Hi guys, back with chapter 2. Thanks for taking the time to leave a review/message and for showing interest in this story. It always means a lot to me when people come back to read my fiction. We're still warming into the story in this update but as you'll see there is lots to come. 😊
Chapter 2
'Nathan….' Haley whispers softly, her tone hovering with disbelief as she glances between then. This is Luke's half-brother? No, it couldn't possibly be?
They're like night and day, quite literally…and yet as she meets his eyes, Haley sees every possibility that escaped her the night before, she wonders how she could have missed it…the familiarity of his eyes, it leaves her floundering.
'What do you want?' Lucas says coldly.
'Luke…I' Nathan begins even more nervous than before. A strange thing karma is, he never really gave it much thought until now when it all but slapped him in the face. His former clarity and conviction leave him in the face of his brother and the girl who consumed every one of his thoughts since last night.
'No…' Lucas hollers startling Haley. 'You lost the right to call me that a long time ago…'
'Please can we just…'
'I'll ask again what exactly do you want?' His words come out harshly through scraped teeth.
'I don't want anything…'
'You always want something Nathan. What's this a visit because daddy dearest passed away months ago….we both know I lost my actual dad a long time ago…' He refutes staring him right in the eye.
Haley shrinks behind Lucas who has now blocked the doorway, his fist clenches around its timber frame. Impulse urges her to run but she remains planted there drowning in the tension blanketing them.
Nathan closes his eyes painfully against his brother's words. 'Luke….I just want to talk to you.' He flinches then noticing the rage in his brother's eyes. Apparently those are the wrong words although he's not sure there are any right ones in this moment.
'I don't know what you're doing here but don't think for a second anything has changed. Why do you think you stayed away all these years huh?' Lucas reminds him. 'And if you're here out of conscience…'
'I'm not….' Nathan tries.
'Then do what you do best and stay away from me.' Lucas says coldly before closing the door on him and turning back down the corridor.
Later she would question her motives, why instead of running back down that hallway to check on her friend she ran after him but somehow she found herself doing just that.
'Nathan…' She calls out for him just as he reaches the elevator door, his tall frame is hunched over hands sunken in the pockets of his dark denim jeans. Up to this point that name was a ghost to her, a lingering reminder of a past Lucas was haunted by. Now as she watches him she knows he could never be called anything but Nathan.
She has so many questions but half she doesn't want the answer to and the other half she's too afraid to ask.
It's not her place. She's only known him for one brief encounter and yet…
'I won't say anything..' He promises her as though he's reading her thoughts.
'He's my best friend.' What else is there to say?
Nathan nods silently his feet shuffling against the ground in an awkward manner that seems unfitting for a man of his stature and looks.
'I was on my way here.' He tells her and he looks at her once more. She has to bite back the gasp, his features so striking now in the glaring florescent lighting of their hallway and yet as familiar as he appears he is also vividly different to his brother.
That difference terrifies her, it's there in the slightly unhinged rhythm of her heart, the tickle of her spine. The way she felt last night when he touched her.
She feels like she can't trust herself with him and she's never doubted that capability before.
'I was on my way here…' Nathan repeats quietly. 'And then I met you.'
She glances away from his piercing gaze, swallowing thickly.
She made an error coming out here, a massive one.
'Haley…' Her name leaves his lips deep and suavely. For a milli second she wonders how he knows her name before she realises he must have overheard Lucas. She walks closer to her apartment door. The apartment she shares with Lucas before glancing back at him. 'I shouldn't have come out here Nathan, I'm sorry..' She tells him and she's not sure why she's apologising, is it for herself or the way Lucas shut the door on him? The way she's turning her back on him now.
She tells herself she was wrong to chase after him and the right thing to do is to go back in that apartment and comfort her friend.
She walks back into their living area where Lucas is perched on the sofa with his head in his hands, she's fairly sure he's been in this position since she left.
'Are you ok?'
Lucas sighs blowing out a deep breath. 'I'm sorry…' He tells her and Haley frowns. 'I shouldn't have blew up at him like that I didn't want to put you in that situation.'
