God Bless the Broken Road

Leigh sighed to herself as she nudged her bag a little higher on her shoulder and looked up at the house before her. She sent a little prayer up as she watched her taxi pull away; she really needed this job to work out.

It was hard to believe it had been a month since she had left home, it still seemed like yesterday. She still remembered her mom’s cries and her dads pleading. She remembered how it felt as she signed the papers officially deferring her scholarship to Mississippi State for a year.

At the time she was happy with her decision to leave home, now she wasn’t so sure. She was home sick but she knew she needed to stick to her decision. Going home ment going beck to a town where everyone hated her and that wasn’t something she was ready to face just yet. As she knocked on the door she shuffled her feet nervously. As the door opened Leigh smiled at the woman behind it.

“Hi, you must be Leigh Ann,” The woman said as she stuck out her hand for Leigh to shake.

“Yes ma'm,” Leigh said as nervously shook the woman’s hand.

“My name is Denise and if you’ll just follow me we can join my husband in the living room,” She said leading the way.

Once everyone was settled Mr. Jonas turned to Leigh, “So, after our first meeting I made some calls and spoke to a Ms. Pamela Leak from WQNZ radio and she spoke very highly of you. I was quite impressed with you at our initial meeting so I was pleased to hear what she had to say. My wife and I have discussed it at length and we would like to offer you the job,” upon seeing the smile on Leigh Ann’s face he added, “but we have a few things we would like to discuss with you before you accept.”

“What kinds of things, sir?” Leigh asked confused.

“Well as we discussed before; you will be traveling with us on our sons’ tour bus which means you will be sharing a bunk area with our three eldest, is that okay with you?” He asked

“Yes sir,” She answered.

“Great, now as for your duties, you will be looking after Frankie when needed and assisting the boys from time to time like we discussed before. So, do you accept the job?"

Leigh Ann smiled, “Absolutely, I would be honored sir.”

Denise smiled, “Wonderful! Now that that’s taken care of, would you like to stay for dinner? ”

“That would be lovely, thank you Mrs. Jonas,” Leigh Ann stated.

“Your very much welcome, now dinner will be ready in about half an hour so if you would like I can go ahead and introduce you to the boys.”

“Sounds great,” Leigh replied nervously as she followed Denise.

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With an overdramatic sigh Joe flopped back on Nick’s bed and began using Frankie as a pillow. “Hey Nick is your pillow always so lumpy?” He asked ignoring Frankie’s giggles.

Nick pressed pause on Guitar Hero, which he and Kevin had been playing, and turned around confused, “Lumpy, Joe what are you….” Upon seeing what Joe was doing he smiled, “Oh, yeah it gets like that from time to time.”

Joe reached behind his head and started poking Frankie in the side, “oh yeah so how do you fix it?” He asked still ignoring Frankie’s giggles.

“Well usually I hit it a few times and that seems to straiten it out,” Nick said

“Oh ok so you mean like th…”

“ Nooo Joe, don’t hit me, I’m not a pillow” yelled Frankie as he tried to wiggle out from under Joe.

Joe rolled onto his stomach and looked down at Frankie, “Are you sure because I could’ve sworn you were,” Joe laughed as he began tickling Frankie.

“Jooooeeee” Frankie wined in between giggles.

“Joseph, stop teasing your brother.” Denise said as she stood in the open door way.

“Yes Mom,” Joe said blushing a little when he noticed his mom had company.

Denise motioned Leigh Ann forward. “Boys this is Leigh Ann Williams. She’s going to be helping us out on tour this summer. Leigh Ann these are the boys.”

Noticing the awkward silence Denise decided to head back to the kitchen, “Well you five get acquainted and I’ll call you when dinner is ready.”

Joe watched as the girl looked around the room not quite knowing what to do with herself. She looked scared but not in the typical star-struck-cry your eyes out-way they tended to get from their fans. No this girl just seemed genuinely shy. Deciding to end her pain Joe started to get up off the bed to introduce himself, but surprisingly Frankie beat him to it.

Fake coughing to get her attention Frankie stuck out his hand and smiled, “Hi, I’m Frankie. I’m seven but I’ll be eight in September.”

The girl leaned down a little and shook his hand, “Well hello Frankie, I’m Leigh Ann. I’m seventeen but I’ll be eighteen in July.”

Joe smiled as his youngest brother chattered away. It was obvious to Joe from the way Frankie blushed that he thought she was pretty. As Joe studied her he had to agree, simply put she was gorgeous. She had blond hair that fell in soft curls resting just past her shoulders, and now that he was closer to her he could see that her eyes were a dark sort of chocolate brown, and as for her body simply put she was curvy. She had the whole hour glass figure thing going on. She was wearing very little make-up which surprised Joe a little. He was so used to seeing girls heavily made up that it was a refreshing change to see someone who wasn’t burying themselves in the goop. She was wearing no jewelry and she kept unconsciously rubbing her left ring finger like something was missing, and she was looking right at him! Joe blushed and quickly looked away.

Can you say awkward!
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Leigh Ann’s cheeks flamed bright red when she noticed the raven haired boys attention was on her. And she wasn’t just blushing because he had been staring oh no, she was blushing because he was absolutely unbelievably totally and utterly gorgeous. No, gorgeous didn’t even begin to describe him; hot, hmm, yes that’s better. If there was ever a boy that Leigh Ann would label hot it would be this boy and he looked vaguely familiar for some reason.

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Trying to end the awkward silence Joe cleared his throat and stuck out his hand, “Hi I’m Joe.”

The minute she clasped his hand and locked her eyes with his he froze. It felt like thousands of bees were buzzing around his body, he felt, tingly? It was the oddest feeling he had ever felt. Sure he knew he was attracted to her but there more. It was just something about her and he just couldn’t figure out what it was.

As Joe regretfully let go of her hand he smiled, “So um you’ll be coming on tour with us?”

“Dude, mom just said that,” Nick said as he gave his older brother a little push out of the way and stuck his hand out for Leigh to shake.

“Hi I’m Nick,” He added as Kevin walked up beside him and stuck out his hand as well.

“And I’m Kevin.”

Leigh gave the four brothers a shy smile.

“So,ummm,you a fan?” Nick asked.

If possible Leigh Ann blushed even more, “Please don’t hate me, but no.”

“Really?” Joe asked clearly shocked.

“It’s not that I don’t like your music, it’s just that I haven’t heard any of it to know if I would like it or not.” She added as she looked up at Joe.

“So you’ve never heard of us?” Kevin asked.

“Well, no I have heard of you. I just haven’t heard any of your music,” She clarified.

“So you’ve never heard S.O.S.?”

“No.”

“When You Look Me in the Eyes?”

“No.”

“Hello Beautiful?”

“No.”

“Where in the world have you been for the past two years?” Joe asked jokingly.

“In Mississippi.” Leigh Ann answered seriously as if that explained it causing all four boys to laugh.

“Well I guess we’ll just have to fix that.” Joe said as he headed for Nick's guitar.

Just then Denise’s voice rang clear through the room, “Boys dinner’s ready.”