Lucas couldn't help smiling as he recorded Riley and Fanny trot along the dirt track Morgan had for her horses. After taking Fanny for a walk Lucas wanted to test her leg a little more and somehow convinced Riley to ride her alone while he watched.
She hesitated at first pretending she couldn't get her leg over the saddle and fake falling holding her ankle. Lucas shared a look with Fanny as they both knew Riley was faking and they weren't going to let her get out of riding the horse.
After some convincing on both Lucas and Fanny part Riley got on the horse. It was like in a past life she rode horses professional with how she was moving. Lucas only had to show her certain things before she went off like she had been doing it forever.
"Okay Dorothy you can stop now." He shouts as he looks at the video he just took of them. He smiles watching it when he sees Riley still riding around the track. He shakes his head as he sat on the fence watching her. He was so captivated by her he didn't hear the truck pull up.
"Riley and Lucas sitting in a tree K-I-S-S..." Tristan is cut off with laughter when Lucas jumps falling off the fence. "Oh my gosh Lucas." He groaned as he laid on the floor as Riley got off the horse hitting his brother as she stands over him.
"Tristan Francis Friar what did you do?" Riley ask as Lucas chuckles on the ground as his brother stares in shock at Riley. "Hey! Who told you my middle name? And hey only my mom can call me by it." He tells her as Riley rolls her eyes and helps Lucas up.
"I'm going to tell your mother. Scarecrow could have really hurt himself and what would you have done then hmm?" Lucas couldn't help the smirk on his face as Riley dusted him off wincing in pain slightly as she yelled at his brother.
"Well I would have laughed and then maybe an hour or two of that I would have helped him up." Riley shook her head as she reached for Lucas phone. "I wonder if Emily would feel the same shall we call her?"
Lucas and Riley laughed as Tristan stomped his foot glaring at them both before shouting sorry and heading for his truck. "Just like old times." Lucas chuckles as he stretches wincing once again. "Your hurt." Riley says lifting up his shirt to inspect his back. Heat rises to Lucas cheeks as Riley gently runs her fingers across his back.
"Wh...What are you doing?" He grimaced when she touched a sore spot. "You have a couple of scraps on your back and a medium size bruise too. Come on." She takes his hand as she heads inside the house. "What are we doing? I still have to teach you to ride a bike since riding horses is like second nature to you."
Riley smiled as she directed Lucas up to her room and pointed at her bed. "What?" He asked looking between the bed and her. "Lay down dork I need to clean your scraps." She heads out the room as Lucas looks around seeing everything the same as when they were little.
He looked at the pictures she had on her dresser smiling when he notices a majority of the pictures are of him and her. He sees one with her little brother who doesn't look so little next to her. He frowns slightly when he sees a picture of her with a blonde girl and a brunette haired guy that she has her arms around his neck kissing his cheek.
"That's Maya and Farkle." Lucas jumps as he puts the picture down and sees Riley smiling as she picks it up. He watched as she smiled at the picture of them before putting it back down. "Tell me about them." He asked as she smiled and he could see the happiness in her eyes.
The other night they talked they just reminisce about their time together which he loved but he wanted to know more. "Okay first your back. Take off your shirt and lay down." He turned to look at her with wide eyes as she realized what she said and covered her mouth. "I didn't mean like that I meant...you know what I meant."
He chuckles nodding his head as he winces trying to pull his shirt off. "Let me help." Riley says standing in front of him slowly pulling it off. Once it was off Lucas watched as Riley looked down at his chest before looking at him and turning red.
"So lay down and I'll clean your cuts." She says glancing at his chest biting her lip before shaking her head. Lucas nodded feeling extremely nervous as he laid down laying his head on her pillow that smelled just like her. "Okay this may sting a bit."
He shivered from her breath on his back trying to concentrate on anything since his head was telling him to grab her and kiss her. He chuckled softly since the voice sounded an awful lot like Zay and Asher combined.
"You know I think you may be the first person to ever laugh instead of crying out when alcohol comes in contact with their cuts. Are you drunk?" Riley jokes as Lucas blindly swats her leg. "Haha anything to ease the pain of your knee in my leg." He says as she sits up.
