After getting their things settled in, the adults sat down in the living room with some sweet tea while Lily ran into her room to grab a few things to amaze the adults with.
"Where's Andy?" Lucas asks, curious to know where his mother's boyfriend was.
"I sent him out to get a few things for dinner and a couple bottles of wine. I have a feeling that when Nate and Haley are over tomorrow, we'll be up for a while, grilling Peyton for details about your relationship, so I figured that I would be prepared."
"Thank you for letting me come and visit Karen, it's nice of you to open up your home."
"Oh, honey, anything to get my baby boy home and happy. I've taken care of the home, and you've obviously taken care of the happy."
Peyton blushes, glad to know that she was really making Lucas happy.
"So how is this record label going for you? Lucas said that you were really working hard at it. He said you had a few bands that you were going to get into the studio soon, right?"
She looks to Lucas then, smiling at the fact that he obviously paid attention to the things she said, but also that he felt it important enough to share with his mother.
"Yeah, I've got a few great bands that I want to see do some stuff before signing them on and starting to promote what they are doing. I think that I've got a long way to go, but I have plenty of support around me." she says, winking at the boy next to her.
"Well, you know that I do own the local club, so if you ever need a place to try someone out for a live audience this is the place."
"Definitely! Lucas told me that you were quite the business savvy woman, setting up TRIC and the cafe... I don't know how you did it."
With that comment, Karen reaches across and pats her son on the knee, "I had a lot of support around me to."
Wanting to continue the conversation, Peyton started to ask about the club when she was interrupted by a five year old climbing into her lap.
"Can I sit here?" she asks, looking up at who she considered her new friend.
"Yes, you may." Peyton says, laughing at the little girl sitting in her lap with a bunch of papers in her hands, "Now what do you have here?"
"They are my drawings and my paintings..."
"Oh, wow! I might have to see if I can put some of these up in my gallery."
"What's a gallery?"
"It is a place where people put up their beautiful art work so people can look at it and then buy it if they would like."
"Oh, can I come see your gallery?" she asks, looking first to Peyton and then to her mother.
"Maybe someday you will, but for now, why don't you show me these pictures of yours." Peyton replies, patting her hand on the stack of papers.
Lucas and Karen simply watched for a moment while Lily showed Peyton her artwork, asking her plenty of questions on whether or not Peyton thought they were pretty. Peyton would go on and on about how beautiful the five year old art was and would explain something about how she liked the colors or some other detail. It made Lucas smile, seeing how at ease Peyton was with his little sister and how quickly Lily had warmed up to her.
He was broken out of his reverie when his mother stood up and tapped him on the shoulder, gesturing that they should leave the pair alone for a little while.
"We're going to go outside and wait for Andy. You be good in here with Peyton, Lily."
"I will!" she says, glancing up at her mother as Peyton does the same.
Once out on the porch the two take their places on the stairs leading up to the house, a place that had seen many a talk between the pair. They sit in silence for a moment, just taking in the silence, her knowing that Lucas doesn't get to hear a lot of silence in his life living in the big city.
After a while though, she breaks the silence, "I like her."
"I'm quite fond of her myself." he says, nodding at his mother and laughing.
"She's obviously great with children, which is certainly a plus for the future, and she's quite pretty."
"The future?" he asks, squinting his eyes her way.
"Yes, the future. Don't think that since I've been away sailing around the world and you've been off in New York, that I've forgotten how to read my baby boy. You love her."
"We've been dating for two months, ma."
"Doesn't matter... look at Nathan and Haley... or the opposite, look at me and Keith... Whether two months or nearly twenty years... you just have to admit it to yourself."
"Yeah, well... she is pretty amazing. She's just so smart and she has such a passion for certain things. It's inspiring, and she doesn't even realize it. She doubts herself all the time, but at the same time is one of the most confident women that I've ever met."
"And you don't love her?" she asks, quirking an eyebrow.
"No, I do, I just..." he stops, noticing the big smile on his mother's face telling him that he did exactly what she wanted him to do.
He was about to try to explain it as a slip of the tongue when Andy's SUV pulled into the driveway and the man stepped out.
"Lucas! How are you?" he says, pulling Luke in for a hug, and patting him on the back.
"I'm good, Andy. How are you? Taking care of my mom and my little sister?"
"I hope so..." he says, pulling Karen to his side.
Turning back to Lucas again, he gestures towards the truck, "Come on, let's get the groceries out of the car and then we can meet this Peyton girl that you've fallen madly in love with."
All Karen can do is laugh, as Lucas drops his mouth open in protest, shaking his head.
"Can't deny it any more, Lucas Scott... we know you." his mom says, passing by him with a bag in her hand and on the way into the house.
As the group sat down for dinner, it was clear that the bond between Peyton and Lily couldn't be broken, as the little girl insisted that she sit by the curly blond. The adults laughed and they scooted chairs around so the two could sit next to each other.
"So, how did the two of you meet?" Andy asks.
"He saved me from some random guy at a club in New York, we talked, and then Mr. romantic over here decides to call all the art galleries in the city to find me, bringing me flowers. It was sweet. So when he asked me to dinner I had to say yes."
"Good job my man." Andy says to Lucas, patting him on the back. "He obviously knows a good catch when he sees one."
"Thank you... now tell me about you guys. Where have you been sailing lately?"
"We have been everywhere it seems... Europe, the Caribbean, Australia... It's been wonderful."
"Wow! I would love to just get out of New York for like a week. The farthest from home I've been is LA, and that ended up just being all work and no fun."
