All day Saturday I spend avoiding my phone while I get everything ready for Auggie, the guest bedroom along with deep cleaning my home. I let my parents and Auggie know that I'll be busy, but I will be there at the airport to get him when he arrives. After I do that, I turn off my phone and tuck it away. All that's been running through my head is who could it possibly be that texted me. Who knows where I am, and did they tell anyone else? Yeah I sometimes get lonely here, but that doesn't mean I'm ready to welcome everyone here in the life I created for myself. I want to, but when I choose to.

I wake up Sunday morning, well at noon, and the first thing I do it turn on my phone, to my surprise it wasn't dead. What doesn't surprise me is the amount of text messages and missed call notifications that rush in. Most of them coming from Lucas. I'm not ready to talk to him.

I hurry to get ready, since I did wake up late, and I rush out the front door. I don't even give my car much time to heat up before I'm on the road. This week is going to be about spending as much time as I can with my brother. I promised myself and him that I wouldn't be working this week besides going in tomorrow for a work meeting, or unless I'm needed. He was pretty thrilled to hear that. Whenever my parents and Aug come to visit, I'm hardly around because of work not this time though.

As I drive, I plan a few things to do with Auggie. What do teenage boys like to do anyways? As I try to think of a couple things, my phone starts to ring. I usually ignore it when I drive, but what if his plane landed early, and he's wondering where I am. So this one time, I answer it, put it on speaker and place it in the middle in the cup holder.

Hello?

Riley! You've been MIA. A voice whose is not Auggie greets me.

Maya, I've been MIA for years. I laugh at my own joke.

Not funny.

Sorry. I snicker.

I thought we were working on our friendship. If I did anything to make you-

Whoa. I cut her off. I had my phone off. You didn't do anything. I was just busy.

So, this had nothing to do with Lucas?

Maybe a little.

You know he wants to be with you. I can basically hear the smirk grow on her lips. And you want to be with him.

I really don't want to be talking about this right now. Look Maya, this is between me and him. I actually have to go. I'm just getting to the airport right now.

Wait, you're coming home?! I hear excitement in her voice.

I am home Maya. Auggie came to spend the week of me.

Oh. I hear sadness take the place of excitement.

I'll talk to you soon okay. Maybe even later today. Text me if you want.

I hear a sniffle. Bye Riles. I didn't mean to hurt her.

Bye M- I stop myself. Bye Peaches.

Y-Y-You just called me Peaches. I can tell by her voice she has a smile on her face.

I did. I'll talk to you soon. And with that I hang up my phone.

I was lucky enough to find a parking spot, good thing too because I'm a lot later than I thought. I hurry to park my car and run to entrance, but I don't make it inside. He is standing outside, and he looks a little annoyed.

"I'm sorry!" I say jogging over to him. I engulf him into a hug, but he pulls away. Oh great, he's mad.

"You're late," Auggie says with an attitude.

I roll my eyes, "I know and I'm sorry. How can I make it up?"

A mischievous grin grows on his lips, "You can let me drive." I give him a look. "I got my license." I don't say anything. I just tilt my head, and stare at him. "Pleaseee," he begs.

"Fine, fine, fine. You can drive." I toss him my eyes. "But if you so much as scratch my car, you're in for it."

He waves his hands in front of him, "Ooo I'm so scared."

I turn on my heels to the car and he follows suit. I can see the excitement in his eyes to drive. I remember being the exact same way when I first started driving.

We get to the car, and he puts his luggage in the trunk.

"Are you sure you got this?" I say as I open the passenger door.

"You worry too much."

"Yeah well I have every reason to be when my baby brother is driving my car," I tease as he rolls his eyes.

We both get in the car. I hang on as tip as I can as he starts to drive away. He tries to talk, but I'm worrying too much to keep the conversation going. This must be how my parents felt when I started driving. Gosh, I owe them an apology for him.

The entire drive to my house, I turn into our mother. I'm being a backseat driver. I hated it so much when she did it to me, and here I am doing it to Auggie. He is getting annoyed, but I can't help it. I hate not being in control. I guess I really am my mother's daughter.

When he finally pulls into the driveway, the color returns back to my knuckles because I loosen my grip on the handle.

"See that wasn't go bad," he says.

"Whatever. Come on let's get inside."

As soon as we step out of the car, it starts raining heavy. Auggie hurries to get his stuff from the trunk and runs inside. I, on the other hand, am not in much a rush. I love this weather. It's one of the main factors why I picked Seattle.

"I don't know why you love this weather so much." Aug says I walk inside closing the door behind me.

"It's beautiful." I smile. I move down the hall to grab a towel from the closet for the both of us. "Here catch," I say tossing a towel at him. "How was your flight?"