"Funny. I'm almost done you big baby." He turned his head towards her smiling at how she was biting her lip in concentration and humming to herself. "You know it amazes me that no matter how much time passes you're still the same Riley Matthews."
"Well for awhile there I wasn't much of myself as I was someone else." She says softly that Lucas almost didn't catch it. He turns to look at her and knew she didn't want to talk about it so he changed the subject. "Tell me about your friends back home? This Maya and What was his name?"
"Farkle." She says with a smile as Lucas feels her place a bandaid on his back. "Finished." Lucas stretched before sitting up as Riley did the same sitting cross legged on the bed. "Farkle? What kind of name is that?" He asked as Riley smiled grabbing her phone and showing him pictures.
"The kind of name to have when you want to take over the world." She says causing Lucas to shake his head at the evil laugh she does. She shows him more pictures of her friends from home and everything and anything about them.
She told him how she met her friend Maya but called her peaches and how now she was aunt peaches. She talked about how aside from him she was her best friend and one of her favorite people and they would do anything for each other. She told him about all the craziness they got into and Maya's homework rebellion.
She talked about Farkle and his plans for would domination and wanting to live on mars. Lucas pouted when she revealed Farkle called her and Maya his wives until he met his actual wife Isadora Smackle who was his arch nemesis. He continued to pout until Riley sat next to him reassuring him he will always be her first husband no matter what.
"Pluto? Still Dorothy?" He chuckles as they had rotated and were both laying on their backs on the bed. "It's possible scarecrow you just watch it will be a planet again." She yawned as Lucas looked over at her and then outside seeing the setting sun.
"Wow we talked the whole day away." He yawned as he feels his eyes begin to close. "I should head home we both are falling asleep." He goes to get up when Riley pulls him back on the bed. "No I'm up still let's keep talking." He nods laying back next to her pulling her close when she lays her head on his chest.
"Night Dorothy." He whispers as he feels his eyes begin to close once again except this time he couldn't help it.
Riley dangled her feet over the branch of her and Lucas tree as she aimed her camera at the rising sun. She bit into the muffin she stuffed in her bag along with a lady bug thermos filled with coffee. She was hiding up on the roof for two reasons.
One reason was she was hiding from her aunt Morgan and Nic who caught her and Lucas in bed together. It wouldn't have been a big deal since they were having more conversations that ended up with them falling asleep together.
No the big deal was Morgan and Emily were both at the breakfast table the next day exchanging the pictures of Lucas and her asleep trying to decide which one would work and be appropriate for wedding invitations.
The second reason and the one that had her completely absorbed in her thoughts lately was how perfect she felt laying in Lucas arms all night. Or the fact she couldn't get his shirtless chest out her mind no matter what she tried.
It was like her brain was telling her something and she was determined to ignore it.
Don't get her wrong she loved Lucas and he was actually her first crush/love until she was sixteen. Although if she was completely honest nobody came close to making her feel unbelievably comfortable and happy like her time with Lucas.
But she didn't know if she could act on these feelings or if they were just the feelings she felt for him from when they were little. She didn't want to get into something with him and realized it was just her old feelings resurfacing and clouding her judgment.
No she wanted to see if something was there. Something more. She loved that no matter how much time had passed between them they both could pick up right where they left off and she was happy.
She thought about all this for the past week and a half since Lucas was at some veterinarian conference. She had spent half her time thinking over everything and the other half spent being dragged around by the three stooges or Tristan.
Apparently in Lucas absence they were tasked with keeping her company. Even when she got up at six in the morning. "Sugar its way to early let's go back home and go to sleep." Zay groaned as he leaned against the tree slightly shivering even though the air was warm. "Zay I'm not forcing you to be here."
Riley looks down at the same time he looks up. They both knew why he was there. It made her smile that Lucas wanted her to never be alone while he was gone. It made her miss him more especially when the guys tried to rope her into going to a paintball place.
