Riley was sure things would be awkward the moment she left with the three stooges as Lucas called them. She only went with them since Lucas was so against it. But she was enjoying hanging with them. Especially when Asher took it upon himself to bark at Toto.
Who barked back jumping out of Riley's arms and chased after him. They all laugh and couldn't stop especially when Asher ran into a stop sign. Everytime they pass one they would direct him away from them. Making them all laugh out loud at his expanse.
But hanging with them was like hanging with her own friends. She was sure Texas was an alternate universe and if she had lived here these would be her best friends. "Over there is Mrs. speckles glasses shop." Dylan says pointing at the building with a huge pair of glasses on top of it.
After laughing at Asher for an hour the trio of guys were giving Riley a tour of the town. "Is her name really Mrs. speckles?" Riley asked petting Toto head as he slept in her arms. "Yup. Her husband was against it but they're divorced now so." Dylan adds as Riley looks at him weirdly.
"Okay let's eat I'm starved." Zay announces walking into a little shop called Gandy's goodies. "Should I leave Toto outside or..." Riley begins to ask when Dylan shakes his head taking him and placing him on a little mat off to the side. Riley watched and notice that it was an area for pets to stay while their owners ate.
"Hey grandma! Grandma!" Zay shouts as everyone looks at him before continuing eating. Riley was sure this was an everyday occurrence since nobody seemed to bothered by his constant shouting. "Isaiah Babineaux what have I told you bout shouting in my shop?"
Riley watched as Asher and Dylan laughed at Zay as an elderly woman walked out from the back and smacks Zay. "Ow sorry grandma I was just hungry and wanted to say hello." He smiles kissing her cheek making her smile. "Well come on then let's..." She stops once she sees Riley standing behind Asher and Dylan.
"Oh grandma this is..." Zay starts to say only for his grandma to cover his mouth making her way towards Riley. "I know who she is. I never forget a face." Riley looked at her and then Zay who shrugs. "I'm sorry Mrs. Babineaux have we met before?" Riley asked as she smiles nodding at a picture on the back wall.
Riley moved towards it as Zay and the boys did the same. She gasps as she seen it was a photo of her and Lucas sharing a milkshake on the day they got married. They still had on their flower crowns as she remembered them walk hand and hand.
She turn towards Zay and begins to laugh. "I remember now. I ate the cookie your grandma made for you." She says as Zay frowns before folding his arms across his chest. "That was you?!" He says as his grandma laughs along with the boys.
"She only gives me one you know?" He says as Riley giggles. "Oh please. Did you forget why I even ate your cookie?" She asked folding her arms across her chest. Zay blushes as he shakes his head. "What happened? We want to know?" Asher says as Dylan nods his head.
Zay begins to shake his head as Riley and his grandma start to smile. "Well when I was little I use to come here and spend three weeks with Lucas. Well when we were seven we got married and actually we came here." Riley smiles looking around the shop. "We were enjoying a milkshake when Zay came toward us and pushed Lucas."
Asher and Dylan gasps as Zay gives them a look before turning back to Riley to finish. "They started to fight since apparently I was monopolizing all Lucas time." Riley stops when the boys begin to laugh. "Dude you were jealous?" Asher ask laughing as he falls off his stool.
"I wasn't jealous." Zay grumbles as they all laugh. "What happened next?" Dylan ask helping Asher back on his stool. "Riley here stood over us and said she would divorce me and eat the cookie Zay had put down when he first came over." They turn towards the door where Lucas had walked in smiling.
"So you ate the cookie but did you divorce Luke?" Dylan asked as Riley smiled. "No. He stopped fighting with Zay and even got me a piece of cake. Zay on the other hand wouldn't stop trying to hit him. So I ate his cookie. I didn't think he would cry after."
The boys look at Zay who was trying to hide behind his grandma. "Haha you cried! That's hilarious!" The boys say together as Riley smiles sitting down on a stool next to them. "Whatever I still don't forgive you by the way." Zay says to Riley as his grandma hits him. "Isaiah Babineaux apologize right this minute."
He looked at her before turning towards Riley. "I forgive you and I'm sorry." He says through gritted teeth making the boys laugh. "I accept." Riley smiles softly as she shakes her head when Zay mumbles cookie eater to her.
"So did the stooges show you around town?" Lucas asked as they started eating the food Zay's grandma brought over for them. "Yup." Riley nods her head as she sips her lemonade. "But we forgot one thing." She says looking towards the guys.