"Exhausting. There was this couple behind me that wouldn't stop fighting the entire time. No wonder you only fly home once a year."

I laugh, "So, what do you want to do? Are you hungry? I can cook something order some takeout. We can eat while we watch a movie. What do you say?"

He yawns, "That sounds great, but I'm really tired. Mom woke me up way too early, and I couldn't sleep on the flight because of the shouting."

"Oh C'mon it's only three."

"Yeah, but it's late for me."

I chuckle, "In that case, it's only six."

"I have a week here with you. Don't smother me," he laughs.

"Fine, go to bed. Tomorrow though we are doing something after I get off of work." He shoots me a look. "I'm only going in tomorrow because I have a meeting and a few things I need to finish. I will try not to be too long."

"Just tomorrow?"

"I promise. Now go take a shower before my little brother gets a cold," I say as I reach to ruffle his hair. "I still can't believe you out grew me."

"We were all surprised," he laughs.

Auggie leaves to take a shower, and I clean up the water spots caused by the rain. After I get it all cleaned up, I make my way to my room so I can take a shower.

An hour goes by, and I decide to go check on him. When I open the bedroom door to the guest bedroom, I see him face down sleep on the bed. I guess he was really tired. I quietly close the door behind me. I guess I can use this time to finish my work, so I can leave earlier and surprise him by coming home earlier.

The next morning, I have to drag myself out of bed. I really hate mornings, but I can't be late to my own meeting. When I go check on Auggie, he is still fast asleep. He might have gotten up too early and went back to sleep. I did that before I got use to the time change. I leave him a note saying I left to work, and I head out the front door.

I'm the first one to get to the office, but I'm not alone for long because soon everyone starts to show up. We all move to the large table that is in the center of the room. Almost everyone is here. Erika brings doughnuts for everyone the way she does every meeting. Evan brings me a coffee, and although it's a sweet gesture, it feels awkward. I'm pretty sure they all know about his crush. Cory brings his smiling selfish, he always so happy and it's a boost to everyone's mood. Daniel and Rose are still not here.

Ten minutes go by and we are still waiting for the two. That is until my phone starts to ring.

Hello? Rose, where are you?

I'm so sorry. My tire popped on the way to work.

Are you okay?

Yeah I'm fine. I wasn't going too fast, so I didn't lose control. Someone is helping me change the tire right now.

Well that's good!

I'll be in today just late.

Are you sure? You don't need to come in.

Yes, I'm sure.

Okay. Well then I'll see you when you get here.

I pace my phone on the table, "That was Rose. She had a little car trouble, so she's going to be late. Have any of you heard from Daniel?" I look at the three of them.

They all look at each other and back at me before shaking their heads.

"Do you guys want to start without him?" I ask the three.

Erika nods her head, "Yeah, he's always late."

"Well alright then."

"I have a question before we start," Cory says raising his hand. I nod at him to proceed. "Why do we keep having work meetings? We never discuss anything work related. I'm not complaining. I'm just curious."

I laugh. He couldn't be more right. I really am the worst boss. "What can I say I like spending extra time with all of you. I don't mean to venture off topic, it just happens." They all laugh.

"Any time with Riley, is time well spent," Evan says very coyly. He really is a nice guy, and I wish I felt something but I don't. I can't stop thinking about why he looks so familiar. I never notice that until Friday, and I've been working with him for three years now.

Before I know, we start to talk about what each one of us did over the weekend. Once again talking about something that isn't about work. My life is pretty much boring compared to theirs.

"I know I'm supposed to be checking with what you guys are working on, but I trust all of you. So, you guys can keep doing whatever it is you are doing. Unless I hear a complaint, I don't want to change anything. Don't fix what ain't broken right?"

"Ain't that the truth." I turn to face the new voice.

"How nice of you to grace of with your appearance." Erika says a little snarky.

"I'm really sorry I'm late Riley."

"It's fine, you can tell me later why you were late okay?" He nods. I know it has something to do with his mom who's currently in the hospital.

Daniel clears his throat, "You have someone looking for you."

"For me?" I point to myself.

"Yeah. He said he's a friend. I told him to wait over by your office and I'd go get you." I stand a little to look over the wall divider and my heart stops.

There is no way he is here I'm dreaming this can't be true. It can't.

"Are you okay?" Cory ask with a seriousness to his tone.

"I'm-I'm fine. Uh, you guys finish this meeting up okay. I have to take care of something."

I take a deep breath before I stand up and walk in the direction of the familiar face. With each step I draw closer, and with each step I feel panic rush throughout my body. I can just run the other way. He hasn't seen me. Before I can make a move to leave, he turns.

"Riley!" he says a little too loud.

"Hi."

"I told you no more hiding." So he was the one that texted me. He looks around the big room and then peeks into my office "So this is where you've been hiding?" I stare at him. "It's really nice."

