Bailey of course leaned into him, inhaling his wonderful scent and holding onto his built body.

"Yeah, later." Joe said after pulling away from her. He smiled at her before exiting the bus.

"What in the world did you say?!" Bailey exploded on Sarah who was now laughing.

"Nothing."

"Oh my God, Sarah!"

"I just told him that he better move in quickly, that's all." she replied nonchalantly.

"You probably scared him." Bailey accused. "Maybe he doesn't want to do anything. Maybe it's nothing more than flirting. I mean, he hasn't really said anything he's had so many opportunities to do something if he really wanted. . ."

"Bails, I know. You told me." Sarah stated, her voice full of boredom.

"- I mean, yeah, we flirt a lot, but maybe that's all there really is between us."

"Shut up. There's more to it and you know it." her friend snapped.

Bailey narrowed her eyes at her tone, even though she couldn't see. "Not where he's concerned." she mumbled. "Look, I better go. Apparently Ross has stuff for me to do."

"Sure, just change the subject that you started. Cool." Sarah rolled her eyes. "Call me later."

The two said their goodbye's, then Bailey made her way off the bus to find Ross.

- - - - -

"Have you guys seen Bailey?" Joe asked Kevin as crew members rushed by them backstage.

"No, I haven't seen her since last night." he replied. "Maybe she just got caught up in the crap Ross had for her. Don't worry."

"But I haven't seen her since like, 9 this morning. It's going on 8pm!" Joe complained.

"ONE MINUTE!" a crew member shouted.

"Yes, show time!" Nick exclaimed as he strapped his guitar on behind Kevin.

"Let's go!" another crew member yelled, motioning the boys to enter the stage.

The crowd went wild once they were in view. Joe scanned the area in front of the stage, there was no sign of Bailey. He became highly disappointed; he didn't have anyone to sing to.

- - - - -

"Yum." Joe mumbled as he took a big bite of cake. "So who's birthday is it?" he asked, looking at the three girls in front of him at the meet and greet table.

"Me!" a short, brown haired girl replied.

"Happy Birthday!" Joe exclaimed after stuffing another piece of cake in his mouth. He spit out a few chunks on accident, making the girls laugh. His icing-covered lips smiled at their amusement. "BAILEY!" Joe yelled instantly after he saw her enter the fan-filled room, she was really late.

He forgot about the plate of cake he had in his hands as he went to run up to her. It was as if it was in slow motion as his foot clipped the end of the carpet, sending him straight to the ground, causing chocolate cake and vanilla icing to accompany his outfit.

Bailey instantly lost control as she burst out laughing while he laid stunned on the floor. The fans in line at the meet & greet table flashed their cameras as Bailey doubled over from laughing hysterically. Her stomach was cramping as the tears flowed from her eyes.

"Are . . . You . . . Ok?" she got out in between laughs while staring over at Joe who was now only a foot or two away from her on the ground. He mimicked her laugh before slapping a little cake from his shirt onto her face. "Hey!" she exclaimed, still laughing a bit as he got up from the floor. She instantly shot up from the ground herself and chased him throughout the room. She hopped on his back and smushed a little in his face, causing him to drop her on accident.

"Ah, I'm sorry! Are you ok?" he asked as he helped her up. She nodded, then wiped her face from the tears of laughter. Joe had a little cake on his finger, so he put it in her face, motioning for her to lick it. She did without hesitation as she listened to a few fans curse behind her. That made her smile even more.

"My God Joseph!" Kevin yelled as he approached them; the two of them couldn't help but smile. "Bailey!" he added, once he noticed the clumps of cake on her face. She gave a little wave. "You two are so lucky that we ran out of time tonight." he motioned towards the line of about 20 JB fans. "It's raining outside, why don't you two go out there and clean off a bit. I think it's better to be wet than cakey."

"Race ya!" Bailey yelled before smacking Joe's arm and taking off through a group of people and out of the back room. Through a couple more doors and she was outside in the pelting rain. It was as if someone was pouring buckets and buckets of water from the sky. It was only seconds later before Joe was by her side in the darkness.

"I love the rain." he said to no one in particular, looking up at the star-filled sky. "Especially when it's warm out like this." he looked over at Bailey.

She wiped her face as the rain pelted down on her. Joe couldn't help but stare. Her long hair was sticking to her face, her clothes were sticking to her body. His eyes were glued.

Bailey noticed him staring, but she didn't care; he wasn't looking too bad himself. His face glistened in the moonlight as the water trickled down from his thick, dark hair. His wet t-shirt clung to his firm frame. She caught herself staring for a few also. Tingles emerged throughout her as she noticed his shaggy hair dripping and sticking to his forehead. His muscular neck caught her attention as the water glistened off of it. It was right then that she decided he was the most gorgeous person ever. She wanted to tackle him right then.