'Luke don't worry about it.' She drops down on the single seat adjacent to him.
'You know it's not like I didn't ever think about it…him coming back into my life at some point I just didn't think it would be without warning.' That familiar pensive squint is ever present on his face as he speaks. 'And when I never heard from him around the time of Dan's funeral I accepted the fact he was going to stay away like he always has, that really there was nothing connecting us anymore…'
Haley doesn't know what to say.
'It's getting late I'm going to go to bed..' Lucas mumbles as he drags himself from the couch.
'What about the food?' Funny how they are the only words she can formulate.
'I'm not so hungry.'
'Luke..'
'Hales it's fine.' He tells her his eyes softening as he glances at her. 'I just….I just need some time to digest this.'
Haley nods quietly. 'Luke…' She calls out for him just as he leaves. 'You're going to be ok right?'
'We're both going to be fine.' He promises her. He's her friend, that's what he does but for once in the years of their friendship his words hold no merit for either of them.
XXXXX
Words blur together on the computer screen in front of her, she feels herself zoning out. It isn't ideal giving she's been away on personal leave for a week. Her emotions resemble a spinning top that never stops. The visit home has taken its toll. As though the gaping hole of grief that was her childhood home swallowed her up and spit her out again. So much so that when she got back to Boston she needed an escape.
And then she met him.
Sleep evaded her the night previous as she lay in her bed until the early hours replaying every moment between them in that bar.
God in what world was it ever possible for her to run into a guy in a bar only for that guy to turn out to be her best friend's outcast of a brother?
In her world obviously it was.
An incoming message jolts Haley from her thoughts, she smiles as she reads her sister's words trying to calm herself. She's aware she's being acting skitty since she arrived no less than ten minutes ago.
'Morning Haley.' Her warm, cheerful voice breaks Haley from her internal monologue. Haley smiles. Barbara is the office fairy godmother of sorts and she practically coined the term for herself so Haley was told at one particularly alcohol fueled soirée. She took Haley in under her wing on her initial days here just two short months ago knowing her reasoning for being here. Not only had she trained her up but she was a nurturing figure for her at a time in her life when she'd just lost her father.
'Morning Barbara, how have you been?'
Barbara offers her usual response all the while telling Haley how much she missed her company before launching into the a rather descriptive tale about the handsome man that has started in Haley's absence. Haley can't help but smile as she relents to her that she has been 'dying' to tell her.
'Oh Haley just wait until you see him. He's been coming by every morning and I was telling him there's usually a lovely young girl working here not an old fart like me…'
Barbara loves to toy with the single lady's love lives. It's one of her specialities. 'Barb…' She begins ready to give the same speech she's given many times before.
'I know you're not ready, you're not looking but wait until you see him…'
'You said that about the last one.' Haley says raising her eyebrow at her excitable colleague.
'He wasn't single Haley.'
'And this man is?'
'Apparently so.'
'How did you…you know what maybe I don't need to know that.' Haley muses grateful for the interruption as the phone next to her monitor rings. She picks up the receiver. 'Good morning, Durham & Sons how can I help you?' Haley says answering the phone as she starts typing away on the keyboard. 'Sure, if you can just leave your details and I can fax that on for you..'
XXXXX
'Look Brooke, I don't know ok …' Nathan says elbowing his way in through the revolving door his phone in one hand and a stack of paper in the other. He rolls his eyes before answering. 'There was nothing to report. He slammed the door in my face quite literally...' He blows out an exasperated breath as the perky brunette gives out to him on the phone.
'Look I've got to go ok…' He says shutting the phone down mid rant of her telling him he can't leave her in the loop about all of this and she's going to be straight over to his apartment after work. Rolling his eyes at her dramatics Nathan drops the wad of paper under his arm on top of the desk at the reception. Surprised to not see the familiar dark curls of Barbara's hair he speaks to the young woman whose head is down writing away on some envelope 'I'm sorry….I need a couple of files faxed to…' He stops talking the moment the woman glances up.
'Nathan…' She's confused, her expressive brown eyes tell him so, he also finds himself unable to look away from them, their hazel hue offset against her honey locks beautifully.
