In the Rose Garden

Mrs. Jonas watched Joe and Addison through the patio glass doors. They were sitting by the pool and Joe was trying to teach Addison a few Jonas Brothers songs on the guitar but Mrs. Jonas could only guess it wasn't going too well by how much they were laughing. Tonight they were having one of their music nights. Music night was when the whole family would gather and they would each take turns doing something musical, whether it's sing a song or play the guitar/piano. It was night of no judgments whatsoever. Everyone was free to do whatever they wanted. Tonight though, Addison, Lily and Garbo would be joining them. Even though he wouldn't be playing anything, Mr. Turner was also going to be there.

She continued to watch the couple mess around. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen Joe so smitten with a girl. The whole Jonas family was smitten with her. Mrs. Jonas already considered her the daughter she never had along with Danielle. She almost considered Addison to be the best thing to ever happen to Joe. She took his mind off of a lot of the senseless stuff that surrounded him.

"Hey, Taylor's about to be on Ellen," Nick said and knocked on the glass door. Joe and Addison looked up and Nick motioned them inside.

"What's up?" Joe asked as he set his guitar on the kitchen table.

"Taylor's going to be on Ellen."

"Oh. You guys just want to see how Taylor's going to blast me today, don't you?"

"Kind of," Nick admitted as they walked into the living room and sat on the couch.

It was a pretty average interview until Ellen brought up the subject of Joe Jonas. Taylor confirmed that there was a last minute addition to her new album and the song "Forever & Always" was indeed about him. Then she dropped the bomb that the phone call in which he broke up with her lasted twenty-seven seconds. Ellen tried not to bad mouth the Jonas brother and stated she liked him but shame on him!

"I can't believe she actually said that!" Joe exclaimed as he stood up.

"I can," Addison said. "Anything to make her look like the bigger victim."

"She's the one who hung up on me!"

"It's all right babe. It's done," Addison said and rubbed his arm. "We can all handle whatever she throws our way."

"Thank God she left you out of it though."

"Homegirl better have. If not, the next time I see her, we would need Big Rob to hold me back 'cause I'll rip out that b-word's hair like you don't even know!"

Joe looked at her for a moment before saying, "I hear that, girlfriend. I just can't believe she took it that far. She really didn't have to bring up the phone call."

Addison just shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, Joe. She said it so it's out there now. We'll just have to deal with it," she said as she wrapped her arms around his waist and put her chin on his shoulder.

"Yeah, you're right," Joe quietly responded.

"Usually," she said and stood up straight.

"Oh! And you're funny too," he added.

"Naturally… Joe, you should know all this about me already."

"Come on, let's go back outside and get you ready for tonight." Joe took her hand and led her back out onto the back patio. He handed her one of his acoustic guitars and sat across from her. He curiously watched as she checked the tuning on the guitar. She looked at him.

"Are you ready or am I going to have to start randomly playing or something?"

"Randomly playing," he answered.

"All right," she said and started playing Demi Lovato's "Don't Forget."

"What?" he exclaimed. "You can play? You totally tricked me!"

"My dad's got friends in the business so I've gotten many lessons here and there. Plus one of my exes taught me a few things since he learned from some guy from the Who or something like that."

"Who?"

"Who what?"

"Who was your ex?"

"This guy name Drake."

"It's obviously not the singer Drake so what other Drake is there?"

"There's one. Anywho, let's play." She quickly changed the subject. She didn't really want to talk about her brief relationship with Drake Bell from a few years ago. It wasn't because their relationship had ended badly, it didn't. There just wasn't anything to say about it.

"All right. So you like Demi Lovato?"

"I love that girl."

"She's one of my best friends, you know," he said.

"Um, the whole world knows that."

"Oh yeah, sometimes I forget about what people know and don't know."

Addison was silent for a moment before laughing at him. "Dork."

"Only yours. So what are you going to play tonight?"

"I don't know. Maybe I'll stick with a Demi song, maybe not."

"Are you going to surprise me?"

Addison shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe I will, maybe I won't. What are you going to play?"

"Maybe something, maybe nothing," he mocked her and shrugged his shoulders.

"Okay, I walked into that one."

"Hey, something we agree on!"

"Shut up Joseph."

⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆

Addison watched Lily as she climbed into the backseat of Joe's car.

"Where's Garb-Greg? Where's Greg?" Addison asked.

"He said he'll stop by later. He had some family business to do first," she answered as she clicked her seatbelt into place. Joe backed out of her driveway. It was agreed that Joe would pick her up and Garbo would take her home.

"Thanks for joining us tonight, Lily," Joe said as he turned onto the main street.

"Oh, no problem. Addison said she would cut off my hair while I was sleeping if I didn't."

