Ok, I have no idea what's going on with this site, but I can't get any of my documents to upload onto here. I'm sure some of you guys are having this problem too...The only reason I even have this one is because I try to have at least one chapter on the site and ready to be added to the story at all times so if I am running behind on a chapter, I will still have an update for you...unfortunately, this is the last one I have on here...so, until the site gets fixed, you'll have to wait. sorry!

P.S. I'll keep writing so I will have lots of new chapters for you guys when it gets fixed. ;-)

P.P.S. I forgot to thank you all for your lovely reviews! They are wonderful, keep it up!

Disclaimer: If I owned One Tree Hill, I would not be writing fanfics…

Summary: Nathan Scott is the most popular guy in school and Haley James is just an average girl who happens to be friends with Nathan's half-brother, Lucas. What happens when each of their groups of friends end up staying next door to each other all summer?

A Summer to Remember

Chapter 27

"I can't believe you are letting Nathan get away with ditching you this afternoon." Lucas grumbled as Haley scrambled for something to eat quickly for breakfast before heading downstairs for work. "Typical."

"Lucas," Haley said in a warning tone. "I already told you, he promised to let me take the afternoon off another day as payback. And I thought you said you were going to give him a chance?" She reached into the pantry and pulled out a granola bar.

"I did give him a chance, but he blew it by deciding to go off with Tim today and letting you do his dirty work." Lucas yawned now, suddenly becoming aware that it was 6:55 and he was awake. Why was he awake again? Oh yeah, I need to go to the bathroom.

Haley rolled her eyes good-naturedly as Lucas walked off towards the bathroom and she headed out the door. "Hey, what are you doing out here so early?" She questioned when she saw Nathan locking the door to his condo.

"I have to work." He shrugged as he gave her a grin.

"Work? When has that ever stopped you from sleeping in?" She laughed.

"Well, I figured I should be on time today since I'm cutting out early." He smiled as she walked over and kissed him softly on the lips.

"That's very sweet of you." She cooed. "But we're both going to be late unless we get moving."

They made their way down to Whitey's office and entered without a knock to see Whitey snoozing in his chair. Haley looked at Nathan as if to ask if they should wake him up. He responded by clearing his throat to announce their presence.

"No! I want the spotted horse!" Whitey yelled as he came back into consciousness. "Oh, it's you." He mumbled as he noticed Nathan and Haley standing by the doorway.

"A spotted horse?" Nathan questioned with a smirk.

"Nathan, don't you have better things to do than antagonize me?" Whitey's face was red. Nathan couldn't tell if it was from anger or embarrassment and he really didn't care, either one was fine.

"No."

"Well, I should have guessed that much. If you did, you wouldn't be stuck cleaning at 7:00 in the morning." Whitey grinned as he looked through the papers on his desk in search of the list of jobs that needed to be done that he had made yesterday. "Ok, here's the list of everything that needs to be done today." He said as he handed the list to Haley, he figured she would be more responsible with it.

"Whitey, there are like fifty things on here." Nathan complained as he took a look at the list over Haley's shoulder.

"No, there are only 12!" Whitey defended himself. "Now you two might want to get to work if you want to be finished by the time the sun sets." He grinned deviously as Nathan and Haley left the office in search for paint brushes.

"I can't believe Whitey is actually making up repaint this dumb sign." Haley complained. It really wasn't that bad of a job, applying a fresh coat of paint to the sign at the front entrance, she was just on a bad mood now because some of the cream colored paint had splattered all over her favorite t-shirt when she opened it.

"Tell me about it." Nathan smiled again when he looked at Haley who had cream colored spots all over the front of her light purple shirt, in her hair, and even a little still on her face. When this had first happened, he had almost fallen over laughing, but he couldn't deny the fact that it made her look cute as hell.

"I've got an idea." Haley said playfully as she picked up an unused paintbrush and dipped it into the can of red paint. Nathan watched her with an amused face as she made her way over to the sign that was already finished for the most part.

She bent down and painted something in the lower right-hand corner where it was unlikely to be seen because of the flowers that were planted there. When she was finished, she backed away so Nathan could see what she wrote. What he saw almost took his breath away.

There was a small heart with the initials NS and HJ inside of it. Sure, the heart was a little lopsided, but that didn't matter. "Now we'll have something to remember today by." She smiled as he grabbed her hand and pulled her close to him.

"I love it." He whispered in her ear before kissing it. Kiss by kiss, his lips made their way down to her mouth. She dropped the paintbrush onto the ground and stretched her arms out to go around his neck.

"Hey! Get back to work!" Whitey shouted from his window when he saw his 'employees' focusing more on each other than their work.

Haley started laughing as Nathan turned to wink at him. Whitey had made it obvious that he knew that they were together about a week ago when he blatantly told them that if they got 'sidetracked' while working, he would have no problem with assigning them separate sections of the condos to work in.

"We'll be done in a few minutes." Nathan yelled back as he pulled Haley in for another kiss. Her lips curved into a smile and so did his when they heard Whitey cursing and then slamming the window shut.

"What time do you have to meet Tim at the Marina?" Haley questioned as she vigorously pulled at some green weeds that were smothering the little purple flowers that she had planted weeks ago.

"Uh, in about an hour." He replied as he pulled the lawnmower out of the nearby shed. "I want to get this done before I have to go."

