Disclaimer: I forgot this on chapter 1, and I really don't feel like going back to add it so for those who are offended, I'm sorry. Oh what was the disclaimer again? Right, I don't own Summerland, Bradin, or any of them. They belong to WB, Aaron Spelling, or whoever, but just not me. I don't own Lea either (grin) this story has a life of its own. [creepy]


"Look, sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." Bradin quickly let go of her wrist.

"I wonder if that line will work if I jumped out of your closet with a butcher knife." Lea mutters as she heads towards her SUV.

"Nice car," Bradin remarks about Lea's Rutland red 2004 Freelander, HSE model.

Lea doesn't answer but just pops open the back door of the SUV to throw her bag inside. She glares at Bradin as he took the liberty to settle into the back of her car.

Bradin examines her face, noticing that she is extremely hot when she is mad, but that was an attribute he'd have to explore later. "Hey, what's with all the sudden anger?"

"I didn't realize it before, but I've heard about you, Bradin Westerly." Lea calls him by his first name.

Bradin seems surprised at this, and he raises in brows in a quizzical manner.

"Callie is a friend of mine, and what you did to her was pretty shady."

Bradin winces at the reminder of not his greatest moment. "Look, it was dumb, but Callie and I have worked it out so give a guy a break alright?"

Lea eyes him warily.

Bradin hops off of her car and raises his two arms in surrender as a show of good faith. "Look let's just start over. I'm Bradin Westerly." He sticks out his hand.

"Lea Noel." Lea reluctantly complies with the handshake.

"Well it's nice to meet you Lea," Bradin gives her a winning smile, "Would you happen to be a... literary enthusiast by any chance...?"


The beach house crew is filing down the boardwalk for breakfast at a beachside cafe.

Erica is joining them this morning; she and Jay are leading the troops, followed by Susannah and Ava who are discussing some points for a meeting later that day with a possible distributor.

Nikki and Derrick are skipping along merrily, being watched by Johnny out of the corner of his eye as he stares at Ava's back figure, and the group is trailed by a scowling Bradin—who is still half sleep walking.

Suddenly, Johnny notices that Nikki and Derrick have pranced off ahead of them quickly, "Hey!"

Bradin focuses his eyes and sees that his younger siblings are running towards the terrace tables of the café they had planned to dine.

"Lea!" Derrick exclaims happily as he nears a table occupied by a lone figure.

At the sound of her name, Lea tears her attention away from the novel that she is consumed in, to be greeted by the beaming face of a prodigious young boy.

"Good morning Derrick!" She quickly notices the lagging figure behind the short boy, "Hey Nikki! How'd you like Gone with the Wind?"

"Um..." Nikki remembers the disaster that happened when she tried to impose the characters of the novel onto real life situations, "I think I'm going to try mysteries next time..."

Lea grins, supposing that the epic romance's length had daunted the young reader. "Gonna take your stab at Nancy Drew?" She suggests a different, lighter genre of books to the freckled girl.

Ava stands behind her wards, furtively examining their conversation partner—a fresh-faced girl who looks well, sane. And she reads, having a brain is always a good sign.

After the lurid photograph incident and the Bradin's psychopath girlfriend, Ava is beginning to understand why parents are so wary of their children's friends.

Derrick looks up earnestly at Ava, "Aunt Ava! This is Lea! From the library!"

Lea inwardly winces at those words just because it bears all the implications of a boring librarian who wears her hair in a bun. But outwardly, she returns Ava's warm smile, "Good morning."

"Hi, I'm Ava Gregory, Derrick's aunt. But call me Ava." Ava introduces herself, as the rest of the clan catches up.

Frankly, Lea is slightly frightened by the mass of people congregating around her one-seat table, but she does her best to remain calm as she glances around the crowd, until she notices a familiar face, "Erica!"

"Lealana," Erica greets the girl by her whole name. "I haven't seen you around lately!" She leans forward to give Lea a one arm hug.

"It's been busy..." She glances at the man on Erica's arm, his face is familiar to her yet she can't quite place a name to it.

"This is Jay Robertson," Erica introduces her boyfriend.

And it hits Lea, "the surfer!"

Jay gives her a wry smirk.

All the members have now assembled near Lea's table. Ava proceeds to introduce Susannah and Johnny as Bradin slowly fell in line.