'Wh…what are you doing here?' Haley fumbles completely unprofessionally.
'Eh …I work here.' Nathan says completely thrown for a loop for the second time in twenty four hours.
'Since when?' She's aware its not a rational reaction but she's annoyed. Since when has her life become this giant entangled mess? So it wasn't enough to have the stranger at the bar turn out to be Luke's brother now he had to work here too? 'Real funny..' Haley mumbles looking to the skies. She's aware it looks crazy but maybe she is crazy because right now nothing about her life feels normal.
He works hard to bite back a smirk at how put out she seems by his appearance and the way she is mumbling to herself. She sure is one strange girl but he likes that about her.
Nothing about this bizarre situation he realises is funny but he can't help but feel amused by her flustered nature.
'Since last week..' Nathan tells her answering her former question.
'What a coincidence..' Haley mumbles to herself not low enough for him not to catch it.
'Some would call it fate…' Nathan says with a smirk now.
She looks up at him again. The amber spark in her eyes tells him she doesn't appreciate his teasing, not in the slightest.
Barbara all but saddles up to Haley's side of the desk. She'd gone to the break room for all of 20 seconds and when she came back her eyes nearly bugged out watching her window of opportunity escape her.
Haley groans inwardly hearing what's coming before she even says it.
'Oh Nathan, I see you've met Haley..' She says sweetly with a not so discreet nudge to Haley's side. 'Here let me fax those for you and let you two….' She gives the pair an obvious smile as she scoots over to the fax machine.
'I think she's trying to set us up…' His laugh is rough around the edges, like he hasn't had his morning coffee – its gravelly texture is insanely appealing.
She berates herself for thinking so but she can't help it. She chances a glance at him again, he's got his black overcoat on and it only accentuates his raven hair which is styled in this purposefully messy way that only a man like him can pull off.
'Nathan don't…'
'Relax Haley James, I'm just teasing you…' Her name rolls off his lips suavely.
'That's not really appropriate…' She counters feeling the sudden urge to pull off her name tag, not that it mattered now.
'Saying your name?' He offers her a charming sideways smirk, it's a feature so inherently his she knows that from the moment she sees it and she's also so very sure in that moment that smirk has got him a lot of places, most likely up women's skirts.
'Don't do that…' She doesn't even know what she's trying to reprimand him for anymore and it's not even her place but she is flustered by his presence and she hates herself for it.
'Do what…. smile?' He says, his flirtatious rhythm maintains a seamless tempo. That crooked grin with those deep blue eyes and the salacious smell of oak and spice from his morning cologne. Fuck. Why was this happening to her? Of all people why did Lucas' brother have to be him?
'We need to talk….' Haley says quietly glancing behind her where Barbara is fixing up the sheets of paper. 'Not here…'
'I'll be in my office until lunch.'
'Here Nathan…' Barbara says interrupting the pair as she hands him back the papers.
Nathan fixes the papers underneath his arm. 'Thanks very much for these Barbara. Haley.' He says giving both the women a parting smile holding Haley's eyes for a beat longer before he walks away.
She releases a sigh she didn't even realise she was holding in running a hand through her honey toned tresses.
'Cute isn't he?' Barbara muses with a wink as she sits back down at her computer.
XXXXX
'I can't believe he is Luke's brother…'
'Yea I know you've only said it like ten times…' Haley says as she paces Quinn's office floor.
'Ok baby James you need to chill, I don't see the big deal…so you work with the guy that's kind of out of your control. It's not like you went behind Luke's back and secretly employed him or something.' Quinn tells her watching as her sister continues to pace.
'Don't you think you're overreacting?' Quinn says
'No…' Haley lets out. 'No I'm not…..I'm actually very calm right now…'
'You seem calm..' Quinn says amused by her sister's constant fidgeting and huffing.
'Dammit…. you know this is all your fault right?' Haley tells her completely irrationally.
'I didn't hire Nathan…'
'No but only for you I wouldn't even be here…'
Quinn just chuckles. 'Sis you're being a tad dramatic, come on that's usually my role…'
Haley blows out a breath she finally relents her pacing. 'I am, aint I?' She sighs.
