"I love you, Nathan," Peyton repeated as he pulled the car off onto the shoulder of the highway. Trucks sped past them, slightly rocking the silent vehicle. She held her breath as she waited for him to respond, to say anything. Nathan finally turned to her with a blank stare. "Nate…"

He interrupted her with a keep kiss, capturing her bottom lip with his in a mold move of passion. He cupped her beautiful face in his hands delicately and twisted one of those delicious blonde girls around his index finger. After a few moments, Nathan pulled away and rested his forehead against hers. She looked at him, her eyes wavering as she tried to look into both of his eyes at once. "I love you, too, Peyt," he retorted finally, intertwining her small hand in his. "This moment – it's everything that the last two years have been about. For all those days and weeks and months, it's all that I have ever wanted."

"Then why didn't you come for me?" she asked desperately. "Why didn't you answer the phone when I called."

"Because I was scared to hear that you were getting married to Lucas or how you had moved on or about the incredible life I was missing out on with you," he answered honestly. "I could never move on. I played ball and was a good father because those were the only things I could do to keep my mind off of you. And then, even that really became about you, about us. I wondered if you would be proud of me or how the picture would be different if you were in it. Everything that I wanted to happen between us…I could make up this story in my head and suddenly there you were. It's the only way I could fall asleep on all those restless nights without you in my arms."

"Oh, Nate," she murmured inaudible as she kissed him again. Her phone rang from her handbag again but she ignored it. She knew it was Lucas, but as always when she was with Nathan, it was easy to forget that there was anything else but this.

Nathan broke the kiss again and searched her green eyes for an answer. Given the chance, he was pretty sure he could find the meaning of life in those foggy olive orbs. "Well, where do we go from here?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "Where do we go?"

"I'd like to take you to my favorite place in the city," he told her as she laced her hand in his once again. His long fingers wrapped around hers as he pulled the car back onto the highway. They sat silently, comfortably together in the car as Nathan navigated her black convertible toward an annex road that eventually turned to dirt a couple miles off the main highway. They were heading down a long driveway with a canopy of trees overhead within a few minutes. As he pulled the car around the final turn, a sprawling beach house with a white picket fence unfolded in front of them.

Peyton turned to him with a dropped jaw. "It's amazing." She looked at the house. With a wrap-around porch and a small dock, it reminded her of his beach house back in Tree Hill. As soon as the car was in park, she was on her feet, sprinting toward the stone path. She stopped at the picket fence, running her hand across the smooth white finish of the gate. Peyton turned and looked back him over her shoulder. The sight reminded him of that photograph he had been carrying around with him for so long. "A white picket fence."

"I remember," he said with a bright smile. Peyton had once told him in great detail about her dream house. It had been a silly dream for a sixteen-year-old in love with someone like the boy Nathan had been junior year. However, in all those years that had passed, he had never forgotten that night in her room. As the rain pounded against the window pane, they had shared all their secrets and dreams and fears in the dark until there were none left to tell. Of all of them, this was the one that he had always carried with him. He had promised himself that night that if he ever got the money, he would find a way to make that dream come true. Even if they weren't together, he had vowed to give her that much. Considering the guy he'd been, he'd known even then the impact that night had on his life. "I remembered when we talked about our dreams all those years ago. This is the home I always imagined we would share."

Peyton grinned sappily at him before running the rest of the way up to the house. She paced the perimeter, inspecting everything with a huge grin on her beautiful face. Then, she saw it – the front door slightly ajar. Just like she'd always kept the front door unlocked for him when they were together, he had left this one open for her. Her hand rested on the chrome door knob as she laughed and shook her head.

"Go ahead," he prodded her as she pressed it open. He left his bag at the bottom of the front steps, making a mental note to come after it in awhile. Once inside the living room, she turned in a circle and took everything in. He silently grabbed her hand and pulled her upstairs. Her face lit up as soon as she saw the bedroom. It was beautiful, with plush white lines and a wrought-iron bed he'd known she would love. On the tall bureau stood only two photographs in matching elegant frames – a black and white photograph of them on the beach from junior year and another black and white snapshot of them lying in bed together from their night two years ago.

With tears in her eyes, she turned to him. "It's perfect, Nate." He quickly shortened the distance between them and embraced her briefly. He reached out and pulled open the top drawer of the dresser and looked into her eyes. "I've lost you more times than I would care to remember, but this feeling," he told her, taking her hand and pressing it over his pounding heart, "the love has never left us. You gave this back to me when you broke up with me but I never got rid of it. I kept it the pair of socks I wore the first time we slept together, tucked in the back of my dresser."

Peyton shook her head in disbelief as Nathan slipped the silver necklace around her neck. "How did you do all of this?"

"I got a pretty big signing bonus when I started with the Bobcats," he confessed. "Haley never really knew about it. I wanted to use this money for something that could be all mine…all ours. I bought this house last year and had it completely renovated. I never knew if you would come back to me, Peyt, but I sure hoped."

She leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed him before moving to nibble on his earlobe like she knew that he loved. "Nathan Scott, I can't believe you," she whispered, reveling in the sensual little shiver she elicited from his body. "I think I might love you."

"Hmm, I remember hearing that once, but I don't think there is really any uncertainty about it anymore, Babe," he teased as he slid his hands down to rest on her hips. "I know that we still have to talk about that day. We have to talk about Lucas and Haley. There is still a lot to this story left to be told."

Peyton nodded against his chest as she tucked her head under his chin and wrapped her arms around his strong torso. It suddenly felt safe to breathe again. "I know. I will tell you everything, Nate, as long as you promise not to let go."

Nathan lifted her chin with his index finger and gazed at her soulfully. "I'm not going anywhere, Peyton," he promised. "If you say that you will be my life, I will do my best to make certain that we never lose us again. Wherever I go, I won't go without you."