Disclaimer: One Tree Hill and its characters belong to Mark Schwahn, The CW, etc. I'm simply whoring them for my own amusement.
Spoilers/Warnings: I'm screwing with pretty much everything in the OTH verse. For now if you've seen S1, you're golden.
Summary: AU. A one night stand blossoms into much more than Lucas and Peyton originally bargained for.
A/N: The support of this fic has been phenomenal. I tried to answer a lot of questions that were posed from the last chapter but I didn't get to everyone. So here's some things that I needed to expound upon: Lily is fifteen. Yes, Lucas/Haley had a thing. Nathan/Haley were not married. How Dan/Karen came to be married will be explained in a chapter or two. All that said, enjoy!
—
05. Guilt Is a Useless Emotion
Haley stood on the porch of Lucas's beach house, staring at the door as she replayed the message in her head that she'd received from him a few days ago: "Haley, I'm coming home. There's something I need to tell you. In person." She couldn't begin to imagine what it was about, other than what she'd spent the last few months contemplating.
Since the night they'd spent together, she'd thought of little else aside from a misguided desire to establish a romantic relationship with Lucas. They'd talked about it once, albeit not very seriously. But that was before. Before she knew what it was like to be in his arms, to feel safe, to feel cherished. Why couldn't Lucas be the Scott brother that she was in love with? He was honest, hardworking, successful. He wasn't horrible to look at and had the kisses they'd shared hadn't been terrible. He just wasn't Nathan.
She let herself into the house with the key that Lucas had made her a few years ago. "Lucas?" she called out, setting her purse and keys down on the table by the door. She noted the disarray—the clothes strewn about, the papers and CDs littering the coffee table in the living room. It wasn't like to Lucas to be so unkempt.
The back door flew open, startling her. She let out a small yelp, expecting to see Lucas. Instead, Haley found herself face-to-face with her label head, Peyton, which didn't make any sense at all.
"Haley!" she gasped. "What are you doing here? Did Gigi send you? Is there a problem?"
Ignoring Peyton for a second, Haley tried to think of a reasonable reason as to why Peyton was in Lucas's house. She glanced around, noting the furniture that she'd helped Lucas select, the stupid marlin that still hung on the wall that he and Dan had killed one summer. Okay, so the house was still Luke's. Still, what the hell was going on?
"I'm totally confused," she mused aloud.
"About what?" Peyton inquired.
"What you're doing here."
"I'm taking a vacation. I thought Gigi told you." Peyton pulled a face as she crossed the kitchen to the refrigerator. "Usually she's on top of her game."
Haley watched Peyton pull a yogurt out of the refrigerator. Since when did Lucas buy yogurt, she wondered. "I haven't spoken to Gigi, Peyton. I guess I'm just not making myself clear," Haley said, realizing that she wouldn't get answers until she got to the point. "How are you here here? In this house."
Peyton looked at her, surprised. For a moment she didn't understand, then she came to the realization that if Haley wasn't there to see her, she could only be there to see Lucas. "You know Lucas," she declared quite apathetically.
"All his life."
"Funny how he never mentioned—" Peyton stopped, recognition hitting her like a heat wave in the middle of July. "Oh, god. You're that Haley!"
"And you're the something," Haley murmured. The message from Lucas wasn't to tell her anything that concerned her personally, but instead to inform her that he was in love. Okay, maybe she was jumping the gun. Maybe Luke's feelings for Peyton weren't that evolved. But for him to bring Peyton to Tree Hill, it was obvious that she was special to him. It honestly made her hate Peyton a little, though she was happy for Lucas.
Peyton wasn't sure she heard Haley right. "I'm sorry?"
Haley waved it off. How had she gotten it all turned around in her head? Lucas didn't think of her that way. He never had, never would. It wasn't like she was in love with him. No, that little luxury was given to his ass of a brother. But that still didn't explain how he'd come to know Peyton.
"So… you and Luke, huh?"
"He didn't tell you?"
Haley shook her head. "We haven't spoken much. He was overseas for a while. Did you—did you know about that?" She didn't know how serious Lucas and Peyton were or how long ago they'd begun seeing one another. For all she knew they could've been dating before the night she and Lucas caught up in L.A., their phone conversations were so swift and succinct.
"I was with him for a few days," Peyton told Haley, suddenly uncomfortable. Haley wasn't putting out friendly girl friend vibes. If anything, Haley was being a tad obtrusive and acting… jealous.
