One Wild Night

"Was that Janet on the phone with you just now?" Desmond asked Evelyn since he had overheard her mention Andrew's name.

"Yes. Why are you out here? What about Sonia?" Evelyn asked because he had been with Sonia when she left them to come sit by the poolside.

"She is busy working on her novel. I didn't want to distract her so I decided to come distract you instead," Desmond said with a grin, and Evelyn laughed in amusement as she looked down at his abdomen which was bulging from his unbuttoned shirt.

"You should sign up in a gym when we get back. Perhaps Andrew could become your workout buddy. He might be a good influence on your fitness goals," Evelyn said, and Desmond scowled at her.

"Are you comparing me to him? I'm older than he is, you know? Just wait until he gets to sixty and see if he's more charming than I am," Desmond said, and Evelyn laughed as she patted his abdomen fondly.

"You're only older than him by barely five years. If you'd take your exercises more seriously, I'm sure you'd make a more charming older man than Andrew," Evelyn said, and Desmond squared his shoulders.

"Of course, he wouldn't stand a chance. Fortunately for him, I'm not big on abs and all of that. I don't want my sons to feel intimidated by me," Desmond joked, and Evelyn laughed.

"Yeah, right."

"That's beside the point. How are they doing? How's Lucas? And what was that you were telling Janet about dumping someone's clothes in water?" Desmond asked, and Evelyn explained the situation to him.

"You're not that petty," Desmond said, and Evelyn smiled. It was true that she preferred to handle things differently, but that didn't mean she wouldn't bring herself that low for her children if the need arose.

"That doesn't mean she won't derive pleasure from being petty. She sounded really unhappy, and that's the best she can do right now," Evelyn said, and Desmond shook his head.

"Women," Desmond muttered as he picked dup Evelyn's glass of lemonade and drank from it.

"By the way, do you honestly think we handled Simon as we should? I feel we were too easy on him," Evelyn said, trying not to sound too worried.

"Even if Simon disappointed us, and we are mad at him, he's someone we once considered family and we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater. We can punish him by cutting him off, but we can't hurt him. We are better than that, and I'm glad both you and Bryan remembered that," Desmond said, and Evelyn sighed.

"I guess you're right."

"Of course, I am right. Consider the bright side, We got all the evidence Tom can use against Anita from him, and Matt at least attacked him," Desmond said, and Evelyn's lips curved.

"I didn't expect that from Matt. Although I suspect Matt had some bottled up anger inside him and just needed to let it out. Unfortunately for Simon he was at the receiving end," Evelyn said, and Desmond chuckled.

"You're getting better at reading people," he observed.

"When you have been married to a man that reads people like a book for as long as I have, it begins to rub off on you," Evelyn said, and Desmond smiled.

"I hope Matt is okay, though. I wonder what the situation is between he and Candace," Evelyn said thoughtfully.

"Whatever it is, as long as the feeling is mutual I'm sure they will find a way to make it work, like Jade and Harry," Desmond said confidently as he took off his shirt.

"I feel hot, I need to take a dip in the pool," Desmond said as he moved closer to the water.

Evelyn rose from her seat, "You do that, while I check on Sonia," Evelyn said as she walked away from there back to the house.

She stopped by the dining when she saw Sonia seated there, tapping away on her keyboard, "I see you're busy. Can you spare me five minutes?" She asked, and Sonia looked up at her with a cheerful smile.

"You can have more than five minutes. This can wait," Sonia said as she saved her work and closed her laptop while Evelyn sat across from her.

"First of all, I don't want it to seem like I'm prying or anything of the sort. You can choose not to answer my question and I assure you I won't feel offended. I would also love it to be between us..." Evelyn started, and Sonia gave her a nod.

"Your relationship with Bryan is real, right? Not that I doubt that it's real. What I mean is, you're both not just having fun, right? You both have intention to settle down with each other eventually, don't you?" Evelyn asked, and Sonia smiled knowingly.

"We both know you know the answer to that. What you really want to know is how soon before we settle down, am I wrong?"

"No, you're not. I also want to be sure you love Bryan as much as he loves you. I can see he's in love with you, but I don't know about you," Evelyn said, and Sonia laughed softly.

"Trust me, I love Bryan even more than he loves me. I wouldn't have let our fake engagement drag on for as long as it did if I wasn't interested in him. As for your other question, I can't give you any specific time. We want to spend some more time getting to know and understand each other more before getting married. We could choose to get married in a matter of months, or years, like you and Desmond did," Sonia added with a shrug, wanting to let Evelyn know she knew how long it took her to accept Desmond so she wouldn't think of pressuring them.

