Here is the next installment! Hope everyone enjoys!
Pepper smiled as the breeze off the ocean came through the open car window and ruffled her hair, she would have sang along with the car radio too, but Chris had snapped off the music when she had started driving. He had muttered something under his breath about her not needing any distractions and then had gripped the chicken stick with a white-knuckled fist. Pepper had decided to ignore Chris and the fact that his good leg kept pressing on a non-existent brake and enjoy threading her way around the mountain switch-backs.
Pepper was quite aware that most of her family thought she was a terrible driver, but really it had to be Wyatt's fault since he had been the one to teach her to drive. She started to reach for her phone to check the directions and felt it taken out of her hand by Chris. She looked over at him with raised eyebrows.
"Peppy, I have already survived one near death experience this month and I really don't want it to be two. Why are you trying to use your phone?" Chris continued to hold it away from her. The idea behind Wyatt teaching her to drive was that he was a little better than Phoebe, but it would appear that he had passed on a lot of his bad driving habits to Pepper.
"I wanted to check that I was driving in the right direction!" Pepper blew her breath out, fluttering her hair even more. "Geez, get in one or two little accidents and no one trusts a girl anymore." She continued to mutter to herself as Chris pulled up the directions. He directed her the rest of the way and said silent prayers as they finally pulled into a parking space and she turned off the car.
Pepper swung her purse over her shoulder and helped Chris make it up to the door. He had a cane, but hadn't quite mastered how to use it appropriately. She glanced up and saw that a red-haired young woman was hurrying through the lobby to open the door.
Chris quickly tried to straighten and lifted his arm from around Pepper's shoulders. She looked at him in surprise and saw that he was smiling at the woman.
"Chris, come in please," she held open the door and then reached out to shake Pepper's hand. "I'm Madison Drake, Chris's physical therapist."
"Oh, how nice to meet you," Pepper quickly shook her hand and smiled. Chris had not mentioned to anyone how pretty his doctor was, and she snuck a look at him quickly, he hadn't stopped smiling. "I'm Pepper Halliwell, Chris's cousin. I came up to bring him some of his things and decided to help out Melinda by driving him today."
Pepper inclined her head at her cousin and raised her eyebrows ever so slightly. She hadn't seen Chris act like this around a girl since he was in high school and didn't want the family to know he was asking Ashley Brightstone to prom. Pepper very carefully reached out with her Cupid side and tried to see if Madison was interested in Chris, she got a little zing and backed off before Madison noticed anything. The plot thickened, it would appear that his doctor was just as interested in Chris as he was in her. Pepper mentally resolved to find out more about this doctor, not just anyone was good enough for her cousin. She tuned back into the conversation and noticed that Chris was getting ready to head back to the workout room.
"You can stay out here Pepper." He gestured at the lobby waiting area where chairs and sofas were grouped. Pepper noticed the new versions of her favorite magazines and happily wandered over. She had no real interest in watching Chris work out, but she was interested in learning more about Madison. Pepper waited till they had gone through the far door, and then using the magazine has a shield scanned the waiting area for another doctor or nurse. A girl that had managed to catch Chris's attention was an unusual circumstance, and if Chris was going to get mad about her asking then he really didn't know her at all did he? If he had wanted to keep his feelings a secret, he shouldn't have had a Cupid drive him to his appointment.
Pepper's eyes widened when she saw a young man wearing a lab coat come out of another door and wander over to the receptionist. She could feel the longing emanating from him, and immediately her Cupid side was feeling a pull to help him. She could also sense that he was terribly shy, and that the receptionist liked him, but didn't think that he saw her as anything more than a friend. She could almost feel her fingers itching to grab him and sit him down to talk through how he should win her over.
Pepper lowered the magazine to her lap and made sure to shoot a quick friendly smile at him as he glanced her way. He gave a small smile in return and had the manners to stop and ask her how her day was.
"I'm good, thank you. I'm Pepper Halliwell. My cousin is actually in with Madison Drake doing his first appointment." Pepper lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "Is she a good doctor? He gave us all such a scare when he got hurt, I just want to make sure that this is the right place for him." She smiled at him and patted the seat next to her.
The young man smiled and sat down next to her, "Maddie is a great doctor I'm sure your cousin will be fine!" He held out his hand, "I'm Tom Henderson, another one of the physical therapists. I've known Maddie since we were children, actually we went all the way through school together."
