A/N - I like this one. The next chapter is almost entirely BL, so get ready.

The book tour takes him cross-country. It's a world-wind experience and he loves a lot of it. It's surreal to hear people tell him that they loved his book. He gets emails and letters telling him how much his readers could relate to him and his friends as they faced their final years as kids. He would have been satisfied to meet one person who was deeply affected by his writing, but he met them by the thousands. Surprisingly, it was a humbling experience.

They decide to start in New York and go west, and then back to the southeast, sort of like in a circle. Their last stop would be Tree Hill, which is exactly where Lucas wanted to end up. Their next to last stop is in Savannah. On this day, after hours of signing books and taking pictures, he spots someone he hasn't seen in a long time.

Jake Jagelski looks both different and the same. He has lost weight since high school, packing on more lean muscle. He's got the same old haircut, though it is slightly shorter than he used to keep it. He looks noticeably older, like the twenty-one year old that he is. But that is where the changes stop. He's got the same kindness in his eyes, the same good-natured look he's always worn. He walks up to Lucas holding a copy of Ravens.

"You were incredibly generous with my character." Jake says, looking like he is seconds away from laughing. Lucas stands up and walks around the table to give his old friend a hug.

"I wrote 'em as I saw 'em, man." He says. He takes Jake's book and signs it.

To one of the greatest people I've ever known with the best jump shot I've ever seen. Say hey to Jenny for me.

Jake laughs as he reads what Lucas has written in the inside cover of his book. He shakes his head, tapping his index finger lightly against the binding of the book. They make small talk for a few minutes before Lucas' curiosity gets the better of him.

"What'd you think of the book, in all honesty?" He asks Jake. The bookstore has cleared out, it is almost closing time. Only a few people browsing the shelves and Lucas' PR team remain. Jake takes a minute before he answers, flipping through some pages casually. A nervous anticipation builds inside Lucas as he waits wordlessly.

"You've got a way with words Luke, I'll give you that. I noticed that you dedicated the book to the team." Jake grins as he looks at the dedication page. Then he glances back up at Lucas. "I think you should have dedicated it to Brooke though. It is a book about her after all."

Lucas' brow furrows in confusion. "It's about all of us. It's about me and all the growing up I did—"

"It's about Brooke, man." Jake says shaking his head. He laughs softly, flipping through more pages. "Look, I know it's all about growing up. I know it's about how it feels when adulthood is breathing down your neck. I know it's about the team and about family. But this book, Luke, this book is a love letter to Brooke."

Lucas doesn't know what to say so he sits down instead. He picks up a copy of the book from the unsigned stack next to him. He doesn't open it; it looks like a whole new book to him.

"Resilience made her special. Compassion made her endearing. Bravery made her admirable. She was fiercely independent, Brooke Davis. Bold, and beautiful, and brave. Brooke Davis is going to change the world some day and she doesn't even know it. She was heartbreaking in every possible way. To be with her was a gift and to be without her was always a punishment. For a long time, Brooke made everything rosy and sweet and exciting. For a long time, I was in love with her in ways only teenagers can be in love, brazenly and unabashedly and most of all honestly. But I have never deserved her." Jake stops reading out loud and closes the book.

Lucas raises an eyebrow. "I wrote things like that about everyone." It is a weak defense, maybe even a laughable one.

"No, you wrote great things about everyone, but nothing like this. Every line that isn't about someone else in your life is about Brooke. Remember this," Jake flips quite a few pages ahead and begins to read, "The last half of my senior year is spent mostly with Peyton, Nathan, and Haley, and the beginnings of this book. There is a missing presence that we are all aware of, but no one says anything about it. She lingers everywhere, whether we see it with our eyes or not. Her perfume seems to always permeate my sheets even though my mom has washed them weekly since the last time she's slept in my bed. Her doodles are all over the front cover of Haley's notebook. Her name is scrawled on the inside of Nathan's locker, where she'd put it after she'd pranked him one April Fool's. He says he's been meaning to paint over it but I know he won't. Peyton wears her loss in her posture and in her eyes. It feels like an understatement to say there is a hole in my heart where she used to be. It's not a hole, it's a cavern."

"Yes, I remember." Lucas says quietly, leaning forward against his knees.

"Does your girlfriend know?" Jake asks, his eyes darting over to look at Lindsay briefly. She is at the other end of the room, on her phone.

Lucas shakes his head.

Jake manages a sad smile. "I doubt that she can't tell. Anyone who reads this is going to know."

Lucas is quiet for several more moments. He takes the book out of Jake's hands and writes something else under his signature, then hands the book back to Jake who looks bewildered once he reads it.

"Is this your number?" He asks him.

"No, it's Peyton's. Give her a call sometime."


"Anyone who reads this is going to know."

Jake's words haunt him on the train ride to Tree Hill. He mulls them over again and again as Lindsay snores lightly, asleep on his shoulder. Anyone who reads this is going to know. He's had several conversations with Brooke since the publication of his book. Anyone who reads this is going to know. She'd finished his book in a week and they talked about it at length once she'd finished it. Anyone who reads this is going to know. She'd said that his writing was beautiful and that she was flattered to be thought of so highly. But she'd never let on that she thought anything more of it. But this book, Luke, this book is a love letter to Brooke. He knows it is. He'd written a book about his most important experiences in high school, he's not surprised that his love for her made its way into his book. This book is a love letter to Brooke. It would not have been honest if hadn't.

