Previously…
– Molly and Brent were devastated to learn that their son, born several weeks prematurely, had passed away soon after birth.
– Jason and Natalie commiserated over drinks at The Wild Lady — and agreed to split an Uber home.
– Spencer confronted Elly with his discovery that she’d had an affair with a married partner at the law firm where she’d interned, wondering if that was what Loretta had used to blackmail her, but Elly shut him down and rushed off.

In the backseat of their Uber, with streetlights and shadows from outside falling over them in alternating waves, Jason Fisher and Natalie Bishop kiss. A thousand thoughts swim through Jason’s mind, all of them potent, none of them sharp enough to press through the crush and make sense of what is happening. In this moment, all he knows is the familiarity of Natalie’s mouth against his. 

Finally, they part, and Natalie giggles as she chances a glance at their driver, who is doing his very best to keep his eyes on the road and away from the rearview mirror.

“I can’t say I expected that to happen tonight,” she says.

“Me, neither.” Jason is unable to keep a grin off his face. “Not at all.”

“Well…” She places her hand back on his knee. “Why don’t we just have the car stop at your place? You have the house to yourself, right?”

He looks her over. The warmth of the drinks they shared tonight is helping to soften the edges of the entire situation, and right now, fun and familiarity seem like exactly the remedy for what ails him.

“Come on, Jason,” Natalie presses. “For old times’ sake.”

Jason is about to answer her when he feels his phone vibrating adamantly in his pocket. When he pulls it out, he sees his older brother’s name on the display. He presses a button to send the call to voicemail — but, mere seconds later, Tim is calling again.

“I should take this,” he quickly tells Natalie as he answers the call. “Tim. What’s up?”

He listens in horror as Tim rattles off an explanation of what has happened at the hospital.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Jason says before hanging up.

“What’s wrong?” Natalie asks with alarm.

“It’s Molly. She went into labor early, and– I have to get out here and call another car to get me to the hospital.”

“I can go with you.” 

She leans forward to address the driver, but Jason places a call on her shoulder to stop her.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he says, already pulling up his own Uber app.

After his call with Jason ends, Tim hurries back toward the waiting area. Brent Taylor stands with one arm around Christian; Paula is nearby, dabbing at her moist eyes with a tissue. Caleb sits in a chair, silent, his arms folded.

“How could this have happened?” Paula questions. “I know it was early for her to deliver, but…”

“It still doesn’t seem real,” Brent says. His voice sounds as threadbare as he looks, following the news from Dr. Longo that his and Molly’s son died soon after birth, despite the hospital staff’s best efforts. 

“Jason’s on his way,” Tim informs them. 

Paula looks over with red eyes. “Thank you for calling him.”

Tim simply nods reverently in response.

“When can we go in and see Mom?” Christian asks.

“They had to sedate her, so she’ll be out for a while,” Brent says. “We can go back there if we’re quiet, though.”

Christian addresses his grandmother: “Do you want to go in first?”

“Oh, no. You boys should go before me,” Paula says. “I’ll wait with your uncle.”

“All right, let’s go,” Brent says. He waits a moment, but Caleb makes no move to join them.  “Caleb. Come on.”

“I’m gonna pass,” Caleb says, glancing up but not rising from the plastic chair. “I don’t think…”

“Caleb, it’s Mom,” Christian says.

“I know, dude. I just… I don’t wanna…”

“Your mom would really appreciate having both of you there,” Brent says, his tone growing firmer.

“Yeah, I don’t know about that. She wasn’t exactly happy to see me before.” Caleb abruptly stands up. “I’m gonna go get something to eat. You guys go.”

He bolts for the elevator bay, and the rest of the family stands around, exchanging confused looks.

“What was that all about?” Paula asks Brent.

Brent sighs, as his exhaustion spreads to every cell of his body. “It’s a long story. And frankly, I don’t have the energy to deal with it right now.”

—–

Spencer Ragan is pouring himself a glass of red wine in the well appointed kitchen of his home when he hears the front door being unlocked and opened.

“Mother?” he asks, loud enough for his voice to reach the foyer but not so much so that it will carry upstairs and wake Peter.

“No, it’s me,” Natalie responds, and a moment later, his wife is walking into the kitchen, high heels held in one hand. She sees him putting the cork back in the bottle of wine and says, “Can I get one of those, too?”

Spencer grabs a wine glass from a nearby cupboard. “Tough girls’ night with Bree?”

