One in a Million

Bring me That Horizon

Climbing out of her silver SUV after parking in the driveway of a house she’d never before been to, Lucy glanced around, taking in the unfamiliar area along with the two-story villa with a large porch wrapping around three thirds of the house before gently closing the door behind her. Returning home to her parents’ house the previous evening, Jordan had texted her just like he’d promised and that’s why she was currently standing in Marc’s front yard.

Grabbing her straw bag from the backseat, she pressed the button on the car key, locking the large vehicle and ran her fingers through her lose hair as she walked up the stone path leading around the house, breaking out in a smile as she recognized the blonde woman approaching her.

“We were starting to think you had gotten lost,” Lindsay smiled widely as her green eyes met her friend’s blue ones.

“I almost did,” Lucy admitted with a laugh. “It’s like a maze getting out here, I missed the turn, twice,” she smiled widely as the other woman wrapped her in a close hug.

“It’s so great to see you again,” Lindsay said seriously.

“You too,” Lucy agreed, they hadn’t seen each other since they had parted ways in a Miami airport several months earlier and they’d barely talked, or even texted in that time, both of them busy with work and other commitments.

“And it is a bit of a maze,” Lindsay agreed with the older woman’s previous statement. “Marc continuously got lost the first couple of weeks after we moved out here,” she revealed with an amused smile.

“And I can only assume that like the man he is, he refused to ask for better directions,” Lucy said knowingly.

“Oh, yeah,” Lindsay laughed as the two of them walked across the green lawns, away from the house and towards the waterfront. “So are you ready for a day out on the lake?” the words felt foreign on her tongue as the Kristiansen siblings were the ones who’d grown up on the lake.

“I am,” Lucy confirmed smiling. The sky was clear blue, there wasn’t a cloud in sight and despite the fact that it was still only just after eleven in the morning, the temperatures were already reaching the high 20’s promising a beautiful day. All in all, conditions were perfect for a trip out on the lake. “I was a little too excited when I woke up this morning,” she admitted sheepishly as they walked out on the private dock on the property, where an average sized motorboat was moored.

“You'll get used to it again,” Lindsay told her with a smile. “Before you know it, it’s going to be an everyday thing.”

Unable to argue, Lucy let the other woman take the lead and stopping in the middle of the dock, her long skirt brushing against her bare legs, she found a smile creeping across her lips.

Being back was beyond weird, it might not be very good for her mental state of mind, but it was still home. And home was filled with about a thousand and one things that she hadn't done since she stopped returning for long a number of years earlier. And like she had promised herself the previous evening, she was going to reclaim everything that had once been hers. Including impromptu trips out on the lake with her friends.

Winters in Thunder Bay could be everything from mild to absolutely brutal with blizzards and temperatures far below freezing along with northern winds that made you think you’d reached a whole new level of hell. But were the winter months could be horrible, the summer equivalent could be just the exact opposite, amazing. Summers were beautiful, they were warm and surprisingly long and the skies were blue and the evenings seemingly never-ending. They quite honestly were what made living up there so worth it.

And if you had a boat, you were all set.

The Kristiansen family had had one and Lucy, along with her siblings, had spent many days on the lake with their parents as they were growing up and then on their own, or with their friends as they got older. They knew how to drive and what do in case of an emergency, they knew what rules governed the water and they knew the importance of keeping everyone safe out there.

Reaching the boat she’d only before seen pictures of, Lucy handed Lindsay her bag as the blonde was already onboard and then pulled up the hem of her skirt and carefully jumped in after her, making sure she was nowhere close to falling into the water. It had looked deceivingly tempting as she’d been having breakfast out on the deck with her mother just a short while earlier, but she’d been around long enough to know that the water in Lake Superior was rarely as nice as it looked, at least not temperature wise.

“Did you bring your sea legs with you this time?”

Spinning around at the sound of the distinctive voice that could only belong to the second oldest Staal, she gave him a sour look before practically throwing herself at him as he jumped into the boat, wrapping her arms around him in a close hug. “You're still not going to let that one go?” she questioned into his polo-covered shoulder.

“No,” Marc shook his head amused, returning the hug and placing a sweet kiss on the top of her head. When they’d vacationed together on Martinique, they’d gone on a short boat ride and the older Kristiansen sister really hadn't taken well to the rougher sea waves, despite having been the one who practically grew up on a boat. She’d claimed it was because she was used to the significantly calmer lakes.

“Yeah, I knew that,” she nodded with a roll of her blue eyes as she dropped her arms from around him. “So who are waiting for?” she wondered as she looked between the couple before her, Lindsay having taken a seat at the back of the boat already and Marc now leaning against the back of the driver’s seat.

“Jordan is picking up Tom and Amanda on the way and I presume your sister is with them,” Marc stated as he played with the ignition key in his hands. “And we are just waiting for Snoozy to get his lazy ass down here.”

