Ever After (The Christmas Cottage - Book 2) (9 page)

That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?  Was Brian going to be the man to make that dream come true?  She wracked her brain to try and remember if in any of t
heir lengthy conversations he’d mentioned his plans for a family but somehow that never seemed to come up.  Or, rather, he never directly answered her.  Why was that?  Was Brian not interested in having a family or was he not interested in leading Ava to believe that he wanted a family with her?

She frowned for a moment.  The more that she thought about it
, the more she realized that in all the time she and Brian had been together he really hadn’t said that he loved her again; not like he had that night in her hotel room before her wedding.  He sometimes referred to her as the woman he loved and she could feel it in the things that he did for her, but he never said the words; never looked deeply into her eyes and professed his love to her.

Then again, she hadn’t said those three little words to him either.  Was Brian waiting for that?  Waiting for her to profess her love to him before he was okay with saying it to her?  Did she love him?  Was she seriously ready for that?

“Ugh,” she grumbled.  “Why don’t relationships come with manuals?”

That weekend they took in a local music festival and were wandering the streets holding hands and Ava thought that life didn’
t get much better than this; A beautiful day, good music, good food and spending time with Brian.  She wanted to tell him that she thought it was the perfect day but decided to omit that one little word from her vocabulary for a while so as to not upset Brian.

“Ooo…cotton candy,” she commented as they stopped to listen to a three-piece bluegrass band.

“Where?”

“Across the parking lot.  Want some?” she asked, already fishing through her purse for her wallet.

Brian couldn’t help but smile because the purse looked innocent enough but really contained enough to keep a person alive in the forest for days.  “Thanks, but I’m still full from the corn dog earlier.”

Ava raised her head and looked at him as if he spoke a foreign language.  “But it’s cotton candy,” she simply stated.

“And?”

“And there’s always room for cotton candy.  Weren’t you ever a kid?”  He laughed and the sound was the sweetest music at the whole festival.  “Seriously, how can you pass it up?”

“Okay, okay, if it means that much to you…”

“No, it’s fine; more for me then,” she said and sauntered across the parking lot to get in line for her treat.  Once she had it in hand she fairly skipped back to Brian.  “Mmm…there is nothing better than some cotton candy on a day like today.” 

Brian watched her enjoying her snack and felt his own throat go dry.  It shouldn’t have been sexy; he most certainly should not have been aroused by the sight of Ava enjoying a sticky, messy treat and yet right now all he could think of was kissing her, tasting her and getting them out of this crowd of possibly a thousand people to get her home.

Without conscious thought, he grabbed her hand and started dragging her toward where they were parked. 

“Is that it?” she asked.  “Did we see all the bands already?”  Looking over her shoulder and around at all of the festivities, she was confused.  They hadn’t been there that long, where were they going?  “Brian?  Are you okay?”

Suddenly he stopped.  He let go of her hand and cupped her face and brought his mouth down on hers.  It wasn’t gentle, it wasn’t sweet.  The kiss was all pent up tension and arousal and Ava found herself right on board with it.  “You taste so sweet,” he said huskily before diving in again.

Ava pulled away slightly and sighed.  “That’s not me; it’s the candy.”

“No,” he said firmly, “it’s you; it’s always you.  God what
you do to me, Ava.”  He stared down into her face and just felt himself falling deeper.  Her blue eyes were fathomless and he wanted to dive right in and never leave.  “You’re so damn beautiful, do you know that?”

She shook her head, confused as to where all this emotion had come from. 
The question was on the tip of her tongue, but for the life of her, she didn’t want to do or say anything to ruin the moment.  Brian’s eyes scanned her face for another heartbeat before he kissed her again, this time it was a little less consuming but still just as powerful.

“I want to take you home,” he finally said.

“But the bands?  You said you wanted…”

“All I want is you, Ava.”  It was a simple statement
, but the raw emotion in his tone made it more powerful than any words he’d ever spoken.  In that moment, nothing else mattered.

Ava simply took Brian’s hand in hers and took the lead.  “Then let’s go home.”

It was hours later, when passion had been spent, their skin had cooled and heartbeats returned to normal when Ava finally had her answer; she was in love with Brian McCabe.

Chapter
Six

Ava’s heart was back to beating wildly the next day when she sat down on Lacey’s couch.  “Okay, so I did something crazy,” she said, unable to meet her friend’s worried gaze.

“Crazy?  How unlike you,” Lacey said, trying to lighten the mood.  When Ava didn’t respond, she knew something was seriously wrong.  “Ava?  C’mon, that was funny.  What’s going on?”

“I fell in love with him,” she said quietly.

Lacey sat back, her infant daughter cradled in her arms.  “And this is bad why?”

“You told me not to rush into anything!  You told me to take my time and it’s been what?  Two months and I’m already in love with Brian!”

“Oh for goodness sake, Ava, is that all?”

“All?  Isn’t this the part where you lecture me on not making the same mistakes I made with Mason?”

Sighing, Lacey made herself more comfortable and faced Ava.  “I am so sorry that you think that that is going to be my first reaction to anything going on in your life.  That was never my intention.  I just want you to be happy and I have to tell you, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you this happy.”

“Really?” Ava asked, uncertainty in her tone. 

“Yes, really,” Lacey assured.  “I know that this relationship that you have with Brian is completely different than the one you had with Mason.  You seem more like the Ava that I grew up with; you were more solemn and moody when you were with Mason.  Now you’re all cheery
and sassy and full of smiles again.  I love that that Ava is back!”

“I
t feels good to be back.  It has been so long since I felt this way that I wasn’t sure at first of what I was really feeling.”  She sat back and sighed.  “He makes me happy, Lace.  We don’t have to be doing anything or going anywhere and I’m just happy.”

