Isla dabbed her tongue over her dry lips, trying to coax the words out of her mouth to ask him leave. It was hard, he’d been the only person who had been there for her since Luca’s death. Everyone else had been so wrapped up in their own grief and pain, not that she blamed them. But Asher had been there. He called, texted, reached out to her in person and made her feel okay again. Isla opened her mouth to ask him to leave when Scarlet interrupted, stepping into the room and giving her speech. Isla was stunned, as Scarlet planted a kiss on her cheek and left the room. “We’ll… see you downstairs I guess..” Isla mumbled, knowing she couldn’t take back what she’d said to Asher now. She was sure that she’d hurt his feelings.
Isla got dressed, into a sundress and a pair of sandals, finishing her morning routine and applying her lipstick just so. Her hair was in a messy, half up-do, and she donned a pair of sunglasses. “I’m glad that they’re giving you a chance.. But I still mean what I said. I think that we should take things a bit slower. I’m still mourning over Luca.. and I don’t know what I want for the future yet..” Isla added softly, the dark tinted sunglasses hiding her eyes and hiding the fact she was refusing to look at him. “C’Mon..” Isla reached out a hand and took Ashers, the two headed downstairs and with the rest of the family. They piled into the car and headed to the pack, just on the outskirts of the town square, adjacent to the forest. Hope went running straight to the playground and Isla joined her, holding the little girls waist as she used her hands to grip and swing from the monkey bars. Hope didn’t fear falling because she knew that her big sister would always be there to catch her.
Alistair’s lips stretched into a smile as he watched his two daughters together. He was thankful that despite their massive age difference that they got along well. He unloaded the car, laying out a massive red pleated picnic blanket. Scarlet walked over with the picnic basket and sat it down alongside the blanket. They spread out the food, sandwiches, wraps, fresh fruit and veggie sticks, an array of nuts and dried fruits too. All the healthy kind of food he wanted to introduce Hope to as she learnt to eat more human food. Granted, she would eventually have a thirst for blood to quench too. He was just thankful she didn’t yet. Dawn and Scarlet sat down on the picnic blanket under the shade and started to chat, catching up on everything they had missed in one another’s lives during their time apart. Alistair looked at Asher, watching Isla, keeping his distance a bit. He wasn’t sure what Isla had said to the boy but he was clearly still reeling.
“Hey Asher… Go along!” Alistair called out as he pulled a football out of the trunk of his car, wanting to initiate a friendly game of football between the two. He supposed it would be a good time and excuse to lay down the law with him. To tell him that if he harmed any of the girls in Alistair’s life that he would suffer for it. He’d had his guard up a little since his chat with Scarlet, he couldn’t lie. But he was trying to be fair to Asher. He’d never given him any reason not to trust him before. They had the same values and beliefs, that’s why they were both hunters. Or so he thought.
“So… Isla.. How’s that going?” Alistair started lamely, he’d never been one to question Isla’s boyfriends and it felt strange. But he’d promised Scarlet he would try his best. “What are your intentions with my daughter? I only ask because she’s in a.. delicate place right now after Luca’s death. So if your intentions are to only play with her heart.. I’ll have to insist you leave, right now.” Alistair continued, wanting to start out slow before he really laid down the law with the man.
“So this is what having a family is like huh?” Dawn said as she helped Scarlet lay out the picnic blanket, causing Scarlet to chuckle as they had spread out the food and watched the others go off and do their thing. She watched in awe as Hope had followed every one of Isla’s movements and was glad because of her disappearance and their time together they had gotten close despite their age.
“Yeah mum, if this is getting too much for you I understand you want your own space” Scarlet added, not wanting to overwhelm her mother as she just got back into her life.
“No honey, not at all that’s not what I’m saying…it’s nice” Dawn replied, not wanting her daughter to know she was leaving any time soon. “This is a nice park though,” She said as her eyes gazed around the area, taking in the nice day the two were having.
“Yeah… I used to take Luca up here all the time, when we didn’t have money for vacations this was our little get away from home” She informed her mother of the good times she had with her brother, as she pointed to across the lake, “That’s a camping ground right over there…. Luca and I went too one night and he had shit his pants so much we had to pack our things and go back home because he was too scared to sleep in a tent even with me” Scarlet said with a chuckle, as she had recalled the night the two had ran back home in the dark.