'Just a smidge..' Quinn says holding up her finger and thumb. 'Look you can't help that you work with the guy, Lucas will have to accept it and whatever beef they have between them that's on them not you.'
'I wish it were that easy.'
'It is that easy Hales you just tend to make things complicated.'
If only you knew, Haley thinks wearily.
'Unless that is you fancy him?' Quinn says flicking the pen with that gleam in her eye. 'I don't blame you if you do I mean he's so dark and delicious..'
Haley just rolls her eyes not even feeding into her sister's comments as much as a part of her agrees or even wants to add in that he tastes delicious too…well a part of him. Haley squeezes her eyes shut willing herself to stop. She's not the kind of girl to have 'naughty' thoughts about a guy and she feels like she's sinning having them about her best friend's younger brother. There's no going down that road, as far as she's concerned that kiss between them didn't happen. He was the one who came after her and kissed her. And she was drinking. That's right Haley blame it all on the alcohol.
'Have you spoke to him much at all?' Haley asks her sister then realising she's just delaying the inevitable conversation now. She was on her way to his office space of course when she stopped in at her sister who works at the complete other side of the building. It's more a detour than a stop in.
'Not really I've just met him at the front desk a few times Barbara is all over him…' Quinn muses. 'I don't know his or Luke's history but he seems like a decent guy.'
'It's not so good …their history..' Haley says softly.
'It's their history Haley..not yours.' Quinn tells her. 'Just try not to get in the middle.'
XXXXX
She hovers for a few more seconds outside before knocking softly on the door. 'Come in..' He answers in that deep tone of his. She steps inside watching as he lifts his head from where it was buried over realms of landscape drawings on his desk.
'Haley…hey…' Nathan says a soft ease to his tone that feels very warm. He stands up and walks around his desk reminding her just how much of a significant height difference there is between them. She feels very tiny all of a sudden in her ballet pumps. The back end of the workday looks good on him, as he rests his shirt cuffed forearms back against the table, his hair is pulled in differing directions, the traces of stubble from the other night are now noticeably heavier on his jawline.
Haley quickly glances away getting lost in the intricate details of his designs. The last thing she needs is to be caught checking him out.
'You can look but you can't touch…' Nathan teases her as he watches her gaze fixated on his drawings.
'Nathan…' There's an edge to her tone, a warning almost..he recognises it because she spoke in the same way earlier when he was at the reception desk. He sighs. 'Haley relax..'
'Please don't tell me to relax…' Haley sighs already feeling herself getting flustered again. She closes her eyes for a moment trying to gather herself. '
'I'm just trying to diffuse a really messed up situation ok…' Nathan tells her earnestly as he stands up straight watching the ever-changing emotions cross her delicate features. He's not sure which side of her he'll get. As much as he enjoyed the flustered nature earlier he missed the forthcoming girl he'd met at the bar that night.
'I know…. I'm sorry….' Haley sighs softly, as quick as she reaches the peak of her emotions they erode. She's reached the exhausted stage of it all, she's been overthinking this ever since she answered the door to him last night.
And really there's only one reality so she speaks her truth.
'Luke and I , we're been friends for years Nathan.' She admits softly. 'It shouldn't have happened.' She feels her cheeks burning, gosh she can't even say the word kiss now…pathetic Haley, that's what you are. 'Had I of known who you were…' Her words leave her in fragmented sentences. She knows what she needs to tell him so why is it so hard?. 'I mean I was the one that walked away…if you hadn't of followed me…'
'But I did…' He says softly. And there's her reason why. It's the Nathan she met at the bar standing across from her now, the quiet, unassuming side that drew her in. It's hard to correlate this with the truth of what she knows about him, of who she's been told he is. None of it matches up.
'Can we just…..' Haley begins quietly.
'Act like it never happened?' He fills in for her knowingly and she nods as a heavy silence falls between them.
'I'm sorry for the way I acted earlier, I just….this is a lot to take in you know?'
He nods offering her a tepid smile. 'I know there's no need to apologise.'
Their eyes meet and she quickly glances away.
