"I hate that guy," Clay groaned as watched Brooke and Julian talking down at the end of the dock. He was drinking beers with Nathan, Mouth and Skills on his boat as the christening party was starting to wind down. Haley had taken Jamie home to bed and the other girls had left having to work early the next day.

"Do you even know that guy?" Nathan asked with a smirk.

"No," Clay admitted causing the other guys to laugh.

"Damn, you got it bad, dog," Skills teased.

"What she's my friend, I just don't want her to get hurt by that guy again," Clay explained.

"Riiiight," Skills answered.

"Maybe he's not here to try to get her back," Mouth, the eternal optimist, suggested. "He could just be passing through and stopped to say hello."

"He's here for her," Clay said knowingly. "Trust me. Being with Davis is like eating potato chips—once is never enough. You always want more. No guy can be one and done with her." It was then he caught a look between Mouth and Skills while Nathan seemed to be very uncomfortable. "What?"

"Nothing," the guys said in unison always a sign of guilt.

"Seriously, what's going on?" he asked frustrated that they were clearly hiding something. "Mouth, tell me."

"Okay, so a long time ago Brooke and Nathan kind of had… a one night stand," Mouth explained reluctantly.

"You did what?" Clay questioned as he glared at Nathan.

"Look, man. We were young… and had too much to drink. I don't even remember it," Nathan explained.

"You don't remember it?" Clay argued clearly not buying it.

"If you forgot, you could always just watch the tape," Skills joked clearly a comment brought on by the alcohol he'd consumed.

"Tape?" Clay shrieked.

"Thanks, man," Nathan glared at Skills who just shrugged.

"Okay, I think we're just gonna go," Mouth mumbled while grabbing Skills' arm and pulling him off the boat.

"See you guys… or at least one of you later," Skills hollered.

"Tape?" Clay persisted.

"Yeah, we or … I kind of filmed it… but I destroyed the tape. It's complete gone, man," Nathan answered.

"And you never mentioned this?" Clay barked.

"Dude, you didn't even tell me you guys had a relationship until a few weeks ago. And what was I suppose to say. Hey by the way, I slept with her when we were in high school?" Nathan argued.

Clay was so frustrated with the situation. He hated the fact that Nathan and Brooke had been together. The idea that his friend, his client, had been with Brooke made his stomach churn. But at the same time, this occurred before he even met her so logically he had know reason to be upset. He knew that. He just didn't feel that. And that was pissing him off.

"Whatever. Don't you need to get home to your wife," Clay seethed.

"Uhh, yeah I guess I do," Nathan stuttered a bit taken aback by Clay's tone as he made his way off the boat. He understood his friend's anger, but he was a little surprised as he'd only known his agent to be easy going.

Clay just shook his head knowing he shouldn't have been so harsh with Nate, but he couldn't help it. There was anger inside him and he needed somewhere to release it. It wasn't just Brooke's past. It was her present as in Mr. Julian Baker and it was the possibility that Clay might not have a part of her future. All of this was bubbling up inside him. He tried to steady himself as he saw Brooke heading back toward him.

"Hey," she greeted. "I think I'm going to head out now. Congratulations, Clay."

"Wait," he pleaded. He needed to find out what happened with Julian but he knew he couldn't just directly answer. It would look desperate and she was likely to clam up so he needed to come up with something else. "Have one more drink with me, please. The party can't end this early."

"Where did all the guys go?" she asked just realizing that it was only the two of them left at the party.

"They're lightweights," Clay joked not wanting to get into the details of why they left. "Seriously, it would be embarrassing to end the party this early. And it would be bad luck for my boat. You don't want it to sink do you?"

He had that pleading look on his face. She never could resist that face so despite all her reservations she found herself mumbling, "okay, one more."

One more turned into several as it always did with the two of them. They'd covered every topic under the sun except the ones that Clay wanted to ask her. He had decided not to bring up Nathan for now, but he couldn't let go of another topic he desperately wanted to cover so thanks to some liquid courage he finally asked, "So what was producer boy doing here?"

"He came here to make a movie…with Alex," she answered.

"Alex?" he wondered.

"Yeah, apparently she secretly a good screenwriter. Surprising, since the girl's dress size is probably higher than her IQ," she quipped.

"So that's the only reason he's here?" he challenged knowing full well it wasn't.

"I don't know," she answered honestly.

"He's here for you," he filled in. "He'd be a fool not to be."

They sat in silence. Clay knew he was right and Brooke didn't know what to say. She could tell that Clay was jealous and wanted reassurance but she wasn't ready to commit to him. And to say anything that might get his hopes up seemed cruel. Finally, she said the only thing she could… "good night."

"So what's it like being on the other side of the triangle?" Haley teased Brooke as they hung out in her music studio.

"Not funny," Brooke sneered causing Haley to laugh.

"Come on. You have to admit it is a little ironic that Peyton and Lucas just leave town and you're already wrapped up in another love triangle," Haley taunted. Seeing Brooke roll her eyes, she quickly added, "Okay, clearly you're not a fan of irony."

"You think?" Brooke snapped.

"Seriously, how are things going?" Haley asked softer and more sympathetic.

"Not well," Brooke whined. "Julian asked me to do the costumes for his new movie."

"Wow, Brooke that sounds like a good opportunity," Haley commented.

"It is…or it would be," Brooke answered. "I just don't know if it's really a business arrangement or if he wants to get back together. And I know if I do it Clay will be hurt."

"Well, what do you think?" Haley asked.

"I think that working with Julian would really help the company launch our new line and frankly we could use the help," Brooke explained.

