Chapter Ten

Brooke watched him cross to the stroller and crouch beside Grace, catch her tiny hand, hooking it in one of his long fingers – strong, darkly tanned against her pale pink, almost transparent skin. That baby noises grew more excited as she grasped it tightly, kicking her little feet as she smiled up at him.

'This is something we have to do together,' he said. Then, looking back at her when she didn't respond, 'You know I'm right.'

'I do?'

'Of course you do. You want what I want.'

Brooke stared at him. 'Are you sure about that? You never wanted her, Lucas. You never wanted children at all. Remember?'

She did. Remembered, as if it were yesterday, the day he'd heard that his father's new wife had given birth to a baby daughter and he'd said, '….another kid for him to let down…' That no way, never was he going there…

Easy to dismiss as the angry response of a hurting youth, but he'd never changed.

For a moment their eyes met and she saw he was remembering that moment, too.

'It's easy to say you don't want them, Brooke, but Gracie isn't some faceless baby. She's real.' Then, with a catch in his throat, 'She's mine…..'

Brooke swallowed, unable to bear the raw love with which he was looking at Grace.

'I'm sorry, Lucas. You never bargained for this.'

'No? The minute I spilled my seed into that plastic cup it was always a possibility. What I hadn't bargained on was the emotional backlash. I told myself that it was anger that kept me away. I'd signed up for Nathan's deal with my eyes open, but he'd changed the rules and I'd been used. That you'd been used, too….' He bent and kissed the tiny fingers. 'I clung to that thought nine long months, clung to it when she was born, when I ignored Nathan's plea to come and stand as her godfather.'

'You convinced us,' she said a touch shakily.

'Fooled you. Fooled myself. The truth, Brooke, is that I knew if I saw her, I'd never be able to leave her. Let her go. I'd have fought Nathan, Haley, even you, to keep her.'

'Are you going to fight me now?'

He took one long look at the baby and then rose to his feet. 'I hope not. I want us to be partners in this, not adversaries.'

'How can we? Haley was right. You're in LA, I'm here. Unless you really do expect me to give up everything I have here, come to California and be Gracie's nanny.'

'You're her mother, Brooke. I wouldn't insult you with anything like that.'

'I'm sorry.' Then, when he didn't elaborate, 'So? What did you have in mind?'

'I told you. A partnership. As Nathan and Haley's executor it's my responsibility to interpret their wishes.'

'But…'

'We know what they wanted individually. But if they'd both been in full possession of the facts I know that Nathan would have wanted you, that Haley would have wanted me to be fully involved in her life.'

Brooke frowned, trying to make sense of what he was saying, then, giving up, she said, 'The obvious solution is that I keep Gracie. You visit anything you like. Move back to Tree Hill if you want to be a full-time father. The world runs from small towns these days, so everyone says.' Then, when he didn't answer, 'How much simpler can it get?'

'You think that would be simple?'

She shook her head. 'Of course not, but we've established that we both want the same thing. The rest is just details.'

'Not quite. For start you're assuming you'll be able to stay in Nathan and Haley's house.'

'It's Gracie's house,' she reminded him. 'Isn't that what you said?'

'The house is part of Nathan's estate. It will have to be valued for probate purposes. I'm not up to date with the property market in Tree Hill but I do know that prices have rocketed since Nathan bought it ten years ago. It's certainly going to to be in the seven figure bracket.'

'Over two million. One very like it, a couple of doors down, sold last month.'

'Well, that makes it inevitable. Apart from the fact that it's a very large house for just the two of you, with big running costs that would have to come out of the estate, the likelihood is that it will have to be sold to cover inheritance tax.'

'But it's her home,' Brooke repeated, bewildered by this sudden turn of events.

'No, it's your home,' he said, but not unkindly. 'Gracie's not four months old, Brooke. I don't think she'd likely to notice where she's living for quite some time, do you? Only who she's living with.'

She swallowed down her protest, knowing that he was right. 'What else?' she asked, knowing that there had to be more.

'I'll set up a trust with the residue to provide adequate funds to care for Gracie, pay for her education, provide all her needs, just as Nathan and Haley would have done.'

'That's just money. Things. Tell me about important stuff. About who'll hold her when she cries, who'll take her to ballet lessons, hold her hand on her first day at school. I'll be there but where will you be?'

'Brooke…'

'No! I've heard you say a dozen times that you practically live out of a suitcase. Even if you moved back to Tree Hill, you'll never be here.'

'You think I can't change?'

'I think you might mean to,' she said. 'I'm sure you'd try. But how long do you really think changing dippers will be enough? How long before the horizon calls? Can Gracie's firsts steps compete with that? Her first word? And what happens when she's sick and you're off somewhere communing with a mountain? You're talking about a partnership, but what's the split? Not fifty-fifty, that's for sure.'

'Is that what you're offering?'

'That's my point, Lucas. I can't offer anything. I don't have any rights, remember? You hold all the cards.'

'I could change that.'

'Oh…' the fact that he'd actually been thinking that far ahead took the wind out of her sails. 'How?'

'Very simple. We'll get married, officially adopt Gracie so that we have equal rights as her parents. Fifty-fifty,' he said with a wry smile. 'That is what you wanted?'