Sun Shower

Author Note: Adult Rucas after a messy break-up due to Riley falling for a Hollywood Movie Star.


Riley sat on the front porch, watching as the rain started to gently fall like a whisper a promise of prosperity. God, how had she forgotten how much she loved spending time at the ranch, how had she allowed herself to be caught up in the glamour and excitement of Hollywood.

"A sun shower is probably nothing compared to what movie premiers, or whatever it was that man you dated took you to for entertainment." Lucas stood in the doorway, still brooding.

"It was all flash, no substance. Not like this, it wasn't real Lucas. This is real." She rose from where she was sitting and moved towards him, "You are real, I am real. The night you proposed, the night I came back to New York, you found a way to get through to me, if only for the briefest moment because you were right, you're the one I've always wanted, I don't need to be the wife of a Hollywood action star, not when I've always been everything to you, even though you probably don't see me that way now."

Lucas knew he was going to hate himself for this, "When he kissed you, was it even half as intense as when I kiss you?"

She shook her head, "No, and before you even have the thought cross your mind, he and I never went past kissing."

He breathed for what felt like the first time in ages, she was still all his as much as he was all hers. "That is very reassuring."

Riley watched as he sat down on the top step before sitting next to him. "I think I was trying to sabotage us, I have a history of doing that. Here we were about to make that move, the big move, and I found an escape."

"So you're telling me that you never loved Griff Ashton?" He tried teasing her, but it was still too painful for his heart.

"I cared for him, but not loved, you're the only man I have ever loved Lucas, and I hope to God you're the only man I ever love." She took his right hand, "This love I have for you is so intense sometimes it overwhelms me, and I fear that you'll realize I'm not good enough for you."

He closed her eyes, it killed him that after all this time she still got worried that the insecurity could still cling to her, "Riley, I proposed, if anything I thought I wasn't good enough for you. You've always been everything to me, you always will be. But he could give you a life I can't I'm a rancher and veterinarian student."

"Oh Lucas, you are a man who follows your dreams, who is honest to himself about who he is while everyone else is projecting the image of Mr. Perfect onto him." She played with the hem of her shit, "I guess I never felt like I was good enough to be Mrs. Perfect."

"That's why you fear you're not good enough for me?" He dropped her hand in his lap to lift her chin up so she looked at him, "Riley, you are the most amazing woman I have ever met. You are kind, giving you put so many people before yourself you don't always see it. People are going to think what they want to think, but they don't know us, they don't know you, they don't know me. What matters is that I love you."

She gave him a smile, "You still love me, you still want to spend your life with me?"

He realized she broke him, "Of course I do. I want us to go back to New York, I want us to get married, finish school, open our clinic, maybe raise some bunnies, have some kids."

"You're really think about us having kids?"

"Yeah I do." He looked into her eyes, hoping to God he was calming her fears. "I know, that you will be an amazing mother to any children we're blessed with."

Riley couldn't speak her heart was beating faster than she could remember it moving in years.

He brought her hand to his lips kissing her fingers one at a time. "I love you Riley, we'll have a family, however God intends for it to happen."

"Why are you so perfect?" She felt the burn of her tears in her eyes.

"I'm not perfect Riley I'm just in love with you." He was nervous, but he knew he had to ask her, if he didn't ask now he never would, "How did you break up with Griff?"

Riley pulled away, wiping the tears on her cheek, "Um, I was trying to convince myself that he was what I wanted, needed, but the more time I spent with him, the less magical it felt. Whatever I had felt, or at least thought I felt in Italy, I didn't feel it anymore. We'd gone to this Gala, and he said something about being seen, that the charity didn't matter, just as long as his picture ended up splashed across the internet the next day.

"And so we go back to his hotel, and I ask him about it, and he 'Riley Babe, it's the industry, it's all about being seen, creating an image, manipulating the public into believing I'm who they want me to be. The horny housewife in Minnesota is going to want me to be someone different than the sorority girl in Florida, or the single mom in Vegas.' I was disgusted, I saw him for who he really is.

