Nick was standing with his back to them. It looked like he was fiddling with the CD player.

“Hey Nicky, look what I found.” said Brian to get his attention.

“Huh?” Nick mumbled as he turned around. When he did he say Rayanne standing there. Before Rayanne could even get a good look at him he had picked her up and was giving her a hug.

“Oh my God, you’re here.” He pulled her hair back and whispered in her ear. He pulled his head back away from hers, still holding her off the ground to look at her. He looked her in the eye and she thought she saw a tear forming, but she wasn’t sure.

“You are so beautiful.” he said before leaning in to kiss her softly on the lips.

She felt his lips touch hers, softly and gently. She wrapped her legs around his waist, keeping one hand on his neck and moved the other to touch his cheek. She kissed him back, never wanting this moment to end. She couldn’t believe she was finally here, with Nick. He pulled away from her and touched her face.

“I cannot believe you’re finally here. I feel like if I put you down you’re gonna disappear.” he joked.

“How about if you put me down, but you can hold my hand so I can’t go anywhere.” she smiled.

He smiled back and put her down. He ran his hand down her arm to her hand and interlocked his fingers with hers.

He pulled arms length away and looked at her.

“I just want to look for a minute. I still can’t believe you’re here. That I’m finally looking at you.”

Rayanne was wearing her favorite khaki shorts with the hammer loop and a black Calvin Klein tank top with spaghetti straps. She had on her favorite black sandals with the thick strap and chunky soles. Her hair was down, and a little tousled from the long plane ride. She stood there looking at Nick as he looked at her. She couldn’t take her eyes off his beautiful face, especially his smile.

“Nick?” she said after a minute of him not saying anything.

“Oh, sorry.” he said as he looked up and smiled at her. “You want to go meet everybody?”

“Sure.” she answered.

Nick walked toward the door still holding her hand. “I guess Bri left” he laughed.

“I’m glad I’m here.” she smiled up at him.

“Me too baby.”

They walked out into the hall and went to Room 26. Nick knocked on the door. “They’re probably in here.” he reasoned.

“Come on in little man!” came Brian’s voice from behind the hotel door. Nick opened the door and led Rayanne in to meet the rest of the guys.

Brian stood up and walked toward them. He put his arm around Rayanne’s shoulder and pulled her away from Nick.

“This is Rayanne” he said with a proud smile on his face.

“Brian!!!” Nick yelled from behind him. “You’re supposed to let me do that!”

Rayanne turned around and saw by his face that he was really upset.

“Oh shoot, sorry Nicky.” Brian said as he took Nick’s arm and put it around Rayanne’s shoulder where his once was.

“Don’t worry about it.” Nick said his face turning a little red.

“Rayanne, this is AJ, Howie and Kevin. I believe you’ve already met my sidekick over there.” he said laughing.

“Yup, I have.” she smiled.

“Guys, this is Rayanne.”

“Hey girl.” said AJ giving her a hug.

Howie and Kevin did the same. As she pulled away from Kevin she turned around to see what Nick and Brian were doing.

They were standing with their heads really close together. Rayanne was a little confused until she realized they were whispering. “Nick and Brian telling secrets? Oh this cannot be good.” she thought to herself.

“What are you gu-”

Her question was interrupted by Nick and Brian both running at her.

“OH SHIT!” she yelled.

Nick reached her first, dove down and tackled her onto the bed. She flopped on the soft mattress laughing

“Come on guys! We’ve got to welcome her to Europe!” he said between his laughs.

Brian jumped on top of Nick.

“UGH” Rayanne grunted.

AJ walked over to the bed and stood next to where Rayanne’s feet were. “Ticklish...?” he asked drawing out the word with a devilish grin.

“Nope.” Rayanne lied, hoping no one would notice she was not telling the truth.

AJ reached down for her foot and began to unstrap her sandal. She tried to kick her foot but Kevin held her leg down to the bed.

“Get her D!” Nick screamed from on top of her.

“OK!” Howie laughed as he found a spot on Rayanne’s side that wasn’t covered by Nick or Brian and started tickling her.

AJ had her sandal all the way off and dropped it on the floor. He grabbed her foot and started tickling. “I got her Kev-get the other one” laughed AJ.

“NO!! PLEASE KEVIN, DON’T! NO! COME ONE...AHHHH, THIS IS NOT FAIR” yelled Rayanne as Kevin took off her other sandal.

She felt Kevin’s hand lightly touch the bottom of her foot. She tried to kick, but AJ and Kevin were too strong. She tried to squirm underneath Nick and Brian, but they were too heavy. Her arms were pinned so she couldn’t smack at Howie to get him to stop. She had no choice but to give in and laugh. So she did. Laughter poured out of her mouth and Nick looked at her.

“You having fun?” he asked smiling down at her.

“Of course.” she said with a giggle as Howie poked her in the ribs.

“We are gonna have so much fun.” he said.

Rayanne smiled as Nick leaned down and kissed her on the lips.

“Oh man! Cut that out! We’re trying to have a tickle war and you’re kissing the enemy!” AJ said letting go of Rayanne’s foot.

Rayanne stifled a laugh as she kissed Nick back. Brian got off Nick and stood next to Howie. “How long are we going to have to stand here and watch?” he asked.

Nick had every intention of keeping the kiss short, until everyone started to make such a production out of it. If it was so entertaining, he would keep doing it. Rayanne felt Nick’s lips curl in a smile and knew what he was doing. She put her hands on his back to pretend like she was really getting into it. They pretended they were oblivious to the noise around them as the guys yelled things from “Get off her! You’re gonna hurt her!” to “Alright Nicky!”. Rayanne and Nick kept kissing, until she felt something kind of heavy pushing down on them. Nick pulled away from her and yelled.

“OUCH. Man that hurt!”

Rayanne looked past Nick to see all four guys standing there with pillows. Nick looked down at her and smiled.

“Wanna kick some ass baby?” he asked.

Rayanne just smiled and didn’t say a word. Nick got off her and grabbed two pillows off the floor. He threw one to her and ran toward AJ with his in the air. Rayanne stood up and followed. Pretty soon all six of them were hitting each other with pillows. There were no more teams, it was everyone for themselves. But Rayanne was enjoying every second of it. She was having so much fun and it was only her first day. She loved being with Nick and knew she could fall in love with him.