Chapter 1:

If there's one thing Ashley Spencer never thought she would ever do it was return home to Santa Barbara. However, that was just the thing she was about to do. Ashley was sitting on a plane on her way back when she heard the pilot announce they would be landing in ten minutes.

Ashley was beyond nervous. She hadn't been home in twelve years. She had been living in London, England for those years. There, she was a successful author and journalist. She really liked it there. At eighteen years old she had originally gone to London for school, then stayed when her writing career took off. She had a few short term relationships, but nothing serious. She was never married, but she was happy. At least that's what Ashley kept telling herself. Her life in London was so much different from her life in Santa Barbara.

Back in Santa Barbara, Ashley lived with her dad and older brother. Her and her brother did not get along great with their father, but Ashley definitely tried harder to then her brother, Shawn did. From the looks of it, you'd think he hated their dad, Ashley however, knew he never really could. When Ashley was sixteen and Shawn eighteen, he left to go who knows where. All he told Ashley was that he needed time to himself, Ashley hadn't seen him since. It also made Ashley feel horrible about leaving for London two years later, for she would be leaving her father alone, but he insisted she had to take the great opportunity. So she did. She hadn't heard anything from either of them much at all, except for the Christmas and birthday cards and occasional letters from her father.

Ashley had no idea what to expect when she got home. She hoped her father was still there, living at her childhood home. Would he be mad at her for not coming back? Would he welcome her back? The reason she was even coming back in the first place was because she had hit a rough spot in London. Her different journalist jobs were getting dull and boring. And honestly, she missed home. What she really wanted was the chance to find a nice writing job in Santa Barbara and try to start over again. London was great, but it wasn't home.

The message on the intercom interrupted Ashley's thoughts, "Good afternoon, we will be landing at the Santa Barbara airport momentarily, have a great day."

Oh no, thought Ashley, here we go. She had told her father she would be coming back, but was not sure whether or not he would be waiting at the airport to pick her up or not. She doubted it, but really hoped he would. She hated cabs.

Once the attendants gave the okay, everyone began piling out of the plane. Reaching up, Ashley grabbed her carry-on and made her way to the exit. Once inside the airport, she scanned the ground of waiting people for their respective family or friends exiting the plane. Ashley stood shocked when her eyes landed on a certain bald guy standing to the side with his arms crossed, her father. Once they made eye contact, Ashley ran to give him a hug.

"Hey kiddo, what's up?" he said when they let go.

"Um, great I guess. I can't believe you're here!" Ashley replied, still shocked.

"What do you mean? My only daughter I haven't seen in twelve years is here and I'm not going to pick her up?" he smiled.

"Right, sorry. I'm just so happy to be back!"

"London that bad eh?"

"No! I just… missed it here."

They made their way to the parking lot toward his car. When Ashley got a look at the car she laughed, "You're still driving this piece of crap?" she said in regard to the old pick-up in front of them.

"Hey, it runs." he replied defensively and climbed in.

The ride to her dad, Henry's house felt great to Ashley. They passed all the familiar buildings and roads along the way. Driving alongside the beaches of Santa Barbara. Everything looked the way it was when she left.

"So, have you heard anything from, um, Shawn at all?" Ashley asked hesitantly. She wasn't sure if Shawn ever made contact with their dad, he hadn't with her. She also had no idea what kind of reaction the topic of Shawn would bring out in her dad.

Henry looked over at her and laughed, "You haven't have you?"

"Well no. Why? Have you?"

Henry chuckled quietly, "You could say that…"

"What do you mean?" Ashley asked quickly.

"You'll see" was all he said the rest of the ride.

After about five more minutes they pulled up to the house. It looked just like Ashley remembered it; white picket fence out front, freshly cut grass, and a pretty porch. Though Henry never admitted to anything inside or outside of his house being "pretty".

Henry got out of the truck and walked around to the back to grab Ashley's bags when Ashley stopped him, "I've actually made reservations at a hotel down the street already".

"You're not paying some ridiculous amount of money to stay at a stuck up fancy hotel when you can stay here!" Henry argued, grabbing her bags in the process.

"But…"

"No buts. Come inside, Ashley and stop arguing with me. I'm your father you have to listen to me." He said while walking into the house.