Dawn laughed, as she can imagine the situation through and through. Scarlet was only sixteen at the time of her families disappearance, and Luca was four, she can just see it how it all played out and even though Luca had only been four, she knew that was something her boy would do, “Yep…sounds like Luca, scared of his own shadow” She said, laughing.
Scarlet had gazed over the park, looking over at Alistair, she knew what he was up too and she couldn’t help but try and listen to their conversation.
“Uh…. Don’t you dare” Dawn said as she grabbed under her chin, getting her daughter to look at her. “Trust him… don’t eavesdrop…” She stated seeing what her daughter was doing and trying to listen into the man’s conversation. “Trust will have to come along with marriage you know, you have to let your guard down sweet heart, not everyone is out here trying to hurt you”
“Yeah well that’s kind of hard…considering I’ve been kidnapped twice, been almost stabbed twice… and was close to dying pretty much every day of my life” Scarlet said, although a bit of it was an exaggeration, she was trying to let her mother know her trust didn’t come easily.
“But did Alistair ever try doing those things to you? And I’m talking about even the beginning of your relationship… before it developed into something serious, he never gave you that feeling that he was going to hurt you” Dawn reminded.
“Not until he found out I was pregnant with Hope, but then something changed in him” She said shrugging her shoulders, still to this day she had no idea what flicked the switch, yes it had to deal with him almost loosing his life, and her being there for him but he had seemed to accept it so easy after that.
“People make mistakes, they grow…that’s why life is so beautiful” Dawn continued, as they both watched Alistair and Asher playing football.
“Since when did you become a philosopher of life?” Scarlet questioned, looking back at her mother.
“Since I’ve experienced it…” Dawn replied, as she looked down at her daughter with a smile before looking over at Alistair as she saw him being distracted and looking at Scarlet. “The way he watches you my dear, its like he’s willing to leap in front of you and take a bullet for you or something” She said somewhat surprised a hunter would do that for a hybrid. “How did you convince him to feel like that? A hunter…go against his roots”
Scarlet shrugged her shoulders, as she stood up, “Is that a bad thing?” She responded to her mother, when she had mentioned that her husband to be was willing to sacrifice his own life instead of hers. “I didn’t convince him… he just grew respect for me as a mother, then it had developed into something else… I guess you can’t find it when it’s love you know?”
“It’s an intense thing” Dawn responded, knowing that their relationship was harmless, no abusive traits that she noticed of her husband over the past couple of days and worried her daughter was going down that path. “You’re different with him…wherever you go he goes,” She continued.
“I dunno….I guess, we’re just-”Scarlet said before being cut off.
“In love” Her mother responded as she kissed the top of her daughters head, “I get it… and I’m happy for you my dear, it’s all I wanted”
Asher had ran back as he had caught the ball that Alistair had thrown in the air for him to catch, he was glad he was able to spend sometime with the person in this family he had admired the most. After all these years, he was finally going to be able to tick all his boxes, perhaps once he finally kills the hybrid the two could go on killing sprees of all the supernatural in town, and be in history books to come and as well as learn so much from him. “Yeah Isla” he responded, when he had casually asked about his daughter, he assumed he was doing it from an over protective father point of view. “Going good man, she’s not like anyone I’ve ever dated before” He said before throwing the ball back at the man, running his fingers through his hair, “She’s just so honest, and real you know? Not afraid to be herself and gave me the lay down when we first met” He stated, recalling the night she had rocked up at his bar, and had told him what she wanted and that she clearly didn’t want anything from him… guess things change.
“To make her feel loved again, wanted again” He responded when her father had asked what his intentions were, he didn’t feel intimidated at all, and had kept a straight face when he answered. It was better for the man that way, not to feel weakened by another in sign that he could protect his daughter in years to come. “I assure you, we are taking things slow… how she wants to take them, she actually wanted to uninvited me today, but Scarlet had stepped in and told us that I was allowed” he explained, unsure if the man had taken notice of the conversation that had gone down in the bedroom, “I want her to take control of the relationship, whatever she sees fit for her after Luca died, nobody was the same… I tried contacting her for weeks on end after he had passed but she had refused my calls and then I bumped into her at the beach and the rest was history” He continued, with a small shrug of his shoulders unsure if that’s what the man had wanted from him. “Nothing but good intentions from here on out sir…I give you my word”
