A/N: SO sorry for the delay...I had a hard time with this and then I wanted to make it extra long to make up for the wait...I hope you like it! Please review and let me know what you think! :)
_
It had been several days since Lucas and Maya had the chat that let them know they were in the same place emotionally. Things were a lot less tense between the two of them, and the whole family felt a sense of relief. Despite the conversation, Maya was still a little uncertain about what would happen once their trip to Texas was over.
It was the day of Grandma Mabel's party and everyone was scrambling around and trying to get everything set up. Maya, unable to do any of the heavy lifting due to her ankle, was on kitchen duty with Lucas' mom setting out the foods that had been prepared the night before and making sure everything looked nice.
"It seems like you and Lucas worked out whatever little issue you guys were having the other day." Mrs. Friar simply just smiled, but Maya knew she was trying to get inside information.
Maya smiled and said, "yeah, things have been pretty good with us." She wanted to continue and gush, she really did. It's not that she didn't feel comfortable with his mom, but she also kind of wanted to keep this as their little secret a bit longer.
"I think things just got a little tense because acting like your best friend is your significant other has been a little more emotionally challenging than we expected it to be. But we talked it out and I think we are okay now."
Mrs. Friar had a feeling she wasn't getting the whole story, but she knew better than to pry. Especially when it came to Maya. She knew they would come to her with the rest of the story when they felt comfortable doing so.
"That's so great, sweetie. I can't tell you how much this means to our whole family that you're helping us with this. Lucas may not tell you the full extent of it, but you're the favorite honorary grandchild around here. You're making Grandma Mabel's birthday so special."
Maya could feel her eyes tearing up a little bit and she crossed over to give Mrs. Friar a hug.
"You know you guys are like a second family to me. Thank you for letting me be a part of this."
Lucas walked into the kitchen to see his mom and Maya hugging and immediately smiled to himself. He knew that Maya wasn't ready to tell anyone that they were finally admitting they had feelings for each other, so he wasn't sure what exactly was going on.
"Hey Shortstack, did you need any more proof that you're the favorite child around here?"
Maya looked up and smiled at Lucas and his mom broke their hug and swatted at her son.
"Oh, hush Luke! You are both basically royalty in this house. We are just about done in here. Why don't you and Maya go upstairs and get ready for the party?"
Lucas grabbed Maya's hand and spun her around, making her giggle. He intertwined their fingers and led her towards the staircase so they could go upstairs and get ready.
"Ready to put on a show?"
Maya stopped in her tracks on the stairs, and felt her stomach drop. She instantly wondered if her fears about this relationship lasting beyond the trip to Texas was actually warranted.
"Whoa there, Hopalong.. I thought this wasn't pretend anymore."
Lucas squeezed her hand and raised his eyebrows. "I wasn't talking about the party, babe."
Maya's eyes widened with realization and she hit Lucas on the chest with her free hand.
"I cannot believe you just said that when your mom is in the next room! Also that is so not happening with your entire family in the house." Maya looked down at their intertwined hands suddenly feeling insecure, "Also, we haven't really even talked about that yet, so…."
Lucas smiled at how uncomfortable Maya was getting because she normally was the one to taunt him. He could rarely get to her, so he was excited that he hit a nerve.
"Maya, look at me."
Maya reluctantly met his gaze.
"I was joking. You love messing with me, so I thought I would give it a shot. Not gonna lie, I liked it."
Maya rolled her eyes and continued walking to their shared guest room.
"We all have our things, Huckleberry. You're not stealing mine."
Lucas smiled fondly and led them the rest of the way to the guest room and shut the door. As soon as it was closed, he immediately pulled Maya into him, meeting her gaze to try and gauge what she was thinking. Since their talk and movie night, they had been more affectionate towards one another but they hadn't really discussed their feelings further or fully defined their relationship.
Maya's breath hitched as he placed his hands on her hips and pulled her closer.
"What are you thinking about. Shortstack?"
Maya smirked up at Lucas and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down towards her and bringing their lips together. It didn't take long for Lucas to reciprocate, pulling her as close to him as possible and deepening the kiss. Maya couldn't help but notice the large number of butterflies in her stomach, as if every nerve in her body was firing in that moment.