'Haley…' Gosh people have clearly said her name countless times before but there's something about the way it leaves his lips. Haley meets his eyes again.
'This move here to Boston…it wasn't planned you know. It kind of just happened so I took that as a sign. I've wanted to fix things between Luke and I for a long time but I was a coward and I….' Words fell away from him, how was he supposed to tell her he thought Lucas was better off not having him in his life without coming across as the victim? He wasn't the victim in all of this.
There were still many moments where he questioned his worth in Lucas' life, where doubt which most likely bred from the manipulation of his father took complete hold of him. But he was getting better at separating himself from that voice in his head, the voice of Dan Scott. He was getting better at telling himself he could be a good person in Luke's life if he only gave him that chance.
'Why are you telling me this?' Haley says softly fighting the desire to lean into this conversation in waves. Talking with him is natural, it's easy and that scares her.
It isn't supposed to feel like this now that she knows who he really is.
'Because I'm used to people who know my past thinking the worst of me you know?…' Nathan admits his voice gravelly. 'But with you…'
'I can't be in the middle of this Nathan…' Haley tells him.
'I'm not asking you to Haley. I didn't even know there was going to a you until I showed up at his apartment.'
'Our apartment.'
Nathan glances away from her his eyes falling to the carpeted floor, her correction not lost on him.
She's the girl Brooke had in her most clichéd fashion coined as 'the one that got away' only she hadn't.
He'd being given another chance with her only he can't take it.
Life has a funny way of surprising you or equally kicking you in the teeth.
'I know we work together now..' Haley begins.
'Haley it's fine. Look the last thing I want is to come between you and Lucas when I'm trying to mend things between us for myself. I'll keep my distance ok…' He rests his hands into his pockets as he shifts uncomfortably.
She nods equally uncomfortably. The unease that's there between them now isn't even theirs to carry, the past is bleeding its way into their present and its changed things. It's changed everything. They're not two strangers anymore.
And yet they're not even friends.
XXXXX
'So we're just not going to talk about it at all?' Brooke says still highly amused over the fact Nathan's mystery girl not only lives with Lucas but is buddy buddy with him too.
Nathan just rolls his eyes. 'You know you didn't have to come here in fact I specifically remember telling you I did not need your help.'
'There's the surly Nathan Scott I know and adore.' Brooke teases him as she glances around the open planned kitchen and living room. The apartment could easily scream bachelor pad with its suave navy interiors and wooden decor however it's saved from being just that with its sleek white walls. Large bay view windows to the entire right of the open planned kitchen and living area look out onto downtown waterfront. 'Damn I knew I should have got a place along here.'
'Your work is the opposite side of town.' Nathan kindly reminds her.
'I know.' Brooke pouts. 'It's really nice though Nate.'
'Yea..' He agrees glancing around. 'It's nice to have somewhere to call home for a while.'
She smiles at his words. She totally understands it. They were the misunderstood after all, people were jealous of the lives they thought they had in high school but turns out those lives weren't all it cracked up to be, their home lives were disorientating and often broken, no real sense of a family life. She supposes it's one of the reasons herself and Nathan had found it easy to get along, despite also been at each other's throats like siblings there was an understanding there. There always had been so much so they'd remained easy friends throughout the years.
His childhood and adolescence had been as rootless as hers.
'It's going to take time Nathan…. all of this.' She tells him then meeting his silence knowing what he is stewing upon.
'I know that..' He agrees softly.
'So now that we've acknowledged that how pretty is this Haley girl?'
Rolling his eyes at her convenient subject change Nathan goes to grab his keys off the granite countertop.
'Where are you going?'
'Must you insist on following me around?' Nathan mumbles throwing cereal into his cart.
'Oh don't flatter yourself Scott I came into get batteries. Being single and committing to actually getting into a loving relationship isn't easy….'
Nathan grimaces. 'God Brooke you know you're like a little sister to me I do not need to think about you brooking yourself..'
Brooke just smiled unabashedly at the high-school dig. 'You know the first part of that sentence was actually very sweet..'
Nathan just gives her an equally sarcastic smile.
