^^ Mel's Mum ^^

"I bumped into Marion the other day in town," My mother said as we sat down for dinner. Ever since I had moved out, I'd joined my mother for dinner once a week, making sure to spend some quality time with her. Every Sunday afternoon I would come round and we'd cook together, before sitting down to eat and catching up with each other's news. Marion was one of Mum's friends and also lived in the same apartment block as me. It had been her who had helped me to get the apartment when I'd moved out.

"How is she?" I asked.

"She's fine. She had some interesting gossip for me." I tensed as I waited for her to continue. "It turns out she's had some trouble sleeping and spends a lot of time sitting by her window at night time." Oh no. I had a feeling I knew where this was going. "Apparently you came home with the Bulldogs a few nights ago."

I nodded slowly, making sure to chew my food a little bit extra to buy myself some time. My mother had grown up in this town too, so she knew all about the Bulldogs. "They come into the café a lot. They dropped me and Shelby home after a night out," I explained.

"She said you seemed to be very close to one of them," She stared at me as she spoke, watching my facial expressions carefully.

"We're just friends, mum. It's a small town, you know what it's like,"

"I know that the Bulldogs have always been here, and yet they never gave me a lift home when I was younger."

I held in a groan. "Mum, seriously, it's nothing."

She sighed and looked at me carefully. "You're old enough to know what you're doing. I just want you to be happy and safe. If you're involved with one of them," She held up her hand when I went to argue. "If you are, just be careful. And make sure he looks after you."

I was stunned. I thought she was going to warn me away from them and tell me to keep my distance. "Thanks, mum," I said, reaching over to squeeze her hand. "But we really are just friends."

"For now," She smirked. She cleared her throat and looked back at her plate. "Have you spoken to your father?"

"He called me last week, just to see how I was. We don't speak unless he calls me. I don't really have anything to say to him,"

She sighed and looked up at me again. "Whatever mistakes he's made, he's still your father," she said, always the peacemaker.

"Well, he should have thought of that before he walked out," I mumbled, before I carried on eating, effectively ending the conversation.

***

"Are you a library book? 'Cos I'm totally checking you out," Ash called out as I carried an order to a table near the Bulldogs'.

I placed the order in front of the customer and turned to face Ash, my hands on my hips. "Wait, are you telling me you can actually read?" I asked him, grinning when the customer I had just served whistled loudly and laughed.

It had been a couple of weeks since I had almost kissed him when I was drunk, and neither of us had mentioned it since then. We had slipped back into our usual routine of him pestering me while I was working and using cheesy chat up lines on me.

"When are you going to go on a date with me?" He asked, grabbing my hand as I walked past him again.

I sighed. "When are you going to give up?"

He grinned at me. "Never!"

"If I say yes to a date, will it get you to shut up?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Probably not, but I'll stop asking for a date as soon as you agree to one."

"Fine. One date!" I groaned.

His eyes widened and his grin did the same. "Seriously? You'll go out with me?"

I couldn't help but laugh at the expression on his face. He reminded me of a puppy who had just been told he was a good boy. "Yes. One date. But I get to choose what we do,"

"Anything you want," he said.

I paused for a moment and pursed my lips, before nodding. "I want to go abseiling in the Grand Canyon."

He didn't even hesitate. "Done. This Saturday?"

I let my own grin break through. "It's a date."

I walked away blushing as Jay and Banjo broke out in cheers and congratulated Ash.

"Finally!" Shelby said as I joined her behind the counter.

"It's only a date! You'd think I'd agreed to marry him!"

"Well, he has been trying to get you to agree for weeks now!" She said with a laugh.

I looked back to where Ash was sitting and caught his eye. My stomach fluttered when he winked at me and grinned. I was so screwed.

***

"It's beautiful!' I sighed, looking at the scenery surrounding us.

"It really is," Ash said from beside me.

When I turned to look at him, he was already staring at me. I raised an eyebrow and laughed. "That was so corny!"

He grinned at me and shrugged. "Maybe, but it's true."

I turned to look around us again. He'd picked me up early that morning and brought me to the Grand Canyon. We had spent the day climbing and abseiling. It turned out he had a friend who ran an activity centre that frequently arranged days out in the Canyon doing various activities, usually with school groups and tourists. Ash had arranged for him to spend the day with us so we could try as many of the activities as possible. The sun was just beginning to set and the whole sky was lit up with bright shades of red and orange.

"Did you mean it when you said you don't believe in love?" He asked me, and I turned to look at him confused. He saw my look and explained. "The first day we spoke, I asked if you believed in love at first sight. You said you don't believe in love at all."

My eyes widened. "I can't believe you remember that!" I laughed. "Yeh I meant it. I've never believed in love. Not true love anyway, you know, like soul mates and 'the one',"

"Why not?" He asked, and when I turned to look at him again, he was fiddling with the dust on the ground around him and avoiding my eyes.

