Previously…
– Rosie’s brother, Sebastian, came to town to support her. While visiting, he reconnected with Elly, with whom he’d once had a fling.
– Sabrina asked Jason to travel to Iowa with her to meet her parents.
– Trevor went to confront Finn about how Finn told Alex that they’d kissed. He was thrown when Finn, despondent about losing his spot at Objection, confessed that Camille Lemieux was his biological mother. The confrontation turned passionate…

Outside, thunder claps in the sky as rain continues to pummel King’s Bay.

Inside the Brooks family home, Trevor Brooks and Finn Campbell’s bodies are tangled together. Their mouths and tongues wrestle with one another. Finn falls back onto the sectional sofa, with Trevor on top of him. The two men pull at each other’s clothing, exposing patches of skin as desperate fingers fumble with buttons and zippers.

Their faces separate, with Trevor still pressing down upon Finn. 

“You really want to?” Finn asks, panting.

Trevor’s face hardens. He gazes down at the younger man, whose cheeks are flushed. Thoughts compete for space in Trevor’s mind, but his body threatens to overrule all of them. He remembers the chilliness that Alex displayed earlier today, the way that he seemed not even to care about their marriage anymore – like he couldn’t even bear to look at Trevor.

“Yes,” Trevor says, as his heart pounds inside his chest. “Yes.”

His face dives down again, his lips pressing against Finn’s, and when he feels Finn’s hands stretching down to pull down Trevor’s pants, he doesn’t push them away.

“God, yes,” Finn says huskily as passion overtakes both of them. 

“What the hell?” Rosie Jimenez asks. 

She and her husband stand near the entry of Cassie’s Coffee House. Sabrina Carpenter’s lightweight, disco-inflected tune “Feather” plays over the café’s sound system, but the song sounds a million miles away to Rosie as she attempts to process what she has just seen. She turns sharply toward Travis Fisher.

“I don’t know,” he says, as if she expects him to have an explanation for why her brother is sitting at a table by the window, laughing with Elly Vanderbilt.

“I– I don’t know,” Travis repeats, clearly dumbfounded. “But maybe–”

Before he can finish the thought, Rosie is storming toward Sebastian and Elly. Travis throws out his arm in a lame attempt to stop her, but she has already eluded his grasp by the time he does so. He moves swiftly to follow her.

“Rosie. Hey,” Sebastian Jimenez says casually when he spots his sister. “What’s up?”

“What’s up?” Rosie asks, reflecting every bit of the intensity that her brother lacks. “What are you doing with her?”

“We, uh…” Sebastian glances at Elly for help. The redheaded attorney’s face goes stony and still. “We met after your wedding, actually. I was helping clean up, and Elly showed up.”

Rosie’s fiery gaze flips toward Elly. “Is this some kind of sick game to you?”

Elly exhales loudly. “No, Rosie. Sebastian and I were just… reconnecting while he’s back in town.”

“Reconnecting?” Rosie questions. “Sebastian–”

Sebastian’s eyes flicker between Rosie and Travis. “Sorry, guys. Maybe this is weird because you guys used to…” He gestures between Elly and Travis, his hand movements silently completing the thought for him.

“I don’t give a shit about that,” Rosie says. 

“Rosie. Let’s just keep it calm,” Travis tells her as he wraps an arm around her shoulders. “People are watching.”

“And I don’t give a shit about that, either.”

Sebastian pushes back his chair and stands. “Rosie, what the hell are you talking about? I’m allowed to meet girls.”

“Yeah, but not this one,” Rosie says, folding her arms. “Not after what she did to us.”

Elly stares pensively out the window at the rain.

“What do you mean, what she did?” Sebastian asks. “Elly, what’s she talking about?”

“Yeah,” Rosie says. “Do you want to tell him, Elly? Or should I?”

—–

The taxi rolls gently through the flat, open terrain. Jason Fisher watches out the window, marveling at how different this place looks from the place where he has spent most of his life. He expected Iowa to be fairly familiar; after all, he has spent lots of time in eastern Washington, which is more rural than the western part of the state, and in Oregon’s non-metropolitan areas. But the flatness and the lack of density still surprise him, as does the lack of evergreen foliage. Open fields and prairies stretch out on the sides of the freeway.

“What do you think?” Sabrina Gage asks from her position in the backseat of the taxi, right beside him.

“I’m taking it all in,” Jason says as he turns toward her. He smiles. “And I’m happy to be here with you, seeing where you’re from.”

“I’m glad you’re here,” she says, and she takes his hand. 

Up front, the taxi driver – a man of few words with a thick, grayish-white beard and a frame a little too large for the driver’s seat – lets out a cough that sounds less-than-healthy. A country song that Jason doesn’t recognize plays quietly on the vehicle’s radio.

Soon enough, the driver steers off a freeway exit and into a residential area. The houses are spread apart from one another, giving each a generous portion of land. All around, the grass is transforming from its tired winter state back into a more lively green, despite the gray hanging in the air today. 

