Alexis hadn't arrived at the park yet by the time Cole pulled into one of the spots along the street in front of it. It was summer, so there were kids crawling all over the playground and a few people lounging in the grass. One guy was playing fetch with his dog, sending a tennis ball flying toward the baseball diamond so that the ball of fluffy fur could scramble after it.

When Cole stepped out of the car, he took a deep breath. The unique odor of urban sprawl was cut cleanly by the scent of freshly mowed grass. This mixed surprisingly well with the mouth-watering aroma wafting over from the promised food truck. Being around all of the people, the smells, and the sounds of traffic in the background, made him feel a little more alive again. He sat on one of the benches in the shade to wait, stomach growling.

Alexis called out to him as she trotted across the street, coming from the direction of the Methodist church, having apparently walked here from the club. She was in a dress today, looking cool from afar, but when she got close, Cole could see her sweating from the walk. He was sweating himself, from just sitting in the shade.

"Ready to try these tacos?" she asked, rubbing her hands together. With her, the only thing more important than gossip was food. Cole trusted that this food truck had to be good if she said it was.

It was good. Through the window he could see the vertical rotisserie that they sliced for the orders. It smelled incredible, smokey, savory, spicy and a little sweet from the pineapple. Cole ordered three tacos al pastor. Alexis ordered twice that. They sat at the picnic tables nearby and shooed wasps away from their sodas while moaning over their tacos.

"Man, I'm going to have to start coming down here more often," Cole licked his fingers. Even the tortillas were spectacular, fresh and soft unlike the corn tortillas from the store.

"You could help with managing the club," Alexis offered for the hundredth time.

Cole shook his head. "It's better if you guys remain unaffiliated. I'm married to Gideon, so if I start messing around with the club, that might put a target on it. There's some kind of gang war ramping up at the moment."

He picked up the third taco, bent to take a huge bite, then chewed it thoughtfully.

"I need to do something though," he said. "Like, it's nice to hang out in Gideon's big beautiful house all day and the staff is there, but it's, you know, their job. And I go to the country club and play tennis..." He shot Alexis a look when she snorted. "And that's good. And I hang out with you and Elijah, but I feel like I'm not doing anything."

"Sweetie, you wanna know what I think?" Alexis asked.

"That's why I'm talking to you about it."

She rolled her eyes. "I think you got too used to running around all the time and don't know how to relax and enjoy the fact that you don't have to do that."

"No, that's not it. Like, yeah, at the beginning it was, but I think, now I'm just...kind of bored." He set down the taco since he was on a bit of a roll, finally talking about this.

"I freaked out on Gideon the other day, you know. Because he wasn't going to tell me Logan was being arrested that day, and then when I said I wanted to go with him to the arrest, he told me to stay home. And we argued. It's just that sometimes he just doesn't think about what I want at all. He just does what he thinks is best. And I guess what I'm trying to say is I think I'm a little stir crazy because I know Gideon doesn't think of me as a piece of furniture or whatever, but sometimes I still get this idea in my head that he does. So I need to get out more, is what I'm saying."

Alexis slurped a bit of juice off the skin between her thumb and forefinger, as she waited to make sure he was done ranting. She'd made it through a whole taco and half of another while he spoke. A flush crawled up his neck that had nothing to do with the summer heat.

"Okay, I think you might be right," she agreed.

Then she took another huge bite of her taco.

"That's it? You agree? I'm asking for some advice here."

"Sounds like you have it figured out," she said around a mouthful of taco. "You need to get out more. Why not go to some art classes or set up a studio downtown instead of always painting at home or set yourself a goal of getting some paintings into a gallery."

Cole thought of Gideon's mother offering to help him with displaying his art in a gallery and shook the thought away.

"Or not," Alexis said mildly, "Do something totally different. You've told me before that Gideon gets more controlling when he's worried about you right? Then take some self-defense classes. Or buy a gun and go to the shooting range." She leveled him with a look. "There, is that enough advice?"

He grumbled as she polished off the last of her tacos.

"Are you gonna eat that?" she gestured to his half-eaten one. He snatched it up protectively and shoved it into his mouth. She chuckled and leaned back, waving off one of the bees hovering around. "You sound like you are feeling guilty for freaking out on him."

He finished chewing and made a face. "Well, it never feels good to fight, does it?"

"Not really, but it's important. It's good to hear..." Her head tilted as she uncharacteristically mulled over her words. Then she released a breath and rolled her eyes. "With Logan, there was no fighting, you know? You couldn't talk to that guy. So, I'm glad you didn't fall into the habit of just letting things go with Gideon. It's good you can tell him how you feel."

