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“Before, and yes I threatened to tell him that we’d had a very carnal reunion if she didn’t stay,” Joel admitted crossing his arms in a ‘what about it’ gesture.
“When do you plan on dropping the bomb? Cause the Joel Wright I know wouldn’t sit around and let someone else take what he wants.”
“I’m beginning to see why Paige stays away. You do realize she’s human, don’t you? She’s not a pawn to be shifted around the chess board.”
“Isn’t she? Okay, maybe it’s us who are the pawns and Paige is as always, the Queen, are you going to let that bishop run away with her or are you going to step it up and be the King to protect her?”
“Remind me not to mention anything remotely related to chess to you ever again. Come on let’s go see what Cord’s found out about this Aaron Duvet character.”
When they returned to the fold they found him sitting with Cord, Ed, Bobby, and a dozen others who would likely snap his neck if he so much as hinted that he didn’t truly care about Paige.
“Joel…there you are,” Cord said turning towards him. “You look a million times better; hopefully a nice shower does the trick for Paige too.”
“Can’t argue with you there, she certainly seemed to be in a tizzy on our climb,” he stated and Sam hid a chuckle behind a cough.
“Speaking of climbing Aaron,” Cord said, “what did you mean when you said Paige had agreed to give it up? What happened in Colorado?”
“Nothing Dad,” she answered as she finished braiding her wet hair and twisting it up to stay off her neck. “Hope they haven’t grilled you,” she said offering her cheek to Aaron as she slid onto the empty chair beside him and Maggie settled between them placing her head on Paige’s lap.
“We know every little secret Paige,” Ed joked.
“I know that’s a lie because you’re all still sitting here,” she joked pulling the sleeve of her shirt up to keep it from getting in the food Elaine just delivered.
“What was that?” Cord stated as she turned her arm to reach for the utensils.
“Hmm?” she said pushing the sleeve down to hide the light scar that still showed on her arm.
“On your arm,” he said giving her a questioning look.
“Nothing…a scratch from the climb I think,” she lied.
“You didn’t scratch yourself out there Paige,” Joel argued snatching her wrist and pushing the sleeve up to her elbow. “What the hell?”
“It’s nothing, honestly,” she stated taking her arm back and pulling the sleeve down again. “Fine, I was out in Colorado, on vacation, when we heard that some people had gone missing. I knew a few members of the local search and rescue team, they were the ones I was out there seeing…Tami and Tristan,” she said knowing her team would remember them. “They asked for help so Maggie and I joined them.”
“Maggie?” Sam said looking at the dog. “That thing helped find missing people?”
“It’s what she’s trained to do Sam and the next time you call her a thing I’ll make sure she knows she’s allowed to jump on you whenever she wants,” she threatened ruffling the top of the dog’s head.
“That’s not a dog it’s a mini-horse,” Ed stated.
“She’s a mastiff, and the best one around,” she argued.
“I don’t care about the dog,” her father stated, “how did you get that scar?”
“Well, long story short…I got cut,” she answered.
“Hmph,” Aaron scoffed at her answer.
“Why don’t you bore us with the long version there Paige?” Sam suggested.
“Why? My arm was cut, I got stitches to sew it up and now there’s a light scar that’s still fading.”
“Aaron?” Cord said glancing towards the man who was gripping the butter knife in his hand tightly.
“Don’t look at him to give you anything else, it didn’t happen to him,” she stated.
“No but I was the one who…”