"Oh," Pepper innocently widened her eyes. "Are you guys involved? I thought when I saw you with the girl at the desk…"
"Oh no," Tom flushed a rather dark red and stuttered a little. "Madison isn't seeing anyone, I think her dad scares off anyone that would be interested. And, uh, well Sarah and I aren't dating. Well…" And Tom who had never even told anyone that he had a crush on Sarah, just found it all tumbling out. There was something about this young lady with the dark brown eyes that seemed to be so willing to listen to his struggle to ask Sarah out.
"I wanted to ask her out when she first started working here, but she kinda had a boyfriend and then when she didn't I just couldn't find the words to talk to her. I really like her, but I just can't find a way to say that to her. It's got to be too late to tell her though, right? Girls don't just wait around forever for someone."
Pepper smiled and pulled a pad of paper from her purse, this was actually what she had been born to do. She was a Cupid and destined to help people find the right person to fall in love with, and then get them there. She had been working at her father's matchmaking business for nearly 3 years now as she also went to school. She was almost done with her college degree, and her dad had said that she could join the firm full-time.
When Chris and Madison returned 45 minutes later, Pepper had just finishing outlining Tom's 5-Step plan to asking Sarah out on a real date. Chris smiled and shook his head. He knew that he couldn't leave any of the girls alone around single men without them at least trying to match them up. He gave a small cough and Pepper looked up with a smile.
"It was so nice to talk to you, Tom. Just remember what I told you and stay calm." Pepper handed him the sheet of paper, and gave him a quick hug goodbye.
"Hey Chris," she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "How was your session? Are you feeling better and more mobile? Wanna run a marathon yet?" Pepper gave a quick laugh.
"I'm feeling about the same, Pepper. Can we head home? I want to lay down and get some rest." Chris passed a hand over his forehead and wiped away some sweat.
Frowns passed over Pepper and Madison's faces, Madison reached forward and grabbed his arm. "We should get you to the car, I think we overdid it today."
The two girls worked him out to the car and got him down into the passenger seat. Pepper frowned some more as she looked at her cousin's pale face. This had gotten to be ridiculous, HJ should just heal Chris. They could move him back to San Francisco if he was that worried about people thinking it was odd he wasn't as injured as he should be. She turned to Madison, "Is there anything that I should be on the lookout for? Odd reactions or symptoms that mean he needs to go back to the hospital?"
Madison pushed hair out of her face and thought before she spoke. "He should be fine, he was pushing more today than I should have let him. Chris knows that he can't go back to work this summer, but it's like he has to be back in top form for some reason."
"Chris has never liked being sick or hurt for any reason," Pepper admitted. "I'll keep an eye on him and tell Mellie and Prim to do the same. Primrose and I are hanging out for a few more days anyway, wanted to see where Melinda had decided to put down some roots. Well," Pepper held out her hand. "It was really nice to meet you, Dr. Drake."
Madison shook Pepper's hand, she thought she felt something like an electric shock race up her arm at the contact. "Call me Madison, please. I hope to see you around."
She waved them off as Pepper pulled out of the parking lot and the frown returned as she thought of Pepper Halliwell. She had felt that electric shock before, when one of her family members was trying to use power on her. Generally, it was when one of the empaths was trying to read her, and now she felt it from Pepper.
Madison turned back into the building and was absolutely shocked when she walked into the lobby and saw Sarah writing down her number and address for Tom while agreeing to a dinner and movie date for the next night. She had known that Tom had deep feelings for Sarah, but she had also known that he didn't have the nerve to actually ask her out.
She followed Tom into the staff breakroom where he was smiling ear to ear and clutching the little piece of paper tight in his fist.
"Tom! I'm so proud of you. How did you work up the nerve to finally ask Sarah out?" Madison opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water, attempting to look casual.
"Uh, your patient's cousin was really helpful. She had a lot of great advice on how to approach her and be calm enough to ask her out." Tom shrugged and blushed a little. He glanced down at the piece of paper again and smiled, he couldn't believe that he had finally asked Sarah out.
"Really?" Madison twisted open the water. "It must have been great advice for it to work so quickly."
Tom didn't seem to notice the suspicion in Madison's voice, he was looking through movie times on his phone. "Yeah, she just seemed to know exactly what would help me out," he laughed and glanced up. "It's like she was psychic or something, right?" Tom grabbed a soda and headed out to meet his next patient and see what movie Sarah was interested in. He laughed once more and waved as the door closed behind him.