Lucas hadn't said much about Haley, other than mentioning her in passing about her being his best friend. He didn't expound on their relationship, if they'd ever shared anything more than that. It was becoming increasingly evident that if nothing had happened with Lucas and Haley, that Haley wouldn't mind if something did—and that put Peyton on her guard.
During her relationship with Jake, she'd had to put up with countless groupies and later his baby mama—the last thing she needed or wanted in her current relationship with Lucas was love unrequited with his best friend.
So much for an complication-free relationship.
—As Lucas took the steps up the beach house doors, tired from a long day at the dealership, all he longed for was a hot shower and cold sheets. However, when he opened the door, the stereo blaring Pat Benetar, his hopes for a quiet evening dwindled. He yelled at Peyton, but that was useless over the loud music.
He'd replayed his conversation with Nathan over and over as he'd drove home. He didn't want to contemplate what his brother had planned; he just knew that he wasn't going to lose Peyton. Not for Nathan and definitely not for an error in judgment. He didn't want to think about that tonight, so he pushed Nathan out of his head and decided to concentrate on Peyton. He hadn't seen or talked to her since he'd left that morning, and he'd missed her.
When he entered the kitchen, he found Peyton cooking, mumbling to herself, waving a wooden spoon to emphasize the point she was aiming to make. Lucas noted that she was wearing the same clothes he'd left her in that morning and amusement flared within him.
Though, she'd come with him from L.A. with a fully stocked wardrobe and three suitcases, she had spent the majority of her time since they'd arrived in Tree Hill wearing his clothes. Not that he was complaining. In fact, he liked when she wore his clothes. Today's wardrobe consisted of a pair of boxers (rolled up four times) and his threadbare Tree Hill High T-shirt. She pulled off disheveled remarkably. She'd pulled her hair back into one of those messy buns that the girls liked to sport now and several wisps were hanging about her face adding to her tousled appearance.
Propping his arm against the wall, he stood watching her, enamored. He couldn't grasp what she was saying because she was speaking so softly. When she turned around and saw him, she screeched and the spoon flew out of her hand. "You scared me!" she yelled at him, then began searching around for the spoon's landing spot. "Make noise or something when you come in," she fussed, scooping up the utensil from the floor.
"I'm sorry," Lucas apologized, feeling like his mother was reprimanding him. The room was silent, aside from the hiss from the pot on the stovetop. Choosing to ignore her palpable mood, he shifted his attention to the array of pots and pans strewn about. "What smells so damn good?"
"Chicken Fettuccine." Peyton pointed to a covered bowl behind them. "That's salad and I have breadsticks, too."
His stomach growled in response. He'd had a Twix and a Dr. Pepper for lunch—he was starving. "Is this something I can expect every night?"
"Well, not every night. I'm not here to serve you, after all."
"Hmm. But I thought you were." Lucas caught her before she could turn away from him, spinning her around and backing her against the refrigerator. Before he could swoop down and steal a kiss, however, she pushed him away and said, "We have to talk."
"Well, aren't those are words every man loves to hear," he drawled sarcastically, in raptures at the prospect of their chat.
She threw him a sardonic look. "Don't be sarcastic."
"Okay. You wanna tell me what bug crawled up your ass?" Lucas half-expected her to chuck the spoon she was holding at his head. To his amazement, she remained calm and even set it down (obviously to avoid the temptation to do just that).
"I met Haley today," Peyton divulged, watching Lucas for his reaction. She had spent the afternoon practicing on how she was going to tell him, what she was going to say. She had already planned to cook for him before Haley's impromptu visit and she wasn't going to starve herself because her boyfriend wasn't forthcoming about all the skeletons in his closet.
Lucas stared at her, dumbfound. Peyton couldn't have surprised him more if she'd said she'd met Nathan. He felt his heart gain momentum in his chest, his breath become shallower. "You saw Haley," he repeated dumbly. "Where?" Not that it mattered much. Peyton had met Haley therefore, his house of cards would come tumbling down soon—very soon.
"Here. Evidently she was hoping to find you—"
"—but found you instead," he interjected. He wanted to ask Peyton what Haley had said, what Haley told her, but that would put her on her guard. Any question he would solicit would make him look guilty, as if he had something to hide. Which he did… but for how much longer? It was only a matter of time before Nathan would be back in Tree Hill and now that Haley was home… his secrets were going to come spilling out and they would disgust Peyton. He would disgust her.
"What is she to you, Lucas?" Peyton asked unable to stop herself from posing the question that had been running rampant through her mind since Haley had left. He looked at her suddenly, his blue eyes dark and menacing. "I'm not accusing you of anything and I'm not jealous, but I-I'd like to know."