After a couple minutes, Maya pulled away resting their foreheads together and smiling before disentangling herself from Lucas, grabbing her clothes from the closet and making her way to the bathroom to shower and get ready for the party without another word.
Lucas was left standing in the middle of the room in a daze, replaying what just happened over and over in his mind. After several minutes he remembered that he's supposed to be getting ready for the party and forced himself to shake it off for the time being.
The party was well underway, and everything was great except for Lucas' old neighbor, Kate, who had spent nearly the entire time flirting mercilessly with Lucas, even though Maya was standing right there.
Lucas, being the southern gentleman that he was, seemed entirely oblivious that this girl was being way beyond friendly with him. Maya knew he would never deliberately flirt with someone else in front of her, but she had seen about all she could take of their reminiscing for the time being. She knew she was overflowing with jealousy, and she knew that it was ridiculous, but she couldn't help it. She snuck off, doubting the two of them would even notice her absence and went to find his mom. She always knew how to make Maya feel better.
Mrs. Friar was in the kitchen refilling one of the plates of appetizers, but immediately stopped when she noticed Maya walking into the kitchen looking glum.
"What's the matter sweet pea?"
Maya looked up, debating whether or not to tell mama Friar the truth. Knowing she would see right through any attempt of a lie, Maya decided to just tell her.
"I just needed a break from Lucas and Kate reminiscing about the good 'ole days on the farm…." She debated adding more about Kate's incessant giggling or the way she kept touching Lucas' arm or even the fondness she saw in Lucas' eyes as they talked, but she decided against it, largely just to not spend another second thinking about it.
Mrs. Friar nodded knowingly. "Maya Papaya, if I didn't know any better, I would think you were jealous…"
Maya's eyes widened and she started to open her mouth to defend herself when she noticed Mrs. Friar putting her hand up as if to stop her.
"Maya, you have nothing to worry about with Kate. She has always been known as the flirt around town. You know Lucas and his inability to be anything but kind to people unless they give him a reason not to be. He looks at you like you hung the moon, if he knew you were uncomfortable, he wouldn't still be in there talking to her."
The corners of Maya's mouth turned up at that last part and she let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. She could feel her cheeks heating up at the implication that Mrs. Friar knew Lucas and Maya had real feelings for each other.
Mrs. Friar walked towards Maya and pulled her into a hug.
"You have nothing to worry about, sweet girl. Go back in there and show Kate who's boss."
Maya giggled and thanked Mrs. Friar, pulling away from the hug. She smoothed down her velvet dress and headed back into the living room with newfound confidence.
She spotted Lucas and Kate right where she left them, and prided herself in the fact that Lucas was now looking extremely bored. She strode over to them, immediately grabbing Lucas' hand and guiding it around her waist. She snuggled into his side and smiled up at him.
He placed a kiss on top of her head as if it was the most normal thing in the world and used the arm around her waist to pull her closer to him. Kate was still talking away, but all Lucas could focus on was the blonde snuggled against him and holding onto his hand for dear life. He smiled to himself, realizing that she might have been a little jealous of Kate.
Maya continued to stay close to Lucas and holding his hand for the entirety of Kate's story, fighting the urge to roll her eyes as it dragged on and on. She felt silly for feeling so possessive of Lucas since they weren't even technically dating, but it took her long enough to acknowledge that she had anything past platonic feelings for him, she couldn't bear to let anything to get in the way of it now that they were both ready to see where this could go.
After what seemed like forever, Kate finished her story and insisted that she and Lucas needed to get together for more reminiscing before he returns to New York. Maya made the effort to wear an expression of indifference, but she knew it was probably more of a grimace.
When Kate walked away, Lucas took his hand that was still being held onto by Maya and spun her around to face him. He grabbed her other hand and smiled down at her.
"Shortstack, you left me hanging there for a second. I was scared you weren't going to come back for me."
Maya rolled her eyes at him and squeezed his hands.
"Well I was afraid you were about to ditch me for Miss Texas 2020 over there…."
She smirked up at him with a shit eating grin, hoping he knew she was just messing with him.
He looked down at her, concerned. "Please tell me you're joking right now."