Madison leaned against the counter deep in thought, she tapped her fingers against the water bottle and frowned. The questions about the Halliwell family seemed to be stacking up instead of being answered. Gavin had said that Melinda was his soul mate, but they clearly needed to learn more about her family, there was more to the story here than appeared on the surface.
Pepper glanced over at Chris as she drove them home. She was glad to see that there was more color in his face and that the lines of strain on his face had eased. She had been genuinely been worried about him when they had started back.
"You can scoot the seat back more if you need to," Pepper said as she navigated the first set of switchbacks.
"Huh?" Chris seemed to snap out of his thought at the sound of her voice.
"The seat," Pepper repeated. "You can move it back if you need more room."
"Oh, I'm good. I feel a lot better now than I did when we left." Chris stretched his good leg a little and tried to put more weight on that side in the seat. He had overdone it at therapy, but he knew he needed to get back in shape. The family was in danger everyday that one of them was down, it wouldn't take long for demons to catch wind that he was hurt. He glanced over at Pepper's speedometer and frowned. His hand slowly crept back toward the chicken stick and gripped it tightly.
Pepper felt annoyance creep up her spine at his reaction. She had literally gotten zero speeding tickets or been in an accident of any kind in 3 months! That was a new record and no one in the family was giving her the recognition that that accomplishment deserved. She glanced at Chris again and saw his hand whiten on the bar as she navigated a turn and felt her anger boil over.
"I noticed that you really seemed to like Madison. Any reason you decided not to mention that you had a hot young doctor to anyone?"
Chris felt his jaw tighten in anger, he had made a point of over the years of not telling his family about his relationships. This moment, trapped in Pepper's car had just climbed to the top of the list of reasons why.
"Stay out of it, Pepper. It is none of your concern."
"Oh really? Because it looks to me like your crush on Madison Drake is the reason you refuse to let HJ heal you! The FAMILY is all in more danger because you aren't at a hundred percent right now. So pull your head out of your ass and let someone heal you and then just ask her out!" Pepper shouted at her cousin. She felt the anger, concern, and fear that had been swirling in her since she heard of Chris's attack. She still couldn't believe that Chris was refusing to let anyone heal him.
"LEAVE IT ALONE!" Chris bellowed back. He normally never yelled at one of his cousins or Melinda. But, he could not handle this conversation right now, it was bringing up issues that he didn't want to talk about. He felt the deep guilt over being hurt start to swell back up and stress clamped down on his head and shoulders.
Pepper's eyes widened in shock at Chris's tone. For all the crap they had slung at him growing up, he had always just shrugged or walked away. She couldn't remember once in her life when Chris had actually yelled at her, Wyatt would yell, but it was usually empty threats.
Pepper snapped her mouth shut and gave all her attention to the road. She couldn't even bring herself to look at him, and felt tears begin to gather in her throat and sting her eyes. She was terrible at confrontation and usually cried when someone was mad at her.
Chris sighed as he heard Pepper sniffle. He knew that she tended to cry when someone was mad at her or yelled at her. He ran his hand through his hair and shifted in his seat. "I'm sorry I yelled Peps. But, I really don't want to talk about it." He leaned over and patted her arm, "I'm really sorry."
"Don't worry about it," Pepper managed to squeak out. She could still feel the tears gathering. "I don't want to talk anymore." She leaned over and turned on the radio to drown out any more attempts of Chris trying to apologize. Chris, for his part, didn't try and turn it off for once.
Melinda weeded her garden in the bright sunlight. Pepper had texted that she and Chris were on their way back to the house and Melinda had wanted some quiet time before they arrived. Despite the fact that it was technically the end of summer in Northern California, her flowers and plants still thrived. It was one of her gifts that was less obvious, the ability to keep plants thriving and healthy. Her mom had had the same gift to a much lesser extent. Apparently it was one of the reasons she had been such a good cook, she had known the right ingredients to pick.
Melinda smiled as she looked over the symbols of her family that she had planted when she had first bought the cottage, the poppies, peppers, primroses, pennyroyal, and patience geraniums always made her smile when she was missing her family. She could sit out here and feel their presence and remember what it meant to be a Halliwell. No matter the distance, it the end of the day she was a Halliwell witch and nothing would ever change that.
