Chapter 21
Sitting at the little table on the wharf near the river court was becoming a bit of a ritual for Haley. A lot of the days since returning to Tree Hill she would come and just sit there watching the river for hours. That's exactly what she was doing now, seeing as it was the long weekend and she had today off from work. The aura of this place, just hidden by some trees from the court where she had spent most of her childhood, was so peaceful.
The sound of footsteps leapt to her ears from the river court just behind the small patch of trees, the rubbery bounce of a basketball followed. The boys from the Ravens were often playing while she sat here. They reminded her so much of her and her group of friends at their age. The boys playing on the court while the girls sat on the bleachers cheering for their other half or chatting to the other girls. But this weekend all the basketballers and cheerleaders that she knew of were away at the tournament weekend.
Peering through a gap in the glade of trees she was surprised to see her own daughter bouncing the ball against the hard court, completely oblivious Haley was sitting just a few meters away. Haley noticed that while Ollie was a little short to have mastered her father's jumpshot, she had definitely inherited Lucas' freethrow. The ball swept through the net as she scored another basket. As the ball hit the ground it rebounded away toward the river. Ollie sprinted after it, not wanting to lose her ball to the flowing current. Getting to it just in time she scooped it up, the wharf falling directly in her eye line as she did so. When she saw Haley sitting there she got a quizzical look on her face but decided not to question her about it. Instead she called out to Haley, "Wanna play?"
The question sort of shocked Haley, she had been expecting Ollie to accuse her of being a stalker or something. "Umm Ok, I'm not very good though," she said leaving her seat and going over to Ollie, willing to spend any sort of time with her daughter even if it was something she was absolutely horrible at.
Grinning, Ollie tossed her the ball which she fumbled slightly as she caught it. Unsure of what exactly to do with the ball next she glanced sidelong at Ollie who was looking up at the net obviously expecting Haley to take a shot.
Very awkwardly, Haley threw it upward toward the net. Surprisingly it actually whooshed right off the backboard and through the net. Haley's eyes filled with disbelief and she laughed gaping slightly, completely shocked she had landed it. She heard Ollie laugh as well, probably at her complete lack of throwing style and the stunned expression on her face. The sound of her daughter laughing with her was complete music to her ears.
Retrieving the ball she passed it to Ollie who caught it still grinning, "I thought you said you were bad?" Ollie asked.
Raising her eyebrows Haley chuckled, "Oh I am bad. When I was your age they were failing me in PE because I couldn't land a single basket."
"What?" Ollie exclaimed laughing.
"Yup they wouldn't let me finish that year until I sunk a basket."
"Did you? Sink one I mean."
"Yeah, I was tutoring a boy who knew a little about basketball. He helped me master the granny style shot." She told Ollie, smiling at the memory.
Ollie chuckled, but the story seemed somewhat familiar, as if she had heard it before. Delving into her head, she suddenly remembered the story her dad had told her about becoming a coach and the first time he had ever taught someone basketball. His story had been very similar to her one. Deciding to ask, she questioned, "Was dad the one that taught you?"
Seeing that a smile still played on Ollie's lips despite the fact that they were talking about Nathan, Haley nodded.
"Yeah he taught me too." Ollie said as she shot the ball sending it perfectly through the net, not once touching the backboard.
The two of them continued to shoot around, laughing and actually properly getting on for the first time. Ollie was trying to teach Haley how to freethrow better when out of the corner of her eye she noticed her dad leaning against his car out on the road, watching them grimly. She tossed the ball to Haley and told her, "I'll be back in a sec." Then ran over to Nathan.
"Hey dad," she hugged him. Back at home she had left him a note to let him know where she would be considering he had been on his way back from Herons Beach when she had left. From the way he was dressed in sweats and a t-shirt, it looked like he had been planning to join her for some basketball. But now, it was pretty obvious that joining her was no longer the plan.
"Hi Ollie," he returned her hug. "What's going on?" he asked frowning in Haley's direction, who was standing back on the court fiddling with the ball.
"Nothing, we're just playing."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked her softly. "Considering everything that she's done".
"Dad, she really isn't that bad. You should let her explain, or just come play for a while." Ollie tried to convince.
He shook his head, "Just leave it Ollie. Come on, I'll give you a ride home."