“I’ve told you not to call me that,” a second male voice caused Lucy to glance back up at the dock where the youngest brother stood; carrying a cooler filled with what she could only guess was drinks and snacks. “A little help, bro?”

Rolling his eyes at his baby brother, Marc walked over and took the cooler from him before Jared easily climbed down into the boat to join then, wasting no time in greeting Lucy and putting her in a headlock. “Hey partner,” he grinned widely, blue eyes shining with amusement as he messed up her hair and she pinched him in the side as well as kicked him in the back of the knee. “You're short,” he stated frankly.

“No, I'm average,” Lucy corrected him as Lindsay chose to simply observe them from her place in one of the rare sofas. “It’s you and your brothers who are abnormally tall,” she argued, finally managing to wrestle herself free, knowing he wasn’t trying very hard to stop her. “You are the freaks,” she teased him with a smile across her lips as she looked up at him, straightening out her hair slightly.

“Glad to have you back,” Jared pulled her into a one-armed hug, keeping her pressed against his side as he turned to his brother. “Are we going to get going or what?”



Heading out on the lake, they had soon caught up with Jordan and the others and anchoring quite far out from the coast, they were all switching boats and grabbing drinks and shedding clothes to either tan or try out the water.

Leaning slightly against the dashboard of his own boat, a beer in his hand, Jordan couldn't keep from watching as they girl his whole family had thought would never return home, undressed on his brother’s boat.

“What are you looking at?” Marc questioned ask he walked over to his younger brother, sipping his own beer and following the blonde’s line of sight. “Oh.”

“If our brother wasn’t such a dickhead and she wasn’t so off-limits, I would so go after that,” was Jordan’s simple response as he watched Lucy peel off the simple, fitted tank top she’d been wearing, the move pressing her breaths together in a way that would make any red-blooded male look. “I still might,” he added after a moment as she pushed down her white and turquoise striped skirt over the curve of her hips and down the length of her toned legs, leaving her dressed in a black triangle string bikini that left little to the imagination.

“He would kill you,” Marc stated simply, but didn’t disagree. It was common knowledge in their group of friends, their age group even that both Lucy and Lily were beautiful. They were very different, physically, but that they were attractive was obvious to anyone who saw them and where Lily was slender and sporty, almost model looking, Lucy was just as slender but curvy as well. During the years many a boy had commented that she had a body made for bikinis, or lingerie, or nothing at all.

“He was the one who screwed up,” Jordan pointed out, taking a long drink from his beer as she bent over to pick up her skirt and folded it up before placing it in the bag along with her top. “And I might not care.”

“She would kick your ass,” Marc pointed out with a slight glance at his brother.

“There is that,” Jordan nodded slowly, agreeing with him. She didn’t look like much, but they all knew that she could pack a punch.

“And what are you two talking about?” Lily questioned smiling as she practically bounded over to the two of them, dressed similarly to the other girls in a bright green bandeau bikini with white polka dots on it.

“Nothing,” the two brothers’ reply was immediate, Jordan sporting a bit of a blush as he quickly averted his eyes and she gave him a pointed look before glancing back over her shoulder.

“You're checking out my sister,” she stated simply as she turned back to them.

“He was,” Marc confirmed with a slightly nod before slinking away, not about to explain to his girlfriend why he was looking at another woman, even if she was someone they had both known for years.

“Traitor,” Jordan practically growled at his brother’s retreating back before looking at the short blonde standing before him, a sheepish smile across his lips. “Just hanging out.”

“Uh-huh,” Lily nodded unconvinced, amusement dancing in her blue eyes as she took Marc’s vacated spot next to him, leaning slightly against the dash. “And I'm the Queen of Sheba,” she stated dryly.

“I was just looking,” he admitted evenly. “If you didn’t know, your sister is just as gorgeous as you are.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” she smiled widely before turning serious again. “I don’t know if you would even make it out alive if you tried anything with her,” she began, looking at him from the corner of her eyes. “But if you do, and you end up hurting her, I will end your career,” she promised him through a forced smile.

“You wouldn’t,” Jordan rolled his eyes.

“Oh, I would,” Lily looked over at him. “You know very well that Liam likes to play golf and I have the extra key to his house, not to mention, my lovely sister still keeps her baseball bats in her closet,” she added with a cheeky wink before walking away from him without another word, joining her sister as well as Lindsay and Amanda where they were tanning on Marc’s boat.

Rolling his eyes at her back, even if he knew that she would keep that promise, Jordan moved away from the dash and headed over to where his brothers and Tom were sitting at the back of his boat, just hanging out. She was off-limits, seriously off-limits and pretty much everyone who knew them knew that, he definitely knew it.

But like that apple in the bible, forbidden fruit was always so much sweeter.