“I never got my girls’ night with Bree. She decided she’d rather see a friend instead.”

“So where have you been?” he asks as he fills her glass.

“I’ll explain as soon as I get some more of that in me,” she says, indicating the wine.

Spencer turns toward her and smirks. “Are you drunk?”

“I wouldn’t say drunk. On my way to drunk, sure.” 

He hands her the glass and then picks up his own.

“Where’s Peter?” she asks.

“Bathed, read to, and in bed. I don’t know about asleep, but… fingers crossed.”

“Thanks for taking care of that.”

“Of course. It was nice to get through his bedtime routine without my mother hovering around criticizing every move I made,” he says as he checks the time on the microwave. “I have no idea where she is — which is both a relief and terrifying.”

“She said something about having tickets to some play downtown,” Natalie says. “I’m sure she’ll be blowing back in here any minute with a list of complaints about how provincial the whole thing was.”

Spencer laughs. “You’re not wrong. But cheers to a night of freedom.”

“I’ll toast to that.” Natalie clinks her glass against his, and they both sip their wine.

“So,” Spencer says, “are you going to tell me what you did wind up doing tonight?”

She hesitates. “It was nothing.”

“Natalie. You’ve been out for hours and you came home… drunk-adjacent. You can’t even tell your husband where you were?”

She bites her lower lip, not sure whether honesty is the best — or even a vaguely good — policy right now.

—–

“El! What brings ya in tonight?” Jimmy Trask calls out from behind the bar of The Wild Lady when he sees his daughter come through the saloon doors.

Elly Vanderbilt shrugs and approaches the bar. She rests her elbows atop it and leans in to be heard over the Imagine Dragons song playing on the sound system.

“I could use a nightcap,” she admits, “and I hear this is the coolest bar in town.”

Jimmy chuckles. “You heard right. What can I get ya?”

“How about a whiskey-ginger?” she says.

“One whiskey-ginger, coming up.” Jimmy grabs a glass and fills it with ice. “Rough night?”

“Stressful night.”

“Why’s that?”

“Uh, it’s…” She trails off, gazing around the bar at the patrons dancing and chatting. “Spencer asked me to meet up.”

“Spencer? Are you still doing legal work for him?” Jimmy stops, liquor bottle in hand. “Or was this more of, like, a social thing…?”

“No, no. He wanted to, um, bounce an idea off me.”

“A good idea?”

“I don’t know about that,” she says, “but I think I might’ve been a little harsh on him.”

Jimmy finishes pouring her drink and uses a stirrer to mix it quickly. As he sets it down in front of her, he says, “Why do I get the feeling you’re not gonna tell me what this idea of Spencer’s was?”

She winks. “I’m not. But thanks for the drink.”

“Any time. Funny you mention Spencer, actually. That wife of his was in here a little while ago.”

“Really?” 

“Yep, sitting right at the bar, with… you’re never gonna guess who.”

She narrows her eyes as she sips her drink. “Who?”

“Her ex.”

“Jason?! Wow.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Jimmy says. “I know you said Spencer and Natalie aren’t really married, so I don’t think I’m gossiping too much here, but… she and Jason actually left together.” 

“No way,” she says, slapping a hand down on the bar for emphasis. “You’re kidding.”

“Serious as a heart attack. They did shots and then walked out that door together.”

“Wow,” Elly says as she turns over this unexpected news in her mind. “That’s wild. Never in a million years would I have thought…”

“I’ll tell ya,” Jimmy says. “The things that happen in this town — they never fail to surprise me.”

She takes another gulp of the whiskey-ginger and then places the glass down on the bar. “You can say that again.”

—–

Caleb steps out of the hospital’s ground-floor cafeteria, carrying a hot pretzel dipped in salt and a large soda. He knows that he should go back upstairs to be with his family, but he doesn’t want to face them right now; he is sure that a lecture is coming after the way that he ran off, and between his father, his twin brother, and his grandma, it’s too much to face. 

He is contemplating his next move when he sees his other uncle coming through the automatic doors of the hospital entrance. Caleb quickly swivels around, hoping to avoid detection, but in the split-second before he does so, he realizes that Jason has spotted him.

Jason half-jogs over to his nephew.

“Caleb. I’m so sorry about your mom,” he says. “And your little brother. Are you okay?”

Caleb stares back at him, feeling the words pounding into him like a wrecking ball into concrete. Your little brother. 

“I’m okay, I guess,” he mutters.

“Are they in with your mom?” Jason asks.