She looked up when she heard tires crunching on the gravel driveway, she had expected to see Pepper's cute little sedan and was surprised to see a police cruiser pull up. She leapt up from the bed she had been working on and quickly walked to the gate. Melinda knew that Pepper had finally gone some months without getting pulled over by the police, but the switchbacks were dangerous. She mentally berated herself for not just taking Chris to his appointment herself or making Primrose do it. Granted, they had still been in the woods when they had left, and Primrose was now teleconferencing with P3, but still.
Melinda saw Gavin get out of the car and slowed her steps. She now had an idea that there wasn't anything wrong with any member of her family, but that she was in a little trouble. She couldn't deny to herself anymore that she thought he was attractive and she got a pull in her gut when she saw him. But, she also couldn't keep herself from thinking of all the issues and problems that her family had with love and relationships.
"Hey," Gavin stopped at the gate and gave her a small wave. "I was driving by and thought I would see how everything is going. With, Chris and all," he added hastily at her slight frown.
"Oh," Melinda said awkwardly. "Well, he's fine. Pepper and him should be back soon from his physical therapy appointment if you wanted to see him." Melinda couldn't figure out how to feel at seeing him. She had been so shut down to the idea of dating that she couldn't figure out what do with her hands or anything. She was torn between keeping the gate tightly shut and opening it to invite him in.
"Ah, no I don't really need to ask him anything right now." Gavin drummed his fingers along the top of the gate, he couldn't figure out why he found it so hard to talk to this woman. Normally he had all the moves, but the scent of her perfume and the burning in his hand was distracting him.
"You have a really nice garden," he said with a broad sweeping motion toward the house. "Do you spend a lot of time working on it?"
"Thank you," Melinda beamed a smile at him and Gavin felt his heart give a little lurch at the sight. "I do spend a lot of time on it, but it doesn't feel like work when you're doing something you enjoy."
Feeling positive that he managed to say something right, Gavin tried asking for date.
"Hey, I know this might not be a welcome question." Gavin felt sweat start to slide now his back as her smile faded and Melinda started to look more nervous. "I was wondering if you would like to grab a cup of coffee or walk on the beach? My family has access to the private area of the beach from the Drake House and we could walk and see the seals. My aunt Abby is a marine biologist and she said they will be in along the beach the next few days."
Melinda hesitated and looked his earnest face. As she thought of saying yes, she could hear the echoes of her mother and father fighting in the back of her head, but as she thought of saying no she could also hear Primrose reminding her that love is different for all people. She took a deep breath and took the plunge.
"I would love to walk on the beach with you." Melinda finally said. She smiled and Gavin quickly returned it.
"Great, I'll come and pick you up around 2? I know you work nights and I don't want to make you late for the club."
"2 works for me. Here, let me give you my number in case anything comes up and you have to cancel or anything." Melinda leaned over the gate and gave Gavin the number for her cell phone. As she was finishing, she saw Pepper's car pull up. She started to wave when she could see that Pepper had been crying and Chris looked guilt stricken.
Melinda frowned and pushed the gate open to walk over to the car, Pepper tended to cry really easily, but Chris hadn't been the reason behind that since middle school.
"What happened?" She asked as she put her arm around Pepper's shoulders.
Pepper gave a huge sniff and started crying again, "Chris yelled at me." Pepper grabbed onto Melinda and cried harder. She looked over at Chris helplessly and he gave a shrug and started to limp back to the house.
Gavin spoke from behind her and scared her. She had forgotten that he was there. "I've got to head back to patrol. Do you need help with her?" He gestured at Pepper and Melinda could clearly see that as any man, he was scared of the crying girl.
"I've got her, Pepper cries all the time this isn't unusual." Melinda assured him. "I'll see you tomorrow afternoon."
Gavin heaved a thankful sigh and waved back to his cruiser. He glanced back as he started down the road and saw Primrose come out of the house to help Melinda. He wondered what could have possibly happened to cause that scene. He decided to put that out of his mind and focus on his first date with Melinda. His family was having a big family dinner that night and he could talk to his cousins and see what was a good idea and what would be a bad idea.
Melinda held Pepper as she watched the cruiser disappear down the road. She hoped that she hadn't made a mistake agreeing to the beach date, but knew she would feel stupid calling and canceling it.
She felt Primrose come up behind her and sent up a prayer of thanks. Primrose was one of the few people that was able to calm Pepper down when she got upset.
"Ok, what's going on? Chris has just now locked himself in his little bedroom and you are out here sobbing. Did something bad happen at physical therapy? Did you hit something with the car?" Primrose pulled Pepper upright and handed her a tissue to wipe her face with. "No more crying, calm down, lets go and sit in the garden and figure this out."