She would have agreed if Tristan and Dylan didn't have crazed looks in their eyes and mischievous smiles on their faces as they waited for her answer.
"What time is Luke getting in today?" Zay asked as Riley lowered her thermos to him. She looked at her phone checking the email he sent her with his information. "Around one thirty. Why what are you thinking? Welcome home party?" She asked as she packed up her stuff.
"I would say yes but I know for a fact he'll want to spend his first day back with you so we can do a party tomorrow." He tells her as she climbs down trying to hide her blushing cheeks from him. She knew if he saw them he would tease her mercilessly for it.
"Well thanks for keeping me company Zay." Riley says hugging him as they gathered up her stuff. "Anything for the love of my best friend life." He tells her playfully nudging her as Riley shakes her head. "So when are you two going to stop dancing around each other and just date for real. Inquiring minds would like to know."
Riley nudging him as she frowned slightly looking at Zay. She had some questions and she wasn't sure she could ask Lucas without nervously stuttering through it. "So.." She starts as Zay looks at her. "How many girlfriends has Lucas had?"
She instantly regretted it when Zay stopped and looked at her with his mouth so wide open that she was sure something was going to fly in it. "Why Riley sugar Matthews are you fishing for gossip about your love?" She pushes him as she rolled her eyes shaking her head.
"I'm not fishing I just was curious that's all. When we talk we don't really touch on the subject much." Zay nodded as they begin to walk again. "Well Luke has always been sort of private with his love life. Although I wouldn't call it that to be fair." He stopped talking as Riley looked at him weirdly when he points behind her.
She turned practically dropping her stuff running when she sees Lucas hopping out his truck. "Missed me huh Dorothy?" He chuckled as she wrapped her arms around his neck as he squeezed and lifted her slightly off the ground. "Shut up. I thought you were getting in later?"
He puts her feet back on the ground but keeps his arms around her waist as she keeps her arms around his neck. "Well I caught an earlier flight. I guess you could say I missed...home." Riley bit her lip as they stared at each other trying to keep from kissing him and to keep her heart from bursting out her chest at the same time.
"Good lord just kiss already!" Riley giggles the same time Lucas groans looking over at Zay. "Hey Zay what are you doing here?" He asked as Riley slipped her hand through his walking towards her porch. "Losing valuable sleep since your Juliet insist on getting up at ungodly hours."
Riley shook her head as she unlocked the front door putting her dropped bags inside. "Zay I don't force you to keep me company you get up and come over." Zay fake gasps as Lucas chuckles sitting on the porch as Riley sits with him.
"Well I guess that's what I get for being nice huh?" Zay says opening his car door. He turns looking at the two on the porch before smiling mischievously. "Oh sugar since your boy is home I'm sure he could answer your questions about his past girlfriends." He chuckled as Riley narrows her eyes at him.
"What's he talking about?" He asked as Riley groaned laying back on the porch covering her face. "Dorothy?" Riley opened her hand as she feels Lucas lay down next to her. "I've only had two girlfriends three if I count you." She smiles as she turns looking at him.
"How many boyfriends have you had?" He asked as Riley saw the slight frown on his face. She scrunched her nose before answering. "One. Well two cause I'm counting you." She says as Lucas smiles at her. They stayed quiet as they stared at the ceiling with nothing but the sound of the birds and the wind.
"Why did you ask Zay about my passed relationships?" Riley sat up as she looked down at him as he leaned on his arms. "Well I know we have been talking which I love but we seem to always shy away from stuff like that." When she meant shy away from she really meant she did.
She wasn't exactly ready to open that can of worms and she wasn't sure why she was bringing it up now.
"Well..." Lucas says sitting up crossing his legs taking Riley's hand in his. "While I was away this past week and a half. Which I wished I skipped because it was beyond boring." He rolls his head dramatically as Riley laughs.
"I thought over some stuff and you can tell me no and say I'm an idiot for thinking this or asking saying it's way to soon to be having these thoughts but..." he sighs as Riley tilts her head at him wondering where he was going with all this. He took her hand in his intertwining them.
"Will you Dorothy Matthews have dinner with me?"