I shrugged. "I've never seen any proof of it. I thought my parents had true love, but my dad walked out as soon as my mum got sick," I let out a disbelieving laugh. "He said he couldn't stand to see her suffer. But that's what love is supposed to be, right? Good times and bad, in sickness and in health." I shook my head again and took a deep breath. "Shelby was 'in love'," I used my fingers to make air quotes as I spoke. "He cheated on her a few months before they were supposed to get married. Everyone I know who thinks they've been in love has been hurt because of it. True love is supposed to overcome everything and last forever. I think it's a load of crap."

"But maybe what they had wasn't real love," Ash suggested.

"Maybe. Or maybe real love just doesn't exist."

We fell quiet for a while and I lay back, feeling the light breeze skim over my face as I closed my eyes. I opened them again as I felt Ash's fingers brush the hair off my forehead.

"I'm gonna change your mind. I'm gonna make you believe," He told me, looking into my eyes.

"Is that right?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

He nodded, before dropping his gaze to my lips. He lowered his head slowly; almost as if he was worried he would scare me away. My eyes fluttered closed a second before I felt his lips on mine. His lips were soft as they moved slowly against my own. I felt him shift slightly as he cupped my face with one of his hands, the other one supporting his weight. The butterflies in my stomach grew wilder as his hand moved from my face and down to my waist, squeezing gently as it settled there. He pulled away and rested his forehead against mine. I opened my eyes and saw that his were still closed.

"That's right," he said, his voice quiet.

***

"So tell me about your family," I said to Ash as we waited for our food. He had brought me to a diner in the next town over after our date.

"They're all back in New York," He told me, and my eyebrows shot up.

"You're a New Yorker?" I asked, shocked. He laughed and nodded. "How does a city boy end up in this tiny town on the other side of the country?"

"I met Jay when we were on active duty,"

I choked on the sip of drink I'd just taken. "You served?" He nodded and I sighed. "I'm beginning to realise that I know nothing about any of you."

He reached across the table and took my hand. "That's the whole point of dating. To get to know each other."

"Yeah I know, but I've known you all for months and I barely know anything at all about any of you."

"We've got all the time in the world," He said, and I nodded. "When Jay and I came home, things were hard. It was difficult to readjust to civilian life. I struggled in New York. None of my family had served since my granddad fought in the Pacific, so they didn't really understand. All of my friends had moved on and were doing their own thing. I broke down to Jay one day on the phone and he invited me out here. I came out for a few weeks initially, and just never went back. Jay understood me, he introduced me to the guys and everything seemed to click out here."

"Wow. I never knew either of you enlisted!"

"We both went straight in when we graduated high school. We ended up in the same unit, which is how we met. We were deployed almost straight away after finishing basic training, so we've known each other since we were little more than kids." He took a long sip of beer and squeezed my hand again. "My parents are both teachers. Mum teaches elementary kids and Dad teaches History in high school. My dad's Italian so it's the typical big family. My mum's family were from Chicago; she and my dad met in college. They had to overcome a lot when they met. People weren't so accepting of mixed race relationships back then, but my dad's family had no problem with him marrying a coloured girl, so she moved out to New York with him and they've been there ever since."

I watched his face as he spoke, and the love he had for his family was obvious. I wondered what it would have been like growing up in a big family. I was an only child, and neither of my parents was particularly close to their families. We only saw everyone at weddings and funerals. My dad had left when I was thirteen, and so it had just been my mum and me since then. I'd known Shelby since freshman year of high school and she had become a part of our family almost immediately.

"Do you think you'll ever go back?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "Only for visits occasionally. This is home now, I'm settled here."

Our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of our food, and we slipped into a comfortable silence as we ate.

***

"Oh my god, that's so romantic!" Shelby gushed as we sat on my sofa. She had come round as soon as Ash had dropped me off that evening, wanting all the gossip.

I nodded and grinned, reaching for another handful of popcorn. We'd put a movie on, but neither of us was really watching it. "He's really sweet," I told her, ignoring her squeals. "He comes across as a bit of a joker, and I never really took him seriously, but there's a lot more to him than he shows at first."

"Just because you're an open book, it doesn't mean everyone is," She laughed, dodging the popcorn I threw at her head. "I'm glad you gave him a chance though,"

I smiled. "Me too. I'm still worried about his lifestyle, but I told him I'm out at the first sign of trouble. He gets it. He knows it's not for everybody, but I'll give it a chance."

Shelby nodded. "That's all you can do. We don't know everything that happens with the club. A lot of what we hear about them and other clubs is just rumours. At the end of the day, we know them pretty well by now and they seem like decent guys. I don't think you'll regret taking the chance."

I decided not to tell Shelby about how little we do know about them. If Ash and Jay wanted people to know they'd served, they would tell them. I didn't feel like it was my place. Luckily I knew Shelby well enough to know that she'd understand. She wasn't one of those girls who feel like they have a right to know everything their best friend did. She also wasn't one for gossip – unless it was about me! - she knew that if she needed to know, she would.