'Fine I'll get out of your hair, speaking of yours need a cut. No offence Nate but it's looking a little Matthew McConaughey on top and that's not a look for you.'
'Fuck…We need to turn around. Brooke..' He all but cuts her off mid rant as he halts the trolley halfway up the aisle.
'Why would we need to…oh my god..'
'Is that?'
'Yep.' Nathan says.
'And his girlfriend?'
'No she's not his girlfriend.'
Catching onto his harsh tone and quick retort Brookes eyes widen as her smile takes on its signature 'I'm Brooke Davis and I'm going to cause trouble look.'
'Don't… 'Nathan begins before she even attempts to do or say anything.
'That's her?' Brooke says highly entertained by this entire scenario as she watches the girl coming down the supermarket aisle; wavy honey tone locks tumbling past the shoulder of the emerald green t shirt she has on with cream-coloured shorts, a wide smile illuminating her peachy cheeks as she talks, hands moving exuberantly with the tall blonde man beside her.
They're coming closer. They haven't noticed them yet. Nathan cringes while Brooke just places a dazzling smile on her face as she prepares herself.
'Hey Luke.' She says all airs and graces.
She could have laughed at the stilled surprise on their features as their eyes rest on the pair in front of them.
She's very aware how this looks, heck she didn't even have a mini basket in her hands like this Haley girl. She's going along with Nathan and his trolly. If Lucas could even think for a second they were together…. the thought is highly amusing as is the horribly awkward silence between the four of them right now.
Luckily for Brooke she thrives on awkward situations.
'Hi I'm Brooke..' She says offering her had.
'Hi, I'm Haley..' Haley pulls her hand back shifting uncomfortably with the weight of the basket resting on her left arm.
'Luke and I went to school together. How do you two know each other?'
'Oh eh college…' Haley says surprised by this girl's overtness.
'Sweet.' She says smiling at the pair.' How have you been Luke?' She says before launching onto chit chat with him as Haley subtly side steps away to continue browsing the aisle.
She's twiddling on her toes while browsing the cereals aisle when she hears his husky voice. 'It's for you.' Confusion mars her features as he drops a box of cereal into her basket. 'Honey-nut cheerios?' Haley reads the box before glancing up at him.
'Yea sweeter than original, just like you.' He smirks as though he is proud of that god-awful line.
She can't help it but smile. 'That's terrible you know..'
'Worked the first time.' He says with a glint in his eye.
Haley shies away from him. She knows exactly what he is referring to.
Nathan senses her hesitancy and unease given their short proximity to Lucas. He glances behind him where Brooke is still animatedly talking his ear off. 'So what are you going to pick for me?' He asks Haley, he can't help himself.
He smiles as she bites her lip, clearly she's contemplating. He's enjoying the fact that she's playing into his ridiculous supermarket chat up line.
When she drops the box of raisin bran into his trolley he scoffs. 'Raisin bran? Really?'
Her laugh is so subtly gracious it has the hairs raising on his arms. Damn if she isn't even more beautiful when she laughs. It's precious.
'Haley that's like the worst cereal ever.'
'I could have picked fibre one.' She mocks him.
'Yea at least that one has like clusters and brown sugar.'
She can't help but giggle at the ridiculousness of their conversation, were they really comparing themselves to cereals now? This is the kind of stuff she did with…. Haley quickly catches herself as she realises where she is and who she is with. She slinkers back from Nathan slightly just as Brooke and Lucas finish their conversation. 'I should…' She says nodding towards the two.
'Yea…' Nathan says in understanding watching as she catches up with Lucas just as Brooke meets him.
'You owe me.' Brooke tells him as Haley and Lucas turn the corner.
'Huh?'
'Oh come on. I knew you were talking to her. I think you two would look adorable together..'
Nathan rolls his eyes.
'Don't think I didn't see the box of cereal you gave her, sweet move.'
'I'm not having this conversation Brooke.'
'You know what else I noticed?' Brooke continues unrelenting, not that he's surprised. Still he doesn't give her the satisfaction of a response.
'She didn't take that box of honey nut cheerios out of her basket.'