When a car pulled into the driveway, Lucas Scott put down the barbell and grabbed a towel to mop his face. The workout wasn't that hard, but the HCM medication made it seem like the NBA level workouts his brother did. As he pulled on a T-shirt, the soft cotton stuck to his skin.

He'd recently decided to let his beard grow, so he hoped his visitor was someone who wouldn't mind the sweat or the scruff.

Walking out onto the front porch helped him cool off. Maybe he should start doing his exercises there so he could catch the North Carolina evening breeze.

He was glad to see the familiar SUV. Anyone driving it would be family. When he saw Haley, his sister in law, he hurried over to open the door for her. His nose told him she'd brought pie. Excellent.

"Hey Hales"

"Came over to see how you're doing. "She handed him the pie before moving to collect her son from his car seat.

"The pie smells great"

"It's still warm. Do you have any ice cream? She asked "Jamie and I would love some Uncle Lucas time."

Lucas nodded and smiling lead the way into the house. He enjoyed these impromptu visits with his family. He was fine on his own, running the garage and working on his book, but he definitely didn't mind having Haley and Nathan close by. It was important to him that he be a presence in Jamie's life the way his Uncle Keith had been for him.

Maybe his nights seemed epically quiet because his days were filled with the sounds of power tools and engines, sometimes punctuated with the baby babbles of two year old Jamie and laughter.

His brother was training and was sure to be drafted by the Seattle Sonics. Lucas wasn't much help with training because of his heart condition so he usually opted for entertaining Jamie.

Haley glanced at the sawhorses in the living room and the cartons of hardwood flooring. "Nathan mentioned that you had decided to replace the floors in the bedrooms."

"Yeah, and it will be beautiful when it's done, just a lot more work than I first thought."

"It'll be great Luke, Karen will love this when she gets back." Haley headed for the kitchen, placing Jamie in the playpen that had become a permanent fixture at Uncle Lucas' house.

"She called this morning" Lucas said has he retrieved the ice cream from the freezer. "Sounds like they are having a great time, headed to Europe next. I don't think she will be back anytime soon."

Haley smiled pulling two plates from the cabinet. "You going to the game at the high school tonight?"

She put generous servings of pie and added a scoop of ice cream to each plate. Then she put them on the table along with napkins and forks. She'd spent enough time in this house growing up to know her way around.

"I was planning on it"

"How have you been feeling?"

"Fine." It was his standard answer but he was 'fine'. He would never play basketball at a pro level but he was good for a friendly game at the river court.

"Great" Haley said around a spoonful of pie. "I had ulterior motives with the pie. I know we have talked about it before but the student really need a coach, a good coach. Mr Ryan is trying his best, but really he should stick to math."

He smiled. "I figured you were up to something.

She shrugged "Was worth a shot"

Lucas watch as Haley took another huge mouthful of pie. "Okay."

"Okay. What?" she asked, mouth still full of food.

"Okay, I'll help out with coaching the team."

"Fantastic! Luke the guys on the team are going to be so happy."

Lucas scooped up another bite. "Happy to be of service, it will be nice to be back in the old gym. Some great memories there."

"Incidentally, someone called today looking for you."

"Who?" He paused, his fork in mid-air.

"Brooke" Haley gazed at him. "Your ice cream's dripping all over."

"Whoops." He shoved the mixture of pie and melting ice cream into his mouth, which brought him a little time to think under Haley's scrutinising gaze.

"I take it you two haven't been speaking regularly?" Haley was all was able to read him.

"Not since I went to see her in New York, we celebrated my book and her line. It was actually really nice just to spend time with her again, you know."

Haley smiled. 'Yeah, Broke Davis has that effect on people."

She pushed a slip of paper across the table. "She got a new number, asked me to get you to call her. I promised I'd pass it along."

"Thanks." He stuffed the paper into his pocket without looking at it.

Haley changed the subject, gushing about the cute thing Jamie had done at dinner the night before.

After Haley and Jamie left, he moved to sit on the front porch. The scent of rain was in the air. It had rained the first night he had truly admitted his feelings for Brooke. They'd been together that night, though he had always thought of it as making love. Rain had beat on the window as they removed each other's wet clothing.

If he closed his eyes, he could picture her perfectly; wavy chocolate curls handing below her shoulders, green eyes, the curves of her waist and shapely legs. It was far from the ornly time together, yet it was a memory that danced through his mind whenever he thought of her.

"Brooke Davis" he muttered to himself, running his hand through his hair and settling back in the chair.

He had done a number on that girl. Promised her his heart and then gave it to her best friend. She had always been so graceful and forgiving, walking away and turning him to Peyton. He had to make a choice and unfortunately hind sight was 20:20.

After their night in New York he had through maybe that it might finally be time for them. But the next morning she had made it clear that it was just a drunken one off and she didn't want Peyton to find out.

He decided to bury the feelings and let Brooke move on with her life.

He hadn't expected to hear from Brooke anytime soon, yet here she was tracking him down. When he went back inside, he took the scrap of paper from his pocket, crumpled it up and tossed it in the trash.

He need to move on and he couldn't do that with thoughts of her in his head. It was time to grow up and let her go.

Brooke allowed a week to go by before putting in another call to Haley. Haley didn't sound happy to hear that Lucas hadn't called. When Brooke emphasized the urgency of the matter, Haley suggested she come in person so they could work things out.

Brooke had no idea how they'd do that, but she couldn't let this go on. She packed an overnight bag and threw it in her car before heading home to Tree Hill, North Carolina.