"And this is the big brother," Ava says as she put her hand on Bradin's shoulder.

"Bradin," Lea nods in acknowledgement. "We've met." She smiles.

"Hey," The sight of Lea wipes the grumpy scowl on Bradin's face off almost instantaneously.

Jay, Erica, and Susannah have gone and settled at a nearby table, and are looking at menus. Johnny is leading Ava, Derrick and Nikki away.

"The bed head look is really sexy Bradin," Lea smirks as she points out the a piece of hair that's sticking out of place.

Bradin feels a slight blush spreading across his cheek, and self- consciously runs his hands through his hair. Hearing Lea say the word sexy and his name in the same sentence was sending blood into all the wrong places in his body.

Bradin looks Lea as he ponders how anyone can look that good this early in the day.

She is sitting barefoot in a plastic beach lawn chair; her baby-blue cotton shorts offset the tan on her shapely legs, and he notices that her crisp pale yellow tank-top showed off toned arms that hinted at biceps, which surprises him slightly. He didn't think that page turning would count as a weight-lifting work out. The early sun is bouncing off of her shiny wind- blown long hair, and her cheeks maintain a rosy hue. She is more radiant than he had remembered from the library.

Bradin catches a glimpse of a paperback that laid on the wooden table, "Early morning date with William?" He jokes, recalling her "personal relationship" with the dead poet.

"No." Lea blinks in fake exasperation, but she couldn't fight off the smile that crept onto her face. "William was more of a blind date. Charles is really my favorite love affair, in spite of his long-windedness." Lea grins as she reaches for her tattered copy of A Tale of Two Cities.

"Don't you do anything other than read?"

"Sure I do. You've just been lucky enough to catch me at my best... twice." Lea flippantly replies.

"Don't you hang out with, you know, people?"

"And what did you think William and Charles are? Really eloquent chimpanzees?" Lea's voice is laced with sarcasm.

"I mean living people?" Bradin rephrases his question. He enjoys how Lea always keeps him on his toes with her quick remarks.

But before Lea could quip another overly articulate answer, a masculine voice rings out from behind.

A tall handsome boy with spiky dirty blonde hair and flashing green eyes approaches them. "Lea," the boy casually places his hand on her shoulder.

Bradin watches as he felt a weird churn in his stomach. Guess that answers the question about hanging out with living people.

The stranger quickly notices Bradin and he gives Bradin the once-over.

"Oh," Lea looks back and forth from the stranger to Bradin with an amused look on her face. "This is J.B., J.B., this is Bradin, he just moved here." As Lea introduces them, she gets up from her seat.

As Lea stands to full height, Bradin notices how petite she is, which allows him to tack on "adorable" to a list of growing adjectives he used in his head to describe her.

"Hey man," J.B. offers Bradin his hand good naturedly.

After the civilities, J.B. turns to Lea, "You ready to go?"

"Yeah sure." She leans towards the chair that Bradin is standing near and picks up a large navy duffel bag, and her flip-flop sandals that rested on top of them. Bradin couldn't help noticing her scent—it was different from Sarah's flowery perfume. Lea's body exuded a faint, refreshing coconut and lime fragrance.

J.B. immediately shoulders the duffel bag for her, as she drops the sandals on the ground to slide them on, putting one hand on J.B. to help her keep her balance.

"Nice meeting you, Bradin. Maybe I'll see you around the beach sometime." J.B. says as he turns towards the boardwalk.

"Bye Bradin," Lea quickly follows suit.

Bradin stands still as he watched the two retreating figures in the morning sun. Lea looks extremely petite as the two walk away, pushing and shoving each other good naturedly before Lea leaps onto the boy's back, forcing him to carry her. Their exhibitions of affection makes Bradin's head spin. He imagines what it'd be like to feel Lea's weight on him, hell, he wonders what it'd feel like to just touch her.

Probably wonderful.

The beach house crew is ready to order, and Ava glances over to her nephew, "Bradin? Do you know what you want?"

"Uh..." Braiden plops down next to Johnny at the wooden picnic table and examines the menu, asking himself in his head what he would like.

And the voice in his head speaks when spoken to... and it whispers...

Lea Noel.


a/n: Alas! More mistakes! I swear I'm a fluent English speaker!