"We didn't tell embarrassing stories about Lucas here." She says patting Lucas shoulder as he groans. "Shoot." Zay snaps as they all laugh again. "We spent all that time laughing at ash we totally forgot about Lucas and his stories."
"Hey I have none." Lucas tells them as they all share a look and begin to laugh. "Okay Luke whatever you say." Dylan tells him slapping his shoulder. They stay quiet for a moment eating until Dylan clears his throat. "Hey Riley did you know Luke hear rode a sheep?" Riley bit her lip as she looked at Lucas who covered his face.
"Yeah Judy was her name wasn't it Scarecrow?" She asked as Zay ran back behind the counter grabbing a photo album. "Pictures make them even funnier." Zay shouts as Riley laughs patting Lucas arm.
"Well I see you've been busy." Riley smiled as she looked over her shoulder at her aunt who walked in the kitchen. "Well I can't take credit for the pastries those were courtesy of grandma Gandy." Riley says stirring the pot on the stove.
After hanging the boys well into the afternoon making fun of Lucas, Riley came home with her arms full of pastries from grandma Gandy shop. Riley tried not to protest but Zay told her his grandma wouldn't take no for an answer. So Riley took them enjoying a couple as she waited for Morgan.
"So your dad called me today." Morgan says as Riley freezes before stirring again. "Oh." She says hoping Morgan didn't ask her any questions. "I didn't tell him but he wanted to know if you came here on your road trip he wasn't allowed on." She says as she sits on the counter by the stove. Riley glances at her before staring into the pot.
"You know I'm not going to push you to talk to me Dorothy. Whatever you had to get away from I understand." Morgan tells her putting her hand on her shoulder. She gives her a small smile turning off the stove. "Thanks Glenda. It's just I don't want to think about it. You know. Being here in Texas is like being in another world."
Morgan gives her a look before she starts to laugh out loud confusing Riley. "Oh Dorothy I forgot what a dreamer you were. Never let that go. And when you're ready I'm here to listen. So is the great and powerful oz."
Riley smiled as she looked out the window knowing exactly what Morgan was talking about. "Let's go Toto. Oz awaits us." Riley smiles as she watches him run in front of her as she carried the basket and camera bag towards the tree.
Her and Lucas tree that they named oz and got married under.
She lays her blanket out setting up her stuff before standing in front of the tree smiling at it. She bit her lip as she looked towards the Friar ranch then back at the tree moving a branch and pulling out her secret treasure.
She laughs pulling off the lid at all the stuff she had in there. She was actually surprised Lucas never found it since she held one of his most prize possessions in there. Something she took when he got mad at her for leaving and tried to divorce her.
Although she never admitted to him she did take it.
"Thief! I knew you stole it!" Riley squeaks as she sees Lucas pointing at the thing in her hand. She puts it behind her back as he moves towards her. "I don't know what you're talking about. This is mine." She says moving away from the tree as Lucas moves closer to her.
"Uh huh let me see." He tells her moving closer to her as she backed up. "Why?" She asked knowing she was going to have to run. They stare at each other as Lucas starts chasing her around the yard. Riley laughs as she continues running with Lucas right behind her.
"Caught you you little thief." He whispers in her ear causing her to turn around falling and bringing him down with her. "Ow." Lucas groans as Riley brushes the grass from her mouth. They stare at each other before noticing Riley had dropped what she was holding.
They both scramble trying to grab it and rolling over each other until Lucas ends up on top of her. They look at each other as Lucas brushes her hair from her face and cups her cheek. Riley was sure he was going to kiss her but gets interrupted by Toto jumping on them.
They share a smile with each other before beginning to laugh moving apart.
"What else did you steal from me you little thief?" He asked as they sit up grabbing the box resting on their tree. "Hey hands off." She shouts slapping his hand as she tries to grab the box. "No no." He tells her with a smile. He chuckles as she sits down digging in the basket.
Lucas glanced at her before looking through the stuff she kept. "You know I blamed Tristan for taking that bag. He got punished for two weeks." Lucas tells her as Riley looks at him with wide eyes. "He did?" She asked as he nodded his head.
"Okay now I feel bad. Should I go apologize to him?" She ask as she begins to stand up. "No." Lucas chuckles gently pulling her back down. "He broke my gi joe so I say we're pretty much even." Riley looks at him shaking her head as he begins to laugh causing her to laugh too.
"So you did keep it?" Lucas says holding up the ring he gave her when they got married. "Of course I just didn't take it home otherwise my dad would have made me send it back and we would have had to divorce." She shivers at the thought making Lucas smile as he pulls out a folded paper.
