Riley held her dad's hand as they drove to Pappy Joe's ranch as she watched him fidget in his seat. She would squeeze it from time to time giving him a reassuring smile. She knew he was nervous and honestly she was nervous herself for them to meet him.
She knew they would have Pappy Joe and Cletus there if things got awkward. They were family to the twins since they grew up around them and she was hoping they would take to her dad like they did with Lucas.
They pull up to the ranch and Riley smiles when she sees the twins dancing on the porch with Cletus. She wondered where Lucas was since he was with them that morning. She parks the car and looks at her dad who was looking at the twins smiling. "They'll love you daddy don't worry."
She gives his hand one last squeeze as she gets out the car. She smiles as Cletus points her way and the twins run towards her. "Mommy!" She laughs bending down as they hug her. "How was your day?"
They tell her about what they did with Lucas and teaching Cletus the dance Ava had taught them earlier that week. They stop when they see Cory come out the car and walk hesitantly towards them. "Mommy who's that?" Charlie whispers in her ear as Riley smiles taking their hands.
"Well let's go inside and I'll tell you everything." Charlie runs ahead but Riley sees Rosie tapping her nose and sees the smile on her dad's face. Rosie walks up to him offering him her hand as he takes it walking towards the house.
Riely smiled wiping the tears that had fallen looking up at the sky that was the same thing Elena did the day she met her. She goes inside and sees Rosie and Charlie sitting on either side of her dad looking at him.
She looks in the kitchen seeing Pappy Joe and Cletus giving her reassuring smiles and thumbs up as she makes her way into the living room. "So." Riley starts as she sits in front of them patting her legs. "Well you guys must be wondering who this is right?"
The twins look at her and start giggling confusing Riley and Cory. "Mommy we know who this is." Rosie tells her as she looks at Charlie. "You do?" They nod and she asked who he was. They throw their arms in the air and shout. "It's grandpa Cory!"
Riley and Cory both look at each other and then the twins. "How do you know he's grandpa?" Riley asked watching the tears pool in her dad's eyes. Rosie and Charlie both look at him placing a hand on either side of his face.
"He looks like uncle Auggie and you mommy." They say laughing together. Riley laughs as they tell her they also seen the picture in her room. Riley smiles and looks at her dad who was looking at both of the twins.
"Well introduce yourself." Riley laughs as they stand in front of Cory holding out their hands. "I'm Rosie and this is Charlie but you can call us whatever you want." Rosie tells him with a smile on her face. "Chief calls me Rosie posey and Charlie doc sometimes."
Cory looks at Riley who mouths Lucas was chief to which he smiles and nods. "Well nice to meet you two. You can call me Cory or whatever makes you feel comfortable okay?" They shake hands and Charlie whispers something to Rosie and they both giggle. "We'll call you gramps. Is that okay?"
Cory nods telling them they could call him whatever they wanted and he would have brought them something but he wasn't sure what to get them. The twins got excited and took his hand to show him everything they liked to do around the ranch.
Riley smiled taking a picture sending it to Auggie and her aunt and uncle. She knew Eric and Auggie would be okay with it but she still wasn't sure about Morgan. Until she got her text back with a whole bunch of crying emojis telling her she was happy he was making an effort.
"Well those two will be the death of me." Cory tells Riley as he slumps into a rocking chair. After introducing themselves the twins took him on a tour and showed him how they brush the horses and fed them too. They didn't want the the day to end so after convincing her dad to stay the night the twins were down for the count.
"Yeah they're something else." Riley tells him handing him a cup of tea. "I know biologically they aren't yours but I see you in them." Cory tells her making Riley smile as they rocked and stared up at the sky. "Thank you daddy."
"I'm surprised Lucas isn't here." He tells her sipping his tea she looks at him making him smile. "The twins talked a lot about him." Riley nodded already seeing the wheels turning in her dad's head. "Yeah usually he isn't around for the summer but he has been and the twins seem to enjoy hanging with him.
"What about you? Couldn't have been easy to see him again after all that time." He asked as she tapped her fingers against her cup. "At first it wasn't we sorta butted heads but now things are normal as I think they are going to be."
She hoped her dad understood what she was saying and didn't really want to talk about it anymore. She let out the breath she was holding when he didn't asks anymore questions and headed up to bed. She stayed out staring at the night sky when she sees Lucas truck pull up.
"Hey." Lucas tells her surprised and not at all to find her sitting on the porch staring at the stars. "Hi." Lucas smiled lightly not letting hearing the old familiar greeting deter from what he already had planned. He knew it didn't mean nothing to her and doubted she realized she said it.
"Your up pretty late everything okay with the twins?" He asked placing his bag down and sitting in the rocking chair next to her. "Yeah everything is wonderful." She smiled setting her cup down. "Oh my dad is staying the night."
Lucas looked at her with wide eyes he smiled happy to know after having spoke with him he was back in her life. "What about your mom she here too?" Lucas knew the moment he asked she wasn't from the look on her face. The shake of her head confirmed it. "I'm sorry. Got to be nice having your dad around though right?"
Riley smiled nodding her head it was nice to have her dad back. "Yeah it really is. Tomorrow we are suppose to have a family day but you're more than welcomed to come along. Saves my dad's ears from the twins."
Lucas looks at her confused and she laughs telling him Rosie and Charlie talked about him. "I would love too but I can't. Got a big work thing couple of surgeries." He looks at her getting up afraid he might blurt something out. "I should actually head to bed."
Riley smiles telling him she was going to stay up a little longer. He looks at her and heads up to his room. "So you ain't planning to tell her are ya?" He looks in his doorway seeing Pappy Joe standing in it. "Tell her what?" He asked knowing full well what he was talking about.