"Ok." Haley took the list out of chores for the day and was pleasantly surprised to see that the only one left was vacuuming. She hadn't realized that they had gotten to the end of the list already. Vacuuming had actually been number 4 on this list, but since it was a one person job, and one that she really didn't mind doing, they had decided to save it for her to do without him.

A little over an hour later, Haley had finished pulling the weeds and was sitting on a bench waiting for Nathan to finish. Once he had cut every last blade of grass, ok, not every one, he may have cut a few corners, he turned off the lawnmower and pushed it back into the shed.

"I'm sorry about leaving you." He said as he pulled her close and kissed her on the forehead. He felt really bad about running off and leaving her here to finish all the work.

"I know, you already apologized a few times." She smiled. She secretly loved the fact that he kept apologizing, it let her know that he cared about her having to do the rest of the work. "Now go on, you're already late." She leaned up and left a chaste kiss on his lips before ushering him off towards his car.

"Hey." Haley heard a voice behind her call out and turned around to see Peyton coming towards her.

"Oh, hey Peyton." Haley smiled. She hadn't seen Peyton since before her and Nathan went to Charlotte. Now that she thought about it, she really hadn't seen much of her at all for the past couple of weeks. "What's up?"

"Well, I was just coming down here to see if I can help out my best friend's girlfriend." Peyton replied playfully, hoping to instill a little guilt into Haley for not telling her about them sooner.

Haley just laughed at Peyton's fake hostility. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you." She smiled as she pulled her friend into a hug. "It feels like I haven't seen you in ages."

"Yeah, I know. Jake's actually working today, so, here I am."

"How's that going anyway? You and Jake?"

"Whoa! You forget to tell me that you are going out with my best friend and then you expect me to give you the details on my love life?" Peyton joked. "I don't know if I can trust you, for all I know, you're pregnant with his baby!"

"What?!" Haley laughed. "I am definitely not pregnant." She confirmed.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Nate said something awhile back about you wanting to save yourself for marriage or something." Peyton said simply. "I think that's really smart of you."

Haley smiled a little to herself. The only time she had ever mentioned to Nathan that she wanted to remain a virgin until her wedding night was a few weeks after they had started working together, when they weren't even going out yet. It made her feel good to know that he was listening, that he remembered, and that he respected her decision. No wonder he is always the first one to stop the make-out sessions…Haley thought, He is trying not to pressure me. Aw, he was just too perfect!

"Thanks." Haley replied. "Now, you and Jake."

"I knew that was coming!" Peyton laughed. "Things are good."

"Good?" Haley raised her eyebrows suggestively. If her absence the past couple of weeks was any indication, things with Jake were better than 'good'.

"Ok, um, things have been great." Peyton broke out into a smile. She was still getting used to smiling. Ever since her mom died, she had been semi-depressed and almost unable to have a good time. Now, she couldn't stop smiling, especially when she thought of Jake.

"Well, good. I'm happy for you. And so is Nathan." Haley added genuinely.

"That reminds me, the reason I came down here in the first place was to see if you needed any help." Peyton replied, changing the subject. "Nathan said that you were going to have to do the rest of the work by yourself today so I decided to give you a hand."

"How nice of you," Haley encouraged as she hooked her arm through Peyton's and led her to the closet on the inside of the building. "It's just too bad that you had no idea what you were getting yourself into when you offered."

"Oh boy, what do you mean?" Peyton grumbled.

"Well, all that's left is vacuuming and there is only one vacuum. Lucky for you though, Whitey mentioned something about wiping down the walls some time this week, so, I guess you should get yourself a rag." Haley grinned as Peyton groaned.

Nathan was about 5 minutes from the marina when his cell phone started vibrating in his pocket. He turned down the music that had previously been blaring and reached into his pocket to pull it out. "Hello?"

He had been half expecting to hear Haley's cheerful voice on the other end so he was unpleasantly surprised to hear Dan's.

"Hello son, how are you?" His father's unnaturally perky voice blared through the speaker.

"Fine." Nathan replied coolly. Why was Dan in such a good mood? And why the hell was Dan calling?

"That's great. I'm happy to hear that you are doing ok after having your summer ruined by the skank next door."

"Dad-"

"So, listen Nate, I'm actually coming down there tonight and I was hoping that we could grab a bite to eat." Dan said in his most innocent voice, which still sounded sinister.

"Uh, I don't think so." Nathan did not want to deal with Dan right now. In fact, he didn't feel like dealing with Dan ever.

"Come on Nathan, we haven't spent any quality time together all summer." Dan stated.

"I know…" Wasn't that kind-of the point?

"You know what? I want to spend some quality time with my son, is that too much to ask?" Dan said in an annoyed tone.

"Pretty much, yeah." Nathan pulled his car into the parking lot at the marina.

"Fine, well, I can't force you. But, oh, I forgot to tell you, you got a letter here from Duke."

Nathan rolled his eyes. Great, now Dan was going through his mail too?

"I'll be at Buffalo Wild Wings tonight at 6:00." Nathan could tell that Dan was smirking on the other line. "If you want your letter, I'll bring it with me."

Before Nathan had a chance to respond, Dan hung up. Damn it, Nathan thought. Another 'dinner' with Dan? Kill me now.