Free Blue Skies, Season 2, Episode 8 (Rising Storm) by Dee Davis Page B

he could have killed you all. I heard Dillon talking to Marcus. He had a gun. He…he shot Marcus.”
    Joanne looked to her son again. “You’re all right?”
    “Just a graze.” Marcus’s smile finally reached his eyes. “I’m fine, Mom. As you said, we’re all a bit battered but we’re going to be okay.”
    “Yeah,” Mallory said. “We’ve got each other.”
    “And half of Storm, if the crowd outside in the waiting room is anything to speak of. Hannah and Tucker are out there. And Kristin and Hedda. And Tate Johnson. There’s a whole crew.”
    “And Luis would be here if he could,” Mallory said, “only Ginny is in labor, so he’s just down the hall.”
    “Ginny’s having the baby?” Joanne smiled, the movement painful but the emotion genuine. “Is everything going okay?”
    “Yeah, she’s fine. It’s just going slowly because it’s her first. I think the other half of the town is over there in the OB waiting room. And I saw Logan go into her room.” She lifted her eyebrows suggestively.
    “Well, they deserve to be happy,” Joanne said. “I never thought people should have ostracized Ginny the way that they did. She made a bad choice. It happens to the best of us.” An understatement, surely. “But she was smart. She walked away from the senator. That has to count for something.”
    “I think Logan knows that,” Marcus said.
    “And Brittany?” Joanne asked. “Does she know about all of this?”
    “Yes. She’s with her aunt over in the OB lounge. But I told her everything. I didn’t want her hearing it from someone else first.”
    “This isn’t going to sit well with her grandmother. I’m so sorry to have made more trouble for the two of you.”
    “Stop apologizing, Mom,” Marcus said, shaking his head. “Dad was the one who caused all of this, not you. He’s at fault. He’s always been at fault. You got caught up in his madness is all. Hell, if anyone should have done something differently, it’s me. I should have forced you to walk away.”
    “You tried, Marcus. But I truly believed that if I stayed, it would deflect your father’s anger from the three of you.” She allowed herself a small self-deprecating grin. “Maybe not the soundest of thinking.”
    “Yeah, well, I say we make a new start,” Mallory said. “The three of us.” She hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. “And Dakota, if she’s willing.”
    “Whether she’s willing or not, she’s part of this family, squirt.” Marcus gave her a pointed stare.
    “Yeah, I suppose so. And I’m not a squirt anymore.”
    Marcus leaned over to give her a hug. “No, you’re not. But in my mind you’ll always be my tag-along little sister.”
    Joanne smiled, watching her children, feeling the smallest stirrings of hope.
    “I guess there are worse things,” Mallory grumbled.
    “Is this a private party?” a deep voice asked from the doorway. “Or can anyone come in?” Dillon Murphy looked decidedly uncomfortable, as if he wasn’t quite sure of his welcome.
    “Come on in,” Marcus said. “The doctor said not to have too many people in here at once. But we were just leaving.”
    Mallory opened her mouth to protest, but Marcus shot his sister a warning glance. Joanne swallowed a smile.
    “We’ll be right outside, Mom,” Marcus said as he ushered his sister out the door.
     

Chapter 7
    Dillon stood in the doorway, literally hat in hand as Joanne watched her children leave the room. He looked so tall and handsome. So strong and yet so gentle. Everything she wanted in a man. Which after everything that had happened, seemed a mean twist of fate. How could he ever love her? She’d made such a muck of things. Almost destroyed her children’s lives.
    How could Dillon Murphy ever look at her as anything other than weak and foolish?
    “I…ah…wasn’t sure you’d want to see me.” He looked nervous, his big hands spinning the hat between his fingers.
    “Of course I want to see you. You saved my family