"You think leaving her a letter explaining things is going to what?" He asked sitting on Lucas bed stopping him from packing. "I don't expect anything Pappy I'm just doing what is right." Pappy Joe nods getting up patting his shoulder as he makes his way out his room.
"Oh can you give her this after she gets back from their family day?" He hands him a small envelope looking at it. "You don't plan to say goodbye to them?" Lucas smiles looking at the picture the twins drew for him to take with him. "I did. And before you say it telling Riley goodbye the way I am is best."
Pappy Joe nods his head tapping the envelope in his hand. "Well I hope your right. Be safe out there." Lucas nods giving him a hug and telling him he call when he made it there.
Riley yawned wiping her eyes as she made her way downstairs. She could hear the twins laughing and seen they were eating waffles with Cletus. She tells them good morning and looks around for her dad. Cletus tells her he was outside helping Pappy Joe with the horses.
She lightly laughs knowing she had to see that. She takes her coffee and sees them standing by the barn and looked like they were talking with each other. She headed back inside not wanting to interrupt.
"So I thought we spend the day with uncle Auggie and Eric and aunt Morgan and have a picnic." Riley tells the twins as she gets them cleaned up. "Is grandpa coming?" Charlie asked kicking his feet up while on the bed.
"Do you want him to come along?" Riley asked tickling them. "Yeah he's funny. He fell in the hay yesterday when beauty sneezed." The twins laugh and she shakes her head remembering seeing him dusting himself off.
She gets dressed gathering up food and coloring books she had for the twins saying bye to Pappy Joe and Cletus. "You know you two are more than welcomed to come along." Riley tells them as she watches her dad attempt to buck the twins in.
"You two are family after all." Pappy Joe chuckles as Cletus runs over to the car but comes back. "We love to sunstar but we got to fix the fence that someone broke yesterday." Cletus turns red making Riley laugh when he says the chickens spooked him making him run.
"Dad do you need help?" Riley asked walking towards him seeing him mutter under his breath trying to buckle Rosie in. "No I got.. shoot!" He shouts after snapping his finger in the buckle. Riley smiles moving him out the way and buckling it with ease.
"Well it's been a very long time since I've done something like that." He tells her as she tries not to laugh as they drive away. "Mommy can you put on our cd?" Charlie asked from the backseat. "Of course bear."
She pops in the cd Elena had made letting her voice fill the car watching as the twins sing along in the back. She sees her dad look at the radio and then at her and she hands him the case it came in.
He smiles when he sees it had a note that read for my hummingbird and babies sing slings. Because I know you will sing every song that comes on.
They arrive back at his hotel so he could change and meet up with Auggie and Ava. "Uncle Auggie!" The twins shout together when he pops up scaring Riley as she walks towards the hotel with her dad.
"I'm going to take a quick shower and then we can go." He tells her when they reach his door. They go inside and Riley looks around biting her lip pacing while her dad grabbed his clothes. "Dad why don't you stay with us the rest of the summer."
Cory looks at her with wide eyes and puts his clothes down. "Sweetheart I couldn't asks you to do that. I'm perfectly alright here at the hotel. I don't want to be a burden." Riley shakes her head standing in front of him.
"Dad you would never be a burden. Besides I talked with Pappy Joe and he was okay with it. Said it would be nice to have another adult to chat with." They both chuckle as Cory puts his hand on her shoulder.
"Okay. I'll check out today and pack my stuff up. But first shower. I still smell like hay." Riley laughs as he runs to the bathroom and she gathers up his clothes. She tells him she had his things and was going to put them in the car.
"Hey where's dad and why do you have his bags?" Auggie asked as Ava was playing simon says with the twins on the hood of the car. "Shower. And he's going to stay with us at the ranch." Auggie looks at her and they go sit on the hood of the car.
"You sure this is a good idea?" He asked looking back at the twins and Ava. "Yes I do. And besides the twins love him apparently when he falls down they can't get enough of it. And don't worry about me little brother. I finally got a handle on this thing called life."
He chuckles when she snaps her fingers nodding her head. "Your my sister I'm allowed to worry no matter how handled you have your life." He tells her snapping his fingers with her. She nudges him and then pulls him into a hug.
Riley felt like her cheeks were going to fall off her face from all the laughing and smiling she had done today. Family day was a completely success in her book with the exception of having to hose off the twins when her uncle Eric decided to start a food fight that got them banned the rest of the day from the park.
It would have been longer if Eric didn't use his governor status to appeal to the park rangers. They had got home in the late evening with her and her dad carrying the twins inside since they were out from the day and the ride home.
"I'm headed up too sweetheart goodnight." Cory tells her hugging her as he yawns. Riley bids him goodnight and heads to her car realizing she forgot her phone. She walks back towards the house when she sees Pappy Joe on the porch.
"Long day sunstar?" He asked sitting down. "Yeah but it was memorable." She stares at the stars about to head inside when he stops her handing her the envelope. She looks at it and he tells her read it before heading inside.
She looks at his disappearing figure and then the envelope opening it with directions. She found it odd but followed where she was suppose to go. She pulled up to the house she remembered Lucas dad use to joke and say it would be hers.
She looks around the outside not wanting to admit that if she pictured her dream home this was it. She steps on the front porch getting ready to knock when she remembers the paper said to just walk in.
She looked around and smiles walking through the house it really was her dream house. She makes her way into the kitchen and sees a note with her name on it. She picks it up noticing Lucas handwriting.
Decided to make this a two part ending. There will still be an epilogue.