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CHAPTER THREE

Laurel and Thayer lay facing each other, the covers draped over them. "Well, that was unexpected," Laurel remarked with a smile.

"But not unwelcome?"Thayer checked.

"Definitely not,"she agreed.

Thayer found himself agreeing with her. Making love to her had felt like a special experience. The fact that he even thought of it as making love told him that. For those few minutes when their bodies had been joined, his mind had blocked out the real reason he was doing this, the directions from Rebecca. Instead he had been focused on her, on making her happy. He would never pretend for one moment that he was in love with her but he recognised she was a good person. Emma's sister. Maybe if he could have a connection with her, it meant he could have it with Emma too.

"So, uh, are you a Mercer girl groupie or something?"Laurel suggested.

Thayer lightly ran his fingers along the side of her naked body. "This was all about you, I promise."

"And, er, is it going to happen again?"

Thayer could have made an excuse then, told her he had somewhere to be, that they'd see each other later. But instead, with a smile, he pulled her body closer to his, kissing her intensely as they wrapped themselves around each other.

Sutton scanned the egg section at the store, wondering exactly how she was expected to know which of the sizes and quantities she needed and wishing that she'd thought to ask when volunteering to make the trip. Finally, she settled on a large box of medium sized eggs. As she lifted it down off the shelf and turned towards the counter, she collided with someone. "Whoops, sorry!"she noted before she realised who it was. Dan.

"How are your eggs?"he asked.

Sutton opened up the carton and examined them. "No breakages."

"That's good. Why are you buying eggs anywhere?"

"Mum and I used up a load this afternoon. Long story." Sutton noticed the large bag of shopping that he was carrying. "And what have you used up?"

"Well, I wasn't going to trust Ethan with the weekly shopping. Trials of a single parent."

"Yeah, I think Mum's just finding out about those. Fortunately, she does trust me to buy…eggs." Sutton coughed slightly. "So I haven't heard from you since my offer, so either you're fine or you don't want to talk to me about it."

Dan smiled. "Bit of the former. I've got you on speed dial if I ever feel like crying down the phone at someone."

Sutton touched his arm lightly. "Consider me your personal Samaritan."

"It would have been quicker by bike,"Ethan remarked as he and Emma approached the Mercer house.

Emma shook her head. "Trust me, given how sore I am at the moment I don't feel like wrapping my legs round anything any time soon." She paused, realising how that could be miscontrued. "I mean…"

"Yeah, I got it,"he confirmed.

She smiled. "I had fun though. Thanks for arranging it."

"My pleasure." They stopped at the bottom of the drive and he gave her a quick kiss. "You can find your way from here?"

"I think I can manage." Emma watched him go then turned to head up the drive.

"Emma."

Emma turned at the voice and found Rebecca standing there. "What do you want?"

"To talk,"Rebecca replied. "I thought…maybe we could start again."

Emma shook her head. "Look, I'm glad you're not a murderer but we're past the point where you can start being my mother. You should have told me. When I first saw you out the back there, you could have tried to be my mother then. You told Sutton but I got left out. Again. You had sixteen years to get in touch with me and you just left me in care."

"I didn't know about any of that,"Rebecca protested. "That wasn't the life I wanted for you. I wanted for you and Sutton to grow up together, in a loving home. It was Alec who split you up, Alec who put you in care."

Emma paused at the last comment. "What do you mean?"

"When he found that Annie Hobbes took you from the family he placed you with, he was scared that she knew I was your mother, that people would find out he'd arranged the adoption. So he started that fire, let Annie think you were dead and paid to have her locked away in the mental hospital."

Emma had long suspected something like that had happened but she'd pushed it aside when she'd accepted Alec as an ally. "What happened to Annie?"

Rebecca looked awkward. "I don't know. Once I found her and Sutton and got her to put on that show at the hospital, I gave her some money and told her to go and start somewhere else."

Emma was glad. Although she didn't remember their time together, she suspected Annie had looked after her better and loved her more than anyone else until she'd come to Scottsdale. She wondered what her life would have been like if Alec had left them be.

Rebecca went on. "Alec got you out before the fire and took you to social services. He told them your name was Emma Becker, lost you in the system."

"Well, it's not,"Emma replied. "It's Emma Mercer. I thought for a long time they weren't really my family but they are. Ted's my father, Sutton and Laurel are my sisters."

"And Kristin?"Rebecca asked.

"Kristin…is the only woman who's ever made me feel welcome in her home."

Rebecca stared at her for a moment, then turned and headed off back down the road, barging past Laurel as she did so. Laurel stared after her then turned to Emma. "What did she want?"

Emma shrugged. "For me to ignore the last few months. What are you doing here anyway?"

Laurel grinned and took her hand. "Let's find Sutton. There is something I so need to tell you both."

Emma and Sutton were sitting side by side on the edge of the bed in Sutton's room. Laurel sat opposite them in a chair, an innocent look on her face. "You slept with Thayer?"Emma repeated, still trying to process the information Laurel had just given them.

Laurel nodded, the ghost of a smile on her face. "Yep."

"Why?"Sutton asked, slightly bemused.

"'Cos he's a nice guy." Laurel looked to Emma for support. "Right?"

Emma shifted awkwardly. "That…is pretty much why I slept with him, yeah." She looked at Sutton. "You too, right?"

"No, I pretty much slept with him because I could."

"I get that it's weird that all three of us have been there,"Laurel continued. "But he's good-looking and he's older and he makes me feel good and it's not like either of you's still interested in him. And I want to keep seeing him and that'll be a lot easier if you two are all right with it. Are you?"

Sutton shrugged. "Well, you haven't had any action since Justin so I can see why you'd go there."

Emma was more cautious. "Do you love him?"

"No,"Laurel answered, bemused. She hesitated. "I mean, I guess I could but at the moment it's just two of us hanging out and enjoying spending time together. It's just been the once. Well…twice, technically. That's all right, isn't it?"

Emma hesitated, torn between wanting Laurel to be happy and being concerned about her casual attitude. In the end, the first one won out. "If it makes you happy, then yes."

What none of them knew was that Rebecca hadn't left the property. She was in the back garden, looking in through the window at the three girls, seeing how happy Laurel looked and how Sutton and Emma both accepted it. She smiled. Everything was going according to plan.

End of Episode Six