Laying stretched out on her back at the front of Marc’s boat, Lindsay to her right and Amanda to her left, her sister leaning slightly against the glass above the dashboard, Lucy couldn’t help but feel completely content as she soaked up the rays. Her eyes closed behind her Ray-Ban Aviators and wearing only a tiny excuse for a two-piece bikini, she was more comfortable than she had been in a long time.

She was home, she was surrounded by friends and family, the air was warm and her world hadn't caved in on itself like she’d feared it would if she ever returned for too long.

Listening to the girls around her chatting above the sounds of the small waves hitting the hull of the boat, she couldn’t help but laugh softly as she heard the story Amanda was telling about the time she’d gotten lost over in Montreal when she and Tom first moved there and she ended up having dinner with an old Chinese lady who didn’t know English.

It was hard to admit out loud, but there were so many things she’d missed out on, not just with her siblings, but with her friends as well just because she’d been a chicken and hadn't forced herself to deal when she should have. She’d missed so many important and even more un-important things that she was never going to get back and she had nothing but her career to show for it.

It was a good career, it really was and she loved everything about it, most of the time, but she had always thought that she would have had more by now. A husband, a family, a proper home, maybe even a dog – and she didn’t even particularly like dogs. She loved her two-story apartment a stone’s throw away from the Chicago River, but it wasn’t a place where she could see herself properly settling down, raising kids and all that in.

Pushing, or rather forcing, those thoughts out of her mind, she rolled over onto her stomach and looked out over the clear blue water that surrounded them on all sides from behind her mirrored Aviators.

Making up her mind, she decided that it was definitely time to fully take advantage of what like had to offer, every day. Starting right then.

Removing her sunglasses from her face, she moved up to sit on her heels and glancing back over her bare shoulder to where the boys were sitting, drinking beer and most likely taking about hockey, or football. Breaking out in a wide smile as she caught Jordan’s eye, she easily got to her feet.

“Last one in,” she called back to him, covering the distance to the very front of the boat she was on in two graceful strides before diving headfirst into the chilly water.

Just like she’d expected, the others weren't far behind.



Climbing back up on Jordan’s boat, snatching up a spare towel and quickly drying off, Jared walked over to Marc who was leaning slightly against the rig at the back of the boat, looking out over the water where a few of the others were still messing about.

“What are you watching,” he wondered as he saw Lindsay and Amanda teaming up and dunking Tom beneath the surface of the seemingly cobalt blue water.

“Nothing,” Marc said slowly, knowing that his youngest brother would leave it at that.

“He’s playing with fire,” Jared commented as he immediately spotted the way Jordan was smiling at Lucy who was looking like she was having a pretty good time herself where they were trudging water not far from each other.

“He said that he didn’t care,” Marc stated, remembering their brother’s words from earlier in the day. “He implied that she was the kind of girl who was worth it.”

“You think she’s not?” Jared glanced over at him before looking back at the pair who was clearly talking about something, constantly touching each other.

“Oh, I know she is,” Marc corrected him before turning to his youngest brother. “But I also remember what Eric did when he realized that she wasn’t coming back to him,” he pointed out. “What he said,” he added. “If that were to happen,” he nodded out to where the couple was clearly bonding over something, “Eric wouldn’t exactly be alright with it. He would more than likely be ready to disown Jordan as his brother.”

“Really?” Jared arched his brows skeptically. He’d only been around 13 when things had gone sour for their oldest brother and with the age difference he and Eric hadn't exactly been close back then, besides, he hadn't really been all that interested in his brothers’ girl troubles back then.

“Really,” Marc nodded simply.

“He’s the one who messed up, though,” Jared pointed out. “If Jordan is the one who get to reap the fruits of that, then so be it,” he reasoned simply. “He deserves to be with someone who’s good for him, let Eric deal with it.”

“You think that Eric is going to think like that?” Marc retorted amused. “Our hotheaded brother who never thinks before he acts when it comes to two things in his life, hockey and that woman out there, he is going to act rationally about that?”

“Well, maybe not,” Jared grimaced slightly. “But he’s not here now.”

“He’s not,” Marc couldn't help but agree.

“Who’s not here?” Lily interrupted whatever else Marc was going to say as she wedged herself between them, looking from one brother to the other.

“Eric,” Jared stated simply.

“You guys do know that she’s not actually interested in Jordan, right?” she checked as she realized what they were looking at, only to find them looking strangely at her. “She might be attracted to him, hell, I'm attracted to him,” she pointed out with a wide smile, “but that doesn’t mean that she is actually going to do anything about it, that she even wants to do anything about it.”

The brothers agreeing halfheartedly, not quite believing the words coming from her, she only rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly. She knew what she was talking about.

And watching her older sister in the water with the least likely person as some of her best friends were messing about a short distance away, Lily couldn’t help but smile softly. The look across her sister’s features, the smile that stretched across her naturally pink lips, it was a long time since she’d seen that.

It might not have been ideal considering the situation, but if Jordan was the one to bring that out again, then she would be all for it.
♠ ♠ ♠
Lucy