For a long moment, Lucas said nothing. Nothing he could say would explain what role Haley played in his life. Sure, she was his best friend, but it wasn't cut and dry as that. There were strings. There were complications. Lucas wracked his brain for a way to explain Haley to Peyton without actually telling her about their sordid past. After a deep sigh, he finally managed, "Haley was Nathan's girlfriend. It didn't end well."
Peyton didn't comprehend at first. What did Haley dating his brother have to do with anything? Then, she thought about the girl that had wrecked Lucas, the one that he refused to talk about. Was that Haley? Yet, as she looked at him, he didn't seem distraught. If anything he seemed… disconcerted. Then, it hit her. The only reasonable explanation: Haley wasn't the one, but that one—the cream in the Lucas-Nathan Oreo cookie. She gasped—Haley was the reason Lucas and his brother were estranged.
—
Peyton didn't know what unnerved her more—the fact that she was surrounded by trees or that she was surrounded by water. It was getting dark and the illumination from the interior lights from Luke's SUV wasn't giving way to much light. She didn't know how long she'd been there; she just knew that it had been awhile. She'd stood and bitched out the car for a good hour before she succumbed and called Lucas. Now, here she was, waiting, left with her thoughts. Her stupid, spontaneous thoughts.
The night had underwhelmed her. She'd spent all morning preparing for a meal to surprise Lucas with—the first she'd ever cooked for him—and it had been nothing but a disaster all thanks to Haley. They'd had dinner, sure, but neither of them had enjoyed it. They'd sat silently at the table, the only sounds being the scrape of their forks against the plates. Afterward, she had left in Lucas's SUV, telling him she'd needed to clear her head, sort through everything.
That had been four hours ago.
She was leaning against the side of the car, staring out at the water when Lucas pulled up behind her in a loan from the dealership. When he got out of the car, she glanced at him, noting his jacket was missing, his tie was askew and his shirtsleeves were pushed to his elbows. He looked unkempt and she couldn't help it, it turned her on. She had it bad and that just wasn't good.
"What happened?" Lucas asked as he approached, having already noticed the smoking engine. He could care less about his damn car. He wanted to make sure Peyton was alright.
Peyton shrugged her shoulders as she kicked at the rocks below her feet. "I don't know. It just started smoking and then it just… stopped." She felt helpless, and a little more than embarrassed. For leaving. For killing his car. For standing in the dark unable to think of nothing else but him ripping her clothes off.
Lucas moved to stand in front of her, sliding his hands into his pockets. "I was worried."
"Clearly, you had a reason to be," she said, waving a hand at his broken-down car.
"I don't care about the damn car!" he exclaimed rather vehemently. As Peyton shot him a perplexed look, he gentled his tone and he told her, "What I meant to say was… when you left… I was worried that you wouldn't come back."
Peyton liked that he was worried, that he obviously didn't want to lose her. She certainly didn't want to lose him either. "I'm no coward, Lucas. I don't give up that easily. I just needed time to process."
"And have you?"
Peyton shrugged. "It's still a work-in-progress. I have questions."
Lucas nodded. He would answer any questions she may have. Even the hard-and-direct ones. He was that adamant about keeping her in his life. "I thought you might."
"Did you date her?"
"No," he answered with a shake of his head. Feeling the need to clarify, he added, "Haley and I have always been just friends."
"So you haven't slept with her?" Peyton phrased the question in a way that left Lucas the leeway to correct her if that was the case. She hoped that was the case.
Well… "No." Lucas should have been scared how the lie just rolled off his tongue, but he went with it. He would tell Peyton what had transpired between him and Haley, just not here on a deserted stretch of highway outside Tree Hill.
"I don't understand, Lucas. How does Haley fit into the problems you're having with your brother?"
"Nathan didn't treat her well. We were constantly butting heads over it." At least that wasn't a lie.
Lucas played the big brother to Haley; Peyton shouldn't have been surprised, especially having seen him with his little sister a few nights ago. Taking his word for it, she asked the other question that had been plaguing her. "Did you know that she was on my label?"
Lucas shook his head. He'd had his suspicions, but had never brought the subject up with Peyton. That would have involved him getting into his relationship with Haley and before now it was avoidable.
"Look, Lucas, I can deal with you having a girl best friend. I can even deal with the two of you sharing a past. I just don't think I can deal with her being around and carrying a torch for you."
