Sorry I haven't updated in a long time! There's no other excuse except Life has gotten in the way. Hopefully I still have some of my readers, but I am thinking that I might take the story off. Please, let me know what you think. Thanks.

Chapter 14

Haley woke again the next day with a smile on her face; she'd been noticing this happening a lot lately and knew exactly the reason. She turned towards Nathan, thinking about the night before.

Nathan had been awake for around 15 minutes before he felt Haley stir beside him. She looked so comfy and peaceful he hadn't moved in fear of waking her. So when she turned towards him she saw him wide awake with a grin on his face, leaning to his side slightly able to see her. She arched her eyebrow to him and he lowered himself back down on the bed and pulled her closer, loving the smell and look of her hair spread across his pillows.

She laughed at him, "Nathan, how long have you been up?"

He realised that she might be a bit freaked out by him watching her sleep so he lied a bit, "Only a couple of minutes. I was just about to get up."

"Oh..." She said sounding rather regretful. Looking up towards Nathan's face he saw him about to ask her why she was upset, so she decided to tell him before he had the chance, "I was wondering, if we could just stay here for a bit longer... Like this?"

He smiled at her before pulling the covers over them more.

"Yeah, like this" Nathan replied softly as he pulled her even closer to him. She stretched her arm over his waist and laid her head back down on his chest, sighing contently. Haley starts to drift off back to sleep as she feels Nathan caressing her hair slowly and gently.

She woke up again around 2 hours later to an empty bed, she lent up to make sure Nathan wasn't in the bathroom or that she could hear him wandering around the apartment before she realised he had left for practice.

Haley looked towards the clock and saw she had an hour and a half before she had to go to the stadium to meet Nathan, she was about to get up when she saw a note next to the alarm with her name on.

Reaching forward she picked it up and unfolded the paper, reading what was written in it.

Hales,
Had to go to practice... I didn't want to wake you.
I should be finished at around 1, so come to the stadium and we'll grab lunch.
See you then, Nate x

She smiled to herself as she pushed the covers off her body and walked towards the front door. When she got to the door she turned round and looked around the apartment, the place that felt more like home than anywhere else recently. She thought about how much everything had changed in the last six months, and how she had grown as a person because of it. Sighing, lost in thought she opened the door gave another quick glance at Nathan's apartment before walking out with a massive grin on her face.

Across town, Nathan was in a similar mood. His game was the best he'd played in ages and he was having a good time whilst playing it. Normally he felt a sense of fear when he played; fear that he wouldn't be good enough and he wouldn't score.

He walked over to the sideline and drank some water before turning to his team mate, Damien West.

'Alright West? How's your girlfriend?' Nathan asked, not really wanting to know the details of his relationship but trying to make conversation.

Damien laughed before replying, 'What you haven't heard?' He didn't wait for Nathan to reply to carry on, 'Dumped her last week mate, she was getting too attached... Anyway what's this I hear about you and a certain Haley James.'

By now 'Skills' Taylor, Tim Smith, Junk and Fergie had joined their group and started to join the conversation. As Haley's name was mentioned the team joked around 'oh-ing'

Nathan chuckled to himself, 'Nothing really, we've been on a date so far, but it's going good.' He could feel his smile grow as he talked about her.

'Aw Natey-Poo's in love', Fergie joked as he nudged Junk who laughed along.

Nathan chose to ignore his friends and carry on talking, 'Actually she should be here in like 30 minutes, we're grabbing something to eat.'

'Woah!' Skills laughed, 'Brave man, bringing a girl like her to a place like this. The jaws will hit the floor as soon as she walks in. Not to mention what people will say.'

Although his friends were only joking and he laughed along to the best of his abilities, Nathan couldn't help but become a little worried as they carried on joking.

Finally the group were broken up as Brian 'Whitey' Durham, head coach for the LA. Lakers blew his whistle and shouted for them to end the mother's meeting and get back to practice. He slowly huffed and turned his back on them before walking off the court and into a corridor.

Haley was early, nearly 30 minutes early. She didn't want to disrupt Nathan's practice but at the same time she really wanted to see him. Working her way through the stadium's millions of corridors she happened to come across a fierce looking older man, who she recognised but for the life of her couldn't place where she'd seen him before.

She put on a warm smile as he grew closer, and the man's smile grew too; as if hers was infectious.