“So did you tell him?”

“Tell him what?  That I’m happy?”

“No, that you love him!”

“Oh, no,” Ava said a little too quickly.

“Why not?”

“Well, I don’t want to scare him off for starters.”

“Starters?  Wasn’t he the one who told you he loved you almost a year ago when you two barely knew one another?”

“Well, yes but…”

“So then what are you waiting for?”

Ava grimaced at Lacey.  “You know you can be really irritating sometimes right?”  Lacey merely smiled in response and waited for Ava to speak again.  “I guess I’m a little gun shy.  I mean what if I tell Brian that I love him and then he says he loves me and then I go and get all crazy again?”

“Crazy how?”

“What if I start obsessing about getting married?  What if I end up ruining another relationship because I’m a wedding-crazy lunatic?”

“Okay, for the record, your being a, what did you call it?  A wedding-crazy lunatic?  That was not the reason for your breakup.  You and Mason weren’t meant to be and I think that you obsessed about that wedding because you subconsciously didn’t want to admit to other problems in the relationship.”

Unfortunately, Lacey was right.  Again.  “Well, for the record,” Ava said tartly, “I’m getting a little tired of you playing amateur psychologist.”

“Stop pouting; it gives you wrinkles,” Ava said sweetly.  “Look, this is a new relationship with a new future ahead of you.  You have to stop comparing the two and I can promise that I’m done doing that, too.”

“I don’t know; it seems risky…”

“Sometimes the best things in life require the biggest risks.  Believe me, I didn’t think I could take the risk with Ean but I am so glad that I did!  Look at how wonderful everything’s been?”

“Well, the two of you are just disgustingly adorable and none of us like it,” Ava said, but her words were full of love.  “You got the fairytale, Lacey; you spent the night in the cottage and…”

“For the love of it!  We swore to never bring up the cottage myth ever again!”

“I know, I know, and I’m sorry it’s just that I have to wonder if…”

“No!  No wondering, Ava,” Lacey cut in.  “No more talk about the cottage or fairytales or ever after’s.  Are we clear?”

Ava nodded but she wasn’t so sure she could let it go so easily.  What if she waited and took Brian up to Asheville to spend the night in the cottage?  She’d feel comfortable telling him she loved him there, wouldn’t she?  After all, if the Callahan legend was true, if they spent the night there in the cottage, they’d be guaranteed to love everlasting.  That’s what happened to Lacey and Ean.  Was it so wrong to want that for herself?  Wasn’t she entitled to her share of magic?  Good luck?  Love everlasting?

She looked over at Lacey who was st
roking her daughter’s cheek with a look of pure bliss on her face.  That’s what Ava wanted.  The desire for it was so strong that she knew what she had to do.  For now, she’d let the subject drop with Lacey; no need to perpetuate the argument.  But once she got home, Ava was going to put a plan into action that would help her overcome her fear of telling Brian that she loved him and get her on the path to her own ever after.

****

Several nights later Ava found the perfect opportunity to get her plan in motion.  Handing Brian a glass of wine before dinner at her condo, she motioned for him to join her on the sofa.  She waited for Brian to take his first sip before she spoke.

“So I got a request for an interview with a college up near
Asheville,” she began, searching for any reaction from Brian.

“Is that right?” he asked.  “What’s the position?”

Ava described it to him, adding a little more excitement to her tone then she actually felt for the job.  In all honesty, the job didn’t interest her much, but it was a means to get Brian up to Asheville for a weekend at the cottage.

“Seems to me they’re not offering anything more than any of the other
local positions,” he said neutrally. 

“Well, I still want to go and meet with them; you know, this way I can make an informed decision.”  Brian nodded at her words
, but his face remained expressionless.  She hated when he did that!  “Anyway, I’m scheduled to meet with them a week from Friday and I was hoping that you could take the day off and go with me and then we can spend the weekend up in the mountains.  What do you think?”

Brian seemed to consider her words.  “That sounds good; there’s a great resort up there that I think we should see if we can make reservations for…”

“No!” she cried a little too enthusiastically.  “Um…what I mean is, that won’t be necessary.  My folks have a place up there that we can stay.”

Eyes narrowing he looked at her.  “Your parents place?  I’m offering you a weekend in a five star resort
with spas and room service and you want to stay with your folks?”

Ava rolled her eyes.  “Not with my folks; they won’t even be there.  The place stays empty for most of the year but I love going up there and don’t make the time to do it very often.  I just thought we could go and stay there.  You know, two birds, one stone and all that.”

She was rambling and Brian could tell that there was more to this than Ava was letting on.  He wasn’t sure where she was going with all of this but she was a little too jittery and excitable for this to simply be about going to the mountains for an interview.

“So you want to go on this interview for a job that isn’t very
interesting just so that you have an excuse to go and stay at your family’s house?  Why not just skip the interview and we can just go up there?”  Again, his tone gave nothing away; as far as Ava could tell, he wouldn’t mind if she went on the interview or not. 

“It would be rude to not go on the interview after I’ve already scheduled it.  Besides, what if I misjudged them based on the phone interview?  What if I fall in love with the campus and find out that there’s some great opportunities for me in the future?”

Brian sighed and took another sip of his wine.  “Whatever you want to do is fine with me, Ava.  We’ll go and make a weekend out of it.”  He said it lightly, like he was one hundred percent on board but couldn’t quite shake the feeling that there was an ulterior motive behind her sudden desire to head to the mountains.

“Yeah!” she s
quealed and launched herself into his lap, nearly knocking his glass from his hand.  “Oh, I’m so excited!  Our first weekend away together!  It’s going to be great!”  She kissed him soundly before rising to skip into the kitchen to finish making their meal, talking the entire time.