Lucy was somewhat grateful that her mother had come home early that night, so she the twinge of guilt she felt every time Wyatt was at their house went away. Now they just enjoyed their time together even with Amy sitting on the couch the whole time, watching whatever show she was interested in that week.

The weekend of TreasureFest snuck up on them rather quickly, and neither of the high schoolers could think of a better way to celebrate the semester being half over.

"I brought the best road trip music," Lucy informed Wyatt, holding up a couple CDs in her slim hands.

"Oh no," Amy groaned. "I know what those are."

"What are they?" Wyatt inquired.

"John Denver CDs," the middle schooler mumbled. "She brings them everywhere."

"Excuse you," Lucy snarked. "John Denver is amazing."

"John Denver?" Wyatt questioned.

"No, Wyatt," Lucy stated in disbelief. "John Denver? Take Me Home, Country Road? Rocky Mountain High? The greatest folk rock singer ever?" Wyatt just shrugged in innocence. "Well now we have no choice but to listen." Lucy said as she walked around the bed of the pickup.

Amy had tried to sneak into the shotgun seat of Wyatt's pick up, but Lucy was having none of the child's mischief today.

Back seat for you," Lucy smirked. Amy just stuck her tongue out to and Lucy responded with the same.

"Alright, children," Wyatt called from the front seat. "Y'all are killin' daylight out there!" The two girls hopped into the car and began the 40 minute drive to San Francisco. Lucy popped in the first of the two CDs and let the music fill the silence of the silent cab. Amy gave a large eye roll from the backseat, but Wyatt had to admit that the music wasn't half bad. What really caught his attention, however, was Lucy softly singing along beside him. Had he ever heard her sing? He figured he would've remembered if he had because it was phenomenal. Even at the low volume she was singing, he was stunned with her musical talent. Why didn't she sing more? He would ask later, but for now he would just enjoy the morning with the California morning sun coming in through the window and Lucy singing about being taken home down country roads. He wouldn't interrupt that beauty.


By the time they pulled into the parking lot the festival was flooded with people.

"Goodness gracious," he muttered when a pack of people walked right in front of the car without so much a glance in their direction. "Dang Californians."

"What was that?" Lucy asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Just a lovely group of people here," he laughed. "Good people."

"Uh huh," she scoffed. "Just find us a parking spot, cowboy." He couldn't suppress the smile Lucy brought to his face when they had these playful rivalries. Usually about the superiority of California or Texas or their respective sports teams. She knew an impressive amount of baseball history and sometimes he failed to find an argument against her stack of evidence, and it might bother him in any other case, but he loved the way she beamed with pride when she bested him.

"Wyatt, right there!" Amy called from the backseat, making him jump a bit. "A parking spot!" Sure enough a car was pulling out at the exact right moment for Wyatt to steal the spot.

"Amy," Lucy reprimanded. "You know you're not supposed to yell in the car." Too many times she had nearly crashed because Amy got a little too excited about something she saw from her window.

"Sorry," she murmured, shrinking back into her seat.

"Hey, no worries," Wyatt reassured Amy. "Besides we got the spot, and it's time for the fun to start!" That brought a smile back to the 11-year-old's face, and she excitedly unbuckled her seatbelt and jumped from the pickup.

"You're too nice to her," Lucy laughed.

"Well someone has to be," he pointed out with smirk. Lucy playfully rolled her eyes before following her sister out of the car. Amy was basically hopping in place from her excitement. Treasurefest had been a family tradition for years, and even though their mother couldn't come this year because of a work conference, it definitely didn't diminish her enthusiasm.

"Come on, slowpokes!" she groaned. "The longer we wait, the longer the lines get!" Lucy and Wyatt shared an amused look before following Amy down to the beach.

The large part of their day went off without a hitch. Wyatt had won Amy a stuffed tiger from one of the games that was supposed to be impossible to win, but Wyatt's aim proved extremely accurate. And when he offered to go again to win Lucy a dragon, she just gave him a look of mock skepticism and asked: "What would I do with a stuffed dragon?"