Maya bit her lip and pulled him towards her to plant a chaste kiss on his lips. "You know I am. Let's go find Grandma Mabel and get some cake."
After the party was over, the family members staying at the Friar estate were all changed into their pajamas and gathered in the living room to wind down from the party. Maya had her head resting on Lucas' shoulder and she was seconds from being lulled to sleep, further aided by Lucas running his fingers through her hair. Mrs. Friar looked over just as Maya gave in to her droopy eyelids and smiled at the couple.
"Luke, it looks like we wore out your girl. Why don't you take her upstairs and you guys can call it a night."
It was only 9pm, but Lucas thought some alone time might do him and Maya some good. He carefully pulled his arm out from behind Maya, making sure she didn't slump over without his support. Once he was free, he crouched in front of her spot on the couch and said, "Alright, Shortstack, let's go."
Without even opening her eyes, Maya leaned forward and lifted her arms up to wrap around Lucas' neck. In one swift movement, he stood up and had Maya securely on his back and she rested her head on his shoulder.
His family watched in awe as they moved so in sync without saying a word. Lucas shrugged at his mom as Maya groggily muttered "giddy up, Huckleberry."
Knowing better than to ignore Maya's commands, Lucas headed towards the stairs and waved goodnight to his family.
Once they made it upstairs, Lucas carefully deposited Maya on the bed, as he had done many times before. This was kind of their routine. Maya rolled to her side so that she was facing Lucas in the center of the room and sighed.
"Sorry I hardly lasted longer than Grandma Mabel tonight. Having to limp everywhere makes me so tired. I also may have wanted to spend some time with you that didn't include answering 500 questions about our fake relationship. I'm happy to do it, but if I have to tell the story about you saving me when I got hurt the other day one more time I might explode."
Lucas chuckled and climbed in the bed next to Maya, leaving his arm up so she could snuggle up against him like she always did.
After Maya got situated, Lucas began running his fingers through Maya's hair, just the way she liked.
"You know, when I asked you to be my fake girlfriend, I didn't expect it to turn out like this at all."
Maya looked up at him, scrunching her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
"I honestly didn't think we would ever stop messing around. I kind of thought we would force ourselves to be platonic forever…..and I mean, that would have been okay. I'd rather have you as a friend than nothing at all. But I like this better."
Maya hid her face in his chest so he wouldn't see her grin. Once she recovered her composure, she playfully swatted at his shoulder. "Quit being such a sap, Huckleberry." But the way she smiled at him and clutched onto his shirt told him she felt the exact same way.
The next morning, Lucas took Maya to their favorite brunch spot since their week in Texas was coming to a close.
"Do you think we should tell Mama about us when we head back home tomorrow?"
Maya continued to stir her coffee, while thinking about what he just asked. While she continued to stir, she saw Lucas' phone light up with a text that just happened to be from Kate. Her stomach dropped, but she told herself to get a grip. He told her she had nothing to worry about and she needed to trust him.
Lucas noticed a frown settle over her features briefly while she mindlessly stirred her coffee. He looked down and saw that his phone had a new message and once he saw who sent it, he knew that was likely the cause of her frown.
Kate was still insistent on getting together before he left town, and Lucas being the people pleaser he was didn't want to be rude and decline the offer. He hadn't replied to her message about it last night because he was spending time with Maya, but it looked like she wasn't going to take no for an answer.
Maya finally started to speak, her voice sounding a little strained.
"I know your mom would be nothing but happy if we were to tell her about us, but at the same time the second we tell someone else it isn't just ours anymore. Which is okay. But I have kind of liked having this be a little secret between us. Nobody can do anything to screw it up for us if nobody knows. But on the other hand, once we are back, we will have to be more careful about PDA since we had an excuse with the fake dating…..Why is this so hard?"
Maya rested her head in her hands trying to think about this while simultaneously blocking out the text Lucas received right before this conversation. When she looked up, he was looking at his phone.
"Not to change the subject, but Kate wants us to come over this afternoon. We can totally say no. We are only here one more day and I can say that we have a jam packed schedule, it's not a problem."