Lucas couldn't help himself—he laughed. "Haley doesn't carry a torch for me," he informed her. Haley had been his friend since infancy; he would know if she had feelings for him... wouldn't he?
"You're a man, Lucas, therefore you're completely clueless. The girl feels something for you that surpasses friendship and I assure you that she was not the least bit tickled when she realized that the two of us were playing house. I'm not the least bit insecure, but I honestly don't know if I can handle this." He looked ready to panic. That comforted her. She quickly assured him, "I'm not giving up on us, but I won't stand by and watch her moon over you, either."
Lucas caught her hand and pulled her close. "I'm not going to lose you, Peyton. If Haley has feelings for me, as you say, then that's her deal. Just know that I don't reciprocate."
Peyton stepped into Lucas's arms, wrapping her arms around him. "It's only been a couple of months, Lucas and yet I can't bear the thought of losing you," she whispered, fearing that if she spoke too loudly she'd never be able to call the words back—they would be out there, real and raw and untouchable.
Lucas was tightening his hold on her when they became aware of bright headlights behind them, accompanied by the sound of a very noisy engine. The truck pulled to a stop beside them, the driver yelling out the window, "Still need a tow, Luke?"
"Hook her up, Keith."
"You know the tow?" Peyton asked Lucas once the truck had driven away and began to maneuver itself in front of the broken down SUV.
"He's my uncle." Lucas opened the passenger side door and pulled the keys out of the ignition.
"Your uncle," Peyton said again. "Wow. This is a small town. Are you related to everyone?"
Lucas laughed as he pushed his keys into his pocket. He took Peyton's hand, leading her around to the front of the car where Keith was rigging it up for towing. "I take it this is the one causing all the fuss?" Keith asked Lucas.
"She's the one."
"She's exactly like Dan described her."
"How's that?" Peyton asked at the same time Lucas groaned, "Oh, God, what'd he say?"
Keith laughed at their reactions, at how they talked over the other. Dan and Karen did that, too, but that was after two decades of marriage. "Just that she was a pretty young thing and that she had angel eyes… or something like that."
Just what he needed, his dad waxing poetic about Peyton to everyone. His family would be the death of him, he had no doubt about it. At least he had one normal relation in Keith. "Peyton, this is my Uncle Keith. Keith, this is Peyton."
Keith stuck out his hand, but then retracted it. He lifted his hand, palm-up, to show her when misconstrued his actions, taking offense. "Oil," he explained. He wiped his hand on his pants, but the effort was futile. The oil wasn't coming off until he could grease his palms properly, at home. So much for formal introductions. "It's nice to meet you, Peyton."
"Likewise, Keith. I didn't even know that Dan or Karen had siblings."
Keith glanced at Lucas briefly, but then focused on Peyton as he said, "Well, there's just me."
"Keith, um, actually helped my mom raise me for a few years."
Keith cut in, "She doesn't know the Scott family story?"
Lucas shook his head. "I didn't think it was something to go into with my new girlfriend. Not right away, anyway."
Peyton observed the two of them, now more curious than ever about the intricacies of Lucas's family. "Whatever it is you two are alluding to, it sounds juicy."
"That it is, but I'm not getting into it right now."
"Why not?" Peyton pressed. She didn't understand why Lucas wouldn't talk about his family or himself. Jake had never been that private; Peyton cursed herself for comparing the two after the thought had already took root.
Keith grinned. "She's a sassy one, Luke."
"You don't know the half of it," Lucas muttered, earning a backhanded slap to his chest from her.
—
Lucas was sitting in the living room, attempting to wind down after his day at the dealership. Unfortunately, the insistent ringing of Peyton's phone kept him from achieving his wanted serenity. He stared at the malevolent device sitting on the coffee table where Peyton had left it; it was mocking him with its noise.
Things between he and Peyton weren't where he would like them to be, but they would get there, of that he had no doubt. He'd been ignoring Haley's phone calls for the past two days. Eventually he knew that he'd have to go and talk to her, but at the moment he was too tired to think about Haley or that whole situation. It could wait until the weekend.
Once again the phone started ringing. Being that Peyton had gone up to town to rent them a movie and forgotten it in her haste, he picked up it, unprepared for the outburst: "HE WANTS TO MARRY ME!"
Lucas was at a loss for words. "Uh… congratulations?" he offered, unaware of who he was congratulating.
On the other side of the phone, Brooke held her phone away from her ear, frowning at it. Bringing it back to the side of her face, she demanded, "Who is this?"
