AN: So this is really a short update. Why you ask? Because I'm just about finished with this, and I'm having a slight issue with how I want the last chapter to end, so I decided to break it up into two updates. I figured it was better giving you something now rather than wait another week or so for the final part. So this is the penultimate chapter. Thanks so much to you all for sticking with me through all of this. One more to go…….

I've run out of ideas. I mean, I've completely slammed up against a concrete wall. Peyton seems to have been impressed with the ferris wheel idea, but that's like, the extent of my plotting. So we're wandering along the boardwalk, sharing a cone of sticky cotton candy, and I'm completely clueless as to what comes next. I know what I want to do. But something tells me dragging Peyton off to the car and speeding home to hit the silk sheets I made sure to put on my bed before I left isn't the best way to start this relationship.

"Stop." Peyton's gentle voice drifts across the narrow space between us.

"What?" I glance over at her, perplexed.

"Just stop. Whatever it is that you're worrying about, don't." I pull her hand, yanking her the short distance to the side of the pier to look out over the murky dark water. The waves are pretty tumultuous tonight, they kind of mirror the mess that's going on inside of my head at the moment.

Peyton releases our joined hands, instead reaching to wrap the length of her arms around my waist, cuddling into me from behind. I interlock our fingers together at my belt buckle, leaning back into the embrace. "I don't know what to do Peyton."

She laughs softly, her breath ghosting over my earlobe, sending a shiver of pleasure down my spine. "It's not something we need to plan out Brooke. Besides, I thought you were the more experienced one." She meant it as a joke, to tease. But that's where my whole issue is.

I turn around in her arms, making sure she sees the seriousness in my eyes. "Peyton, that's the problem. I don't want to be that Brooke with you. This is different. We're different." I don't know how to make her understand, because a part of me doesn't even get it myself. Sex has always been a means to an end for me. A carnal, basic human need that I hate having to do myself. 'Brooking' can be fun, I learned that in my early teens. But when boys will do anything to have a piece of you, the power in it is all that much more intoxicating. But over the years, the satisfaction of a boy used, a jock brought down a peg, it wore off. Sex without love is something that I'm done with, I want it to be a part of my past. And Peyton is my future.

"Baby, would you please stop." Peyton presses in closer to me, backing us up against the wooden railing of the pier. The way she calls me baby is more of a thrill than most of those boys combined.

"That Brooke is also the one who came over to my house everyday for two months after my mother died, just to make sure I wasn't sitting holed up, depressed in my room. That Brooke is who made me freeze my ass off in that freaking snow fort when we were in sixth grade. That Brooke is the one that got grounded for a month for stealing her dad's credit card. Just so she could take me to the Spice Girls concert for my 10th birthday." Peyton pulls me into a soft kiss, cupping my face in her palm once we separate. "You're the Brooke I fell in love with. I don't want you to change, because everything you've done, it's all part of who you are now. And I want that Brooke exactly the way she is."

She said it. She actually said it. It's one thing to read it, to get an inkling from words written over the course of a few years. But she laid it all out there now.

Wow.

I pull away the tiniest bit, lowering my head to look back out at the ocean. It's not like I don't love her back, so I have no idea why I can't seem to form any kind of response.

Peyton brushes up beside me, our elbows resting together. I can feel the chill that's suddenly between us down to the last bone in my body. "Too soon?" She asks quietly, the hurt lacing her voice not hidden very well.

I wince, knowing I caused that. Shaking my head in the negative, I move closer to slip my arm through hers, resting against her shoulder. "No, it's not that."

Peyton rests her head atop mine, the blonde of her curls dancing together with my own chestnut locks. Light and dark. That seems to describe us perfectly. My own dark and colorful past, with the relative innocence of hers. I've never said I love you to someone. Not when I've meant it. And for someone who never holds their punches, I can't seem to form the words. For the first time in my life, I'm speechless. And the longer I stay silent, the more I'm hurting the one person in the world I would never want to.

"Then what is it?" She probably knows full well. But Peyton's like that. She has to make you own up to your hang-ups. Because she knows that if she makes it easy for you, you'll still have your issues, you'll just manage to skirt around them for one more day. It's something I love and hate about her all at the same time.

But this is something I shouldn't be scared of, it's the last thing in the world I should be worrying about. The cliff is high, and the drop is endless. But it's Peyton. I don't have to worry about falling into some bottomless chasm. She'd never let me even get near the edge. She holds this power over me, and yet, I think we share that. It makes us the perfect balance for one another. And I really need to start trusting that. Since it's always been there, from the very beginning.

"Come on." I grab her hand, pulling her along back towards the waiting limo. I've made up my mind to just listen to my heart for once. Not my hormones, not my sometimes lacking instinct. Just my heart.

"What….?"

I don't bother to try and answer her, just continue weaving us though the thinning crowd on the pier. Once we break free from the masses, I pull her closer, grabbing her around the waist, comforted by the weight of her arm slung around my shoulder in reciprocation.

We're quiet the entire ride back to my parents' beach house, Peyton snuggled down into my arms, her head pressed tightly into the crook of my neck. The warmth of her body is intoxicating, making me wish Tom would just risk the damn speeding ticket to get us home faster.

Twenty minutes later and repeated self reminders to not let my hands wander, and Tom is opening up the back door, tipping his hat in that old fashioned way, pulling an amused smile from my lips. "Here we go ladies."

Peyton stirs, tightening her hold on me for a moment before extricating our entangled limbs to get out of the car. "Thanks Tom. For everything." I wink, handing a spare set of keys to him along with a hundred dollar bill. His eyes widen when he feels the metal folded in with the money. Ok, so I can be a little devious. I figured it wouldn't hurt getting Peyton all sweaty and agitated. Score one for plan Brooke. Poor Tom though, he really got upset thinking he had locked the keys in the car. Oh well, the big ass tip should help.

The shock slowly turns to a mischievous smile. "Good night girls." He nods once more before climbing back into the drivers seat.

"Wait till you see this place Peyton!" I unlock the front door, swinging it open so that the entire foyer comes into view.

Peyton laughs, her voice husky with sleep. Or at least I THINK that's what it is. "Give me the grand tour tomorrow Brooke." She starts heading towards the stairs, grabbing her duffel bag in the process. "Where am I sleeping?"

Does she really think I'm going to make her stay in a guest room? I lace our fingers together for the umpteenth time tonight, ushering her towards my bedroom. "With me of course." My cheeks redden when I realize how that came out. But Peyton doesn't seem to notice, she just squeezes my hand in reassurance, following along behind me down the long, carpeted hallway.