Page 90 of Take My Hand

“Dinner’s ready!” Jane’s voice calls out behind us and we both look over our shoulder to see everyone carrying various plates and bowls over to the table.

Hayden claims a seat in the middle on one side of the table, pulling out the chair next to him for me to sit. He presses a kiss to my temple as I step in front of him. “You look beautiful tonight.” His voice is low but spoken with certainty.

I blush at his compliment and place a hand on his knee as we both settle into our seats. “You don’t look too bad yourself,” I tease, but butterflies swirl in my stomach as I drink him in. Dark jeans sculpt his toned legs, his black T-shirt fitted around his arms but loose across his chest. He had tried to push back the hair from his eyes, but has given up and has let the strands fall in soft waves across his forehead and eyes.

I love it when he wears it like that.

Scar sits in the seat directly across from me, with Walker sitting across Hayden. Jane settles in on the other side of Walker, taking up the three seats on that side of the table.

Even though Nikolai is the host tonight, he takes the seat on the other side of Hayden, leaving the head of the table spot open for Reid. He reluctantly takes the seat with a scowl on his face, but with us all seated this way, Jane and Nikolai serve as buffers between Walker, Hayden, and Reid.

And both Walker and Jane serve as a buffer between Reid and Scar, who I haven’t seen speak a single word to each other tonight. Scar said she is willing to let everything go with Reid, but she’s just as grumpy as he is most of the time and she’s clearly not going to go out of her way to be buddy-buddy with him.

So Scar and I are at this end of the table, serving as moral support and can chime in as needed, but also away from the lines of fire. And Jane has the most history with the guys, so putting her smack dab in the middle of them all, hopefully she can help them sort their shit out.

An awkward silence descends as everyone tops off their drinks and waits for someone to make the first move for the food.

A platter of lemon crusted chicken sits in the center, surrounded by bowls of salad, grilled veggies, and a basket of golden rolls.

“Dig in.” Jane waves a hand at the table. There’s still a bass line of thrumming tension underneath the small talk that starts as everyone fills their plates, but for the most part, it’s ignored.

Compliments are raining down on Jane as everyone takes the first few bites and she accepts them with grace, although you can see the confidence in her that she knows she did a good job without them needing to tell her.

Nikolai clears his throat and grabs his glass, holding it in the air. “I’d like to say something quick, before we get too far into things.”

Everyone turns their attention to Nikolai.

“I’m glad to have all of you here tonight. It’s been too long since we’ve done something like this, outside of work, and sat down together as a family.”

Reid averts his eyes to his plate, while Walker and Hayden exchange heavy glances.

“I know we’ve all had a rough go of it the past couple years, especially the last few months,” he continues, and Scar shifts in her chair.

“But it feels good to sit down together. Spend time together. And to have Carter and Scar here”—he tilts his head in our direction—“as well as Little Walker,” he says to Jane. She narrows her eyes at him over the rim of her glass but I don’t miss the slight blush that stains her cheeks at the nickname. He pauses for a moment, searching for the right words. “I don’t know how to fix everything between all of us. There is hurt that runs deep, but there’s also love that runs deeper. I know there is,” he says, emphasizing the last sentence as if to drill it into their heads. “No announcements have been made. No deals have been signed. And I’m not naïve enough to think that one dinner between all of us is going to fix everything, but I’d like to try. We’re only four weeks out from our final show, but it doesn’t have to be.”

His voice is pleading, his hurt bleeding into his words and out through his eyes as he looks from Walker to Reid to Hayden.

“I’m not trying to tank the mood here or anything, but I just wanted to put that out here. That I’m hoping tonight can be the start of a way forward for the four of us, not a stop.” With that, he brings his glass to his lips and takes a long drink.

The rest of us pause a moment, letting his words sink in, before raising our glasses in a half-hearted cheers.

Everyone eats in stilted silence, not sure where to go from there.

Clearly by the four of them all showing up tonight, there is at least part of them that is willing to try to make things work. Even Reid.

Throwing away ten years of history and friendship isn’t easy and while they might not all know how to get through, they seem to want to.

I reach my hand under the table and lay a hand on Hayden’s bouncing thigh. He stills underneath me, and I rub my thumb back and forth in gentle strokes, giving him something to focus on as I know his mind starts to race away from him.

“Oh!” Jane pipes in, breaking the silence, rapidly chewing her bite of chicken before continuing. “Guess who I ran into the other day walking to work?” Her eyes dart around the guys, baiting them into a guessing game, lightening the mood.

Walker and Nikolai throw out a few names I don’t recognize until she huffs with annoyance at the fact that they haven’t guessed correctly.

“Brent Stone.”

The guys exchanged confused looks, earning an eye roll from Jane.

“From high school. He played lacrosse.”

---