"Our case was different," Evelyn protested.

"No, it isn't. We all have our different backstories that influence our decisions," Sonia said, thinking about Lucy.

"You don't want a situation where we hurriedly get married only to get divorced shortly after, do you? I believe your desire is to see your children settled and happy with their partners like you are. If that is what you want, don't you think it's best you let them take their time to get there? You raised such capable men, you should trust their decision," Sonia said, and reached out to cover Evelyn's hand with hers when she sighed wearily.

"Maybe you're right," Evelyn said after a moment.

"I don't think there's anything for you to worry about. You should be glad that Bryan is in a committed relationship now. Don't worry, when we are ready, you'll be the first to know about it," Sonia assured her, and Evelyn sighed.

"Alright. I will find something else to calm my grandbaby fever," Evelyn said, and Sonia smiled.

"Don't worry, I'm going to be the one to give you your first grandchild," Sonia promised, and Evelyn smiled.

"You're going to beat Lucy to it?" Evelyn asked, and Sonia nodded.

There was no need to tell her that Lucy wasn't interested in having kids. And judging by how Jade and Harry were behaving, she doubted they would get to that point before her.

"Yes. I'm going to beat Lucy and Jade to it. So you should be good to me, and care for me more specially," Sonia said, and Evelyn laughed softly.

"I will keep that in mind. Speaking of Jade, what do you think about her and Harry? I know you were both discussing it the other night," Evelyn said, and Sonia's eyes sparkled with interest, knowing she was about to hear Evelyn's perspective about Jade and Harry.

"I think they will make a beautiful pair. I'm waiting for Jade to resume at I-Global so we can watch the fireworks. She told you Harry offered her the job, right? I think he probably did so to keep her close, don't you think so?" Sonia asked, and Evelyn's brows arched.

"No, she didn't mention that. Now I understand why she considered going there in the first place," Evelyn said with an amused smile, "You might be right about him wanting to keep her close to him this time, considering how he couldn't do so four years ago," Evelyn said, and Sonia leaned forward in her seat.

"What happened four years ago?" She asked, pretending not to have heard of it from Jade.

She listened excitedly as Evelyn recounted how Harry's eyes had been glued to Jade as she ran down the stairs when he first met her, and how he had followed her around with his eyes during most of his stay there until he left abruptly.

"I think the poor boy couldn't stand being under the same roof with Jade's then boyfriend. I always wished he made a move though. Desmond and I noticed how Jade tried too hard to avoid him, and when I told her he left, she looked really disappointed," Evelyn said in amusement, and Sonia nodded.

"If you liked Harry that much, why didn't you do anything about them?" Sonia asked curiously.

"Desmond doesn't believe in matchmaking people. He prefers we trust our kids to make their decision and only guide them when they ask for help. If it was up to me, Tom would be a pilot, and Bryan would be a medical doctor," Evelyn said, and Sonia giggled at the thought of Bryan being a doctor.

"He's such an amazing father," Sonia said, and Evelyn smiled.

"And a wonderful husband too. I'm glad he always makes me listen to him, else I would have ruined Tom's relationship without even getting to know how wonderful Lucy is," she said, and Sonia smiled.

"What about Bryan's relationship with me? You had your reservations too before you realized I'm amazing too, right?" Sonia asked, making a cute face that made Evelyn laugh softly.

"I did think you were wild when I met you, but Desmond and Jade thought you were exactly what Bryan needed. And yes, I think you're not as bad as I thought," Evelyn said, and Sonia's brows pulled together.

"Not as bad?"

Evelyn smiled, "I still think you're very wild. But you're also a sweet child, so I don't mind," Evelyn assured her.

"I guess I have to make do with that since I also thought you were too strict and old-fashioned, but you're not as bad as I thought either," Sonia said with a silly smile, and Evelyn laughed.

"I can live with that. I should let you get back to work now," Evelyn said as she pulled back her seat and stood.

Sonia stood up too, making Evelyn look at her curiously, and to her surprise Sonia embraced her, "Thank you for accepting me as part of your family, and caring for me yesterday," Sonia said, and Evelyn smiled as she embraced her back.

"Maybe you're not so bad after all," Evelyn said, and Sonia laughed as she pulled away, and watched the woman walk away.

Every member of the Hank family seemed to make her feel lighthearted. And now she was sure that Bryan wasn't just her home. He had given her his family too, and thanks to Desmond's wisdom, she could also see Lucy's family as hers now, and face them without feeling guilty for Jamie's crime or feeling out of place anymore.