A/N: I am so glad you guys love this story…considering my other story "Goodbye love" was a complete failure and that made me sad and this one is a hit. So YAY!

It was the middle of the day, the sun beat down on a sandy beach. The beach was pretty much quiet except for the waves crashing down at the shore, the seagulls up above and a few families that occupied the beach. One family had two children who were playing in the ocean with their father watching from the shore line, while a couple teenagers played vollibal with a net they set up. Their mother was laying down under an umbrella, reading a book. The next family was having a little picnic on the beach, complete with picnic basket, blanket and sand in the potato salad. A little further away was a young couple. The girl had her hair tied back in a pony tail, had sunglasses and was sitting in between the legs of her boyfriend while he had his arms wrapped around her, his chin resting on her shoulder. They were sitting in silence, relaxing, while watching the waves crash onto the shore. Their family had come to the beach for their summer vacation, it was not often that they went but when they did, they enjoyed it. Especially this year.

"I could stay like this forever." She sighed, and turned her head to meet his gaze. "you know? Just sitting here in your arms, under the warm sun, but with the slight breeze, and just relaxing to the sounds of the beach."

"yea." He responded and turned his attention back to the waves, "it sure is peaceful."

She smiled slightly and rested her head against the side of his gently. She let out a breath and his arms tightened around her just a bit. He felt the warmth of the sun beat down against his face and arms as he sat with her silently. They were silent for a while just sitting in the sand. They didn't really have anything to say, they were both talkers normally but now they were silent listening to the sounds of the beach.

"I still can't believe our parents haven't figured it out yet." Her voice broke the silence.

"Figured out what?"

"About us. I mean, Ed, Lizzie and even Marti figured it out. We haven't been fighting; we use every excuse to be together around each other, we skipped out on doing something with the family to go hang out at the beach coincidentally, we go to the same beach, at the same time and don't even say anything about meeting someone there."

He smirked, "my dad just automatically thinks that beach equals girls for me."

"And my mom probably thinks I made a few friends at the beach but that's only one thing."

"Maybe they do know and they're just not confronting us about it. My dad always wants me to tell him what's going on, he doesn't want to pry."

She looked over at him, "maybe but my mom usually will confront me about things."

He shrugged and heard someone in the distance calling. At first he thought it was for one of the other families on the beach but when he made out the voice of an 8 year old screaming, "Smerek!" he knew it was for him. He turned and saw his little sister staring at the top of the hill that led to the beach. "Smerek!" She called again and he saw she was grinning. "Smerek!" He turned to Casey beside him and she placed her hands on his shoulders and then for some odd reason started shaking them. He looked at her like she was crazy and still heard his sister calling, "Smerek! Smerek! Smerek..

..Smerek!" Derek's eyes snapped open to see Marti sitting on his chest, her face only a few inches away from his.

"Smarti? What are you doing?" he asked, coming out of his sleepy stage.

"It's dinner time! Nora said I have to go and wake you up!" She admitted and started bouncing on him. He let out a groan and grabbed Marti by her sides gently and pulled her off of him onto the bed. She squealed, laughed and squirmed as Derek started tickling her. After a few minutes of this he stopped and sat up, while she looked up at him grinning.

"Why don't you go downstairs Smarti, I'll be down in a minute."

"ok." She shrugged and hopped off the bed and ran out of the room. He heard her run down the stairs and tell the family he would be down in a minute. He swung his legs off the side of the bed and ran his hand through his hair. 'Was I really asleep for that long?' He jumped off the bed and headed downstairs. When he reached the kitchen he saw that everyone was already seated. Casey looked at him and for a moment they shared a secret smile, but that disappeared as soon as it appeared. He took his seat across from her and saw Casey glancing at him from across from the table.

Casey looked over at him and wondered why he was in his room all day and why he slept. Although he is a teenager he never falls asleep during the day, he usually goes out with Sam to flirt with girls and boy stuff like that. Suddenly George voiced her thoughts,

"Derek are you alright? I mean there was that incident at breakfast and then you sleep until almost 6 o'clock."

Derek looked at his father, "Yea. Im alright, I was just listening to music and fell asleep." He looked at Casey briefly and then back at his father, "for some strange, phenomenal reason I found Casey's voice soothing."

Casey's cheeks turned slightly pink and she sunk down in her chair trying to hide a small smile that was forming on her lips. Edwin choked on his water briefly and when he was done with his little episode he looked at Derek. "whoa…Casey's voice you found soothing?"

"yea. Weird right?" Derek told his brother and out of the corner of his eye saw Casey straighten back up. He knew that she knew that he was only doing this for one reason; he didn't want the family to know about them just yet.

