CHAPTER 9

Last Time on Home is where the heart is

Text Messages

Nate

Hey babe, sorry I know it's late but I want to see you I'm almost at your building right now. see you soon

Her eyes went wide seeing the text and now comprehending what was going on, all her friends had gone home; It was almost two in the morning; Nathan was coming to see her and she was in Lucas' place. She got up instantly as her brain finally processed everything

"I have to go"

"What? Why?" he got up following behind her, he hoped they would fall asleep together in the living room

"I don't leave here, and my…" the next word was so heavy for her to say, she felt her heart become heavy just by the thought of saying it to him "…boyfriend is on his way up to see me and its pretty late"

He held on to her wrist because quite frankly he felt like if he let go, she would leave, go back to her boyfriend and forget all about him "I wish you didn't have to go, it felt really good to talk to you again" his emotions were made abundantly clear with every word he said

"same here, I could come tomorrow, probably have dinner if you want" she didn't want to leave at all, physically her legs were moving towards the door but her heart was definitely still in the house she stood in

"I'd love that" he reluctantly let go for her wrist for a millisecond when she turned to leave. He caught the arm again and pulled her in, to do the one thing he had been dying to do all night, hell since he caught her in the elevator, he kissed her.

For a split second Riley's breath got caught in her throat from shock when his lips touched hers, but after the shock wore off and Lucas didn't pull away it felt like her brain switched to autopilot mode because she melted right into the kiss so easily
as their lips created a sync of their own. A lot of happy memories of kissing him when she was a giddy teenager seemed to play endlessly in her head, the electrifying out of body experience of total bliss overcame her in that moment as she felt every
bit of his soft lips on hers. The damn butterflies in her stomach erupted again when he pulled her by the waist moving her even closer to his frame.

It was almost like the past fifteen plus years never happened and she was always where she supposed to be, which was right here in his arms as her own roam freely combing his dirty blonde hair. He deepened the kiss as he slipped his tongue into her mouth
making it so much more passionate; she couldn't bring herself to reject him at the point, there was so much need and hunger that she couldn't even begin to explain. Lucas on the other hand felt like he was on cloud nine, he had pictured this moment,
dreamt of it more times than he would admit, but being here, holding her, kissing her and having her kiss him back, no dream in the world could compare. He felt the chills in his spine grow the more he held her and he just hoped to the heavens and
host of angels that she felt just as incredible as he did.

Before either of them could go any further Riley's, phone went off again pulling them back to earth, both breathing heavily from lack of oxygen. As Riley pulled away her sense of rational thinking reared its ugly head making her realize what she had just
done. Lucas kissed me and I didn't stop him instead I kissed him back and I fucking loved it. Her eyes went wild and glossy with tears as the realization hit her hard I'm a cheater. She slowly backed away from him because more than
anything she wanted to kiss him again, her heart wanted to so bad but her head kept reminding her that this wasn't the kind of person she was, she didn't cheat on people, she never hurts people so why the hell does some part of her want more than
anything in the world to run back into his arms, why does Lucas still have this hold on her? He dumped her after all. As she continues to back away, he's hot on her trail till her back was against the wall

"Riley, please" his voice was shaky and pleading, he is right in front of her face, her heart pounding so fast and so loud she swears he can hear it

She couldn't hold her tears as she continued to fight the battle of what's right in her head "no Luc, this isn't fair" with the last bit of will power she had she managed to get out of his grasp "this isn't fair to me…y-you don't get to do this…" she
sobbed "y-you don't get to make me feel things anymore…you broke up with me!"