"Put it next to your bed to keep all the knights in shining armor at bay." he offered with a cheesy grin, but she just laughed and suggested they get lunch. She thoroughly enjoyed watching Wyatt's reaction at the thought of eating crab for the first time when she offered a bit of her's.

"Seafood is not something we made a habit of eatin' in West Texas," he grimaced as he poked at the crustacean that looked like they had plucked it fresh off the sand.

"Come on, Wyatt, don't be a baby," Amy mocked around a mouth full of crab meat.

"Yeah, Wyatt," Lucy agreed with a chuckle. He took a deep breath and bit off a small chunk.

"Not the worst thing I've tasted," he admitted after swallowing. "But I think I'll stick with my burger. Cow is a much safer meat." Lucy threw her head back in laughter at his considerate but failed attempt to like something she loved. And he suddenly no longer regretted his decision to try it.

They took the rest of the afternoon just enjoying all the festival had to offer. The looked at handful of displays and shops and watched one of the featured bands for a bit, but as 3:00 came around, it was clear that Amy was starting to get sluggish. Lucy was feeling a little tired herself, so the group decided to call it day. A very good day, Lucy thought.

"Y'all go ahead and sit," Wyatt suggested as they passed an empty bench. "I'll bring the car up here so you don't have to walk so far."

"Wyatt, you don't have-"

"Lucy, when will you realize that I don't do things because I have to, but because I want to?" He asked with the most heartwarming smile. She just shook her head at a loss for words before he took a step forward and took his hand in hers. "I'll be right back." And he was off towards the parking lot. She stood there watching him for a second before taking a seat next to Amy on the bench she had claimed.

"My goodness, Lucy," Amy sighed. "Just ask him out or something 'cause this is starting to get ridiculous." For once, Lucy didn't want to outright deny her sister's jabs about her "crush" because it was becoming clear to her that maybe Amy's assumptions weren't middle school nonsense. Her hand still tingled a bit from where he had held it seconds before, and she had to admit that while Monday's used to suck, they had become one of her favorites days because she got to see Wyatt for the first time after the long weekends apart. Gosh, was this really happening? Was she considering starting something so risky? Yeah, she really was. He had proved over and over again that this was worth a chance.

"Excuse me?" An unfamiliar voice shook Lucy out of her daze. She looked up to see a guy she kind of recognized looking her direction. "Do you go to Palo Alto High? Lucy, right?" Lucy didn't know how to respond. She could now remember seeing his face occasionally in the hallways, but that didn't mean she had a lot of interest in talking to him there or here.

"Um, yeah, that's me," Lucy mumbled, trying to give off an appearance of disinterest without being to blunt. She wasn't an overly confrontational person.

"Brayden," he introduced himself. "We had English together freshman year." When she realized it might not be as simple as giving uninterested signals to get him to go away, Lucy stood up to put some distance between this guy and Amy.

"Oh, yeah," she smiled half-heartedly.

"So what are your plans for college?" he inquired.

"Um… hopefully Stanford," she shrugged.

"Wow!" he replied. "Reaching big."

"Mhmm," she agreed with a tongue in her cheek. "You?" She cursed her inward tendency to be polite.

"Eh, just going to a community college for a couple years," he answered. "Saving some money and getting basics out of the way."

"Neat," she said in a way that suggested otherwise. "Well I better get-"

"Hey, I don't mean to be forward," he interrupted. "But, you know, I've seen you around school for so long, and I was wondering if you might want to go out sometime?" The way he asked was a little too bold to be a question.

"Uh, that's really flattering," Lucy answered. "But it's just not a great time for me right now. With college around the corner and all that."

"I mean, doesn't have to be anything serious. Maybe just have some fun…" The look in his eyes made Lucy want to cringe. Her eyes widened a bit when she realized what he was implying. Who did this guy think he was?

"Like I said," Lucy stated a bit louder, trying to keep things under control. "It's just a bad time for me to get something started."

"Oh, come on-"

"I think you heard the lady." Before Lucy had a chance to blink Wyatt was standing in front of her, his shoulders tense. "Now, if you don't mind, we're about to be leaving."

"I don't think you get to speak for her," the guy shot back taking a step closer to Wyatt, but Wyatt stood easily two inches over him.

