"The French countryside is always great," Brenda whispered in Dylan's ear.
"It's true, I love it..."
They had rented a house in the Borgogne countryside. Dylan wanted to buy shares in a local winery and had decided to take the whole family in Frwnc . After the Blanca/Samuel accident they had only accelerated the journey.
Brenda had tried to talk to her daughter while Dylan couldn't approach the subject. That was his little girl. His family. And the fact that it was Samuel had made him look all more wrong.
Taking her away had seemed to him the most immediate solution but sooner or later they should have returned to L.A.
"Dylan.." said Brenda laying her sunglasses on the table.
"Mmh?"
"What are we going to do on the way back?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know.. Samuel.. and all that"
Dylan darkened.
'I don't know'
"You should talk to her, to Blanca, maybe opposing is wrong"
"You're kidding right?"
"It didn't serve with us"
"We were not and we are not cousins"
"Yes, but opposing will have the opposite effect"
Dylan didn't answer.
, Dylan refused to talk about it, he rejected the very idea that his daughter could have a sex life, he was overprotective for fear of all the mistakes that could be made.
"I'm going to call Brandon" Brenda sighed
Brenda got up taking the last look at Dylan.
'What?' He told her without looking up from the book.
"Nothing, you look like Jimbo"
"Didn't you have to call your brother? Go...go..."
Brenda laughed.
She approached him again.
"You know," she told him, "you're extremely sexy when you're sulking. What is almost always"
Dylan blurted out laughing as she kissed his neck.
"Before you call your brother and hope like Sammy/Romeo is getting away with it, what do you think of a shower together..."
"Mr. MCKay.. there are kids here"
"We're locking ourselves," he replied.
Blanca watched them pass by as they recommended that she keep an eye on Luke and Lee Ann.
She noded her head. She knew exactly where they were going but it was something that amused her in some way.
She took her cell phone. She began to take a look at the bulletin board. She laughed seeing photos of Nate and Samuel on the beach. Funny pose. Emma hugged both of them. SHe should have been there with them. And instead this mess also happened because of her.
Blanca would have liked everything to go back to the way it was before. As before the kiss exchanged with Samuel.
She knew it was wrong, she didn't know how much it would destroy her world.
She heard his mother and father giggle and snorted. She put a pair of headphones on her head and kept stalking her friends on the other side of the ocean. She looked at those few Samuel posts. Open messenger. Maybe he could send her a message. She started writing.. she cancelled.. then another stupid message.. she cancelled.
Open the column on Emma's name "how are things going?"
Sent. No answer. Of course in the US it was the middle of the night, no one would have answered.
It was like living in a parallel universe.
Blanca threw her cell phone on the coffee table. She breathed the air of that magnificent evening with full lungs.
Things would find their place sooner or later. She was sure of it.
Brenda and Dylan were clinging to each other in the shower. They kissed intensely. She wanted him like the first day.
"God Brenda.." he sighed into her in an ear caught in excitement.
She took his face in her hands and looked at him intently. Her face has been furrowed for a few more years but those eyes that could have taken her anywhere and at any time were the same as that dishevelled little boy known in front of the West Beverly lockers.
They should have closed the water and gone to take a look at the boys but in truth at that time there was nothing but him and their history enlarged like a river.
She engrained her legs around his body. He was supporting her from her butt and leaned her against the cold shower tiles. They made love like this.
Los Angeles
Beach club
"Hey Nate"
Nate gave her a distracted smile then his eyes stopped on Emma's body. On the black bikini. On her hair gathered and dishevelled by the wind. Maybe it was the first time he really saw her and he really liked what he saw. It's just that Emma wasn't for him, she couldn't really define why or maybe she had never given her a chance, he had really known her for too long.
"Have you seen anyone?"
Nate shook his head.
"Can I sit here Nate?"
Emma waited nervously standing, he looked at her for a moment.
"I'm sorry.. sit down"
Emma ordered iced tea and then rested her back on the chair.
" Blanca wrote to me these days, she's bored, France beautiful but she's bored"
"She asked about Samuel?"
"To tell you the truth no.. why?" Emma raised her eyebrow looking at him but they were interrupted by Samuel who jumped on the chair.