"How did you find me?" I say ushering him into my office closing the door behind me.

"Well, Lucas he went over to Maya and Zay's house on Friday, completely drunk. He talked about you and someone else." He stops and I look at him to keep going. "He talked about Hope Olivia Matthews." My eyes go wide.

"I'm really sorry Riley that you had to go through that." He places a hand on my arm.

"It happened. I moved forward." I whisper. "Answer the question, how did you find me?"

He takes a deep breath, "When he mentioned her name, I knew exactly where I heard the name from. It was from your website." He looks at me to say something, but when I don't he continues.

"You changed your name and a few things that people that knew you before you left would know it was you, but for the most part you kept everything else to it's true self. You mentioned Seattle in a few post, but that didn't help when one I didn't know it was you and two there were other people posting who were mentioning over cities too. He said her name and it's exactly what I needed." I still don't say anything.

"You know after I found out about your website, I hired a PI to go to all the different cities mentioned." I can't help the little laugh that escapes from my lips. "Why are you laughing?"

"Does the name Rose Gallagher mean anything to you?" I watch as his eyes go wide. "You sent her here to Seattle about two years ago."

"How do you know about her? She told me she didn't find anything."

Again I let a laugh escape, "She found me." I didn't think his eyes could open any wider, but they do. The sound of the bells on the front door of the building grabs my attention. I look out my office window to see Rose just getting in. "Look through the window there, and look to the left. You'll see a red head there."

"What is she doing here?"

"I hired her," I smile at him. "To be perfectly honest here, I was the one who found her. She was sitting on a bench down the street from the café I go to, so she was really close to finding me. She might have. Anyways, she was crying and I don't know why but I felt like I needed to comfort her, so I did."

"She didn't look at me, but she was going on and on about how she was looking for someone for weeks with no luck. If she didn't find this person, she was going to have to give the money back that she was paid, but that wasn't an option for her. I just rubbed her back as she cried into her hands."

"You are still the same Riley," Farkle says as he gazes at me.

"Maybe in some ways." I clear my throat, "When she finally looked at me, her frown went away and a smile came into place. I thought maybe she was smiling because I was smiling first, but that wasn't it. She told me I was the person she was looking for. I was a little scared."

He opens he mouth to say something, but I hold my finger up. "I begged her not to report back to whoever it is that hired her. I didn't know who would do that, and how did they even know to look in Seattle."

"That's why she wired back the money," he whispers.

"I moved her into a little studio to help her get on her feet; she was living in her car. Well, she talked about all the cases she's done and all the places she went. I thought it was amazing, so I hired her here. She's actually a really good friend. I never knew who hired her, I never pried I didn't want to know."

I sigh, "The thing is, I don't think any of you were supposed to know where I was. I normally don't walk when I go to the café, but the day I met Rose I decided to because it was a really beautiful day and I wanted to enjoy it. I stopped her from telling you where I was, and I'm happy I did. I was still in a bad place then, and I would have been mad at all of you for finding me."

"Everything plays out the way it's supposed to I presume," he says.

"That it does."

He lets out a deep breath, "How are you really doing now? Are you still in a bad place?"

I shake my head, "I'm okay," I say softly.

"No you aren't. I can tell."

"You've always been able to tell," I give a small smile. "What are you doing here Farkle? You came all this way for a reason. I hope it isn't to bring me back because that isn't going to happen."

"I'm not here to take you back. I'm here because well I miss you, and Lucas."

"What does Lucas have to do with any of this?"

"He wanted me to talk to. He thinks I'm the only one that can convince to go back to New York, but I told him if anyone can it's him."

"Does he know where you are?" Farkle shakes his head. "Good. I'm not going back even if I wanted to I can't leave."

"Why not?" he asks confused.

"Are you busy right now?" Again he shakes his head. "We are going to go for a little drive."

I grab my purse and walk out of my office and he follows right behind. I tell my employees that I'm leaving for the day, but if they need me don't hesitate to call. I see with the corner of my eye Farkle wave at someone. I don't look at who it is, I just assume it's Rose. I tell Farkle to follow me because if things go south I'm going to need my own getaway car.

I'm having second thoughts the closer we get. This is the only way I can get him to understand everything. The way I feel deep down and why I can't leave. My heart starts racing because I'm nervous. No one has been here to see her besides me, Jessica, Michael and Nathan. Once the tombstones come into view, I look in the rearview mirror and I see the expression on his face change.

I pull into the gates with him right behind me. She is no longer a secret. We park off to the side. I get out of my car, but Farkle doesn't he just sits there staring at nothing. I walk over to his car and knock on his window and he rolls it down.

"Are you coming?"

"Riley, you don't have to do this."

"Just come please. You want to know why I can't leave, then come." I walk away in the direction where she lays.