"Then this summer we should all go somewhere fun for a while. You and Lucas can surely take a few days off, right?"
"The book tour should be going on a break for a month during the summer, so I would be in for it, Peyton?"
She looks at him, smiling because they were talking about something that was happening months down the road and still as confident as anything that they were going to be together and perfectly fine. "I'm definitely in. Hopefully I will have signed a few bands and could take some time away."
"Then that's settled, it'll be a nice family vacation!" Karen says, winking in Peyton's direction and sending butterflies flying in her stomach at the use of the word family.
They finished dinner, whereupon Lily insisted that she get ice cream with her big brother. So, Lucas and Peyton took her for frozen custard and walked with her down by the riverside. By the time they had driven home, it was pretty late and Lily was nearly asleep.
"I've got her." Lucas says, getting out of the car and lifting his sister from the back seat, Peyton closing the door softly behind him.
"She's pretty tired."
"I think the stop at the riverwalk did her in."
Peyton laughs as they walk in the door and Karen catches the sight of her son with his little sister slumped on his shoulder and his girlfriend carrying a pink hello kitty backpack.
"Did she fall asleep on you guys?" Karen asks.
"She started falling asleep on the ride home after we took a walk and got our ice cream." Peyton responds with a smile on her face.
"I'm going to go put her down in her bed." Luke says, starting to walk down the hallway.
"Wait." Lily says sleepily, lifting her head up from her brother's shoulder and looking around the room for something. "Peyton?"
"Yeah sweetie?" Peyton says, walking towards the little girl and whispering softly.
"Are you going to be here tomorrow?" she asks with all the innocence of a five year old.
"Yeah baby girl, I'm going to be here tomorrow."
"Okay." she replies with finality as she drops her head back down, sighing deeply.
Peyton and Karen laugh as Lucas disappears down the hallway with the little girl. As Karen goes back to the dishes, Peyton continues to watch down the hall with a smile on her face, thinking that she could get used to being around his family, so loving and wonderful, caring... Karen of course sees the young woman lost in thought staring down the hall and knows that it isn't only her son that is in love.
"You have a new life long best friend."
"Yeah, well, don't tell mine, because she'd probably be jealous." Peyton says, snapping out of her moment, and coming to dry dishes with Lucas' mother.
"She really does love you though. She usually doesn't get so attached so quickly... You have a way with her."
"Well thank you."
"You also have a way with my son, so thank you for that."
"You raised a good man."
Just as she says it, Luke comes walking back into the kitchen and takes the rag from his mother, insisting that he and Peyton can work on the dishes while she goes and relaxes.
As the evening went on and the older couple got tired, Karen pulled out sheets and blankets for her son and his girlfriend, helping them make up the pull out bed from the couch.
"I hope that this will be okay... we haven't used it in years."
"I'm sure that it will be fine mom... but you know that we can always go stay at a hotel."
"No no! I insist that you guys stay here. It's cozy and I miss you, and I know that Lily wants to spend every chance that she can with her big brother."
"I think that I've actually been replaced by wily over here." he says, elbowing Peyton gently and winking in her direction.
"I'm just an irresistible personality..." Peyton says, smiling back at him.
"Don't I know it." Lucas then replies, kissing her lightly on the lips.
Karen walks away from the pair smiling and shaking her head, but sincerely glad that her son had met someone that he liked so much.
The two were then left alone in the living room. As he went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and change before bed, she took the opportunity to take in his home. The pictures of a young Lucas, his uncle, his little sister scattered around. A copy of his first book proudly displayed on the mantle. A worn crocheted blanket draped across the back of a hand-me-down couch.
From what she knew about his mother and Andy, they were certainly not hurting for money in any way. In fact Andy might rival Brooke where assets are concerned, so she found it comforting that their house still held an old charm to it, with a few scratches here and there. It was perfect.
While looking at a picture of Lucas holding two infants on his lap, she was caught. "Are you snooping?"
"When you're invited in, it doesn't count as snooping."
He puts his arms around her waist and glances over her shoulder to see what she is looking at, and smiles, "That was probably just a few days after Jamie and Lily were born."
"They were born on the same day?"
"Lily was born just a day before when my mom was in the hospital with complications, and then Haley got brought in right in the middle of her Valedictory address."
She turns to him with wide eyes, "That was some speech, I guess..."
"She never got to finish it."
"That kind of stinks."
He takes the picture from her hands and trails a finger over the two babies, "yeah, but I think that what she did was way better."
When she says that she agrees, he meets her eyes and her heart nearly melts at the site. At one time she noticed that Lucas Scott gets a certain twinkle in his eye. It comes out when he shares a story about his nephew, or talks about a childhood memory with his uncle Keith. It was a look reserved for the love he had for his family. In that moment when green met blue, for the first time, she saw that twinkle... and it was all directed at her.
–
All right, and now we're going to go meeting Nathan and Haley and Jamie... expect some fun with that. Yeah... this is turning into a whole other animal that I did not expect. I had an idea, but then realized that I wanted to develop Lucas and Peyton's relationship more, taking it more slowly than I've seen done. So the idea that I had is still there, and I'm sure that it is going to come WAY out of left field, but for now, I hope that you are enjoying the randomness and the fluff....
Review with what you think, because honestly, that is part of the reason why I do these things... it makes me smile when I hear that someone loved an update or that someone is cursing my existence because I wrote a really good cliffhanger ending. So, yeah, I hope you enjoyed!