“I think Christian and my dad are. Grandma and Uncle Tim are waiting to go in next.”

“All right, I’m going to head up there. Are you going back up?”

“Oh, um…” Caleb looks down into his pretzel. “I’m gonna eat first. I’ll see you up there.”

“Okay. And I really am sorry you’re all having to go through this.”

“Thanks,” Caleb says, desperate for the interaction to end. He lingers until Jason gets into an elevator — and then bolts out the hospital’s entrance, not even sure where he intends to go.

—–

Natalie gulps down some more wine and then waves a hand through the air dismissively.

“I stopped in at The Wild Lady,” she says. “Some girl fell off the mechanical bull. It was… well, it was exactly how it sounds.”

“You didn’t happen to see anyone there, did you?”

Again she freezes, feeling caught. “No… Why?”

“I met up with Elly before,” he explains. “I thought you might’ve crossed paths if she stopped in to see her father.”

Natalie shakes her head, her wavy auburn bob wagging back and forth loosely. “Nope, didn’t see her. Why were you with Elly?”

“Because I think I’m onto something that could help get my mother out of here,” Spencer says, instinctively lowering his voice despite knowing that Loretta is not home. “But I’m worried I made a mess of it.”

Intrigued, Natalie leans over the marble-topped island. “Oooh. What’d you do?”

“I didn’t do anything but ask her some questions! But I think I pissed her off.”

“So you did do something.”

“I was prying a little. That’s all.” He breathes in deeply as he takes a drink of the wine. “I think she’s mad, though.”

“Mad? Since when does Spencer Ragan care if someone’s mad at him?” Natalie gasps and sets her glass on the island. “Oh my god. You have a thing for her.”

“What? No!” Spencer’s face screws up in seeming shock, but there is something too exaggerated, too performative about it. Natalie can see it even through the haze of alcohol.

“You totally do!” She points her manicured index finger at him. “You like Elly.”

“Oh my god. Shut up. I do not.”

“Mm-hmm.” Natalie folds her arms and continues watching him. “You so do.”

“What does it matter?” he says. “We’re not– there isn’t– it’s not a thing. She’s got it in her head that I’m one of the bad guys.”

“Aww. Poor Spencer.”

“Stop it,” he says, though she detects a hint of a smirk as he takes another drink.

“Fine. You’re no fun.”

“I’m a lot of fun,” he fires back.

“Oh, yeah. Nothing but.” She sighs. “If it makes you feel any better, I struck out tonight, too.”

Spencer places his own glass down and raises his eyebrows at her. “You what? I thought you were just hanging out at The Wild Lady.”

“Is it so unbelievable that someone bought me those drinks?”

“No. It’s– it’s weird, right? This is weird.”

“What’s weird about it?”

“I know I’m the one who hasn’t been married before,” Spencer says, “but I feel like most husbands and wives don’t stand around chatting about how they got shot down by other people.”

“Okay, that wasn’t exactly how it was with Conrad and me,” Natalie admits, “but we’re, you know, a different kind of married couple.”

“That’s putting it lightly.”

Natalie watches him pour himself more wine. It has been a while since she saw him this way, noticing the way his biceps fill out the sleeves of his lightweight sweater, the way its V-neck reveals a few stray chest hairs.

“This might sound insane,” she says, “but…”

“I’m used to insane things coming out of your mouth.”

“Rude. But… here we are, a little liquored-up, actually husband and wife, with the house to ourselves…”

“Peter’s sleeping upstairs. And my mother could walk in the door at any minute.”

Natalie rounds the island and places a hand on his chest. “Then let’s go upstairs.”

Spencer stares back at her — but does not pull away. “You are insane.”

“Completely. But what do you say?”

She traces a hand over his firm chest and down the center of his stomach. She can feel his eyes on her, drinking in the curves of her body through her skinny jeans and well fitted t-shirt. 

“We might as well actually consummate this thing,” she says. “It’d be nice to blow off some steam.”

A long, tense beat passes. Her fingertip hovers over his belt buckle.

“Let’s go upstairs before I come to my senses,” Spencer says, and he grabs her hand and leads the way, the two of them tittering quietly at the utter lunacy of it all as they rush up to Spencer’s bedroom.

END OF EPISODE 1040

Could Spencer and Natalie ever have a real marriage?
Will Elly decide to help Spencer with his quest after all?
Where is Caleb going to go now?
Talk about it all in the comments below!

Next Episode