chapter rating: pg
word count: 584
summary: Lucas comforts Maya after she receives a letter from her father
"Did you read it?"
Maya looks up, quickly swiping at the tear tracks on her cheeks. "What?" she scoffs. "No, of course not."
"Maya…" Lucas, still rubbing sleep from his eyes and wearing his favorite pajamas, swings around the dining room table to take a seat in the chair adjacent to hers.
"Don't. Don't use that 'you're being unreasonable' voice, okay?" She pushes back against her chair and crosses her arms over her chest. "I get it. I'm an adult, I should be able to handle this, but I can't. And I don't want to. He shows up a couple times when I'm fourteen, makes his excuses, and then breezes out again, and now, ten years later, he wants to be pen pals?" She shakes her head. "No thanks."
He stares at her searchingly for a long moment before reaching across. She expects him to push the sealed envelope toward her, to push the issue, but he flicks it out of the way with his fingers and covers her hand with his own. "That wasn't my 'you're being unreasonable ' voice. It was my 'what can I do to make you feel better' voice." With a faint grin, he tells her, "They must sound alike."
Maya snorts, raising her eyes to meet his. "I don't need him in my life. I– I'm happy. I have my job at the gallery and I have Riley, and Farkle, and my mom is happy with Shawn, and I have you." She turns her hand over and squeezes his. "I have you. I don't need Kermit."
"No, you don't. But if you want him in your life, if you change your mind…" He reaches for the letter and turns it right side up, so she can see the slanted writing in the corner, where the return address sits. "You know where to find him. When you're ready."
She nods, chewing on her lip. "Yeah."
"Until then…" He stands from the table, circles around to press a kiss to the top of her head, and says, "How about pancakes? Huh? We still got strawberries and I can make whipped cream." He squeezes her shoulder gently and, before he can leave, she covers it, keeping him there.
"Lucas?"
"Yeah?"
She taps her fingers over his knuckles and whispers, "Thanks."
His thumb flicks up against her own. "Anytime."
As he walks to their kitchen to start digging everything out to make breakfast, Maya watches him go a moment, a faint smile pulling at her mouth. And then she looks down to the letter on the table, with her name written across the front. There was a time when she would have given anything to hear from him, to get answers, to find comfort in his words. But not know. Maybe one day she'd write back and maybe one day they'd repair their relationship. But for right now, she was okay with that being a vague, distant idea more than anything.
Pushing up from the table, she walks toward the kitchen, slippers shuffling on the floor. "Where do you want me, Huckleberry?"
He grins as she sidles up next to him. "Right here's good."
She rolls her eyes, but tips her head back and smiles into his kiss. She has to hand it to him. She spent an hour moping over that letter and what it could mean, and all it took was five minutes with him to right her world again. It was probably a good thing she married the cowboy.
{end}