The Ghost of A Good Thing

Chapter 2

Standing in the middle of a swarm of bustling commuters, Peyton scanned the crowd for a familiar face. And when she saw him all the worry and doubt she'd had about returning to her hometown seemed to melt away as she ran into his waiting arms.

"Hi daddy." She hadn't called him that in years and he smiled when he heard it. She kissed his cheek as he pulled her into a tight embrace.

Larry slowly released his grip and held her back at arms length to get a good look at her long-absent only child.

"So the prodigal daughter has returned." He smiled warmly as she playfully rolled her eyes.

"Only because you begged me to come back and spend Thanksgiving with you and my new step-mom."

"Honey, I think after a year you can stop referring to Natalie as you 'new' step-mom."

"Sorry. But it's just taking a little getting used to."

"So how are you feeling about being back here after six years of being away?" He asked gently while grabbing her small suitcase from the ground next to her.

"I think that's going to take some getting used to as well." She forced a smile out, trying to appear optimistic about the whole situation.

"Well I'm glad you're back. Even if it is only for a few days." He draped a protective arm around her shoulders and led her out to his waiting car.

Stepping into her old bedroom for the first time in years, she was amazed that her father had left everything untouched. It was as if time had stopped the day she'd become a wife at seventeen and moved away. She hadn't taken much when she'd moved away so there were still plenty of memories scattered on top of her dressers and old band posters on the walls.

As she threw her bulky travel bag onto her old desk the strap caught the corner of a long forgotten picture frame, knocking it to the floor. Peyton felt her stomach hollow when she knelt down and picked up the frame, which held a picture of her and Lucas taken during their junior year.

When she left Tree Hill after her miscarriage she didn't say a word to him. She just packed her bags and snuck off like a scared little girl during the middle of the night, ending up in Arizona at the doorstep of her father's sister, an aunt she hadn't spoken to since she was ten. Away from home Peyton got a chance to start over and pick up the shattered pieces of her life.

She'd always thought that after some time away, she would eventually return home to Tree Hill and to Lucas. But as the months passed Phoenix eventually began to feel like home, and a year after she'd arrived divorce papers with her signature were being sent back to Lucas. She'd never called him or given him fair warning, the only way she had known he'd gotten the papers is when they came back with his signature.

Married and divorced before the age of nineteen wasn't how she'd wanted to end up. She wanted to more out of life. So she enrolled in a small community college and eventually transferred to a university where she'd gotten a degree in art history and after college started work as a museum curator. Her job allowed her enough free time to work on her own art, which she was still passionate about.

In all her time away Peyton had worked hard to avoid thinking about the life and people she had left behind. Now that she was back, it was all that she could think of.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice her father knocking lightly on her open door. Another knock snapped her from her daze.

"Are you planning on seeing him while you're here?" Larry asked carefully.

"Who?"

Larry motioned towards the frame in her hand.

Peyton shook her head. "I wasn't planning on it, no."

"I don't want to tell you how to run your life, but you've got to know that Lucas is a different person now. I just don't want to see you getting hurt." Larry didn't have time to clarify his cryptic warning as his ringing cell phone interrupted them.

With her father getting called away on business Peyton was left a free afternoon. She tried to occupy her time with unpacking and reorganizing her old record collection. But vintage Rolling Stones albums could only hold her interest for so long and found that she was growing restless. Peyton had wanted to stay under the radar while in town but she saw that plan slipping away as she called the only person other than her father that she had kept in contact with.

"Haley James!" Peyton beamed as her old friend walked into the small coffeehouse.

Haley spotted her and quickened her pace, wrapping Peyton in a firm hug. "It's been a long time Peyton." The pair settled into a table on the patio, two cups of coffee split between them.

Java Express had always been known for two things, Wednesday night readings of crappy pretentious poetry and the worst cup of coffee in town. But with Karen's Café being the only other coffee shop in town, Peyton was willing to choke down the stale liquid.

"So how is Alex?" Peyton smiled coyly over the rim of her cup.

"Alex is good. We're just taking it slow for now. Things with Nathan ended badly and I don't want to jump into things to fast." She gave a half-smile and it was obvious to Peyton that her friend wanted to be happy again.

"How about you and Kyle, you guys have been together for a while." Haley tried to pry as gently as possible.

"Kyle and I are doing fine." Peyton had been seeing him for almost a year. He was good to her and she knew that he loved her, but she was having a hard time with her own feelings for him.

"That wasn't a very convincing answer." Haley questioned. "I thought you guys were living together?"

"We are living together." Peyton sighed. The look on her friends face begged for a better explanation. "I don't know what is wrong with me Haley. I've got this great committed guy who loves me. And I should be able to love him, to give him what he deserves. But it just feels like something is holding me back from being able to love him."

As Peyton trailed off she noticed that Haley had fixed her gaze on something across the street. Turning in her chair Peyton could see what had her friends attention, Lucas Scott was standing across the street looking in their direction.

The look on his face was unmistakable shock; she could see that even from across the street. When she met eyes with him, he quickly lowered his eyes and walked away.

"I think that may be the answer to your problem." Haley offered her advice, not really knowing if Peyton would take it.

Peyton was still trying to get over the shock of seeing Lucas, and Haley had to repeat her earlier statement, which was met with an exasperated sigh.

But Peyton knew that Haley might have been right, that maybe her heart hadn't completely let go of Lucas. And she knew that in order to make things right with Kyle, she'd have to face her past.