The girls walked to a little table with benches that Melinda had near the back door to the kitchen. She liked to sit out there in the summer and drink her coffee, or eat when the weather was really good.
Pepper sat down and wiped at her face, "I'm sorry for being such a mess and scaring off the hot guy, Mellie. I got in a fight with Chris and he yelled at me." She turned sad eyes to her family that appealed for understanding. "He has never yelled at me before. I know I upset him, but he has never yelled at me before."
Melinda sighed and rubbed Pepper's back. "Look, Chris is hurt, in pain, and frustrated that he can't firejump for the rest of the season. He's been a little more touchy recently and I think we need to remember that when we are teasing him. I'm sure he is sorry that he made you cry."
Pepper nodded, "He said he was sorry in the car. But, I really don't understand why he won't let HJ heal him. A demon could attack at any moment and he could get really hurt because he isn't at a hundred percent." Melinda stiffened and leaned away from her cousins. Primrose noticed and raised an eyebrow.
"We have already talked about this," Melinda said shortly. "His injuries are part of a criminal case and he has a doctor here that is treating him. If we healed him now there would be repercussions that we can't even think of. Let's table the healing Chris argument, now." She stood up and started walking toward her gardening tools that she had abandoned earlier.
An awkward silence filled with tension settled over the garden, with Melinda at one end and her cousins sitting at the other.
"Do you still want to go to town?" Primrose asked Pepper. "Melinda and I couldn't find anything in the woods and we think it would be a good idea if one of us stayed in Sea Haven and helped keep an eye out for the demon."
Pepper slowly nodded and looked over at her cousin's stiff back, "Yeah, we need groceries anyway and we need to get a better lay of the land too." She inclined her chin toward Melinda and raised her eyebrows at her sister. Primrose nodded and got up to walk over to Melinda who was now violently removing deadheads from her flowers.
"Mellie, we wondered if you wanted to go to town with me and Pepper. I saw that Gavin was here, is there anything going on that we could have some girl time over?" Primrose knelt down next to Melinda and laid a hand on her shoulder.
Primrose was glad to see that Melinda hadn't been crying, but she had the same look on her face that she got when Uncle Leo had been to visit. One of blankness that didn't convey how upset she was inside.
"Girl time?" Melinda asked, she removed another deadhead and dropped it in the basket.
"Yeah, like in high school when we would stay up all night talking about boys and eating too much chocolate. Except now, it's shopping for groceries and home before 6 so you can go to work!"
Melinda sighed and looked over at her cousin, the hopeful look on her face made her cave. "Ok, yeah we can go into town. There's a little shopping area with a quilting store, yarn, and blown glass. Pepper will like that and hopefully she will forget that Chris made her mad and we can have a calmer evening than we did afternoon."
Primrose smiled and gave a thumbs up behind Melinda's back at Pepper.
The girls were walking down the sidewalk of Sea Haven's business district and eating ice cream a few hours later. As all things with family, the fight had blown over nearly as soon as it had started. They had peered into several stores and Melinda had bought an enormous amount of fabric at the quilting store. Pepper had purchased a glass vase for Phoebe's birthday and several ornaments she would hide until Christmas.
Primrose and Pepper were unsuccessfully trying to pull out of Melinda what had happened with Gavin earlier that afternoon before they went to the grocery store. Primrose had gleefully filled Pepper in on who he was, and both half- Cupids were determined to get Melinda to agree to go out with him.
Melinda laughed and pitched the last of her napkins in the trash can, "I'm not telling you what happened. You two are hopeless romantics and you will drive me crazy with all your ideas and stuff!"
She laughed again and shifted one of the bags she had on her arm and was about to suggest they stop at the car to drop stuff off before heading to the grocery store when she saw Brody heading down the street to them. He was wearing his sheriff's department uniform and she hoped that he was on his way somewhere and wouldn't stop and talk to her. It would just add fuel to the fire that Primrose and Pepper were building.
To her dismay, Brody was heading straight for them and stopped in front of them.
"Hey Melinda, how are you? Are these your cousins?" Brody gave them a smile and pulled his sunglasses off. He hooked them in the V of his shirt and held his hand out to Primrose.
"I'm good, and yeah these are my cousins Primrose and Pepper. They are staying for a little to help me get Chris to his doctor's appointments and then heading back to help Aunt Phoebe with her business and the bar we have, P3."
