Story is pretty much the same with some minor tweaks to it.
Lucas was glad he didn't have to travel out of state for work and would be around to help Pappy Joe and Cletus on the ranch this summer. With his veterinarian job taking off it left less time for him to help. He had just pulled into the driveway when he spots an unfamiliar car parked where he usually does and two kids playing on the porch.
He gets out walking towards the porch when he sees it's a little boy and girl no more than four or five with dark hair and bright green eyes. He doesn't move or say anything until he feels someone tug on his pant leg. "Hi." He looks down seeing the little girl smiling up at him.
"Hello there who do you belong to?" He asks bending down smiling. Just as she was about to answer the last person he expected to see walk out the house does. "Rosie, Charlie were ar... Lucas." Riley Matthews his high school sweetheart until he screwed things up the last few months of their senior year.
Riley didn't move. She was frozen on the spot he wasn't supposed to be there Pappy Joe told her he wouldn't be home like every summer they came down. This wasn't what she needed right now. "I found it damn thing was hidin from me." Pappy Joe tells her walking on the porch. "Pappy Joe?" Lucas stands looking between the two.
Riley shakes her head turning her attention back to the kids. "Okay let's go get something to eat shall we?." She grabs Charlie's hand and walks over to where Rosie was still standing staring at Lucas who was staring at her too. "Let's go rose." Riley tries to grab her hand but she shakes her head.
"Can I stay mama Riley?" Lucas looks at Riley who didn't meet his eye. "No sweetie we're going to get some food and bring some back for Pappy Joe." Rosie looked at the older man on the porch smiling and nods her head taking Riley's other hand and making her way to her car ignoring Lucas.
They drive away and Lucas stands there watching until he can't see the car anymore and turning back to his Pappy Joe. He wasn't on the porch and Lucas can hear him talking to the horses. He couldn't believe that Riley was there or the fact she has kids. He would admit it hurt that they weren't their kids but that was all his doing.
"Pappy Joe I know you hear me." Lucas tells him after calling his name several times without answer. Pappy Joe just shook his head and continues watching the horses trot around. Lucas leans on the fence looking at him and then at the horses. "So you weren't going to tell me you invited my ex girlfriend to come over?"
Pappy Joe smiles still watching the horses and not paying any mind to his grandson. "Last time I checked that tiny blond one who called you all those ridiculous names was your ex girl not Riley." Lucas looks away at the mention of her. "She was a mistake." He chuckles and looks at Lucas patting his shoulder.
"Don't forget to feed em before putting them back in their stables." He starts to walk away when Lucas looks at him walking towards him. "You aren't going to tell me why she is here and why she has kids?" Lucas throws his hands in the air mumbling when Pappy Joe didn't answer him.
He walks back to the horses when he hears Pappy Joe. "Listen here boy she is my guest as this is still my house so you best respect her and those kids she has. You understand me?" Lucas nods feeling like a little kid again getting yelled at. "And one more thing don't be sticking your nose in her business you don't have that right anymore."
Lucas watched the horses a little more before feeding them and putting them back in the stables. He wondered if Riley was going to come back now that she knew he was there. He shouldn't have been as surprised as he was that his Pappy Joe treated her like family. He had ever since they came to visit and Riley and him struck up a friendship.
Thats what Lucas loved most about her her ability to make anyone and everyone fall in love with her. His Pappy Joe and family were no exception to that rule. He walks back into the house with Pappy Joe nowhere in sight. He retreats to his room pulling one of the boxes he had from underneath his bed. He sat it on his bed lifting the lid pulling out the copy of the first children's book Riley ever wrote.
He flips to the dedication page and now realizes that Rosie and Charlie were the name of her kids. He frowns flipping through it feeling that old familiar wound open up whenever he looked in the box or any of the boxes he had labeled Riley. He puts it back in and slides the box back under his bed. He sighs laying down and picking up the book he's read a thousand times before.
The clumsy adventures of jexica blue. A clumsy goofy girl by day but with an alter ego who was an adventurer named Morotia M. Black by night. Lucas looks at his shelf that held the first ever copy he bought of it that was signed by her. She was having a book signing when it first came out and Lucas had a friend go and get it signed for him when she made a brief appearance in Texas.
All his friends laughed at him for reading a book that was meant for teenagers but he couldn't help it. It brought him closer to Riley and how life should have turned out. He knew the characters in the book were about the old gang and the adventures they could have had if things were different.
She changed the names all except for Smackle who was her best friend that knew her secret and sometimes joined her on her adventures. He remembered the first time he seen the book and couldn't put it down. Whenever he came upon a copy he bought it. He even owned the limited edition version of the series too. He was proud of her and what she accomplished.
He just wished he was by her side when she made all of them. Maybe this summer would be his second chance to do just that.
Riley sat on the swings watching the twins play on the slide. After she left the ranch she took them to get something to eat and deciding to kill time hoping Lucas wouldn't be around she decided to take them to the park they were currently at.