"I don't think I need to," Wyatt snapped. "She made herself clear."

"Listen-"

"Is there some trouble going on here?" A festival security guard stepped in between the two.

"No, officer," Wyatt lied through gritted teeth. "We were just leaving." The guard made no attempt to move or stop Wyatt as he walked back towards Lucy and Amy. "Y'all ready to go?" Lucy took a second to observe Wyatt. She had never seen him like this. His shoulders were tight and his teeth were clenched, making his jawline more prominent. He looked angry, but she couldn't say she wasn't a little pissed either.

"Come on, Amy," she murmured, corralling her little sister towards the pick up that had been left running in the middle of the lane. Amy jumped into the backseat, and Lucy turned to face Wyatt.

"Um, what the hell was that?" Lucy snapped, meeting his fiery gaze.

"Me trying to help," Wyatt barked back. "You're welcome."

"Believe it or not, I've been hit on before Wyatt!" Lucy hissed. "I know how to handle myself. I don't need you in your shining armor to come save me. What's gotten into you?" After a second, she saw him relax a bit, a visible look of guilt and embarrassment across his face.

"Lucy, I'm-"

"Just save it for the drive back," she stopped him. "I want to get Amy home." She walked around to her side and stepped in. Looking behind her, she noticed Amy was already dozing off across the back seat, but she was still buckled, so Lucy didn't bother to wake her.

The first few minutes of the drive passed in silence. Lucy didn't put in a CD, and Wyatt was still too ashamed to say much. But eventually Lucy had enough of the silence.

"What was that, Wyatt?" she asked more gently this time, trying not to wake Amy. "I've never seen you like that before, and I can't say I liked it."

"I…" he started to say, but faded off quickly, taking a couple deep breaths. "Ever since my dad… um… and all that I just… I started suffering from these really bad anger issues," he confessed. "So bad that when I was in 7th grade I knocked this kid's teeth out and broke his nose for making some crude joke that I guess I took too personally. After that Grandma Bess sent me to a therapist back home. And it helped, I didn't have any more incidents like that, and eventually even the rage I felt so often started to fade, but when Grandpa Sherwin got sick…" he trailed off for a moment. "It flared up along with all of those other things I talked about, but this time I've been trying to handle it myself rather than trying to find a way to get more help. I just didn't want that to be another burden on my aunt and uncle." Her heart ached a bit at the raw honesty in his voice. "But that's no excuse for what happened. I really am sorry, Lucy."

"Wyatt, it was just such a minor thing," she insisted. "I don't understand why it got you so worked up. I was worried you were going to worse if that guard hadn't shown up."

"To be honest, Lucy, while I know that was out of line, it could have been a lot worse," he admitted. "I'm sorry. I should've trusted you to take care of yourself."

"Well, yeah you should have," she agreed. "But, Wyatt, my biggest concern was Amy. The last thing she needed to see was you get into a brawl with that guy and then get hauled off." She could tell he hadn't considered that by the look of shame that contorted his face. She didn't want him to beat himself up over something he struggled so hard to contain, but she just wanted to ensure he would do what he could to prevent it from happening again.

"I'll be better, Lucy," he whispered, keeping his eyes glued on the road. "Y'all give me a reason to want to be better." She had a hard time staying mad at him for long because she now knew what had led to all of this, and somehow despite all of it, he was still one of the kindest, bravest men she'd met, only surpassed by her own father.

"I trust you, Wyatt," she reassured him and, in a surge of bravery, reached up and took his hand and to her relief he held it with as much strength as she did. "But I need you to trust me too. If I had known all this before, I could've helped calm you down."

"I do trust you, Lucy," he insisted. "I just didn't want to scare you off."

"Well if today is any proof, that's not super likely," she jabbed lightly. In the moments that followed, they both felt the tension drain out of the pickup. They were going to be okay. "But I am still pissed at you," she reiterated, even though the lightheartedness was back in her voice.

"For good reason, ma'am," he chuckled.

Their hands remained intertwined the whole way home.

A/N: Awwwww :) Thank you for reading! I hope to have the next chapter finished by Friday night or Saturday, but it might be earlier if I'm feeling particularly motivated to avoid school work. Please review!