Brooke woke up the next morning wearing a smile upon her face. Last night's dinner with Haley and Nathan restored her confidence in her plan to win back Lucas from Peyton.
She knew they were destined to be together, but sometimes Lucas got blinded by his lust for Peyton or Peyton being just as determined as her to be with him. Some would call it possessive the way Peyton went after Lucas and ruined his engagement to Lindsay.
Brooke knew Peyton didn't love Lucas as much as she did. Peyton just couldn't stand to see Lucas with someone else even if she didn't want to be with him which is why Peyton turned down Lucas' first proposal to her.
She shook her head to snap herself out of her morning thoughts, and when she did she began to smell coffee. Brooke followed her nose to the door of her bedroom and she began to smell eggs as well as the coffee she'd smelt earlier.
"What the hell?" She thought to herself as she pulled open her bedroom door and walked around the corner to the kitchen.
Standing in the kitchen was Lucas' fiancée, Peyton Sawyer. Peyton stood over the stove cooking eggs while humming her favorite songs.
"P. Sawyer?" Brooke asked confused as to why the blonde haired woman was standing in her kitchen cooking breakfast.
Peyton twirled around on the heels of her bare feet. "Good morning B. Davis! Pretty soon you will be calling be P. Scott."
"I think I will always call you P. Sawyer. At this point is a habit." Brooke tilted her head to the side as she watched Peyton turn back to cooking on her stove. "What are you doing here? And more importantly how did you get in?"
Peyton simply shrugged her shoulders without turning back around. "I've been your best friend since elementary school so I know where you hide your spare keys."
"Remind me to remove all spare keys from outside of my house." Brooke thought to herself as she slid into one of her bar stools. "What are you doing here?"
"I haven't seen you in so long and we haven't been able to spend any time together since you've been back in town." Peyton began to make Brooke's breakfast plate. "And I figured I'd come surprise you with breakfast in bed, but you're already out of bed."
Brooke raised both eyebrows. "Well you did surprise me. I will give you that one!" She brushed her chocolate brown hair from her eyes. "I didn't even know you knew how to cook."
"Since I'm going to be a wife by the end of the year I wanted to start learning how to cook for my soon to be husband." Peyton squealed at the sound of the word husband. "Can you believe I'm getting married?"
Brooke pushed a mouthful of eggs into her mouth so she wouldn't have to answer Peyton's question out loud. She'd been surprised that Peyton had managed to stop Lucas' wedding to his publicist Lindsay, although, she was thankful she had because it granted her with one last chance to win him back.
"So what do you have planned to do for today?" Peyton took a seat in the bar stool next to Brooke.
Brooke racked her brain for any excuse to get out of hanging out with her. "I was going to go down to the café and oversee the construction."
Peyton pouted her thin lips. "I was hoping you were gonna say nothing so I could drag you along to scout out bridesmaids' dresses for you and Haley."
"Is Haley going?" Brooke asked out of curiosity.
Peyton nodded her head once. "I confirmed it with her last night but you left so quickly after putting Jamie to bed so I didn't get a chance to ask you if you were free or not."
Brooke took a deep breath and dropped her head between her shoulder blades. "I'll take a few hours away from overseeing stuff at the shop to go with you and Haley to the bridal store."
"You'd do that for me?" Peyton squealed and pulled Brooke into a tight hug. "You are going to make the perfect maid of honor."
Brooke felt slightly guilty holding the title of maid of honor when she knew she would be the one making sure the wedding never happened, but she knew she had to push that guilt aside because Lucas was the one for her.
[At the Bridal Shop]
"Soon we will be here picking out your wedding dress!" Haley squealed as she walked into the all-white bridal shop with both Peyton and Brooke.
Brooke rolled her chestnut brown eyes underneath her large sunglasses before peeling them off of her face and sticking them into her large purse. "What color were you thinking of?"
"White of course but then again Lucas and I are far from being virgins…" Peyton gushed.
"I meant for your bridesmaids' dresses?" Brooke shuttered at the thought of Peyton having sex with Lucas. "Black?" She suggested after spotting a black floor length gown.
Peyton walked over to the black gown and pulled it off the rack. "You don't think black is too much for a wedding?"
"It totally fits you." Haley reassured her with a single nod of her head.