I look back and Farkle is still sitting in his car. He'll come out, I know he will.

"Hope, you are going to meet one of my very best friends, once he decides to get out of the car." I say as I stand looking down at her grave marker.

Once again I sit down and brush the leaves that have fallen. "You'll meet your uncle Auggie too," I say running my fingers across the lettering the way I always do.

I hear the sound of leaves crunching behind, I look back and see Farkle walking towards me. I move to stand up, "So you finally decided to join me."

"Yeah sorry," he whispers.

"Why didn't you want to come?"

"Because I didn't want to invade on a place that you call your haven." I tilt my head in confusion. "You wrote about it."

"I guess I never realized how personal I got. It's easy when I hide behind a name that isn't mine."

I watch him as his eyes move to read the words that are engraved. I know he feels bad about being, but I was the one that chose to show him this place.

"Farkle this is Hope, Hope this is Farkle." I look at him and I can tell he is a little uncomfortable. "I didn't mean to make you feel uneasy. I just wanted you, in some way, to meet my daughter. This is the only way."

"It's okay." I take my seat back on the floor and he follows suit. "Hi Hope," he says quietly.

"I talk to her all the time. I come here all the time."

"This is the reason you can't leave, isn't it?"

I nod my head, "What kind of mother would I be if I just left her? Not a very good one."

"Aren't you lonely though? I know you've met people here, but it can't be the same."

"It isn't." I look down at my hands.

"Why don't you tell Lucas where you are? He'd come to be with you. I know you want to be with him, but you aren't allowing yourself to be happy."

"Because I don't deserve it," I mumble under my breath.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"What did you say Riley?"

"Nothing."

He scoffs, "Seriously, Riley what did you say?"

"I said I don't deserve it okay!" I snap.

I can feel his eyes on me as I stare down, "Why would you think that?"

"Because it's true! I don't deserve to be happy and I sure in the hell don't deserve Lucas." Farkle puts two fingers under my chin to lift my head to look at him. "I'm fine."

"No you aren't. Talk to me Riley."

"Fine you want me to talk. I hate myself. I hate myself from keeping her from him. How can he forgive me when I can't forgive myself for what I did? I try to say I did the right thing, but I didn't!" tears start to form in my eyes. "I can't be with Lucas even though every bone in my body wants to more than anything. I want to tell him where I am, but I can't. I'm fighting with myself every day to not give into it."

"He loves you. He wants to be with you more than anything else in this world. Yes, there is going to be some things to talk through but if anyone can do it, it's you and Lucas. You two were meant for each other."

Tears slip out from my eyes, "I love him too with everything in me. If he were here I'd do everything I can to keep him with me."

"So let me tell him where you are," Farkle insist.

"No Farkle!" I shout. My vision is a little blurred, "You will not tell this secret. I know you mean well, but if you say anything I will never forgive you."

"Riley."

"No I will never forgive you."

He stares at me, and I hope he can see how serious I am about that. An alert on my phone pulls me out of the gaze.

Aug

Where are you?

Me

I'll be home soon.

I brush my tears away, "I have to go. I have Auggie herein Seattle. How long are you in town for? Maybe we the three of us can do something."

"Just today," he smiles. "No one was able to reach you, so I thought I'd take a trip. Plus, you wouldn't be able to run away."

We both go to stand up. I tell hope goodbye and so does Farkle and I can't help the smile that form on my lips.

"So how is the wedding planning going?" I ask as we walk back to our cars trying to avoid bringing up the topic of Lucas.

"It's on halt. Smackle doesn't want to get married until she's done getting her masters which I agree too since I'm working on mine as well. I hope you'll be there."

"Of course I will. You're one of my best friends."

He smiles, "Even after all those years?"

"Even then."

He gives me a hug, and we just hold each other for a minute.

"I won't tell your other secret either." he whispers near my ear.

I pull away, "What secret?"

"That it really is Evan that is working for you." I look at him confused. "Evan from ski lodge. The one Lucas got jealous of because you spent all night talking to him."

"That's Evan?"

His eyes go wide, "You didn't know?" I shake my head. "How did you not know?"

I shrug my shoulder, "I just thought he looked familiar."

"I would think you would remember him since you remember everything about that trip."

"Correction, I remember Lucas' moment everything else about that weekend fizzled away." I smile at the thought of it.

"Well, both your secrets are safe me with," Farkle smiles at me.

"Thank you."

We give each other one last hug before I watch him get in his car and drive away. I sit in my car thinking a little longer. How did I really not notice it was Evan? Why didn't he ever say anything?

My phone glows with a notification.

Aug

Hello, did you forget about me?

Answer to those questions are just going to have to wait. I promised my brother a fun week.

Me

I'll be there in twenty minutes.