Ashley smiled. This was very familiar to her, her dad not listening to anyone else's opinion because he believed he was always right. The sad thing was that most of the time, he was right. Shawn and Ashley just had too much pride to agree or admit it. Looking back on it now, Ashley had to admit the two of them were hard on Henry. Sure at times he pushed the limit as a parent being extremely strict and forcing them to try exercises that people in the police academy would do. Henry was a retired police officer, but it seems from his strict posture and I'm not taking any nonsense tone that his old habits are not going to be leaving him anytime soon. Ashley remembered times when Henry would push Shawn in the direction of law enforcement, but he seemed to want nothing to do with it. Shawn once told her that his dream job would be to get paid to sleep. That's the kind of guy Shawn was, or at least that's the Shawn Ashley remembered. The Shawn that gave up on everything he tried. The Shawn that never really cared about anyone or let anyone in. The lazy, loud, rebellious Shawn. But Shawn was thirty-two now. Ashley had no idea what he was like now or where he was. But from her dad's comment earlier she suspected he had some idea what Shawn was up to.

Walking into the house, Ashley was hit with a wave of nostalgia. It looked as if nothing was changed or moved. Despite the now more worn down furniture, it looked as it did when Ashley left. That was the thing Ashley loved about Santa Barbara, no matter what happened it didn't change much and it seemed, neither did her childhood home.

"You can stay in your old room of course," Henry said as he set down her bags on the floor by the door, "I haven't moved anything, so it should look the same."

Ashley nodded and grabbed her bags to walk up stairs. Along the wall were pictures of her and Shawn, just her, just Shawn, and one picture at the top of the staircase of her, Shawn, Henry, and their mother. Their mother was a touchy subject for all of them. She had divorced Henry when her and Shawn were young and moved away for her new job. Shawn had blamed their dad for her leaving all his life, but Ashley knew it wasn't all his fault.

When she reached the door to her old room, she stopped. It felt like forever since she was here. Her room was were she spent most of her time as a kid. It's was were she wrote in her diary, did her homework, fell asleep after a long day at school. It was home. Slowly, she turned the knob, inside it did look the same. Posters of her old favorite bands and movies lined the walls. Ashley walked over to her empty bed and ran her hand over it. It smelled like home. Sitting down, she glanced around the room, her eyes fell on a coffee cup laying on her old desk. She picked it up, it was a Starbucks Frappe. But what really surprised her was the name on the side written in sharpie; Shawn. The cup looked brand new, it was definitely not a twelve year old cup.

Ashley quickly made her way downstairs to question her dad about the mystery cup. Was Shawn here? How long had he been here? Was he just visiting? Was it really just twelve years old? But as she got halfway down the stairs she heard two voices having what seemed like a whispered conversation but it seemed to be getting louder each time one of the people talked.

"Why are we so quiet?" Ashley froze. She recognized that voice. That was the voice she had wanted to hear most for the last fourteen years.

"Shawn, it's nothing. I just can't talk right now." Henry whispered just loud enough for Ashley to hear.

"Why? What could you possibly be doing that…" Shawn's words got stuck in his mouth once Ashley walked the rest of the way downstairs.

He looked so much different from the last time Ashley had seen him. His hair was cut short and it actually looked like he washed it. He ditched his baggy sweats and now wore jeans and a plaid shirt. He looked like an adult and not a rebellious teenager. Ashley didn't know what to expect when she would see him again. But she didn't expect this.

"Ashley?"

"Shawn?"

After another minute of shocked silence the two ran at each other throwing their arms around each other in a long awaited hug.

"I don't believe it!" Shawn exclaimed once they had let go, "What the hell are you doing in Santa Barbara?"

"Me? What are you doing here?"

Shawn's smile faded, "What? He didn't tell you I was here?" Shawn asked glancing at their dad.

"I was getting around to it." Henry explained.

"Getting around to it?" Ashley questioned.

"I've been here a couple years now actually," said Shawn. He then turned to his father, "Why didn't you tell me she was coming?"

"I was getting around to it." Henry said again, but after the looks he was getting he continued, "Look I knew how happy you two would be when you saw each other so I thought it would be cool to keep it a surprise."

Shawn smiled again, "Well there's so much to catch up on. How about this; me, you, lunch? You can tell me all about how much London sucked, and I can tell you about the crazy things going on here."

Ashley smiled and nodded, "Sounds awesome!"

"Great, let's go now." Shawn said as he reached for his jacket he had placed on the hook.

"Now?"

"Yes now. Let's go. See you dad." Shawn said as he walked out the door.

Ashley kissed her dad on the cheek and walked out after Shawn. When Ashley got outside she took one look at the motorcycle in front of her and shook her head.

"Absolutely not." She said.

"Absolutely yes. Come on." Shawn replied as he handed her a helmet.