Brooke remained silent as her eyes scanned the rows of wedding dresses. She had her wedding planned down to the napkin rings, but something that always startled her about her wedding was that she never saw Peyton anywhere in her wedding. She didn't want to lose her best friend in the whole mess of their love triangle that was about to come to a brutal and heartbreaking end.
"Are you okay?" Haley leaned over and whispered to Brooke once Peyton was distracted by pulling more dresses from the racks.
Brooke snapped out of the thoughts that were clouding her head. "Something about this just doesn't feel right to me." She admitted to her.
"You mean her marrying Lucas? Or you not marrying Lucas?" Haley questioned.
Brooke bit down on her bottom lip as she debated in her head whether or not she should inform Haley of her feelings for Lucas. "Both." She finally answered Haley after several silent moments between the two women. "I love him, Hales and I feel guilty about it but I can't help the way I feel about him."
"You can't help who you love." Haley wrapped her arms around Brooke's shoulders.
Brooke melted into Haley's tender embrace. "So I'm not a terrible person for planning to stop the wedding?" It felt good for her to have someone to talk to about the emotions she was battling with over her decision to be with Lucas again.
"If this were Nathan and Peyton getting married I'd do the very same thing you were doing." Haley answered Brooke but both women's voice remained at a whispered so Peyton couldn't hear their conversation.
"I'm afraid of losing her, but I'm more afraid of losing him forever." Brooke fought back tears.
Haley sighed lightly. "If she is your true friend then she will come back to you after she is done dealing with the hurt this is going to cause her, because there is no way she is going to come out of this without getting her feelings hurt."
Brooke nodded her head slowly and took a deep breath. "This is why I love you, Hales. You always have the best advice."
"I love you too B. Davis!" Haley smiled and whispered into Brooke's ear. "Soon to be sister in law."
Brooke couldn't help but smile at Haley's words. She now knew her best friend was on her side and that Haley was going to be there for her when the shit hit the fan between her, Peyton, and Lucas.
"What are you two over there whispering about?" Peyton finally noticed that Haley and Brooke had been cuddled in the corner of the bridal shop talking.
"Perhaps it's a surprise for your bachelorette party?" Haley covered for Brooke. "Either way the bride doesn't have to worry about it."
Peyton smiled and held up two black dresses that were two different lengths. "These are for you too."
"You sure Lucas won't mind black dresses in the wedding?" Haley took one of the dresses from Peyton's petite hands. "It's a bit dark, no?"
Peyton gave her shoulders a light shrug. "Lucas and I are personality twins so usually whatever I like he likes too."
Peyton's words sent Brooke whirling back into a flashback of her and Lucas sitting on his porch. Brooke had gone to Lucas and confessed her feelings, but also confessed how she didn't feel good enough for him because they were complete opposites. Lucas reassured Brooke that he enjoyed the fact that they were different. In fact it was one of his favorite parts of their relationship. Brooke was able to keep him on his toes.
"Brooke do you like the dresses?" Peyton waved her hands in Brooke's dazed face.
A smile crept onto Brooke's face as she remembered that night with Lucas. "I like the dresses a lot." She kept the smile plastered onto her pink face.
"Great!" Peyton clapped her hands together. "Now go try them on."
Brooke poked her head around the curtain separating her from the rest of the bridal shop. "I think you're gonna like this one." She decided being down about the situation at least outwardly would clue Peyton in on what she had planned for her wedding to Lucas so she was going to force a smile through the entire thing in hopes that it will transform into a real smile in the end of it all.
"Let me see." Peyton urged Brooke to come out of the dressing room.
"Hales?" Brooke called out to her best friend who had been trying on her dress in the next room.
Both Brooke and Haley walked out of their dressing rooms in sync. Haley twirled around the show off her floor length dress while Brooke playfully posed in front of Peyton in her knee length dress.
"I'm thinking instead of just picking one, one dress should be long and the other should be short." Brooke suggested.
Peyton pursed her lips together and placed her index finger on her chin as she examined both bridesmaids' dresses. "Is that what you would do?" Peyton asked Brooke.
"It sure is." Brooke lied.
"Well then Haley you will be in the long one while Brooke will stay in the short one." Peyton declared.