Not really seeing anything else she could do, she nodded and went back over to the court.
"Sorry but I have to go." Ollie told Haley who handed her the ball with a slightly sad but understanding smile.
"Maybe we can, you know if you want, hang out some time, if it's Ok with Nathan." Haley asked quickly as Ollie turned to leave.
Surprising her a little, Ollie smiled genuinely and nodded before waving and heading into the car where Nathan was waiting, curiously watching the exchange between his wife and daughter, not sure if it was a good or bad thing.
As the car pulled away, Ollie could see from glancing in the rear view mirror that Haley had returned to her spot on the wharf, she could also see her dad's eyes in the mirror watching Haley too.
"How was Herons?" she asked lowering her eyes from the mirror.
He grinned at her, choosing to forget about Haley. "Pretty good. The team came second over all. We lost to Raleigh in the finals. How about your weekend? Did you have fun with Brooke?"
"Yeah," she nodded being vague about what she had done during the weekend, "We went shopping."
"Oh shopping with Brooke. That must have been fun." He said sarcastically knowing how fanatical Brooke got when it came to shopping.
"Yeah, she did shop for quite a while," Ollie agreed still leaving out that while Brooke had been in the shops, she had been with Haley.
Nathan chuckled keeping his eyes on the driving as he turned into their driveway.
Once stopped, the two headed inside to find Ephraim standing in the foyer surrounded by suitcases.
"Hey Ephraim." She said curiously glancing at the suitcases, knowing he hadn't taken anything that big to New York with him. "How was New York?"
"It was Ok. Chase spent most of it freaking out though."
"Why? What happened?" Nathan asked hoping it was nothing too bad.
"There's some new massive fashion label that's massive competition and mom and Chases companies sales are down by like 20 or something" Ephraim shrugged, like most people his age not really wanting to delve to deep into the business world.
"Right, so then what's with all the suitcases?"
"Moms decided her and Chase need to go back to New York and she needs to design a whole new set of winter clothes to beat the new label." He told them just as Brooke herself came hurrying into the foyer frantically counting luggage out loud on her fingers.
"Hey, good you two are back. Can you help me get these into the car Nate?" she passed him two suitcases, speaking a mile a minute and he grunted under the weight before taking them out to his car and putting them into the trunk, as well as the other ones that the three inside brought out.
Everyone loaded into the car to take her to the airport. None of them wanted her or Chase to leave, Ephraim liked having his parents home in Tree Hill, Nathan liked the support and friendship and Ollie always missed not having her godmother, because with Brooke she had always been able to talk about everything. Even Brooke herself didn't really want to leave, just like her son; home, and nearly everyone important to her was in Tree Hill, but, her job was in New York so she didn't have much of a choice about leaving. Over the phone, while her company had seemed to be managing fine, from what Chase had told her, it really wasn't doing so well without them.
The four in the car eventually found a park in the busy lot, in fact Brooke had been incredibly lucky to get a ticket at such short notice due to the many New York vacationers in North Carolina heading home after the long weekend. Inside the airport was fairly busy too but after 20 minutes of waiting in line, Brooke was checked in and the announcement of boarding in half an hour and to report to the waiting room as soon as possible was called over the loud speaker.
"Well I guess I better go."Brooke told them sadly, hearing the announcement.
None of them really liking to say goodbye, it was Ollie who wrapped her arms around Brooke in a farewell hug first. "Thanks for everything Brooke. I'm gonna miss you." Ollie told her.
Brooke smiled as the girl pulled away, "I'll miss you too buddy."
Next Nathan hugged her, also thanking her for coming and helping them. Just before the embrace ended, she whispered in his ear, "Be happy Nate."
He nodded slightly, looking serious as he stepped back.
Turning to Ephraim, Brooke teared up a little and pulled him to her like she had when he was a kid and was going to stay at a friend's for the night. "I love you sweetie."
"Love you too mom" he smiled reassuringly at her, knowing she struggled with saying goodbye.
"We're going to come back and visit as soon as we can." she told him and he nodded.
They all said goodbye one more time, and then reluctantly Brooke stepped onto the escalator. She wiped away her tears and waved down to them until they had completely dissapeared from her sight.