"Well thanks for the compliment Der," she came back trying to sound sarcastic. "I feel so honored knowing The Derek Venturi fell asleep to my soothing voice."

Derek smirked and half laughed, "Yea…don't mention it." His smirked faded and he looked at her darkly, "seriously, don't mention it."

She shrugged with a smirk on her face as she dug into her dinner. Their family was used to this by now, and just rolled their eyes and also started eating. All through dinner they glanced at each other and occasionally Casey started giggling when she saw the way he was looking at her. The family would look at her weird, considering no one was saying anything so what could possibly be funny? She would shrug and bite her lip while Derek stared at his food to stop himself from laughing. All this went unnoticed by everyone except the two schemers in the family. Edwin and Lizzie. Edwin's mind started up possible reasons why Derek would find Caseys' voice soothing and he gently kicked Lizzie's leg under the table. Lizzie glared up at him and he mouthed to her to watch them. Lizzie turned her attention to Derek and Casey and saw the occasional glances, and the raising eye-brows and winks from Derek and giggling from Casey. She turned to Edwin and she nodded, and he smirked. It was time for them to go spying again.

After dinner Derek and Casey disappeared upstairs, after about a half an hour, so it wouldn't look suspicious to George and Nora, they went upstairs to spy on them. They first met in the game closet. Edwin pulled the rope that turned on the light and looked at Lizzie across from him.

"ok. Here's the plan, you go check out Casey's room and see if she is doing anything in there and I'll check on Derek."

"And?"

"And then we'll meet back here and read off what we heard/saw."

"Gotcha."

They high-fived each other and saluted, Lizzie shut the light and they both headed towards their destination.

Lizzie snuck down the hall and sat right near Casey's door. She pressed her ear lightly against the door to see if she could hear anything. At first she heard nothing, then she heard Casey's laughter.

"No way!" Casey's voice rang out. Lizzie got her notebook ready to take notes on what she learned. "She didn't!"

Lizzie cocked her head, it sounded like Casey was talking to someone but she couldn't hear the other person who she assumed was Derek.

Casey laughed again, "Alright Em, I'll let you go. I hear your mom yelling in the background. So we're going to the mall tomorrow right?"

Lizzie sighed and dropped her pen and pad, Casey didn't say anything about Derek. She was talking to Emily, like she normally does everyday after dinner. This was going to be harder than she thought.

Edwin was careful to be quiet around his big brother's door. He would be in major trouble if Derek found him snooping around his room. Derek didn't mind him spying…if it was on Casey or their parents but him? Well that was another story. The door was open a crack and he saw Derek on his bed throwing a ball in the air and catching it while one of his favorite bands blasted from the stereo. Edwin heard Derek's voice quietly singing along with the music and the ball hitting the ceiling occasionally but there was no sign of Casey. He rested his back against the wall and looked down the hall to where Lizzie was in the same position. She turned her head and saw he was looking at her, she shrugged and shook her head and he banged his head gently on the wall behind him.

"Derek, Casey, Lizzie, Edwin, We're taking Marti out for ice-cream, you guys want to come?" George called up the stairs. "Nah" "no thank you." "No." "Nope."

"Alright, we'll back soon!" As soon as they heard the front door close, Lizzie and Edwin returned the game closet. They stared at each other trying to figure out what was going on between Derek and Casey during dinner, Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.

"Maybe they'll do something now, since George, my mom and Marti are out of the house." Lizzie suggested.

Edwin shrugged, "I don't know. I mean they know we're still in the house."

"Yes but they don't know where, they probably think we're downstairs doing something."

"True." Edwin nodded and smirked; "now I know why I keep you around."

Lizzie glared at him and crossed her arms, "thanks Ed."

The smirk remained on his lips, one similar that would be seen on Derek, and he placed a finger to his lips signaling her to be quiet so they can hear something. And they did.

After waiting about five minutes after George and Nora left, Derek walked towards Casey's room. He looked around for any signs of Edwin and Lizzie and smirked when he saw no trace; still unaware of that fact that there secret hiding place is the game closet. He knocked lightly on Casey's door and she quickly opened it. He leaned against the door frame while she smiled at him. "May we continue now?"

"Well Derek, after what you said at dinner I don't know about that." She asked obviously joking.

"Well Casey, I wouldn't have said that if you didn't make me absolutely crazy."

She furrowed her brow, "I make you crazy? How so?"

"Hmm, well every time I hear your voice I feel like my heart is going to burst and when you look at me like the way you are now, I just want to take you in my arms and kiss you senseless."

"So I am swarming your every thought."

"Sure, you can put it that way."

She smirked, "we can't make things too obvious Derek, Lizzie and Edwin are still in the house."