"And I've regretted it every day since that night at the park, Riles I'm so sorry I hurt you, I never meant for any of it to happen the way it did"

"How the fuck did you expect that night to play out" she screamed in frustration, she could see hurt in his eyes and all she wanted to do was make it all go away because she realized she was hurting seeing him this way but she was still so mad at him

"something big happened to us; we weren't dealing with properly as individuals and it was killing us as couple and if we didn't take a break we could have ended up hating each other. I just" he let out shaky breaths "I couldn't let that happen Riles,
I couldn't let you hate me. Had I known you were going to take off on a damn boat and I was never going to see or talk to you for fifteen years, I would have never done what I did that night"

How could he think she could ever hate him, yes she did get mad and furious at him that time but hate him? Never, she couldn't even if she tried. Before her sense of endearment towards him took over she shook out of it as the hurtful memories that
plagued her for years started to bubble up

"I lost a child Lucas, our child, and the next thing you do is make friends with a girl who tormented me, you witnessed what it did to me, so I've always wondered what kind of a resolution you were planning to achieve and then YOU DUMP ME. Who does that"

Lucas felt like his world was crashing down on him, he never knew his friendship with Missy hurt her so much. It began to click for him, all the stand-off attitude she had towards him that he never understood, it all made sense now and he couldn't feel
more awful about it. He never meant to hurt her at all. Missy was just there to talk to when Riley wouldn't give him the time of day. He felt like the biggest jerk in the world right now

"I am so sorry Riley, I never meant to hurt you, please you have to believe me, Missy just listened to me that was it, I was frustrated and she listened that was it I swear, you've had my heart from day one and even after all these years I can honestly
say you still have it Riles please"

"you know what no, never mind…." She shook her index finger at him as her resolve fully kicked in "I'm with Nate now, I don't want to hurt him, he loves me"

"but do you love him?" Deep down the answer scared the living day light out of him, what if she actually loved him, what would he do then.

She wanted to say yes but in this moment with Lucas right in front of her, those beautiful emerald eyes boring a hole into her soul, reminding her of all the reasons she fell in love with him in the first place, her mouth couldn't form any words. It was
a one word answer, three letters; y-e-s and she was home free. she had said 'I love you' to Nathan many times before, hell she meant them at the time, but for some reason her head and heart picked this very second to work together in stopping her
from replying this question. but do you love him, don't you? Lucas released a sigh of relief when she didn't say anything

"I'm just going to take this silence as my answer, I never stopped loving you Riles, it's been fifteen years and here we are and you can't tell me you didn't feel anything from that kiss so please Riley Grace Matthews, please don't go" His stare on her
was intense as the look of desperation overtook him, this was his last desperate attempt to tell her he wanted her back and he hoped to God she wanted him as well. He took her hands in his because he could see she was shaking with tears in her eyes
where she stood but she pulled away quickly before she lost her last resolve

"I'm sorry Nate is on his way" then she finally looked at her phone to see Nathan's text

Messages

Nate

Oh, and I have hot wings in case you're up ;-) love you babe can't wait to see you

"I shouldn't have been here tonight; I have to go"

"you don't mean that, you kissed me back, you can't deny there's something here"

She furrowed her brows as she gazed at him like he was crazy, of course there was something here, people a hundred miles away could see there was something here and that's what scared her the most; Igniting whatever it is they have; because as everyone
has been so quick to discard, SHE HAD A BOYFRIEND, and she couldn't let him find out about her history with Lucas

"If you still care about me as much as you say you do, you won't follow me"

"Riley!"

"LUCAS FRIAR!" her voice was stern, this got him to back down because she never used his full name with him and on that note Riley basically sprinted back to her penthouse.

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She ran into her home through the back door of her kitchen, she shot door closed and rested her back on it sliding down to the floor as she tried to control her breathing again. Seeing as she couldn't and her chest began to tighten, she knew what was
coming next and couldn't afford to panic because she was home alone. She crawled as fast as she could to the nearest inhaler she could get her hands on. Thankfully she has a lot of them scattered all over her place for incidents like this. When she
finally got to one she took the puffs and finally relaxed herself on a spot on the floor.

The private elevator doors dinged letting Riley know Nathan just entered her home. She is still sitting on floor with her back is against the kitchen island just focusing on getting her breathing together, simultaneously trying to get her story straight
for her boyfriend. On his own instincts Nathan goes straight up the stairs to Riley's bedroom. When he didn't see her on her bed, he called her phone again only to hear it ringing downstairs

"Babe?"

"Nate I'm down here" Riley called from the kitchen as Nathan descended the stairs

"Riley where are you?"