"My favorite things about scarecrow." He begins to read before the paper is snatched out his hands. "Hey! I wanted to read what you love about me." He says pouting as Riley folds the paper sticking it in her pocket. "It didn't say love it's just my favorite things big head."
He frowns touching his head making Riley giggle. "Fine. Just so you know I'm not going to let you read my list about you." She looks at him as he looks at her smiling when she gives him that look of hers. "Okay you win I don't have a list." She nods as he sticks out his tongue at her. "So childish."
He does it again as he looks through the rest of her things smiling at the pictures she kept. He pulls out the one from their wedding day tracing over her face. He looked at her then at the sky then pulling out his phone smiling.
"Hey Dorothy you know what tomorrow is?" He asked smiling at her as she turned towards him with a confused expression on her face. "Wha...oh." She smiled looking towards the picture he held in his hand. He hands it to her before standing up helping her up as well. "Meet me here tomorrow night?" He asked.
She tilts her head looking at him nodding her head smiling. "Okay." He picks up the box putting everything back in except the ring pocketing it.
Lucas sat on his front porch as he concentrated on what he was doing. Today was the anniversary of his and Riley's marriage. He knew it was a pretend one but he didn't care.
"Dude what is that?" Lucas jumps as he drops what he was holding in his hands on the floor. "Tris you jerk. You messed me up now I have to start over again." Tristan bends down picking up what Lucas was making scrunching his face at it.
"Bro there was no saving this. What is it anyways?" He asked as Lucas punched him mumbling. "Excuse me what did you say?" Tristan asked smiling knowing he heard. "I'm not going to repeat it Jerk." Tristan laughed as he sat down next to him picking at the flowers. "I knew you still had a crush on her."
"I don't have a crush on her." Lucas tells him as Tristan gives him a look. "Liar liar veterinarian pants on fire." He taunts as Lucas punches him. "What are you five? And that was a horrible rhyme." Tristan shrugs before standing and walking towards his truck opening the door going inside.
"Oh just so you know I have a date tonight so don't go trying to recreate the whole wedding ceremony I can't make it." Lucas flips him off as Tristan waves with a laugh as he drives away. He shook his head going back to what he was doing or at least attempting to do.
"Why the hell can't I do this?!" He says through gritted teeth throwing it onto the dirt. He laid back on the porch staring at the wooden ceiling. "Maybe because you're just as impatient and stubborn as when we were kids." He looked up ready to shout at whoever said that but stuck out his tongue instead.
"Not only stubborn and impatient but childish too." Riley says giggling as she picked up his horrible attempt at a flower crown. "I'm not impatient." He says sitting up as Riley sits next to him with Toto running in the dirt. "So you admit your stubborn?" Riley asked as he nudges her.
"I'm not stubborn." He pouts making her nod her head smiling at him. "I'm not!" He says making her falls back laughing. "Whatever Dorothy what brings you over?" He asked as Riley continued laying down laughing.
"Oh aunt Morgan wanted to know if you could come look at one of her horses he's walking funny and he's supposed to race next week." She ask as she sits up. "Oh yeah just let me get my bag and I'll walk over."
He says standing up helping her as well. He goes to walk in the house but stops looking at her. "Did you want to wait for me?" Riley smiled as she sat back down on the porch steps. "Of course you think I would miss a chance to see doctor scarecrow in action." He shook his head as he walked inside grabbing his bag.
They walked in silence as Lucas checked to make sure he had everything while Riley messed around with the flower crown. "Where is Morgan?" Lucas asked as he stopped looking around for her. Riley looked around too pointing over by the barn. "Oh good you were home." Morgan says when they get closer.
"What's seems to be the problem?" He asked as Morgan went into what was wrong with the horse. Lucas nodded as he smiled at Riley who holds his bag so he could look through it. "Okay I'm just gonna do a checkup and then look at the leg." Lucas tells her as he runs his hand over the horse.
"What's her name?" He asked as he continued petting the horse. "Fanny Brice." Morgan says looking over at Riley who turns red. "What? You guys trying to say you don't like funny girl?" Lucas and Morgan share a look before laughing.
"Okay nurse Dorothy are you ready?" Lucas asked pulling out his stethoscope. "Of course doc where do you need me?" He gesture to his right as Morgan folded her arms across her chest smiling at them. "What?" Lucas asked glancing at her.
"You guys work well together for first timers." She says as they share a look. "What?" Morgan asked as Riley smiled. "This isn't the first time we played doctor." Lucas tells her inspecting the horse leg. "What?! You two were way to young to be playing doctor together." She tells them as Riley gasps and Lucas widens his eyes.