"So do it," Haley suggested.

"But then Clay will be hurt," Brooke answered.

"What do you want, Brooke?" Haley questioned.

"What you mean?" Brooke wondered confused at why Haley seemed to repeating herself.

"You've told me what would be good for you company, but you haven't told me what would be good for you. Do you want to get back with either of these guys?" Haley asked.

Deciding that she needed a distraction from all her dating drama, Brooke opted to spend the day with her favorite man… Jamie. They had just got some ice cream and Jamie had asked if they could play on the beach. They were in the middle of building a sandcastle when all of a sudden Jamie hollered, "Clay!"

There he was shirtless, running on the beach. She struggled to keep her composure as she starred as his abs. He'd filled out some since she'd last seen him without a shirt and it was clear that his time away had made him even more attractive.

"Hey Jamie. Brooke," he greeted. The smirk on his face made it clear he'd seen Brooke check him out.

Before he could comment, Jamie interrupted, "Are you done running?"

"Yeah, I guess I am. What are you guys up to?" he asked.

"We're building sandcastles. But I'm tired of doing that. I want to go in the water," Jamie announced.

Brooke squirmed knowing he shouldn't go in the ocean. "Buddy, I think the waves are just too big today for you to go swimming," she answered.

"Come, on Aunt Brooke. I will be fine," the little boy whined.

Seeing the trouble Brooke was in, Clay jumped in, "You're Aunt's right. Jamie it's too dangerous to go swimming in the ocean today. Why don't you guys come over to my place and we can swim in the pool."

"Lame. I have a pool at my house," Jamie whined.

"Yeah, but you don't have a diving board," Clay offered.

"You have a diving board?" Jamie exclaimed.

"I do. So how about it?" he asked both Brooke and Jamie.

"Can we, Aunt Brooke?" Jamie asked excitedly.

How could she resist his cute little face, she thought, "sure." So that's how they ended up spending the afternoon at Clay's house swimming.

Clay couldn't believe how well the afternoon had turned out. He got to hang with Jamie, which was always fun but even better was the fact that he got to see Brooke in her red bikini. She had even more curves than he remembered and she looked amazing.

He had thrown Jamie in the water a few dozen times and now the little boy was taking turns jumping off the diving board. He still had his water wings on of course but it made him feel like a big kid to get to use the board. This allowed Clay to swim up to Brooke and talked to her for a little while. "He's a great kid," Clay mentioned as he watched him jump in again.

"Yeah, he is," she smiled. "He's totally learned how to work the cute angle to get me to do anything."

"Must get that from his Mom," Clay suggested.

"Actually, I think it's the Scott genes," Brooke laughed it was then she noticed a frown across Clay's face. "What?"

"Nothing, just didn't know how much the Scott boys made you crazy," he mumbled angrily and proceeded to swim away leaving a confused Brooke in his wake. "Hey Jamie, how about we take break and have a snack," he called out.

Brooke dried off and followed the boys inside wanting to get to the bottom of why Clay was so angry. Fortunately, Jamie fell asleep on the couch right after his snack giving the adults some privacy. Clay watched as Brooke placed a blanket over Jamie and kissed his forehead. It was clear that she was meant to be a mom some day. Soon her motherly instincts were directed at him, "So you want to tell me what's wrong," she asked gently.

"You really love him, don't you," Clay nodded toward Jamie.

"Of course," she replied confused with where he was headed with this.

"Do you wish he was yours?" Clay asked.

"I'd love to have a kid like him some day," she answered easily.

"No I get that. I mean wouldn't you want a kid to look just like him," he continued seeing she was completely lost he finally added, "maybe you'd want to have Nathan's baby."

"What?" she laughed.

Not wanting to disturb Jamie, Clay motioned for her to follow him in the other room.

"Did you get too much sun today, because you're acting weird…even for you," she teased.

"I know you slept with Nathan," he announced.

"He told you," she wondered confused as to why it got brought up. "It was like a million years ago."

"Yeah well. It just seems odd to me that the two of you have this past I didn't know about. And you're so attached to his son. I know you want a child. I just wonder if you want Nathan to be his father."

Whack! He no more than got the sentence out and Brooke slapped him across the face.

"First of all, don't ever accuse me of wanting a relationship with my best friend's husband," Brooke shouted. "Second of all, you don't get to be jealous of something that happened before we even met. Especially considering all the girls you've been with." Noticing his confused look, "Oh, yeah I heard about all those girls you were screwing in California. I just can't believe you would think that about me."

He realized that her anger had now turned to tears. He knew about the insecurities she had about her past and he'd still brought it up. He was asshole. And he needed to correct it fast. He tried to reach for her but she pulled away from his grasp. "Brooke, I'm sorry," he said softly. "I was completely out of line. It's just first this producer guy shows up for you … and then I found out about you and Nate it's made me crazy. I know I don't have a right to be angry. It's just the thought of you with any guy… drives me nuts. And I know Nathan is such a great guy I could never compete with him," he admitted honestly.

Brooke realized that Clay wasn't really angry about her and Nathan being together—he was just insecure that he wasn't good enough for her.

"Clay, I never liked Nathan. We were just drunk and stupid. I don't even really remember it," she explained. Seeing he wasn't fully convinced, she added, "If it makes you feel any better, the only guy I've ever seriously thought about having children with… is you."

No sooner had she got the words out and his lips were on hers.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know this was short but I felt like I needed a transition chapter. Thanks for all the reviews. Please keep them up they really help get the ideas flowing. Special thanks to cc77 for the idea about making Clay jealous of Nathan. Hope you like this.