"Down here in the kitchen" He turned on the lights to see her on the floor, puffy red eyes, residual tears still on her cheeks as she clutched to the inhaler for dear life

"Oh gosh Riley are you okay? Of course, you're not okay, what happened?"

"I Umm, just came down for some air and well…" she gestured to her chest "this happened" she tried her best to put on her fakest smile, she knew Nathan had no idea when she faked them so she banked on using it to her advantage "don't worry about it, I'll
be fine I've got this. Let's go to bed"

"like hell you not, you're not mounting any stairs this night, I'll put you in the guest bedroom down here, common I got you" he helped her up and carried her bridal style to the bed in the guestroom.

"Thanks Nate, I wish we could still have the hot wings though"

"don't worry I'll heat it up for you tomorrow" he kissed the top of her head as he tucked her in. He turned to go crash on the couch because he already knew she was going to push him away and it hurt too much as of late

"Hey where are you going" she called out to him as he was about to leave

"I was just um…going to crash on the couch" he kept his hand behind his neck as he spoke

"why? Since when did that start happening"

"I don't know since you won't let me touch you anymore" he sounded defeated and it only made Riley feel worse about the whole situation

"Nate"

"Am I wrong" he said with raised brows "I get it; you want your space I can take a hint"

"No Nate please come" she opened the duvet for him to come in. He didn't think twice about taking the offer as he jumped in the bed and pulled her as close to him as she could get "I'm so sorry you've been feeling neglected; I'm just dealing with a lot
right now"

"Babe then talk to me about it, that's kinda the point of having me; you know, me being there for you when you need help. If it's about work, you know you can take a break, right? The trip to Hawaii still stands"

"I know that and my work gets to me sometimes but I'll figure it out okay, some days are worse than others you just happened to catch me on one of those days, but I always pull through don't worry about it"

He pecked her forehead "okay, but you come to me the minute you can't take it anymore and I'll have a private jet ready"

"How about this instead, my high school reunion is in a couple weeks and I wanted to ask if you would accompany me as my date"

"I'd be honoured"

They had light hearted conversations till they both fell asleep

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Riley invited the girls over to her office so they could all go for lunch; it was her opportunity to catch up with the girls and then they were all going to go dress shopping for the reunion.

"so what's everyone craving Chinese? Sandwiches? Italian" Riley asked

"hmm" Smackle pondered the menu on Riley's table "sandwiches, it's not too heavy cause I still have to get back to work"

"No!" Maya pouted "I want something heavy, I'm starving"

"How about we go to Zay's instead, he serves light and heavy" Darby suggested

"NO!" Riley screamed, it had been weeks since her kiss with Lucas and she hadn't told the anyone about it and the fact that none of the ladies were hounding her about it means Lucas hadn't told Zay ergo no one knew about it yet. Chances are the guys were
having lunch at Zay's restaurant, since she was actively avoiding the vet she wasn't going to risk running into him for the first time since that night in front of her friends that have no boundaries.

"Woah, riles" Vanessa furrowed her brows at her chief bride's maid "what's wrong with going to Zay's restaurant?"

"Um nothing, nothing's wrong with Zay's, I was just thinking you know if we go there then we'd have to wait to get a table, there's just no time"

"oh honey don't worry about that I play the fiancée card all the time, I'll get us a table, in no time" she linked her hands with Riley's and they left to Zay's restaurant

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"Hey buddy" Zay said as walked into Lucas' office. Zay had noticed that Lucas had been a little closed off for a while so he came over to check up on his friend

"Hey man what's up, you didn't tell me you were coming and you brought food YES!"

"Like I need to an invitation to check on my best friend who's been distant" he took a sit across Lucas' desk and dropped the bag of food he brought from work

"what? I have no idea what you're talking about" Lucas tried to feign ignorance

"oh common Lucas don't play dumb with me I've known you since we were in diapers, you've been very short with all of us for the past few weeks, did something happen" and that's when Lucas flinched uncomfortably in his seat. He had distanced himself from
the group as a coping mechanism from the bittersweet night with Riley. Sweet in the sense that he confirmed she still had feelings for him and bitter in the sense she that she is fighting herself off him literally and it hurt him too much to be around
his best friends who were constant reminders of her.