"I realized what I already knew, I wasn't in love with him, I couldn't marry him, I didn't want to marry him. He has this idea of who Riley is one he's created and manipulated to sell to the public and the real Riley isn't that. So I slipped off that ring, and God Lucas it felt good to take it off. It felt as though it weighed five pounds" She looked back to him, afraid of how much this was hurting him, "I realized what I had been running from, why I was running from you. So I put the ring in his hand, looked at him and said, Griff, you're an Asshole. So take this ring, find a woman with a stronger hand to wear it who wants to manipulate the public and good luck. And I walked out, realizing I had finally done what I never should've had to do in the first place."

Lucas was silent trying to decide what he could say, should say, and wanted to say. "When did you realize that you still loved me?"

She twisted the promise ring around her finger, "I always knew I still loved you that was part of the whole sabotage thing. I don't know why I thought a Movie Star wouldn't want me to be someone else, to fabricate my existence. To slap on my best fake smile and pretend to be someone I'm not. That's who they are."

He caressed her face, "Riley, how many times have I told you that you're the most amazing woman in the world, one of the strongest? Why don't you see that what others say doesn't matter to me?"

"It matters to me Lucas." She rose walking out into the rain as it started to fall harder. "It kills me Lucas that people think I'm not good enough for you. That I'm some silly girl clinging to her high school sweetheart, keeping him from his true destiny."

He moved quickly pulling him into his arms, "Riley, baby, you are my destiny."

She cried into his chest, feeling the rain pouring down on them. "We had everything just so planned out, so set in stone for so long, I forgot how much you wanted us."

He smoothed her hair with his casted arm, "Sometimes I forget I need to reassure you. We'll have a family Riley, and our clinic, and this ranch, we have a future together. You and I are a team."

She looked up to him, the rain slowing down, "You keep referring to us as having a future together, as being a team, of our family, does this mean I haven't lost you?"

"Riley, you never lost me. I lost you." He smiled, "I've tried to be mad at you, to hate you I couldn't. I prayed you would come back to me, when Zay called and told me you demanded to know where I was, I knew you were coming back to me."

"You've been punishing me these last few days is that it?" She was trying not to smile.

"Maybe or maybe I needed to know you were really back, you were really mine again, fully. You really are right Riley, because once I kiss you again I never want to stop, and I don't want to go through this again."

"I'm yours Lucas, I'm always going to be yours, my heart was always yours and it always will be." She searched his face, needing confirmation that he believed her.

The rain picked up again just as he kissed her, holding her as close and tight as he could as it deepened. He could feel her tremble in his arms as he lifted her up, his arm under her knees the other behind her back as he carried her into the house.

"Lucas, put me down, you're still hurt."

"I'm fine Riley, my ribs are healed, the only thing in my way is the cast and that's not going to stop me from making love to you the rest of the afternoon, into the night and until morning." He kicked the door of his bedroom open before carrying her in and laying her on the bed.

She nervously sucked her lips in, "You're going to make love to me that long huh?"

He looked down at her, only now realizing she was soaked from the rain, "It's just the start Riley, we're not going to spend these long stretches of time apart anymore."

She nodded as she felt his fingers unbuttoning and zipping her jeans. Her hips rising as he pulled them down with her cotton panties.

"We'll go back to New York in a couple of days, we'll move into our apartment, which you are going to love." He planted kisses along her legs as he moved back up her body.

She watched him, nervous as he got closer to her waist, "Tell me about the apartment."

He smirked as his hands slid up her tank top, pulling it up until he reached her bra releasing the clasp as her body arched up as she removed the last of her clothing, leaving her naked. "It's got hardwood floors, a bay window in the master bedroom; it has a second bedroom that for now can be our office."

Her breath hitched as she watched him move away as he started to undress himself, pulling off his t-shirt, watching as he undid his jeans, pulling them away with his boxer briefs. Her heart sped up as he crawled onto the bed with her. "Where is this apartment of ours?"

Lucas smiled as he kissed her neck, "Not far from the bakery," he moved down her shoulder.

She gasped, "Lucas, what building?"

"It'll be an easy move for you." He moved back up her neck to her ear, "very easy."

She giggled just a little, "So like down the hall easy, or down a flight of stairs."

"Hall" he looked into her eyes for approval before kissing her again.