Joe looked at Addison and she shook her head. She mouthed that Lily was lying.

"You better not be telling him I'm lying. Greg was there when you said it," Lily said from behind Addison.

Addison laughed. "I said nothing."

Lily changed the subject. "So, I saw Ellen today…"

Joe groaned from the driver's seat.

"Oh, you two did too?"

"Actually the whole family did. Nick made sure of that," Addison responded.

"That darn Nicholas," Lily said and shook her head. The car fell quiet while Addison switched out Joe's Kings of Leon CD with her Matt Nathanson CD.

"Sorry but I can't listen to Kings of Leon anymore," Addison told Joe.

He shrugged his shoulders. "It's fine. It's not like I'm going to throw you out of the car."

"I don't know that."

"Yes you do liar!"

"Awe, you two are just so darn cute," Lily said. Joe laughed and Addison made a face. "You guys are seriously perfect for one another."

"Uh… thanks?" Joe said.

"Yeah, no problem."

⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆

Once they were out of Joe's car, he took Addison's hand and told Lily to go ahead inside; they'd be inside in a minute. Joe pulled her into the shadows and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"I just wanted to get you alone for a minute," he said.

"Well you can have all the minutes you want," she responded as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Joe carefully pushed her back until her back was up against brick. He pressed his body to hers and kissed her. They both got lost in the moment and lost track of time until they heard someone say that they knew they were there. They pulled apart and followed Mr. Turner into the house. Joe had finally gotten to the point where he wasn't embarrassed anymore when he got caught making out with Addison. The first time they got caught, Mr. Turner went into overprotective father mode but then he quickly realized it was something they were going to do. As long as it didn't go any further than that, he was all right with it.

"I brought the cookies you made earlier since you forgot them," Mr. Turner told Addison and pointed to the sealed Tupperware container.

"Oh yeah. I made cookies!" Addison said excitedly.

"Sweet!" they heard Frankie shout from the living room.

"Saves me some time having to figure out something for dessert. Thanks Addison," Mrs. Jonas said.

"Glad I could help without even knowing I did."

Mr. Jonas walked into the kitchen and asked, "So, is everyone here?"

"With the exception of Garbo, yeah, pretty much," Mrs. Jonas answered.

"All right then, let's get started." They followed him into the living room where everyone was starting to form somewhat of a circle.

"I'll go first," Frankie said and played something he wrote on his drum set. Then he made his parents take their turn. After them, Kevin went and he played something he wrote on his guitar. He dedicated it to Danielle.

"Thank you. Thank you very much. Joe, you're turn," Kevin said as he took his seat next to Danielle. Joe grabbed his guitar and sat in the same spot Kevin did and started playing.

"Take my hand tonight, we can run so far. We can change the world to be anything we want." He stared at Addison the whole time he sang "Inseparable." With each word he sang, the more he realized he was in with her. "Cause you know, we're inseparable." It would still be a while before he said the words out loud. He opted to play the version on their self-titled album instead of Nick's version since it was shorter.

"Aww!" Lily accidentally let slip once Joe was done singing. She covered her mouth with her hand. "Sorry." Everyone laughed at her.

"It's your turn," Joe told Addison after he kissed her.

Addison nodded her head and got up. She shocked Joe once again by playing a song she wrote herself called "Talkin' Smooth."

"Well, you're just full of surprises," he said as she sat back down.

"Sometimes," she quietly said.

"Addison, you have a wonderful voice," Mrs. Jonas said.

"Thanks Mom-I mean-" Everyone started laughing. "I meant Mrs. Jonas." She tried not to laugh. Joe watched as her cheeks started to turn pink.

"That's all right dear," Mrs. Jonas said.

Nick played two songs and Kevin and Joe went again before dinner was ready. About halfway through dinner, Mr. Turner looked at his daughter.

"You know tomorrow's your mother's birthday."

Addison looked at him and shook her head. "No."

"Yes. You have to go see her."

"No I don't. I was just over there the other day and she didn't even talk to me. She only talked to me long enough to insult you and sometimes my boyfriend and his family. I'm not going back over there to sit through that again."

"Addison," he said before they broke out into a full blown argument. Joe and his family weren't quite sure what to do so they stayed silent. Then simultaneously, the argument stopped. "Addison."

After a moment of silence, she quietly said "Fine" as if it were a loaded gun.

"Hey, I'll go with you," Joe whispered next to her.

Addison nodded her head and said, "Thanks."

Mr. Jonas then quickly changed the subject and talked about how they finally picked a winner for the contest that the label was running. They would be getting to meet the winner and her friend in a day or two. Joe hadn't heard a word his father said, he was too busy concentrating on Addison.