“What the hell did we miss?” Jax asks, following Clint with a case of beer.
“Eric decided to make a surprise appearance,” Sarah says looking a little shellshocked. “I’m going to need more wine.”
“Nice seeing you, too!” Eric hollers at her back, flashing a cocky grin that looks eerily similar to Luke’s.
“Are we pretending that nothing just happened in there?” Dawn asks Sarah quietly, pointing the knife she’s using to cut potatoes at Eric. “Like we’re pretending Luke and Amber aren’t a thing?”
“I think I liked it better when you didn’t talk much,” Sarah muttered before gulping the rest of her wine.
“You insisted I break out of my shell and now you’re complaining?” Dawn smiles and rolls her eyes.
“What happened between you two? You seemed fine at Burns and Janet’s wedding?” I ask, glancing over my shoulder watching Luke and his brothers reunite.
“I’ll tell you as soon as you tell us what’s going on between you and Luke. As your lawyer, I need to know the details.” Sarah returns, pouring a large amount of wine into her glass, sparing only the briefest of glances toward Eric.
“We’re exploring…? I’m not sure I want to call him my boyfriend yet.” I lift my shoulders. “Yeah, he told Emily he’d be my boyfriend, but he didn’t ask me. He just makes decisions about us and leaves me out of it, and when I call him out on it, he just kisses me until I shut up.”
“So… you are together?” Janet asks, looking confused.
“No… I mean, yes if you ask Luke, but no if you ask me.”
“I’m not following. Is this how women play hard to get now?” my mom asks and Janet giggles.
“I’m not playing hard to get,” I groan. “I just think he should talk to me before making assumptions about our relationship.”
“You’re being stubborn,” my mother scoffs, giving me her signature pointed stare. “Sounds like you are together.”
“Whatever. Can we please move on to what is happening between Sarah and Eric?”
“Fine,” Sarah groans. “Eric just learned I helped work a deal with Dawn’s ex, Darin.”
Dawn stops cutting the potatoes to look at Sarah in shock but doesn’t say anything. “He’s willing to testify against the Port Pirates in return for protective custody through the trial and protective relocation after the trial. That’s really all I can say on the matter,” Sarah explains.
Dawn’s ex is the reason she went on the run a few months ago to escape his motorcycle club. I don’t know all the details, but I know they managed to find her, and it brought her ex out of hiding and now he’s on the run.
Visibly pale over the news, Dawn whispers, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was… after Thanksgiving. I didn’t want Clint going all caveman, and I didn’t want you to worry. I wanted you to enjoy a family get together,” Sarah confesses and she looks a little guilty over not telling Dawn sooner. “I had to tell Eric to stop looking for Darin so the FBI could bring him in safely. Eric was pissed that I was even in contact with Darin and didn’t tell him. We didn’t exactly end the conversation on friendly terms.”
“Why didn’t you tell him you were talking to Darin?” Dawn asks as Janet takes the knife from her and continues to chop the potatoes.
“Darin reached out to me, said if you trusted me so could he, and wanted to know if I would help him. I didn’t want anyone to know I was in contact with him until I spoke to the agent conducting the investigation on the Port Pirates.”
“So, what does this all mean?” I ask, keeping an eye on Dawn, who takes a seat, worry marring her face as she rubs her pregnant belly.
“It means Dawn will be safe from her past very soon.” Sarah smiles and leans over to put a hand over Dawn’s. “This is good news; stop worrying. Just be a little patient and don’t do anything stupid that will bring attention to you. Before you know it, all the bad shit that went down back in Charleston will be behind you.”
“Define anything stupid?” Dawn whispers, not sounding at all reassured.
Sarah eyes her suspiciously. “Why?”
“Clint thinks I should start a cooking blog,” she confesses and looks around at us all. “Where I share my mother’s recipes and offer cooking advice.”
“That’s a brilliant idea!” Janet says while sliding the cut potatoes into a pot of water. “I’d absolutely follow you, even if I am technology inept.”
Dawn hesitates. “He thinks I should call it Colson Cooking.”
“I think that’s a great idea,” Sarah says and squeezes her hand. “Maybe not share your picture online, though.”
“You think I should do it?”
“I love the idea,” I chime in with a smile, happy to see my friend finally starting to live her life.
“Now, can we talk about you and Luke?” Sarah asks, looking exasperated. “He came back hotter than he left, and it has been way too long since you’ve been with a man. Why not give things a shot?”
Looking over at Luke, I can’t deny he is more than a lot hotter than he was fifteen years ago. “I’m not sure I can trust him,” I say, looking away from him. “I know we live together… but what if more drama complicate things? Or we fizzle out? I would be back to living with my parents, and Henry would have more ammunition to fire at me.”
“Luke and you never had to worry about fizzling out. You and Henry may have fizzled out, but that’s just because you two never should have been together in the first place. And playing the what if game is a road to loneliness. I think you need to grab on to Luke and the happiness he brings you and the kids and hold on tight,” my mom says, getting agreement from the rest of the women.
“I think I need to take it a bit slow and not just grab on tight.” I roll my eyes but the idea of letting go of my fear feels refreshing. I want to trust Luke, really trust him but there is a piece of me that is scared even if being with Luke has felt like stepping out of a cave and into a sunny day. The kind of sunny day you wish the sun didn’t have to set.
“You told me to grab onto Clint and look at me now… I’m having a baby and about to get married, and I guess I’m starting a cooking blog,” Dawn says, standing from her chair to check on the potatoes Janet is hovering over.
“I’m pretty sure that was Sarah who told you to grab on, and if Luke puts a baby in me without asking first like Clint did, I might kill him.”
“So, you two have had sex.” Sarah winks at me with a teasing smile.
“No, we haven’t had sex.” I move around the island and grab the wine. “I’m cutting you off.”
“No!”
“Why don’t you want Luke’s babies?” my mom asks trying to sound nonchalant, but I know she wants more grandbabies in her life.
“I’m not saying I don’t want his babies… I just know the Colson men. When they want something, they don’t tend to ask. They like making the decisions and telling you about it later… no offense, Dawn.”
“None taken. I’m happy, and if Clint hadn’t taken our future into his own hands, I might be off the grid living a miserable existence in another small town.”