"They're probably doing something downstairs, Ed is probably working on some lame study he's doing."

Casey crossed her arms, "yes a study on us."

As if on cue a loud crashing noise came from inside the game closet, "ow! Edwin!" Lizzie's voice came from inside. "Way to go Liz, you just blew our cover." Edwin said harshly. Casey and Derek looked at each other, not really angry at their siblings but rather amused. Derek shook his head and pulled open the door to the game closet and Lizzie and Edwin along with several board games came crashing out. Derek crossed his arms, smirked and looked down at his little brother. Edwin smiled sheepishly when he saw Derek above him. "Uh hey Derek."

"Spying on us Ed?"

Edwin scrambled to his feet with Lizzie right behind him. Casey approached them and looked at her sister who looked at her feet. "Sorry Case." Lizzie apologized almost immediately.

"It's alright Liz." Casey went over and hugged Lizzie, she stole a glance over at Derek and he shrugged. "Well I guess you know now." Derek stated.

Edwin nodded, "yea…sorry about that Derek. It was just so weird at dinner and Christmas I didn't know what to think."

Derek rolled his eyes but ruffled Edwin's hair, which he immediately went to fix pushing away from Derek. "It's alright Ed, but I better not ever catch you spying on me or Casey again."

Edwin's jaw dropped, "I can't spy on Casey?! Who am I going to spy on, Marti?! All she does it play with her toys!"

Casey raised her eyebrows and Derek coughed and pointed over Ed's shoulder to where Casey was standing. Edwin turned around and realized that Casey was still standing there. "Oh…busted."

Casey nodded, standing behind Lizzie.

"So how long has this been going on?" Lizzie asked changing the subject back to Derek and Casey.

"You mean us?" Casey asked pointing between herself and Derek and Liz nodded.

"Well it started last night, but this morning we both seemed to forget what happened and then during breakfast it all came back and afterwards we confronted each other." Casey shrugged, "And then Derek slept all day so I didn't really spend much time with him."

Derek stuck out his tongue at her and she made a face back at him, to which they both smirked at afterwards.

"So what happened, you two just randomly told each other your feelings or what?" Ed asked, curious about the relationship between his Step sister and his brother.

"No, Derek got me a beautiful necklace that I saw in the mall." Casey smiled at Derek and he gave a half smile, embarrassed about being so sappy. Edwin looked at Derek, "So that necklace was for Casey?"

All three of them looked at Edwin, Casey and Lizzie like, 'Derek told you about the necklace?' and Derek like, 'how the hell do you know about the necklace?' Edwin covered his mouth instantly and his eyes widened. When he lowered his hands, "I mean uh…cool!"

Derek narrowed his eyes, "You were snooping around my room weren't you?"

Edwin was about to protest but he realized it was useless and he let out a sigh, "yea."

Derek's lip curled up and he growled, "Edwin, what did I tell you about sneaking around in my room!"

Edwin held his hands up and backed away from his older brother, "I'm sorry! You were just acting weird that day and you came back with a bag from a jewelry store and I was curious. So I went snooping."

Derek crossed his arms and his eye brow rose, staring heavily at his brother.

"Derek, Edwin was curious. It's human nature to be curious and then snoop around."

"Curiosity killed the cat." Derek repeated the famous saying still staring intently at Edwin who was smiling sheepishly.

"Derek," Casey said in a warning/pleading voice and he looked over to her for a moment, "come on."

Derek huphed, "fine. Edwin my room is off limits no matter what you see me come in with!" He shoved passed Edwin and over to Casey. Casey looked up and shook her head. "Don't you know Edwin Derek?" He shrugged, "yea…I just hate when people go in my room without permission." He replied, snaking an arm around her waist.

She smiled and nodded, understanding what he was getting at. She didn't like it when people entered her room without permission either, especially if it was Derek. But that was of course before 'they' happened.

"Now," he started wanting to change the subject. He looked over at Casey, with a smug look on his face. "Can we please continue what we started earlier this morning?" The tip of her tongue snaked out of her lips and she licked her bottom lip in thought, "well…since you're begging."

She turned her body around so she was pressed against him and she pressed her lips gently to his. He placed his other hand on her waist and returned the soft kiss.

"Ew!" Lizzie and Edwin cried out together, not really because they were step-siblings that were kissing, it was just the fact that they were kissing. Edwin took Lizzie's wrist and whizzed past the Casey and Derek and down the stairs. They both broke off laughing at the misfortune of their siblings. "Poor kids, still getting grossed out by kissing."

"Oh well, they're going to have to get used to it." Derek replied and dove in for more of Casey.

A/n: there is chapter two for you!!! I hope you enjoyed it reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it:D