"This is Lucas. Who is this?"
"Brooke Davis, Peyton's best friend."
Lucas felt ridiculous talking on a pink phone with someone that he didn't know. Peyton had mentioned Brooke a time or two, but he'd gleaned that they weren't that close. "Hello, Brooke. Peyton's not here right now."
"Damn, I really need to talk to her."
"Do you want to leave her a message?"
"No, no. It's kind of—Never mind. Just tell her that I called." Brooke hung up, leaving Lucas holding Peyton's phone against his ear, listening to the dial tone.
Snapping the phone shut, he put it back on the coffee table and picked up his laptop. He was just finishing cleaning out his inbox when Peyton walked through the door, brandishing a bag of movies. "I'm definitely not in L.A. anymore. Why you didn't tell me how small the movie store is? A little warning would've helped."
"You wanted movies, I didn't want to discourage you. So, I guess you found something?"
Peyton handed him the bag, tossing his keys into the little bowl on the coffee table. "Nothing you'll like, I'm sure."
"I'm sure they're fine." Lucas set the bag aside. "You forgot your phone. Brooke called." Picking up her cell, Peyton opened it to check her missed calls and sure enough, there were four from Brooke. Before she could even ask, Lucas supplied helpfully, "I got tired of hearing it ring so I answered it. She wants you to call her back. It sounded important."
Curious and more than a little concerned, Peyton dialed Brooke's number, moving around the room as she waited for the call to connect. When Brooke picked up, she yelled, "HE WANTS TO MARRY ME, PEYTON!"
Peyton moved to sit down, completely missing the chair, drawing Lucas's attention from his laptop. He raised an eyebrow—laughter stifled—but had no other reaction. Finding the seat, Peyton asked, "What? Who? I'm confused. Are you dating someone?"
"No!" Brooke exclaimed. "Owen! Owen wants to marry me. This is so like him, you know, wanting to marry me when he's good and ready. It didn't matter when I was ready to get married! Or that he slept with my assistant!"
Peyton looked over at Lucas as she said, "I thought that Owen was in the past."
Silence. Then, Brooke murmured, a little guilty, "Well, he was…"
"Brooke!" Peyton gasped. "You didn't."
Owen had started as a crazy thing Brooke had done for her twenty-first birthday. Brooke's present to herself. She'd been single and lonely and he'd bought her one drink too many. He had pursued her relentlessly after she had blown him off the morning after. Brooke had fought all of his advances, bemoaning the fact that he was a bartender, as if the profession was beneath her. Nevertheless, Peyton knew Brooke and, though she hadn't wanted to admit it, she had enjoyed his pursuit.
One minute Brooke was fussing about not being able to discourage his suit, and then she was bragging about their first date. Before Peyton could blink, the two were living together and Brooke was talking about marriage. However, when the time came to step up and actually present Brooke with a proposal, Owen stepped out instead, cheating on Brooke with her close friend and assistant. Almost two years later and Brooke still wasn't completely over him.
"I did, I did. God, it was stupid. You know me, Peyton. I don't go backward. When I breakup with someone, we break up. There's no reconciliation, no second chance."
"But Owen." Peyton understood how it felt be so consumed with an ex, letting them back in repeatedly because it was familiar, because they meant so much. She'd done it numerous times with Jake.
"But Owen," Brooke agreed.
Curious, she asked, "What are you going to do? Are you going to accept?"
There was a brief pause, but Brooke replied, "Are you crazy? No, I am not going to accept. He cheated on me with one of my best friends. How could I ever trust him let alone marry him."
"Yet, you slept with him again," Peyton pointed out, waiting for Brooke to bow out of an explanation in exchange for self-preservation. It was what Brooke normally did when she was too embarrassed to explain herself and sleeping with your ex was one thing no woman wanted to cop to.
Brooke, always one to save face, said, "Oh, Peyton, I think that's my doorbell. We'll talk later."
"Of course," Peyton said, smiling knowingly as Brooke abruptly ended their conversation. Brooke would figure out how to deal with Owen. She wouldn't let him down gently, that much Peyton knew. More in keeping of Brooke, she would undoubtedly take a long vacation in an effort to ignore the situation and hope that it went away by the time she returned. Knowing Owen as she did, Peyton knew that he wouldn't give up that easily. If he wanted Brooke, he would have her… and Brooke would be powerless to resist.