She had a point. Gideon was self-assured to the point he was nearly arrogant and not inclined to listen to other people when he thought he was right—just like Logan had been—but he did make an effort to actually listen to Cole. And they had only been married for a few months. Their relationship was a work in progress.

"It's almost like I overcompensate a little since I couldn't ever tell Logan how I felt," he said. "I get all worked up and take it out on Gideon, when a lot of the time he's just taking care of me in the way he knows how. It's not like he deliberately hides things from me, he just...doesn't think to tell me."

That was probably only partially true. Gideon definitely went out of his way to hide a lot of the stuff in his life from Cole. But most of that was stuff Cole was fine not knowing about.

"You've got it made if that's your biggest issue," Alexis told him. "Now, I was thinking about renovating the club. I know you don't want to be involved, but do you want to help me make some plans? I was thinking about all new lighting at least. You know, like cool LED colors and stuff. But first maybe redoing the floor completely. There are those spots everyone always complained about that Logan never fixed. And..."

The rest of the afternoon was spent talking about plans for how the club would operate under her and Elijah. At one point, Cole asked if she needed to get back to Elijah since he was meeting with the lawyers, but she just shrugged and told him Elijah was taking care of all that. So instead they shopped on their phones for new furniture, because if anything in that club needed updating, it was the couches and chairs in the private rooms.

He walked her back to the club because there might be a church and a playground and a banging food truck, but they were only a couple blocks from less savory neighborhoods. Even with Cole beside her, as they walked, at least two cars drove by with the windows down to wolf whistle. One even had the nerve to ask if she wanted a ride.

Cole glowered, knowing he didn't cut as intimidating a figure as Elijah, but he was still a guy. Only to have Alexis laugh and shove him playfully. She was used to this kind of thing.

"After all," she said with a wink, "Only a couple of years ago, I'd have been hopping in his car for that ride."

She was with Elijah now, but there was definitely still something about her that invited attention. Cole didn't know if it was natural or some byproduct of having turned herself into a commodity for so long. He certainly didn't get that kind of attention, but then again, they were different. She was a girl and girls in general invited a different kind of attention. Poor Elijah. As somebody wired to think like a bodyguard, he had to constantly worry about her.

When they got to the club, Cole did dip inside to give the burly bouncer turned club owner a hug, then he jogged back to the park to hop in the car and drive to Gideon's office. It was a drive that made him regret not having a driver bring him downtown today. He always forgot which lane he needed to be in to go straight or turn right or whatever he needed to do, so at the last second he was trying to horizontal merge through bumper to bumper cars driven by bitter, angry people who acted like they'd rather drop dead than do another driver a solid.

He pulled up to the fancy high rise that contained Gideon's office. Out front was a covered drop-off circle like a hotel might have. A mix of taxis, ride shares, and other transport company cars were parked along the curb in front of the doors. Cole joined them, but he got out of the car and, instead of waiting by the passenger door to open it for the person he was picking up, he slid into the passenger seat with a grumble.

When Gideon stepped out of the revolving door, looking every bit like he belonged in a fancy corporate high rise business building, he spotted Cole hunkered down in the passenger seat and laughed.

"Traffic that bad today?" Gideon asked as he settled into the driver's seat and reached back to set his briefcase behind them.

"I had to circle around two different times because I couldn't get into the right lanes in time," Cole complained.

"That does sound like a hassle," Gideon agreed. As he buckled his seatbelt, his eyes swept over Cole. Then, without a word, he put the car in drive and checked over his shoulder to pull away from the curb.

"What?" Cole asked.

"You seem very...normal, for having just heard about Logan's death."

"Hmm, well. Back in the day I really wanted him to die because I thought that was the only way I'd get out of that situation. And I already got to see the life drain out of his eyes when he got arrested. Now, I'm just glad he's out of the way so Elijah can take over."

Gideon's lip quirked as he watched the traffic for an opportunity to pull out onto the road.

"What?" Cole asked again.

"So cold. I have someone murdered for you and you are quote 'glad he's out of the way'. And here I was worrying about how you might react."

"He had it coming," Cole defended, crossing his arms over his chest. They'd planned a lot of it together, after all. And it wasn't like he was someone sheltered who had never heard about murder or been in danger before, never daydreamed about murdering Logan himself. "And you made sure to arrange everything so the people who work at the club would be okay. If anything, taking him out was a service to the community. Now kids won't get entrapped into working for him."

"So...tonight dinner is a celebration?"

"Exactly."