How are you?

Scott grinned and followed Hope out of her office, glad she'd said yes. Not that he'd thought she wouldn't, but at least he knew for sure now that she wasn't holding a grudge for how he'd pushed her away before. "Okay, well... yeah, I'll follow you there." 

Oblivious to anything other than happiness, Domino trotted along behind both of them before obediently veering off to go with Scott to his car. She wouldn't mind being left in the car for a while in the Coffee Bean parking lot...as long as she had at least one toy and one bone to chew on. 

Sitting across from Hope, Scott cradled the coffee up between his hands, just enjoying the warmth. After losing so much weight, it seemed he was cold more frequently, and he'd learned to appreciate hot things like coffee. His good eye focused on the dark, steaming liquid, while his mind tried not to be nervous. For one thing, it was after dark, and for another, being with Hope felt more awkward than it should. 

A small smile creased his lips before he finally looked up at her. "Now that I invited you here, I'm afraid small talk has eluded me. 'How are you' seems rather trite, but I'm not sure what else to say."


Dylan lets Ashlee fall into step beside him, just letting her talk as they stacked the hay bales. He couldn't help it that his eyebrows lifted slightly. He knew she liked Eric - that had been obvious to him since the beginning. What he didn't know was just how much she did like him and wanted him to be around. It wasn't the most foreign thing to him, but through his own experiences with his father, he'd settled on being a loner and couldn't really relate to Ashlee's feelings. That didn't mean he didn't care though. 

"Sorry..." He hefted another bale up on top of the stack. "Can't say that I can relate, but I know Eric pretty well, and I'm sure him being gone's got nothing to do with you. Or your mom, for that matter." 

He paused to wipe some sweat from his brow. "Apart from him wanting to be able to support a family. Doesn't make it any less sucky though." He shrugged. "I gotta exercise a couple horses when I'm done here - wanna ride with me? Might make you feel better." 


Bree's words hit Gunner's heart in such a way that tears pooled in his eyes before he looked away. He said nothing, but just pulled her a little closer and kissed the top of her head. To be safe from his nightmare...that's all he wanted...

...It wasn't until several hours later that his mind wandered to places he didn't want it to. Bree had long since gone to bed, and so had he, but another bad dream had woken him. At first, he'd headed to the kitchen to get a drink, then tried to go back to bed, got up to use the bathroom, went back to bed, then got up again. It was pointless. He was so tired, but his mind was refusing to shut down. 

After throwing on his jeans and a t-shirt, he wandered out into the back yard, letting the prickly grass surround his bare feet. Tucking his hands in his pockets, he stood and stared up at the bright moon. It was a cloudless night, perfect for stargazing. Yet he didn't even want to use his telescope tonight. Even his passion for that had seemed to dwindle.