“There it is,” Sabrina says, as they pull to a stop in front of a ranch-style house with somewhat faded grayish-blue paint on its exterior. Jason opens the back door, slides out of the car, and helps Sabrina out of the backseat, as well. The driver pops the trunk without another word. 

“I’ll take care of this,” Jason tells his girlfriend, and he ducks back inside the car to hand the driver a wad of cash. He receives a gruff thanks in return, then goes to help Sabrina take their luggage out of the trunk. As soon as she closes the trunk, the driver pulls off down the road.

“I thought Midwest people were, like, really nice,” Jason teases.

“Don’t believe everything you hear.” She winks, then gives him a tap on the arm. “I’m kidding. Lots of nice folks around here.”

Jason stares at the house. “I just hope your parents like me.”

“They will. I promise,” she says, as she begins to lead the way toward the house, her rolling suitcase thumping on the driveway behind her. Jason takes a deep breath and then follows her, hoping for the best.

—–

Chest heaving, Trevor collapses against the back of the sofa. His bare chest glistens with sweat, and his normally well coiffed brown hair is askew. Finn is draped across the sofa beside him, not yet having pulled himself up to a sitting position.

“Oh my god,” Finn finally says, breaking the silence. 

Trevor continues staring straight ahead at the tapestry hanging on the opposite wall.

“That was incredible,” Finn says. 

Although he moves his lips to respond, Trevor’s voice does not emerge. Even more frantic thoughts swirl through his head now.

“What’s wrong?” Finn asks as he sits up.

Trevor emits another loud, weary breath. “I need a shower.”

Finn furrows his brow. “Okay… but you don’t need to rush. I know I need a few minutes to get my bearings after that–”

“I need to shower,” Trevor says more frantically, and in one movement, he springs from the sofa and grabs his Calvin Klein boxer briefs from the floor. “I shouldn’t be here.”

“It’s okay. No one is here. No one knows you’re here. You can take your time–”

“No. I have to shower and leave.” Trevor clumsily steps into the boxer briefs. “Yeah, I’ll shower, and get dressed, and leave, and go to work, and no one will have any idea.”

Finn, still naked on the sofa, looks at Trevor pleadingly. “Come on. Don’t turn this into something terrible. No one has to know.” He reaches out for Trevor’s hand, but Trevor evades his grasp, instead bolting for the stairs.

“I’ll be out of here in 15 minutes,” Trevor tells him without even looking back at him, and then he hurries up the staircase and into the hallway bathroom where he has taken so many previous showers.

—–

Inside Cassie’s, Travis is right by Rosie’s side as she angrily confronts her brother and Elly.

“Tell me what?” Sebastian demands, his voice pinched with frustration.

After a tense pause, Elly rises from her seat, as well.

“I was the attorney representing my Uncle Brent and Aunt Molly,” she says, “in the custody case.”

It takes a long moment for Sebastian to process this. He swivels his neck, looking first at Elly in surprise, then to Rosie and Travis with sympathy.

“I had no idea,” he says, holding up both palms.

“You wouldn’t have known,” Travis tells him. “We get it.”

“But of course she didn’t bother to inform you,” Rosie adds, the volume of her voice again spiking. “How can you look my brother in the face after what you did to our family?”

“Why don’t we get out of here?” Travis suggests, taking his wife by the arm.

“I was doing my job,” Elly says. “And supporting my family. That’s not a crime.”

“No, but you went ahead and put Jesse on the stand and had him tell the whole courtroom about our family’s pain,” Rosie replies. “You sat him up there and asked all those questions about our dad.”

Sebastian’s mouth gapes open as he mentally connects the dots, linking the woman he spent the morning in bed with to the horrible agony that his sister and mother described from that courtroom.

Elly grits her teeth. “I told you. I was doing my job. Pretty damn well, if you ask me.”

“You put that guy on the stand to make it sound like Rosie was the reason our dad was killed,” Sebastian says with shock.

“Wasn’t she?” Elly snaps.

The retort is barely out of her mouth before Rosie’s hand flies out. It connects with Elly’s cheek with a loud cracking sound. Heads throughout the coffee shop turn toward the foursome.

Elly brings a hand to her stinging cheek. Her eyes flare with shock. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“We’re getting out of here,” Travis says, and this time, he grabs both of Rosie’s arms in order to steer her toward the exit.

A barista sporting a patchy beard and man-bun steps out from behind the counter. “What’s going on here?”

“Nothing,” Travis assures the employee. “We’re leaving.”

“That’s assault!” Elly calls after them, as Travis practically pushes Rosie out the front door.

Elly spins to face Sebastian. “Your sister is a lunatic.”

“My sister is in massive amounts of pain,” he tells her. “And you’re a big part of why. Later, Elly.”

He grabs his jacket from the back of the chair and, not even bothering to put it on, hurries out of the establishment. Elly remains by the window, her cheek still smarting from the slap, looking out the glass door into the blur of the rainfall.

END OF EPISODE 1218

Was it a mistake for Rosie to hit Elly?
What awaits Jason and Sabrina in Iowa?
What should be Trevor’s next move?
Talk about it all in the comments below!

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