"so something did happen"

"N-nothing hap-pen" he said in the least convincing voice even him had ever heard

"and that Mr. freak face is how I know something definitely happened. You fumble when you lie so what happened, is it your mum? Did she call to set you up with Missy again" Lucas rolled his eyes, how he wished that was his problem right now

"okay so it's not your mum" Zay kept guessing "it's not work because your dad isn't here trying to fix things so…" then he realization hit him "its Riley!" Lucas flinched again "it's her isn't it, something happened between you two"

"Isaiah Babineaux just let it go" Lucas warned, he felt like he was about to relive one of the worst nights he's had in a long time

"Ho ho dude" Zay chuckled "you already know that's not happening I love a good Riley and Lucas story so start spilling cause you know I'm gonna pry it outta ya one way or the other"

"Fine something happened between Riley and me…"

"Riley and I" Zay corrected out of habit

"who gives a fuck, do you want to know what happened or do want a grammar lesson"

"sorry proceed"

"We talked all night, we reconnected in our own way, almost like no time had passed you know" Lucas sort of drifted into space remembering the glorious moments he shared with her before the finale of that night "we caught up on everything basically, what
we've been up to all these years…"

"aaand" Zay was getting impatient, he knew something big was coming and his best friend was just trying to drag it out

"aaand we kissed or should I say I kissed her and she kissed me back" he was really flustered explaining it "I don't know but the gist of it is a kiss happened"

Zay grinned like a kid in a candy store "and that's the good Riley and Lucas story I was waiting for. So, what happened next, are you guys like getting back together or something"

"no far from it actually. she left"

"what?" the puzzlement could not be more evident on Zay's face

"what, we kissed, said some things and she left"

"details Lucas details, what did you say to her"

"It's was nothing really, I found out how she feels about me and I'm just reminded how much I fucked up my relationship with her, I never should have broken up with Riley"

Zay's eyes grew ten times wider if that was even possible "wait a minute so you broke up with her Lucas you idiot!"

"Really? Right now, that's your major concern"

"I'm sorry it's just your breakup with Riley has been like a Bermuda triangle type of mystery in our group for years, who broke up with who? What led to it? You know it's been a nail biter, oh shit I owe Maya 50 bucks"

"you guys bet on it"

"sorry bro, it drove us crazy trying to figure it out, I never thought you'd actually be that stupid to give up someone as amazing as Riley"

"Yeah thanks Zay, you're being super helpful here"

"sorry bro my bad. So, what happens now, you can't avoid her and us forever"

"I don't know man, Riles and I definitely still have something but I never knew just how much I hurt her until that night and right now I don't even think I deserve another chance with her after everything that happened"

"Now that's where you're wrong. Lucas you were young and clearly stupid like seriously mind numbingly dumb…" Lucas cut him off before he could continue telling him what he already knew

"is there a point coming anytime soon"

"yea sorry kinda lost it there, I mean you were young, years have gone by and the 'universe' has brought you guys right back to each other, to have that night and clearly from what I've heard the spark is still there. If you think she's the one for you
don't give up on her, don't talk yourself out of being happy because lord knows you two are one of the best people I know and you one hundred percent deserve to be happy with each other, so my point is if she's the one Lucas fight for her"

the words hit Lucas to his core if she's the one Lucas fight for her "when did you get smart" Lucas said while Zay's smug expression grew

"when you look this good" Zay gestured to his face "your message is kinda hard to get across I'm just glad you are more open to doing this"

"seeing her, talking to her, I don't man it just changed everything for me" Lucas started to drift off again thinking about what his life would be like to have Riley back

"hey" Zay snapped his finger in Lucas' face "so what's your plan"

Lucas spun around in his swivel chair "It'ssimple actually. I win her back"

A/N

Thanks for reading please like, follow and i cannot stress this enough LEAVE A REVIEW. I really want to know what you guys think, pm me your prompts or basically what you want to happen in this story, i really want to know if you guys are enjoying the story so far. xoxo