The welcome home party that Nathan and Haley throw for him at their house is filled with more love and laughter than he's experienced during all of his years in New York. He feels lighter than he has in a long time. He finds himself alone on the back porch when Haley steps up beside him.

"Lindsay is very impressive." She says with a knowing smile. "Just the type of girl I'd always pictured you with."

Lucas smiles, slinging an arm around his best friend's shoulders. "I feel a 'but' coming on." He says, sighing.

Haley shakes her head. "No, not really." She pauses briefly, and then laughs. "I read your book and had to remind myself that you wrote it senior year while you were still in love with Brooke."

"Ah, there it is."

"No, Lucas, listen. Lindsay is not Brooke. But that is okay." Says Haley, giving him a small smile.

Lindsay is most definitely not Brooke. She is chaste and brash and too smart for her own good. But she lacks everything that makes Brooke who she is. There is no charm, no sexy double meanings when Lindsay talks. There is no sparkle. There are no pretty white sundresses or long walks in the summer heat. There is no scorching electricity, no scrunching of her cute little nose or raspy, quiet laugh. Lindsay's laugh is loud. Maybe that's why he likes her so much. Maybe he likes that she is not Brooke.

Lucas lets his arm drop off of Haley's shoulders and fall back down to his side. His shoulders sink and he slumps forward against the railing of the back porch. He doesn't say anything and Haley does not push him to. She waits quietly and patiently for several minutes before he can finally muster up the words he's trying to say.

"The book was dedicated to Brooke. Everyone on the publishing team made me change it." He says.

He tells Haley about all the arguments with Lindsay, arguments they'd had even before they'd started dating. He'd tell her that he'd only started writing the book to mend his broken heart over Brooke so it only felt right to dedicate it to her, that it was nothing else. Lindsay would just get frustrated and remind him that the publishers thought it would dictate to clearly which girl he'd loved more in high school, that it would turn readers who might prefer him with Peyton off before they even read the book. He'd mumble that he didn't really care but she'd never hear that part. Eventually he gave up and dedicated the book to the team.

"At the bottom of the website for Clothes Over Bros it says 'thank you' in little letters. I asked her about it and she told me it was her way of making sure she was always giving thanks to the reason behind Clothes Over Bros." She says turning around to lean lightly against the railing.

He's not exactly sure how he feels about this new piece of information. He decides to file it away and puzzle over it later. He tells Haley about his run-in with Jake. Once he is finished talking she sighs heavily, shaking her head.

"Yeah, it's about Brooke. But it's also about a lot of other people. You wrote really honest things, and you wrote some really wonderful things. It's an ode to family and love and friendship. Brooke just happened to be all three of those things for you." She purses her lips, studying him for a moment. "She's here, you know. In the living room. She got here a few minutes after you came out here and I told her I'd go get you."

He doesn't stop to hear if Haley has anything else to say. He practically runs through the backdoor back inside. He quickly skirts past all his old friends to get to the living room. He stops when he sees her talking to Lindsay. Brooke is talking animatedly with lots of hand gestures and lots of laughing. Lindsay looks absolutely enamored. He walks up to the two of them slowly. Brooke's eyes widen slightly, it sounds almost as if her laugh has caught in her throat. She grins dimple to dimple at the sight of him. She flings her arms around him, pulling him in close. He throws caution to the wind as he buries his face in her soft, vanilla-scented hair. She feels as if she is radiating warmth.

She pulls away, still grinning. "I just had the pleasure of meeting Lindsay. You sure know how to pick 'em. She's even prettier than you said on the phone." She winks at Lindsay who smiles and blushes. "I'd say we should catch up Luke, but you don't spare any details on the phone, so I'm going to go mingle." Brooke says before darting off.

"I didn't know you two talk on the phone daily." Lindsay says curtly once Brooke is out of earshot. Only then does Lucas realize that he'd turned away from Lindsay to watch Brooke walk away. He turns again so that he's facing Lindsay now.

"Linds, we're old friends—" He starts to explain but Lindsay holds up one hand shaking her head.

"It's okay, I'm not mad." She holds his gaze, trying to read something in his eyes. After a few seconds she says, "She is something else. She's different than the girl in the book, but sort of the same." When she stops to smile at him there are tears welling up in her eyes, dangerously close to spilling over. "I wondered when I first read the early chapters in your book about Peyton if she was the girl I'd have to worry about. When I got to the end I wasn't so sure anymore. But I'm sure now."

"It's not Peyton—"

"It's Brooke." Lindsay cuts in, nodding her head. "It's always going to be Brooke, isn't it?"

They both look at Brooke, who is now talking to Skills and Nathan across the room. She is laughing again, her quiet raspy laugh that was charming and dangerous and absolutely infectious.

"Go. Go. It's okay. Go."

He sees her in her cheerleading uniform, the one he'd liked just maybe a little too much. She's pushing him in Peyton's direction, giving him permission to move on. He sees her retreating back as she left the gym that night, slipping out silently without anyone's notice. He remembers the way her shoulders slumped, the exhaustion in her eyes; the disappointment that being in love didn't matter as much when other things were involved.

He turns back to Lindsay and nods his head yes.