Chapter Seventy-Nine: Don't Tell Me
Lucas tapped his hands on the steering wheel of the rental car, eager to reach Tree Hill and unload his kids from the car.
To his right, he indistinctly heard Brooke humming.
"Get a load of me, get a load of you, walking down the street and I hardly know you…It's just like we were meant to be.
Holding hands with you and we're out at night,
Got a girlfriend you say it isn't right,
And I've got someone waiting too."
"Please God tell me I didn't marry someone who can sing that song in its entirety," he said, laughing. She looked across at him and grinned.
"Jus because it isn't depressive angst music doesn't mean it isn't good. Maybe you should have married Peyton," she said teasingly.
"Kill me now. Are we almost there?" he asked. Brooke, who had been sitting low in her chair, sat up straighter.
"Next interchange, we'll be there in ten. Ugh, I can't believe we're actually back here," she said in disgust. She hadn't often visited her parents since she'd moved out. They'd come to visit her occasionally, but not considerably more than she'd visited them.
"We could have invited them to Dev's birthday and gotten out of this," he reminded her.
"But then the birthday would have sucked. I want him to have good birthday memories," she said.
"He would have. He loves his grandparents. It's only us that hate them," he reminded her. She scrunched up her nose.
"I don't hate them. I… shut up, Lucas Scott. Oh look, it's the hotel. We've had sex there," she said. He smiled.
"There's the boardwalk. We've actually done it there too," he said. She slapped his arm.
"Hush, not in front of the little ones. Home, sweet home," she said bitterly, as they pulled into the "main" street of Tree Hill, North Carolina.
"Is anyone we know even around?" he asked.
"Probably not. Jake's parents still live around here but he usually works in New York and hangs with Nathan and Haley. Peyton never bothers to come back," said Brooke.
"Chris?" asked Lucas. Brooke looked guiltily at him.
"God, like I'd know," she said, scoffing. Lucas shook his head. Every time he mentioned him, he expected her to come clean.
She reached across him to honk the horn as they pulled into her white, red doored childhood home. As Brooke and Lucas climbed out of the car and awoke a sleeping boy each, Oliver and Juliet Davis came out of the house.
"Brooke, don't you look lovely. Love the hair, you've always managed to hide those roots so well. Hayden!" said her mother, kissing Brooke's cheek. Brooke clenched her teeth and forced herself not to remind Juliet that she had real hair. Real everything, unlike some…
"Lucas, how are you? Your brother's stocks are soaring, you must be proud," said Oliver Davis, shaking his son in law's hand. Over his head, Lucas grimaced at Brooke. She couldn't help but smile-Lucas never could remember to do his research.
"So, those Knicks…" said Lucas lamely, handing Devon to his grandfather. Brooke linked arms with her husband in a gesture of support as they walked into the house.
Once they'd settled the boys down for their afternoon nap, Brooke's parents directed her childhood room. Climbing the stairs with Lucas, she was disgusted to find it hadn't remotely changed.
"God, it's like they expect you to sleep somewhere else," she said in amazement, dropping down onto the single bed.
"Maybe they think Dev and Hayden came about by immaculate conception?" he suggested, sitting down next to her.
"Do they have any idea of how many times we've gone at it in this very bed?" she asked. He laughed.
"Brings back memories, I have to admit. Good ones. Remember after the fireworks on Fourth of July?" he asked.
"Back in the days when we were good, old fashioned fuck buddies. Of course I remember," she said.
"That lasted like a week, Brooke," he said critically.
"Mm. Should have lasted longer," she said, reaching out to grab the necklace she'd once bought for him. Tugging it, he brought his lips to hers.
"Your parents…" he muttered.
"Babe, this isn't high school," she said, pushing him backward onto the bed. She straddled his him and he grabbed her hips while she slid out of her shirt.
Shedding his own shirt, she leaned down and began to trace kisses down his muscled abdomen. She held off tantalizingly for a moment before sliding off his boxers and jeans and taking him in to her mouth.
"Oh God…" he muttered, his hands gripping her shoulder as she licked down his shaft.
"That's right," she said in satisfaction. She pulled herself up back to straddle him and guided him into her. She began to make gasps of pleasure as she moved herself up and down him.
"BROOKE!" Both of them heard Juliet Davis' call from the ground floor. Lucas pulled back, prepared to withdraw, but she moved toward him, thrusting him inside of her again.
"Let her call," she said. She rocked her hips slightly and he began to lose focus on the outside world.
"Brooke!" came a scandalized voice from the door. Brooke instantly covered her breasts with her hands and turned innocently to her mother.
"Yes?" she asked crisply.
"I… I was calling you," she said.
"We're a little busy. We'll put up a sign next time," she said apologetically. Juliet huffed before leaving.
Brooke looked down at her husband and burst into uncontrollable laughter.
"Okay, now tell me that wasn't fun," she said. He pulled out of her and reached up to take her shoulders. Pulling her down until their entire bodies touched, he kissed her deeply.
"You make life interesting, Brooke Davis. You always have. Now…" Lucas slid his arms around her and flipped them around awkwardly on the narrow bed.
"My turn?" she asked, her green eyes gleaming. He leaned down to brush another kiss on her lips.
"Most definitely."
Brooke took delight in her parent's horrified expressions when she and Lucas arrived downstairs for dinner two hours later, holding hands.
"Daddy!" called out Devon, throwing himself at his father. Brooke smiled in relief when Hayden sprang into her own arms. Devon was now three and a less manageable armful.
"Need help, Mom?" asked Brooke innocently.
"No. You guys can tour around, see how the town's changed," suggested Juliet, angrily mixing up a salad. Brooke dropped her younger son onto the tiled floor and took his hand.
Brooke and Lucas began to walk down the sidewalk with their sons in between them, looking for anything that had changed in the last years. Eventually they came across the high school that Brooke, Haley, Peyton and Jake had intended. Lucas came across an old basketball court and a passable ball and began to school his elder son in the way off the three pointer.
"Go Scott!" said Brooke enthusiastically, watching her husband teach her young son everything he'd learned. Lucas looked sideways and smiled at his brunette goddess.
Brooke smiled as Hayden began to clap his hands together, cheering on his big brother. Suddenly a breeze rifled through her long dark hair, and she looked up. For some reason, she felt like she'd finally appeased the Gods.
And it felt good.