Peyton Sawyer Scott smiled softly as she watched her daughter bounce a basketball on the tiny river court in her hometown of Tree Hill, N.C. Peyton shifted slightly on the metal bleachers and placed her sketch pad down beside her.
Her daughter loved basketball; that she took after her father. Lucas Scott, her husband of five years, adored his daughter and beamed each time she picked up a basketball and asked Daddy to come outside and play with her.
Peyton never questioned Lucas' excitement when he learned they were having a baby together and even more so when the ultrasound a few weeks later revealed they would be having a daughter. After their daughter was born, he would take pride in telling friends and family that he was going home to his girls.
Lucas just assumed his life would be full of pink frilly dresses, ballerina shoes and Barbie dolls. And though their daughter adored all those things, she felt equally at home with a basketball in her hand.
So, every weekend, when the weather was fair, Peyton and Lucas packed up their daughter and took her to the river court, even though they had a perfectly good basketball goal in their driveway. It just seemed right to take their daughter to the court where Lucas and Peyton shared so much history.
"When is daddy coming?" Peyton's daughter asked. She held the basketball on her hip, turning her gaze to her mother.
"Daddy said he is on his way," Peyton told her daughter. She smiled sweetly. It still took her breath away looking at her and Lucas' child.
To say she had been a surprise would be an understatement. Peyton and Lucas had just found their way back to each other and were planning their wedding when Peyton learned she was pregnant. She had been scared and unsure when she told Lucas, but his excitement and beautiful smile squelched her doubt. They laughed hysterically when the doctor pinpointed the due date back to when the couple had went off to Las Vegas in their attempt to marry. It just seemed fitting they created a life on the very same night they had decided to sealed their lives together.
When she was born, the couple waited almost two days to name her. Though they had known for months they were having a daughter, Lucas and Peyton labored over the name, finally deciding to wait to choose a name until their daughter was born. Even after she was born their indecision continued until right before mother and daughter were set to leave the hospital.
Lucas walked into Peyton's hospital room while she was nursing their barely day-old daughter. He stood in the doorway and his heart swelled at the picture in front of him. Before his daughter's birth, Lucas was sure he could never love another the way he loved Peyton. But from the moment they had placed this tiny human being in his arms, the sum of both his and Peyton's love for each other, he felt his heart grow twice as large to accommodate another love of his life. It was then he knew what their daughter's name should be, after all she was the spitting image of her mother.
"Sawyer," he said aloud.
Peyton looked up and smiled at him. "What, going back to using my maiden name?" She dipped her head and smiled and then rubbed her daughter's downy head full of light blonde hair.
"No," Lucas shook his head and moved closer to Peyton to stand beside the bed. "Her name should be Sawyer." He shook his head yes proud of his decision. "Sawyer Rebecca Scott, cause there has to be another Sawyer."
"Really?" Peyton began to beam and Lucas could tell she was happy with his choice. "My dad, well, I think he would like that."
"Then it's settled." Lucas leaned down and kissed Peyton's forehead and followed by leaning further and kissing the top of his daughter's head. "Welcome to the world Sawyer Rebecca Scott."
"Why did Daddy have to leave," Peyton's daughter Sawyer asked with a slight pout. "He knows this is our day." She stamped her foot slightly.
Peyton loved her daughter to distraction just as Lucas did, but truth be told, she was a bit spoiled. Not in a bad way with tantrums and angry cries but in the fact that she and Lucas gave Sawyer all their attention 24 hours a day and seven days a week, so when one or the other were out of town, Sawyer made sure they knew she didn't like it one bit.
"Sawyer," Peyton said as she got up from the bleachers and walked toward her daughter. "Daddy had to go to New York for his new book, but he just called and said his plane landed and he is on his way."
"Okay, but he better hurry." Sawyer began bouncing the ball again.
Peyton tried to hide a smile as she saw Lucas' SUV pull up behind them. For many years Lucas had driven the old Mustang he had inherited from Keith, but just days after learning he was going to be a father, he put the old muscle car in storage and opted for a more sensible family car. It wasn't a week later that Peyton's old car was also put out to pasture, as Lucas called it, and she too found herself driving a sensible car.
The couple didn't dare get rid of the cars that seem to define them, however. Both cars were safely stored in an air-conditioned storage facility and they would have special "date nights" in which they would go and get one of them and drive them around Tree Hill.
Sawyer was unaware of her daddy's arrival until Lucas snuck up behind her and stole the basketball from her as she was dribbling. She turned to see her father dribbling the ball and then stop, pull up and hit one of his infamous fade away jump shots.
"Daddy," Sawyer shrilled running toward him. Lucas scooped up his daughter and held her close to him. He felt Sawyer plant a kiss on his cheek.
"Wow," he said hugging her tightly. "I have only been gone two days."
"Yeah, but I missed you." She kissed him on the cheek again.
"We both missed you," Peyton said as she sauntered over to her husband and daughter. She wrapped her arm around Lucas' waist and kissed him quickly on the lips.
"I said should go away more often," Lucas teased. He put his daughter down.
"No," his wife and daughter exclaimed.
"Well, kiddo, what you waiting for?" Lucas pointed to the basketball that had landed in the grass beside the goal. "Go get the ball and let's play."
"Okay, Daddy." Sawyer ran to where the ball was. She picked it up and began dribbling it toward him.
"Check out my little superstar," Lucas beamed. "She is going to take the basketball world by storm."
"I'm sure if you have anything to say about it she will," Peyton said with a laugh. She narrowed her gaze and reached up and kissed him softly on the lips. "Welcome home."
"Thanks," Lucas said. He kissed her back.
"I'll, uh, give you a proper welcome home later tonight." Peyton blushed slightly.
"Counting on it," Lucas smiled and stepped away from her and jogged toward his daughter. "So, baller what ya' got." Lucas swiped at the ball his daughter was dribbling.
"By the way, Lucas." Lucas looked up at Peyton. When he did so, Sawyer dribbled past him and went to the opposite basket, nailing a jumper - a sweet move for a young girl of five.
"Man, you did that on purpose." Lucas feigned being upset. But smiled in admiration of his daughter.
"I kind of did," Peyton said. "But I did want to tell you to remind me later I have something to tell you."
"Good news or bad new?." Lucas' stomach lurched a bit. He always felt like he was living on borrowed time with his amazing life. Finding your dream girl and then getting the fairytale ever after with her sometimes was a very daunting prospect for him.
"Oh, I think you will like it." Peyton winked at him and then went back to her seat on the bleachers. She picked up her sketch pad and flipped it to the drawing she had been working on all morning. She smiled as she stroked the pencil across the paper putting the finishing touches on the drawing.
She hoped Lucas liked her new piece of art. But how could he not. The picture was of Lucas and Sawyer walking hand in hand and in his right hand Lucas had just shot a basketball into the waiting goal beside him. The drawing read "He shoots, he scores." And above the backboard it read "Scott baby No. 2"