Brooke let out a sigh of relief once she was back in the dressing room. She was glad she was able to finally get out of the bridal shop and away from Peyton. It was hard for her to see Peyton as her best friend right now.
"I better get going to the boutique." Brooke emerged from the dressing room fully clothed in the blue dress and black pumps she'd arrived in.
"So soon?" Peyton frowned. "Haley and I were going to grab some lunch…"
Brooke cut off Peyton. "I'm really needed down at the store before one of the workers makes a mistake that is unfixable." She hugged both Haley and Peyton before racing out of the door of the bridal shop.
"Well that was weird." Peyton mentioned to Haley.
Now that Haley knew of Brooke's plan to win back Lucas no matter what, she knew she had to have Brooke's back.
"Not really. She is just really excited for the opening of Clothes over Bros in her hometown." Haley said with a shrug of her shoulders. "Just like you were about opening Red Bedroom Records here."
Peyton began to slowly nod her head, but something didn't feel right. Brooke has been her best friend for a long time so she knew when Brooke wasn't being herself, but then again maybe she wasn't who she was when she left Tree Hill after graduating from high school.
[At Clothes over Bros]
"Move the mannequins more apart than that." Brooke ordered a group of interns she'd flown out from New York to help her with the opening of Clothes over Bros.
Lucas walked into the store with his phone flipped open so he could catch a picture of Brooke in the process of redoing what used to be his mother's café.
One of the interns began to quickly whisper as Lucas walked inside of the store, and this caught Brooke's attention so she turned around.
"What are you doing?" Brooke felt butterflies fluttering around in her stomach at the sight of Lucas Scott.
Lucas shut his phone and slid it back into the pocket of his jeans. "I'm just getting a few pictures of the place and you for my mom. She wanted to know how the process was going."
"Can you tell her that I'm sorry for doing all of this to her café?" Brooke pleaded with him. "I feel so bad."
Lucas casually waved his hand at her. "She and I both agree that you are the perfect person to take up the space of the old café."
"Really?" Brooke turned to stand next to him and her dress brushed against his arm.
The brush of Brooke's dress gave Lucas butterflies but he remained calm. "I'm proud of you Brooke Davis!" He admitted.
Brooke couldn't help but smile at his encouraging words. "Really?" She crossed her arms over her chest.
Lucas nodded his head once and also crossed his arms over his chest. "The place looks amazing so far and you're doing an amazing job pursuing your dream."
"I'm pretty proud of you too." Brooke smiled up at him. "The Unkindness of Ravens did amazing and The Comet was amazing to read."
Lucas blushed a little when she admitted that she read both of his books. "You read those?"
"Well I had to read the first one because half of the book was about me." Brooke laughed and nudged him in his side with her elbow. "But I really read it because I believe in you as an author."
Lucas scratched the back of his head at her statement. He'd never heard Peyton tell him that she believes in him as an author not since they were in high school. Lindsay thought The Comet was about Peyton, but his second book was about Brooke and how his life fell apart when he left and how he still couldn't find that true happiness since she never came back to him.
He figured she'd never come back to Tree Hill because of her happiness with her success of Clothes over Bros, so he settled for Peyton because he knew her love for him would not die very easily.
"You okay?" Brooke asked after several silent moments between them.
Lucas' smile softened up. "I was just thinking back to the night I showed you my book for the first time."
Brooke's face lite up as she remembered the night of their last party as seniors. "Brooke Davis is going to change the world someday and she doesn't even know it yet."
"And I was right." Lucas wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "Your face is on every bus stop and bulletin board from here to California."
Brooke sighed lightly. "But that wasn't enough to make me happy forever."
"What is it that is going to make my pretty girl happy?" Lucas asked.
Brooke looked around her purple boutique and then back up at him. "A husband and a family."
Her answer shocked him. Lucas remembered how much Brooke struggled with relationships and how easily she gave up on them, and he figured she'd never wanted kids because she liked having her freedom.
"I have to admit I'm shocked by that answer." Lucas pulled Brooke over to the couch they'd just set up in her store.
Brooke allowed him to pull her along.
"Is that why you came back to Tree Hill?" Lucas asked. "To get that husband and family you desire?"
