Peace by Piece-Rucas

Peace by Unforgiving.

Lucas gulped as soon as he heard the word 'father' escaped her mouth. Without even thinking his arm wrapped around her shoulder protectively. She looked just like him so even before she uttered the two syllable word, the vet knew exactly who it was, all she did was confirm his fear. "How are you?"

"I think it's best if we don't speak for tonight, for Auggie." She replied calmly but the brunette couldn't hide what she was feeling from her boyfriend, her body was practically shaking.

"5 minutes." He pleaded. The green eyed man glanced down at his girlfriend.

Her arms crossed protectively over her chest. "I don't know why I'd give you that whenever you couldn't even give the time to take a graduation invitation out of my hands."

Mr. Matthews dropped his gaze to the floor and Lucas felt the need to step in. "Mr. Matthews, Lucas Friar."

"Call me Cory please. And you're Riley's-"

"Boyfriend. Can she cash in on that 5 minutes later possibly, but don't hold your breath?" The curly haired man agreed and after one more glance at his daughter he went in search of his son. "Come here sweetheart."

The vet yanked her into his chest while Maya stroked her hair and Zay's glare followed her father. "I'm okay." No one said a thing, "I'm fine." Still silence, they were just waiting for her to let it loose. "I promise. It's Auggie's birthday and Maya's pregnant, he doesn't need to know I'm bothered by him. I have so much to celebrate."

She pulled herself away from his chest and put on a smile that would pass as genuine if you didn't know her better. This was truthfully much harder than she thought it would be. But in the end she was doing this for her brother who seemed to be comfortable around his father. Which wasn't unusual, Auggie had a very charismatic attitude. "RILEY!"

"Auggie, who's this?"

His arm was draped over a skinny blonde with curls almost as tight as her brothers and blue eyes. "This is Ava, my girlfriend. Ava this is my sister Riley."

"Hi, it's nice to meet you." They shook hands, "So you go to school with Auggie? Are you two in the same classes?"

"Yes we have one together. Though it would be more if I could help it. Right Auggie Doggie?" The brunette stifled a laugh and turned it into a cough.

"Not here babe." Within seconds, she was being pulled away and Riley assumed it was so she couldn't embarrass him further. The party was in full swing but the appetizers were running low, she excused herself and meandered into the cold kitchen to grab some more. This was one of the few times it was 'cold', any other time flames would be flying up out of sauté pans and it would be at least 10 degrees hotter.

She stirred the queso and made another bowl before pouring some salsa and spreading the bowls out on a plate filled with chips. She then took the calamari and a few other delectable treats out of the oven. "Riley."

The brown eyed girl froze but had enough sense to set the pans of food on top of the stainless countertops. "Dad." Riley spun on her heels and found herself alone with her father. "Where's your wife and kids?"

She saw him gulp and bite at his bottom lip. "At home. I felt that this was one mission I needed to accomplish on my own."

She crossed her arms and glanced at her feet feeling extremely uncomfortable. "W-what mission would that be?"

"To be able to speak to my children."

The brunette giggled, "That's funny that you want to do that. You've had 20 years to talk to me. So why now? Why all of a sudden did you decide to care about us?"