Maya sighed, on one hand she definitely wanted to take that out, but on the other hand she would feel guilty about it and it was no secret that she liked having the upper hand in most situations.
"That's okay, Huckleberry. If you want to go, we can."
Lucas studied Maya's face, but found nothing but sincerity. This made that familiar dropping feeling in his stomach happen.
He could easily take advantage of her generosity and say that they would go, but seeing her be willing to participate in something she wasn't entirely comfortable with made his chest swell with something like love. He reached out for her hand and kissed the back of it and smirked down at her.
"You know what? I have a better idea."
An hour later, after driving through an area of town Maya wasn't familiar with, Lucas pulled onto a dirt road that led into a wooded area. He would have normally parked at the edge of the trees and hiked the rest of the way, but with Maya's ankle he opted to drive to the spot he had in mind. Several minutes later they came to a clearing that had a really pretty pond complete with a waterfall and plenty of big rocks around the water to sit on.
Lucas looked over at Maya once he parked the car and saw her eyes fill with wonder at the scene around them. Because of her ankle and the uneven terrain at Pappy Joe's farm, Maya had mostly been stuck doing indoor activities or sitting on the porch swing since she hurt her ankle. Lucas felt terrible about that since her favorite things to do in Texas mostly involved being outside. He knew this spot was pretty accessible with the help of the dirt road and thought she might like it, especially since her ankle was feeling a lot better and she was getting around more easily.
"Huckleberry, what is this place? It's beautiful!"
Lucas smiled and unbuckled his seatbelt. "Grandma Mabel used to bring me and my cousins here when we were younger. I actually haven't been back in a while, but I felt bad that you had to spend a lot of this week inside. I hope that's okay."
Lucas came around and opened Maya's door like the Huckleberry he was and she smiled at him and felt that newly familiar drop in her stomach that she seemed to only feel around Lucas.
When he reached out his hand to help her out of the car, she pulled him towards her and connected their lips together in a chaste kiss and squeezed his hands.
She smiled at him. "Of course this is okay. The only thing that could possibly make it better is if I had brought my sketch book. It's so pretty here."
Lucas smiled and opened the back door of the car, pulling her sketchbook and pencil bag from the backseat. "I had a feeling you would say that."
Maya squealed and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. "Thanks, Hopalong."
The next few hours were spent sketching, observing, relaxing and kissing. There had been a comfortable silence for a little bit, Maya laying her head in Lucas' lap while he put random flowers that he found into her hair.
"I've been thinking about what you asked me earlier, about telling your mom and possibly other people about us. But first I think we need to figure out what we are."
Lucas realized that Maya had a point- despite their increased level of affection, they never really discussed labels or defined what they were. He also knew that Maya was a little more skittish when it came to that stuff and he didn't want to push her in a direction that would make her uncomfortable.
"You have a point there, babe. What do you want us to be? I want to call you my girlfriend, but I don't want you to feel like we have to define this yet if you aren't comfortable. A week ago we had never acknowledged that there was a potential for anything here. I don't want you to feel like it's too much too fast."
Maya sat there taking in what he said, and was also largely distracted by the fact that he called her babe. She liked it. Normally talking about defining a relationship was something Maya would avoid like the plague, but this was Lucas. They had achieved a level of intimacy that she had never felt with anyone thanks to their years of best friendship. This didn't feel scary.
"I-I think…No. I know that I want to be your girlfriend." She noted the elated smile on his face and smiled back. "But I am kindly warning you not to hurt me. I don't think that would go well for you. I kind of have your entire family wrapped around my finger."
Lucas grinned down at her as she began to sit up. "I give you full permission to do whatever you want to me if I'm ever stupid enough to hurt you."
Maya smiled, satisfied, and turned herself so that she was facing Lucas.
"Thanks, boyfriend."
She looked so beautiful in that moment, he didn't think it was possible for someone to be so perfect. He had to kiss her. Leaning forward, he cupped his hands around her jaw, letting his fingers roam through her hair as he brought their faces closer and closer together until electricity was made when their lips finally touched. This kiss was different than the ones they had shared throughout the week. This one was certain, and it was full of passion, but most importantly it was filled with faith and trust. It felt like a new beginning.