Brooke's face remained calm as she answered his questions. "I came back to Tree Hill because it is my home and I missed it after all this time away. But yes, I've had a good history of good guys in this town and I would like to find another great guy to marry and start a family with."
Lucas smirked. "Are you forgetting about your romance with Felix?"
Brooke couldn't help but laugh when Lucas brought him her short fling with Felix, her next door neighborhood turned boyfriend. "I never loved Felix and I always saw him more as a sex toy than an actual boyfriend."
Lucas playfully scrunched up his nose. "Every time I saw you two together I always thought about how you deserved to be with someone so much better."
"I had someone better." Brooke blurted out. "I had you."
Lucas took both of Brooke's hands into his own and he couldn't help but notice how right it felt for him to hold her hands in a comforting way. "I was a pretty awful boyfriend to you."
"Are you kidding?" Brooke shook her head. "You taught me so much about myself and most importantly you taught me how to truly love someone."
Lucas looked down at their linked fingers. "I also destroyed your trust in men."
"Only for a week or two, but after all of that pain I soon discovered that you were my first love." Brooke watched him stare at their joined hands. "It just sucked hearing you say I wasn't your first love."
This finally made Lucas looked up from their hands. "I only told you that you weren't my first because…"
"Because I said it first?" Brooke guessed the rest of his sentence.
Lucas gave his head a solid nod. "When I brought up Whitey's speech to you I was going to tell you that it made me realize that you were my first but…"
"Then I said you weren't my first." Brooke laughed in disbelief. "So we were both lying that night."
Lucas laughed with Brooke but nodded his head. "It seems like it."
"But why did you run into Peyton's arms soon after that night?" Brooke asked him.
"Because she was there when you weren't." Lucas answered quickly. "I've always loved Peyton."
Brooke dropped her head and sighed. "Have you ever been in love with her? Being in love and loving someone are two different things."
Lucas choked on his words and had to clear his throat, but before he could answer Brooke's question Peyton walked into the store with Haley and Jamie in tow.
"What are you guys doing here?" Brooke jumped up from the couch, instantly letting go of Lucas' hands.
Peyton held out a paper bag with grease staining it. "We thought it'd be nice to bring you some leftovers and see how the store was coming along. What are you doing here Lucas?" She asked her fiancee.
"He was just taking pictures of the boutique for Karen to see." Brooke answered for Lucas.
Lucas remained silent but nodded his head. Brooke's question was still echoing in his head, and he didn't know why it had him questioning his relationship with Peyton but it did.
He also contemplated whether or not he should give Brooke a hug goodbye in front of Peyton, but figured it would look weird to his fiancée if he didn't so he grabbed Brooke and twirled her around before hugging her. "You're doing a great job! Bye pretty girl." He whispered into her ear.
"Thank you for stopping by." Brooke pushed past the butterflies forming in the pit of her stomach after their hug.
Lucas planted a gentle kiss on Peyton's cheek which made Brooke smile because she knew her question was now in his head and forcing him to rethink things with Peyton which is why he didn't kiss her. "I'll see you at home."
He moved around Peyton and picked his nephew up off of his feet. "You being good for your mother?"
Jamie quickly nodded his head. "Aren't I always Uncle Lucas?"
Everyone laughed together at the adorable little boy.
"Bye Hales." Lucas gave Haley's lips a gentle peck before he sat Jamie back down on his feet. "See you later little man." He gave Jamie a high five before he rushed out of the door to the building.
"Do you think he is acting weird?" Peyton asked Brooke and Haley.
Haley and Brooke locked eyes and once again Haley felt the need to step up and cover for Brooke.
"You don't trust your fiancée? He is probably planning something special for you when you get home." Haley answered simply. "Don't bunch up your panties."
Brooke bit down on her bottom lip as she watched Lucas walked down the sidewalk toward his vintage Mustang which used to be his Uncle Keith's car before his tragic death several years ago.
"Brooke?" Peyton snapped her fingers in Brooke's face. "You see Prince Charming out there or something?" She stood on her toes to get a glimpse at what Brooke was staring at.
"I think so." Brooke mumbled under her breathe as Lucas drove off.
Peyton's stomach dropped as she realized that Brooke was watching Lucas climb into his car. Her eyes began to burn with anger and jealously, and she turned her burning gaze onto Brooke.
"What?" Brooke asked innocently.