"Guys it's hot"
Shortly thereafter a couple of girls passed by and greeted him by moving their fingers quickly and he responded to the greeting.
Emma looked at him. The dimples opened immediately and immediately after his white smile contrasted with Sam's tanned complexion.
Emma caught herself staring at him and was hit straight to the heart by Nate's gaze, who smiled at her but with an almost bad smile.
"Are you coming to the party tonight?" Emma asked the boys.
"I think so," Sam replied, "also because Blanca is back tonight"
Emma nodded quickly looking at Nate who instead rotated between her fingers and the table the cap of the bottle just consumed.
"What do you think you're doing with your parents?" Nat asked seriously.
"I don't know, it seems like a forbidden topic, they tried to talk to me about it at the beginning then I don't know, it's as if Blanca's absence has slumbered the matter" Sam stiffened almost immediately.
'And is it so?' Emma asked.
"I honestly don't know. She didn't write me any messages maybe it's over... it was enough to get away a little."
Nate was watching his friend. He knew he was suffering. There were quite a few girls around him, but he didn't seem to see them, not even Emma, who clearly had a crush on him, but it wasn't a declared matter. Emma thought she had no hope and so she was content to be next to him. And then there was the Nate issue. I mean him. It was a violation of the code between boys thinking he could date Blanca, or even just that he liked her, so Nate did nothing but go from one girl to another trying to get over Blanca.
Brandon arrived at that moment, patting Paternal on Nate and Sam's shoulder. He greeted Emma like a gentleman.
To tell the truth Emma liked him a little too, it was like seeing in the future what Sam would look like. They were almost identical.
She smiled embarrassed.
"Why are you dressed as a squash dad?" Sam asked.
"Because in the gym I couldn't find my suit anymore"
", did they steal it from you Mr. Walsh?"
Steve looked out at that moment "exactly" he laughed, throwing a potato chip in his mouth on the fly.
"Isn't that amazing? There are no more clubs than they used to be," sighed Brandon, "Mom and Grace?"
Sam pointed with one finger to the apartment cabin they had been taking for years now.
Brandon smiled and headed in that direction. As soon as Grace saw him he ran towards him and Brandon squeezed her tightly.
"What are you doing baby?"
"I'm playing" he smiled "are you coming too?"
"In a minute, I'm going to at least tell Mom I'm here."
Brandon had no problem sitting and playing in the sand with his daughter, they had long chats. She pledged to understand the smallest secrets, doubts, curiosity of an eight-year-old girl, of her connection with life.
"Hei Kel!" He told her surprising her with a kiss.
"Hei.." she replied softly, "how come you're still dressed like that? Didn't the showers work?"
Brandon let out a vague chuckle.
"No, they worked"
"But someone took his clothes," Steve added as he approached.
'A theft?'
"I actually thought it was him" Brandon moved his eyes in Steve's direction.
"Thank you so much for the trust," Steve monkeyed, "it wasn't me anyway," Steve concluded by sitting heavily on the deckchair.
"So Donna arrived?"
"Not yet, but I think she won't come.." Kelly hissed.
"Why?' Brandon asked, grabbing a fresh drink for him and one for Steve.
Kelly nodded in the direction of David and Valerie laughing in the sun.
"It's been eight years since their separation"
"She can't get over it, I wish she would find serenity"
Kelly watched her half-brother play with Valerie.
It was obvious that he was in love, and to tell the truth she also looked different. David seemed to keep calm Valerie, seemed able to give her a shape, to tame her nightmares.
"Kel?"
"Mmh?" Kelly looked away from David and Valerie and focussed on Brandon's blue eyes.
"Brenda and Dylan are back this evening and so Blanca too, maybe I should talk to Sam a little more?"
"Yes, I think so"
"I mean we can't keep them apart, maybe it was just a moment," Steve added.
"He's had a crush on her since Brenda and Dylan brought her here... it's nothing."
"They're not relatives after all," Steve added.
'So?' Kelly asked irritated.
"And so maybe they should try, they're 16 years old, things at 16 are running out."
"Ohh really?" Brandon asked.
"Of course," Steve replied without thinking.
"Like Brenda and Dylan?" Kelly raised her eyebrow.
"Oh man" Steve laughed.
