Colin storms out onto the quiet, but breezy lakeside patio outside the hotel ballroom where his brother's engagement party will soon begin. Enraged by his father's comments inside, Colin goes out to cool off. His thoughts go back to high school.
A teenaged Colin and Hailey stand on the same patio, deeply troubled looks on both their faces as they stand apart from each other, Colin leaning against the same railing he is in the present. Hailey turns her back to him and begins to walk back inside, head in hands. Colin turns and stops her, offering an apology. Hailey shakes her head, a look of disappointment on her face, stinging Colin like acid.
"It's not enough, Colin. I don't care what your mother had to do with any of this, it's what you did...and I'll never forgive you for it."
Colin hangs his head, as Hailey hands him back a ring, she steps away from him, back inside the ballroom. Colin goes to stop her but stops himself, turning back towards the railing. He hears a voice call his name.
Turning around, Colin rolls his eyes at the realization it's his his father, Jackson.
"Colin?," Jackson calls out again, Colin hesitating to respond.
* * *
Arriving in the lobby of the hotel, Eva Williams and her eldest son Trey Vitali arrive. Eva is dressed in a beautiful red evening gown, while Trey is wearing black slacks, and a blazer with a tie and dress shirt. They arrive arm in arm, laughing. Just ahead of them stand the Carters, also just having arrived at the hotel. Eva throws her arms open in delight upon seeing Hailey.
"Oh my God! Come her and give your Auntie Eva a hug, baby!," Eva squeals with delight, as she pulls Hailey in for a hug.
Anna turns around and gives Eva a warm smile before Eva steps over to hug her sister. "Congratulations, Anna!," Eva says while beaming ear to ear with excitement, "How has everything gone so far?"
"Well, fine so far, but dinner hasn't started yet," Lucas tells Anna, "We just got here a second ago ourselves."
"Yeah, they just renovated, so even I have no idea where anything is and I used to work here while I was in school," Trey chimes in, impressed with the changes they'd made.
"Well, the Davises can wait for us, as far as I'm concerned," Lucas decides.
Anna rolls her eyes at Lucas, and quickly changes the topic before he gets riled up again, asking Eva: "Where's Nathan, anyway?"
Eva's face changes, losing a bit of its enthusiasm as she tells her sister, "Oh he'll...he'll be around later, he got caught up with something at work so I just...let him go ahead."
Anna nods, understanding but having questions run through her mind. Ones she keeps in her head for the moment so as not to bring down the spirit of the evening. Instead, she takes her sister's hand and motions everyone to head for the ballroom, "...wherever that is."
* * *
Colin returns to facing out over the lake, disinterested in speaking to his father. Jackson insists on talking to him though, and begins anyway.
"I would've thought this would appeal to you!" Jackson says, a look of mock surprise on his face, "I mean it's not like you two haven't fought over your toys before."
Colin turns around in anger, pointing his finger in Jackson's face threateningly, "You have absolutely no right to speak about any woman that way, and especially Hailey, you understand?"
Jackson laughs in his son's face, "Or what?"
Jackson turns the other way and takes in the indian summer air. Hands in the pockets of his suit pants, he carries a relaxed demeanour, almost out of spite for his hot-headed son. He asks of Colin, "Do you really think I don't know the real reason why you came back?"
Colin looks puzzled by his Jackson's assertion, retorting, "The real reason is the reason I gave you before. Mom wants me back in town for my last year, and the University's Environmental Protection Group reached out to me to help them out."
Jackson scoffs at this, losing his cool as he speaks, "You and that damned environmentalist crap again. Do you understand where the money that paid for your education came from? That put a roof over your head for the first eighteen years of your ungrateful little life came from? Do you?"
"Oh I'm well aware, Jackson," Colin responds coldly, "And that's what makes it even better, knowing I'm putting that money to a worthwhile use."
Jackson's demeanour is increasingly threatening, approaching Colin with eyes filled with fire, but trying to keep a cool exterior. He gets in close to Colin, telling him, "See, that's where you're wrong, because not a penny of my money will be going to you if you're going to use it to destroy everything this family's worked for for generations. I'll see to that."
Colin smiles cooly. Unphased by his father's threats, he answers, "That's fine with me, I can pay my own way."
Jackson steps back slightly, but continues on, "And as for Hailey, I know you're really back for her, to claim what's 'rightfully yours'."
Colin's face cringes at his father's cynical words. Jackson continues, "Oh, you can dress it up any way you like, make it as egalitarian-sounding as your sensitive pseudo-intellectual head wants you to, but you can't fight nature, and your nature wants to sling her over your shoulder like a caveman and drag her back to your cave, because that's how a man's wired--
"No that's how you're wired!," Colin erupts in a rage, shaking at his father's words, "I want Hailey to be happy, even if it's with my idiot brother."
Colin recoils from his outburst, returning to a cooler place, though still filled with rage inside. He continues, "Now I know that's not how you operated, but some of us aren't hard-wired to 'win the girl' like she's some sort of trophy that a man wins in a football tournament."
Jackson shakes his head, "I should've never let you take those gender issues courses in first year. You're starting to sounds like Gloria Steinem--
"You know I'll take that as a compliment, Jackson," Colin cuts his father off, starting to walk away from him, "because God forbid someone treats the woman like a person with free will and a functioning brain in all this."
"Colin!," Jackson shouts out to him before Colin re-enters the ballroom, "Think about my offer, yeah?"
Colin stops before the door, and chokes out, "Go to Hell," before carrying on, back inside.
As he re-enters the ballroom, Colin is stunned upon seeing Hailey entering the ballroom from the hotel lobby. Wearing a beautiful gown, she beams as she enters the room, with her family trailing behind. The room filled with guests becomes loud with applause as she approaches her fiancee and kisses him full on the lips to continued applause and moments of good-natured catcalls. Hailey turns to face Colin after breaking from Brad's embrace. Her demeanour immediately changes from joy and confidence to one of shock and unsureness. Her mouth agape at the sight of Colin, whom she hasn't seen in years.