"Oh my god Morgan not like that! Lucas operated on my stuff animals I would bring." Riley says turning red as Lucas shook his head. "Well good cause I'm not sure how your dad would have felt about that." She walks back towards the house as Lucas looks at Riley who was still red.
"I cannot believe she really thought you meant the other doctor." Riley mumbles covering her face. Lucas chuckles softly as he continues to inspect the horse lifting her leg a couple of times. He stood massaging his back before petting the horse and whispering softly to her.
He smiles as Fannie eats out his hand turning and seeing Riley watching him. "What?" He asked rubbing his neck feeling nervous. "Nothing I just..." She smiles shrugging her shoulders. "I forgot how amazing you were at this." He tilts his head looking at her with a confused expression as she lightly laughs elaborating.
"I just mean you were so good with my stuff animals making sure they weren't scared when you performed surgery on them. With your mom's help of course." Lucas smiled nodding his head as he ran his hand over the horse one last time.
"I think I was just doing it more to keep you calm after the chickens pecked off your rabbits arm." He tells her as he moves closer to her. "Still it's nice to see you still have that magic touch." He shakes his head as Morgan comes back with bottles of water for them.
"So doc what's the prognosis? Can she race?" She asked looking at him nervously. "Yeah she'll be good for next week. She just tweaked it a bit. Make sure she doesn't go out to far just maybe around the track once or twice. Anymore can damage her leg."
They laughed as Morgan shot off her fake guns saying that was cause for celebration. "Sorry Glenda, Dorothy and I have plans tonight." Riley nods as Morgan taps her head nodding. "Forgot it's your anniversary. You guys be safe." She starts to walk away before turning back to them with a smile on her face.
"Oh and if y'all plan to play real doctor be careful please." Lucas begins to laugh as Riley yells oh my god and hides her flushed cheeks. "So embarrassing." Riley says as they walk back towards the house. "I thought it was pretty funny." Lucas chuckles as Riley nudges his shoulder.
"You would." She giggled as they stood on the porch. "So we still on for tonight?" He asked as Riley nodded. "Okay well I'll see you at eight and you don't have to bring anything just yourself." He tells her heading home.
He ran the rest of the way home jumping in the shower and finding what he plan to wear. He grabbed the box that held the rings checking to make sure he had grabbed his from the roof. He skipped downstairs making pb&j sandwiches and wrapping up some cake his mom made hoping she didn't notice it was missing.
Lucas walked towards the tree seeing Riley already there on a blanket aiming her camera up at the sky. "Dorothy what are you doing?" He asked putting his stuff down and laying next to her. "Taking pictures of the sky as it changes." She said as if he was supposed to already know that.
"O...Kay well I come with food and presents." He announces sitting up as Riley looks at him. "Presents? I didn't know we were doing that." She says sitting up. "Riley it's okay I just..." He stops talking when Riley smiles grabbing a folder with a bow on top. "Did you really think I'd come empty handed?"
Lucas shakes his head as he hands her a sandwich which she smiles at. "Pb&j? Did you make them?" She asked as he nods. "Yup just how you like them. More peanut butter than jelly." Lucas tells her with a smile. "So presents?" He ask as they finish eating.
Riley nods dusting her hands holding out the photo album to him. He chuckles softly opening it up looking at all the photos. He smiled looking through it seeing all the pictures from when they were kids. "This is amazing thank you Dorothy." He says closing it as she hands him something else. His messed up flower crown.
"You fixed it?" He chuckles putting it on his head. "Well I have patience unlike you stubborn boy." He playfully glares at her making her giggle. "Now your turn." He hands her a box watching as she gasps opening it. "Our rings." She giggles holding them both up blowing on the whistles.
"Hey that means you stole mine from earlier?! You thief!" She says punching him. "Hey you stole my sack of gold first! Mine was part of your gift." He says laughing as she playfully glares at him. "Also this." He hands her a paper gesturing for her to lay down. She looks at him weirdly but does as he lays next to her.
"See that star right there?" He points at the brightest star as Riley looks at it. "That's yours." She looks at him as he nods towards the paper in her hand. She smiles opening it reading it quietly as he watches. "I know it's technically not the gift you give on your seventeenth wedding anniversary but we haven't really been traditional have we?"
Riley smiled as she grabbed his hand intertwining their fingers. "No we haven't."
Sorry for the long wait. No excuse really except man July turned out to be a busy month for me. But I'm hoping after this I can update like I use to. Hopefully this chapter was worth the wait.