—
Haley was toiling around her motel room when she heard the knock. The only person that knew she was back in town was Peyton and there was no doubt that she'd told Lucas and it was he who waited outside the door. She ran her fingers through her hair as she crossed the room. Finding Lucas standing there when she opened the door, she said, "I can't say I'm surprised to see you." She stepped back, letting him enter the room.
"What were you doing at my house yesterday?" he inquired before the door even clicked shut.
"So I'm no longer welcome there now? You know, Luke, you really should have put that in your voicemail," she spat, annoyed that he'd stalked into her room and started talking to her as if he was casting her out of his life like she was yesterday's trash.
Lucas heaved a sigh, placing his hands on his hips. Haley noted how the stance disturbed the line of his suit, a suit that he wore impeccably well. She frowned at her line of thoughts and quickly looked away.
"You were supposed to call me."
"I figured that whatever you wanted to talk about could wait until I came home. And when I did, so that we could talk in person, I found your little play toy."
"She's not my play toy," he corrected quickly. "Don't call her that. And how can you talk about her like that? She's like… your boss."
"Ah, so she told you."
"I should've suspected from the beginning." Lucas decided not to beat around the bush. He came here to tell her something so he should just get on with it. "Given the circumstances, I think it's best if we keep our distance," he blurted rather brusquely.
Haley glared at him. Ah, so Peyton was threatened. What other reason would Lucas have for wanting to expel her from his life? Still, it rankled that he was shunning her as if she was his crazy ex-girlfriend. Hardly. What had happened between the two of them had occurred years ago. Lucas was past it. What did it matter if she wasn't?
"Did you come to that conclusion yourself or did Peyton help you reach it?"
"Haley, this has nothing to do with Peyton."
"Of course it does, Lucas. You wouldn't be here, telling me to stay away, if your girlfriend didn't have a problem with me."
Lucas hated that Haley had a point. He was doing this for Peyton, for his relationship with her. Though he didn't think for a second that Haley had feelings for him, he felt it imperative to ease his girlfriend's mind by putting the kibosh on his long-standing friendship—for the time being. Peyton would realize eventually that her fears were irrational and then she could really get to know Haley. In the meantime, he had to keep Haley and Peyton away from each other so that their little affair stayed hidden from Peyton, at least until he could summon the wherewithal to tell her.
"Look, Haley, the fact of the matter is we have this a past. We can't deny but the fact of the matter is, we got carried away. It didn't mean anything." Seeing her crestfallen face, he felt like the worse sort of prick. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean…"
Haley waved him off, insisting, "No, I understand, Lucas. You don't have to draw me a picture. It didn't mean more than what it was. But like you said, it's in the past. We're past it. You want me to stay away, I will."
Grateful, he said, "Thank you."
"She means a lot to you, huh?" She was fishing for information, but she did know Lucas better than anyone else did. If he was willing to cast her out of his life for the interim over a woman, then this was not a casual relationship.
"It's crazy because we haven't known each other but a few months. I feel like she's been a part of my life forever. Losing her just isn't an option for me."
Haley got the message, loud and clear. He didn't have feelings for her; he was more or less in love with Peyton. Alrighty then. Did they have to chat about it all day? "Whatever you want, Lucas," she said, stalking to the door. She pulled it open, hoping that he understood that it was time for him to leave.
Lucas took the hint and started towards the door. There, he stopped. "I talked to Nathan. He knows about Peyton and well with my dad's heart attack it'll only be a matter of time before he comes back."
"Why are you warning me? Nathan doesn't have a problem with me. You on the other hand…"
"I just thought you'd like to know."
Haley shrugged nonchalantly. Without another word, Lucas stalked off to his car; Haley didn't watch him go. She closed the door, and then backed against it as her heart hammered in her chest. Nathan was coming back to Tree Hill. Normally it wouldn't strike her as interesting but considering that his brother was in town boasting a new relationship she knew that his return was no coincidence. Nathan was coming home with an agenda.
Things weren't going to end well for anyone, least of all for Lucas and Peyton.
—
At the airport across town, Nathan Scott was grabbing his suitcase from baggage claim. He'd wanted to keep his return as quiet as possible, which was why the disguise was necessary. No one had recognized him thus far, so far, so good. Satisfied, he headed through the terminal, whistling with contentment.
Parked at the curb outside, a black Escalade was waiting for him. He slid inside and pulled off his dark glasses and hat, throwing them onto the seat beside him. He gave the driver the address of the property he was renting while he was in town and the car advanced forward. As they sped down the highway, Tree Hill's familiar surroundings flashing by, Nathan murmured to himself, "Home sweet home."