Joe chuckled as she looked into his eyes. He couldn't stop looking at the blob of icing that was still on her cheek. He slowly approached her through the rain. After bringing his hand up to her face, he softly wiped the icing off with his thumb. Even though he couldn't tell, Bailey's head started throbbing. She wanted him bad. His face was only inches away from hers as he stared down into her eyes. Her heart was beating in her ears as she wished he'd just do it.

Joe smiled down at her beautiful face before slowly moving his face closer to hers. Bailey closed her eyes as their lips met. Warmth instantly took over her body as he moved his hand to her firm waist. Bailey brought her hand up to his jaw line and leaned in closer against his body. She was in heaven.

"Hey you guys - " Kevin's voice rang around the corner, causing Bailey and Joe to quickly pull away. A millisecond later, Kevin appeared. "Hey, we're about to get going." the two of them just stared at him, they were still taking in what had just happened and relieved that they hadn't been seen. "Um, are you alright?" he asked, looking back and forth between Bailey and Joe.

"Uh, yeah, we're fine." she replied. "It's just, this stupid cake." she said, looking down at her shirt. "It won't come out." she lied.

"Oh, we'll fix it later. Just hurry up. We're pulling out in a few." Kevin gave a little wave before re-entering the building.

Joe turned and looked a Bailey, she couldn't help but smile. As much as he tried to fight it, a smile appeared on his face as well; he was glad he had finally made his move. Then without a word he grabbed her hand, interlocking his fingers with hers and lead her back into the building.

Once inside, she let go of his hand and made her way back into the meet & greet room. A few people from the venue and band were scattered around, but all the fans were gone.

Bailey tried to ignore the fact that her lips were still tingling as she walked through the room and out the main door that went into the lobby. She knew that Joe had stopped trailing behind her, so she made a break outside to her bus. The only problem was, her bus wasn't there.

"Yeah, your bus left already." Nick said behind her. She turned around and looked at him. "Guess you're rooming with us 'til the next show." she gave him a weak smile. "Lets go, Shaggy." he exclaimed, referring to the fact that she was drenched, before running through the rain and onto his bus. After a moment, she followed.

- - - - -

"So what happened out there" Kevin asked Joe as they walked through the arena.

"What do you mean?" he replied.

"Oh come on Joe, I'm not stupid." Kevin stated. "Did you finally make your move or what?"

Joe looked over at him as they walked outside. "Maybe." he said as he hopped up onto the bus with Kevin close behind.

"Maybe? What do you - " Kevin stopped as he bumped into Joe who had stopped in front of him.

"Hey." Bailey said, sitting with her legs tucked under her on the couch in the back wearing a pair of Joe's PJ pants and one of his shirts. Nick insisted on her changing out of those wet clothes.

"Hey." Joe said softly, then bit his bottom lip as it began to form a smile. Kevin nudged him from behind. "Oh, I'm, uh, going to get changed." he said before making his way to his bunk and grabbing a dry set of clothes.

Bailey looked up at Kevin expectantly. "So - " he started, then sat on the couch on the opposite side or her. "How was that cake?" he smirked.

"Great." Nick said, appearing in the doorway. "It gave me gas though." he finished, then sat next to Kevin on the couch with a bottle of water.

"So that's what that smell was?" Bailey laughed.

"Why are you here?" Kevin asked. "- Not to be rude or anything, just curious." Joe was now listening intently from inside the bathroom.

"My bus left without me, so I'm stuck with you guys tonight." she smiled.

"Yes!" Joe exclaimed. Immediately after his outburst, he covered his mouth.

"You ok in there?" Nick yelled to him.

"Yeah, I just hit my head." he lied as he exited the bathroom in his dry clothes.

"Aw, poor thing." Bailey made fun of him, causing him to walk over and flop down on top of her on the couch. "Jeeze, all you had to do was ask." she said, scooting over to the left side. Since Joe was already lying there, he waited for her to get situated before resting his head on her lap.

"Uh. . ." Nick tried to think of something to say as he watched Joe and Bailey. "You guys up for a movie?"

"Sure." Kevin, Bailey and Joe replied at the same time.

"Is the 'Duke's of Hazard' fine with everyone?" Nick asked, everyone shrugged. He sighed before putting the DVD in the PS2 and turning off the light.

A few minutes into the movie, Bailey started twirling Joe's hair between her fingertips. Little did she know, he was enjoying every second of it. They both knew they weren't going to be able to concentrate on the movie; they were too busy thinking of each other.

"Hold me, hold me. If I were to. I can't, cant, I swear I can't let you. It's all in your hands now I'll do what I can to you." Bailey's phone rang from the front of the bus.

"Hasn't anyone told you to silence your cell phones during movies?" Kevin joked. He felt her glare at him.

Bailey then patted Joe's chest for him to lift his head so she could get up to get her phone. He lifted on command then watched her disappear to the front of the bus, admiring how good she looked in his t-shirt.