She hoped he wouldn't be there like he hadn't been every summer she came down. When everything got to be to much there was only one place Riley liked to go that made her feel at peace. Ironic that it was also the place that caused one of her greatest heartaches too. She knew one thing she couldn't go back to New York.
Her parents weren't exactly her biggest fans with how she was living her life. But she made a promise and she intended to keep it. No matter what. She could have gone to see her aunt Morgan or even her uncle Eric but the twins loved Pappy Joe from the moment they met him and they already had so much taken from them she didn't want to take their summer too.
"Mama Riley who was that man at Pappy?" Rosie asked leaning on Riley's legs. Riley smiled pulling her onto her lap and swinging them. "That's Lucas he's Pappy Joe's grandson." She smiled watching as Rosie tapped her nose something she picked up from her. Riley only did that when she was thinking about something and Rosie was no different. "Is he nice?" Charlie asked running up to them making Riley stop the swing.
"Don't worry my little bear and flower I doubt he will be around long enough for you guys to get to know him." Riley tells them tickling their sides making them giggle. "Okay I think we should head back maybe see if Pappy will tell you a bedtime story." The twins jumped up and down grabbing Riley's hands as they made their way back to the car.
They make it back when the sun starts to set and the twins run inside while Riley made a call looking for Pappy Joe but finding Lucas instead. "Oh hello again." He tells them when they hold hands standing off to the side. "Mama Riley said you would be gone soon so we don't have to know you." Charlie tells him walking with Rosie to the living room.
Lucas rubs his neck this was going to be harder than he thought. Riley still hated him after all these years and he wasn't off to a great start with her kids. He grabs an apple from the table when he sees Rosie watching him. He chuckles and grabs another one washing and slicing it in half leaving it on the table while he stood by the sink.
He pretended not to notice as she crept closer to the table reaching for the apple slices. Rosie ate one of the slices and grabbed a napkin placing the other on it. "Are you going to leave like mama Riley said?" She whispers to Lucas who barely heard her. He bends down looking at her and smiles. "No I'm staying."
Rosie smiled tapping her nose and walked back to where her brother sat offering him the apple slice. Lucas smiled wider when he saw her tap her nose just like Riley he thought it was pretty adorable for a daughter to have the same habit as their mom. But what he couldn't figure out was why they called her mama Riley and not just mom.
Riley sat in the rocking chair on the porch chewing her lip and listening to Smackle on the phone. "So does he have any proof?" She could hear the tone in Smackle voice and knew that maybe he did. Tears start to prick her eyes and she wipes them away. "That's not what Elena told me." Riley was hoping this was like all those other times but knew it wasn't.
Ever since her first book came out and Riley made a name for herself and her little family guys been coming out of nowhere making crazy claims and Smackle and her have been able to prove them as just that. But this one was different he was going to be more difficult since Smackle told her his lawyer had some sort of proof she had yet to see.
"Okay well let me know please Smackle as soon as it comes your way. Thanks." Riley hangs up and stares at the night sky. Her breathing started getting a little close to what felt like a panic attack and she didn't want that. She tried to calm herself down by thinking of the twins which always helped her.
Her breathing slowed and she got up heading inside and running straight into Lucas. "Hey." He tells her hoping to hear that familiar exchange they always had. But instead she excused herself calling the kids up to take their baths. Lucas walked on the porch kicking at the rocking chair. "Thought it would be easy didn't ya?"
He turns and sees Pappy Joe shaking his head walking past and heading upstairs. Lucas did hope it would be easy and painless but he knew he cause her pain and never once really apologized for it. He knew he need to make things right before they would get better for them. He was taking this as his second chance and he didn't want to screw it up.
Lucas tossed and turned that night not being able to sleep at all. Pappy Joe sat him and Riley down at the kitchen table and gone over how everything was going to work since Lucas didn't go out of state like every summer. Lucas couldn't help smiling when he seen Riley still wore the charm bracelet he got her for her sixteenth birthday.
He sat up turning on his lamp and grabbing his book and rereading it again. He was just at his favorite part when he heard someone crying. He got up making his way towards what he realized was Riley crying. Before he could go in her room Pappy Joe beat him to it leaving the door open some as Lucas listened in on their conversation.
"Sun star you alright?" That was Pappy Joe's name for Riley. When they first met he started calling her that since she reminded him of his late wife who he called his moon star. "Yeah I'm sorry if I woke you. Just a bad dream." Lucas could hear the sadness in her voice and knew it was more than that.
"You sure? It sounded like it did last time but worse." Lucas looked in the door watching as Pappy Joe sat at the edge of her bed looking at her with a concern expression. "Yeah I got a phone call today and I guess it triggered the nightmares again I'll be alright as soon as it gets squared away."
Lucas banged his head on the wall. Riley was having nightmares and he didn't know what was causing them and he didn't like that. He was supposed to protect her from things like this. He knew what he had to do and that was figure out what was going on with her and help her with it.
Just another one of the ideas I had for a story. Let me know what you think. Will continue when finished with other stories first.