Brody laughed, "Is P a big family thing? Aren't you a little left out?" He shook Primrose and Pepper's hand and Pepper flipped her hair over her shoulder and gave him a big smile.
Melinda shot her a look and responded to Brody's question with a smile. "Well, I didn't actually get left out. My actual first name is Prudence, it was my aunt's name and she passed away before any of us were born. I was the first girl born so I was Prudence, but everyone decided to call me Melinda." She gave a shrug and laughed. "I actually prefer Melinda, I think Prudence is a little old fashioned."
Brody laughed as well, "I would probably prefer not being Prudence as well." He started to say something else, but was drowned out by the sound of a motorcycle roaring down the road. He turned thinking it was his uncle or a member of the Torpedo Ink that his uncle rode with. But it wasn't a rider that he recognized.
"Is that who I think it is?" Pepper leaned forward and quickly fixed her hair again. She gave a huge smile and wave as the biker pulled over where they were standing in the sidewalk.
The man swung off his bike. His jacket was bare of any rockers and just had the image of a wolf baying at a full moon sewn into the back. He reached up and pulled off the helmet, revealing a handsome face and messy honey-brown hair. He stashed the helmet in the compartment on the back and walked over to them.
Brody's eyebrows nearly climbed into his hair as the stranger smiled and swung Melinda into a huge hug and gave her a quick smacking kiss.
"Ethan!" She cried out and gave him a hard hug in return. "What on earth are you doing in Sea Haven?"
"It's a work thing for the family. What are all of you doing here? I heard that you opened a new club here, but I didn't know that Primrose and Pepper had moved up too." He turned and gave them strong hugs as well, but Brody noticed that neither of them got a kiss.
"We are just visiting until Chris is better," Pepper answered. She gave him another wide smile and played with her hair.
"What happened to Chris? I've been traveling a lot for work and haven't checked in for updates in a while." Ethan leaned back against his bike and looked at the girls with concern.
"It's a whole thing. You can come over for dinner tonight and we'll explain. Oh, sorry this is Brody Prakenskii. He works for the sheriff's department." Melinda gestured toward Brody and Ethan stood up to shake his hand.
"Nice to meet you," Ethan said. "I'm Ethan Woolton. We are old family friends, and I knew that Melinda was living up here so when work brought me here I thought I would check on her. Wanted to see the new club too, I heard that's awesome."
"Do you kiss all your old family friends?" Brody asked. He gave Melinda a long look. She frowned back at him not understanding why he seemed so mad.
"Well, Piglet and I did go to prom together her senior year," Ethan sent her a lazy smile. Melinda gave him a scolding look and he tipped back his head and laughed. "Oh, Mellie you know I have to yank your chain every so often!"
Brody's mouth thinned into a line and he continued to frown as he looked at Ethan.
Melinda shook her head, but a smile tugged at her lips. "I'm happy to see you, but really Ethan? You are so outrageous." She turned and looked at her cousins and they also shook their heads in amusement. "Well, the guest rooms are all full currently, but the couch is open and more than comfortable. Where are you staying?"
Ethan gave a shrug, "I was planning on camping, but staying with you is definitely preferred. I have everything I need on my bike. Are you heading back now?"
Melinda shook her head, "No, I still need to go to the grocery store and I need to grab more things now that you are here. You still eat like a teenage boy. But, here," she pulled a notepad out of her purse and scrawled down her address. "Chris is home, if you call him before you head up it'll give him time to get to the door and let you in."
Ethan took the paper and folded it into his jacket pocket, but looked at Melinda with a frown. "Why does Chris need time to get to the door? Actually, why is he here? It's still fire season."
Pepper and Primrose both started to open their mouths to answer when Melinda cut them off. "It's a really long story, and probably one that we should all tell together. Over dinner?"
Ethan slowly nodded and gave them all hugs again, "Sure, dinner is fine." He held out a hand to Brody. "It was nice to meet you."
"Same, nice to meet you. Hope to see you around while you're in town."
Brody shook his hand and tried to get a read off the guy at the same time. He couldn't sense any lust or attraction to Melinda, but he still didn't trust him. He had seen Melinda's house and there wasn't that much room between the couch and her room. Brody quickly said goodbye to the girls as well and returned to his interrupted patrol. He was debating about telling Gavin, but the town was small enough that someone would tell him that Melinda had a guest staying with her and that the guest was a man. It would be interesting to see how that would go.
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