'I'm sorry to bother you, Sir, but I need to find the court and the security guard pointed me out to where I have to go, but that was around 6 left turns and 8 right turns ago. So I'm kinda lost and have no idea where to go and no idea who to ask.' She rambled on nervously.

'It's all right Darlin' just follow me.' The man said as he turned back to the place he'd just come from. He turned to face her again, 'I'm Whitey' He held out his hand for her to shake, which she took and said.

'Haley James, please to meet you.'

The old man's smile grew even more as she said her name. 'Oh Darlin' I know who you are.' He chuckled before carrying on, 'Of course I know who you are. Scott hasn't stopped blabbering on about you for an age.' He laughed at his own joke, before turning back to Haley, whose cheeks had turned a shade brighter.

He stopped and looked at her, 'He's changed you know, I used to have to try and knock some sense into him all the time, but since you've been round he's been on a high.'

Haley beamed a massive smile at him, 'I really like him.'

Whitey laughed quickly, before saying, 'I can tell Sweetheart. They're just down there, still practicing but just go right ahead. I'll be seeing you around, Haley.' He finished it off with a smile before turning around and walking back down the corridor.

Haley's eyes followed the old man down the way and she called out to him. 'Thank You!'

She suddenly became very nervous again, being left on her own, having to walk onto the court full of Nathan's colleagues and friends; she wanted to make a good impression.

Taking a deep breath, she straightened out her clothes, patted her hair and tugged her jacket before stepping forward and into the view of a couple of the players.

Nathan was distracted from dunking the ball by a couple of his team whistling and shouting at something or someone. Turning around he saw Haley standing in the corner on her own, looking very uncomfortable as his friends leered at her.

He glared at a few of them, jogging over to her quickly, trying not to pay attention to the numerous cat-calls and whistles that were echoing round the hall.

As Haley saw him coming over to her, the uncertain smile on her face changed to one of happiness, he stopped in front of her and ran his hand up and down her arm before placing a small but lingering kiss on her cheek.

When he kissed her the noises from his friends grew even more, making him turn to face them, calling out, 'OK, get back to practice!' Before turning back to Haley and greeting her. 'Hey.'

'Hey back... Sorry I'm early, I hope you don't mind it's just I didn't really know where I was going and I didn't want to be late, so I thought early was better than late...' She rambled as he pulled her over to the stands and sat her down.

'Hales,' He laughed, 'I just need to shower and change and then we'll go, Ok?'

'Ok.' She smiled and nodded as he signalled to his friends that he was going to change and walked off the court.

As soon as she was gone, four guys walked over and introduced themselves.

'Hey, I'm skills, this is Junk and Fergie and that thing there is Tim. It's nice to meet you.'

Standing up again, Haley held out her hand for them all to shake, 'Hi, I'm Haley. Nice to meet you too.'

'I can see why Nate likes you, you're fine.' Tim said as he kissed the hand Haley had held out for him to shake. She looked at the others, as if pleading for them to get him off.

'Dude, if Scott sees you, he's gunna beat your ass.' Fergie said as he laughed at Tim.

Tim took a step back from Haley almost instantly, provoking a gentle laugh from Haley.

'Sooo, Haley, what's going on with you and Natey-boy?' Junk asked, with a small grin appearing on his face. Haley looked to the other boys, trying to figure out what her reply could be, and noticed that they all had the same look gracing their faces.

'We've been on one date, so it's all good really.' She stammered, a red tint appearing on her face. Hurry up Nate, she thought.

'Oh right,' Skills broke in. 'We'll Nate hasn't stopped talking about you since you turned up. Praising you for looking after Jenny, telling everyone how beautiful you are. Not what we are used to from our man Nate.'

She smiled thinking about Nathan telling his friends about her, as she had done the same to Brooke and Peyton.

Before she could reply, Nathan walked back onto the court, a large bag slung over his shoulder. He walked towards them, his hair glistening from where he had just been in the shower, making Haley think back to him walking out of the bathroom the morning they took Jenny to the zoo, in nothing but a towel.

He came up beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist, whilst nodding a greeting to his friends.

'Hey, ready to go?' He whispered into her ear, pressing a soft kiss onto her temple.

All Haley could do was let out a strangled, 'Uhm Hum.' Her thoughts still focusing on the image of Nathan in front of her in a towel.