Prologue - Ace
Beauty in the Struggle - Bryan Martin?
Present Day
W rapping my arms around the most beautiful woman in the room I can't help but look around the lawn and think, I’ve made it. My best friend Dante and his wife Mila watch over their son who is currently in the throes of a sugar high from his first taste of cake while we all laugh along to his squeals of delight. Who knew a 1st birthday party could be so entertaining?
Dante and Mila are humble in everything they do, so there are only a handful of close friends and family at their new house, the brisk mountain air cooling everyone down on this hot summer's day.
Porter hands his girl, Charlie, a glass of wine. The slight limp in his gait still evident despite all the physical therapy he's had. Since the moment they were reunited, they never left the honeymoon phase and continue to look at each other like teenagers in love.
It's been just over a year since we all thought Porter had died, so moments like these, where we get to come together as friends who are more like a dysfunctional family, make the days sweeter and the nights shorter.
Every touch Nova lets me have of her, feeds my soul. I don't take anything she gives me for granted. Every graze of her fingers, her small hand gripped in mine or the quiet nights we share, wrapped in each other on the couch. You would never guess her past by looking at her now but as I nuzzle into her neck and breathe her in I hope that every day we've shared since the night we met, brings her another step closer to being mine.
“Ace, your stubble is prickly,” she laughs, trying to pull away from me but I hold her tighter for a second before I let her go. The lemon yellow sundress she’s wearing rustles in the breeze and she falls into me without a care in the world, laughing.
I love these moments where she truly lets go and is no longer haunted by her past. I've made it, I think again, and I know that I've got everything I could ever want in this world.
This is happiness.
“I think Pop is leaving so I'm going to say goodbye quickly. Don't go anywhere.”
Her voice is so light and free that I wish I could have told the terrified woman I came across all those years ago that she would get through it. That she was stronger than what happened to her.
“I'll never go anywhere without you, love,” I say, lifting her up and swinging her around. Her squeals and laughter echo across the lawn as the sound of music rings out over the party. She takes her hands and rests them on either side of my face, holding my gaze as she looks at me.
Please, gods, let this be the moment she kisses me, let this be the start of us.
She leans in ever so slightly, her plump lips and bright eyes so close to me now, before she lets out a sigh. Her gaze moves over my shoulder to where I know, Seth, her Pop, is standing. Wiggling out of my hold, she takes my hand and we head over to where he stands.
“Great party wasn't it sheriff?” I say grinning at him, holding Nova's hand.
“Nothing like a kid's birthday party to make me feel like I have one foot in the grave, ready to join Martha up there.”
He takes off his hat, wiping his brow as he looks up to the sky.
“Come on Pop, don't talk like that. You're all I have now,” she sighs, reaching over and taking his hand in hers. Nova doesn't share her emotions easily but after the sheriff's wife passed a few years ago, she's triggered when he talks of joining her one day.
“I'm not going anywhere anytime soon so don't you worry about that. Ace, you take care of my baby girl now alright? I’ll see you all for Sunday dinner and stop giving me damn meals for my freezer. I survived this long, I'm sure I can survive without freezer meals,” he says, shaking his head, walking away to his patrol car.
Dr Johnson left early into the party, popping in to say hi on his way to work at the medical centre, and now that the sheriff has gone, that just leaves Dimitriy, Porter's brother, as the only extra to our group of six. Considering Porter is currently scowling over how long Charlie’s been laughing and hugging him, I’d say he is about to leave soon too.
△△△
Walking into Nova's house we are surrounded by light despite the dark sky. Security lights shine brightly outside and almost every inside light is on, set on an automatic timer to turn on at dusk every day.
Throwing my body on the couch, I stretch out. Tired but happy after a day of celebrating.
“Come here, let's watch a movie and relax a bit,” I say, yawning and gesturing to Nova who is taking off her sandals by the front door.
“I'm going to go and change first. Pick something to watch and I'll be right down.”
Her blonde hair falls like ribbons of silk behind her as she makes her way up the stairs and I follow her lead, changing into something more comfortable from the spare clothes I keep here. Sweats have never felt so good after being stuck in jeans all day.
Taking some drinks and snacks from the kitchen, I move into the open plan living space. Everything in Nova’s house is white or has a natural texture. It's a purpose-built, Scandinavian styled dream, from the high ceilings, to the large windows almost everywhere. Diming the inside lights, I let the permanent security lights from outside soften the space with a comfortable glow. I can hear Nova moving around before I go to the base of the stairs and wait for her. This situation has played out enough times now that it’s second nature for me to wait here when I dim the lights, reassuring her that she is not alone and I'm with her.
“It's alright, my love. I'm waiting right here.” I call out softly. The gentle patter of her movements slow when she reaches the shadow creeping around the stairwell. Her feet come into sight first, wrapped in soft looking socks, then her bare legs and one of my old military t-shirts she stole from me years ago. It falls to mid thigh on her and I'm not sure what she has on underneath but I desperately want to find out.
Not yet though.
I’ll let her decide when she's ready to take that step with me. It's taken a lot of work to get to this stage when she will let me dim the inside lights like this. Holding my hand out to her she grasps it like an anchor, securing her to the here and now, not letting her past haunt her any further.
Pulling her to the couch, we settle in and I pick the first movie that pops up and press play. It doesn't really matter what we watch, it's just something to have on while we unwind together.
Only happy things, never dark.
Nova’s couch is an extra large, light grey, pillow monstrosity. It's a cross between a bed and a couch and even though it's ugly, it's so incredibly comfortable that I wouldn't care if she lived in a garage, I would still sleep on it. She grabs a couple of throw blankets and snuggles down into me as I lay down. For years this has been our normal. We share all the aspects of a relationship except sex. We spend almost every night together, we hang out, talk and do everything you’d expect of a normal couple. We’re intimate but never have the sex . Any form of sexual intimacy is something we've never explored and something I will only ever take her lead on. If this is as much as she can give me then my hand in the shower will work just fine for the rest of it. She is more to me than a fleeting roll around with a stranger. From the day we first met, I knew she was special. Then those feelings changed and grew and became something more than I could ever hope for.
Her little snores bring me out of my daydream. I didn't even notice the movie credits were playing or that she had fallen asleep, but it's not the first time my focus has waned when we've been like this. Her hands move up my chest, softly touching me as she moves closer, pulling herself into my body. She rolled over at some point and we are now chest to chest, her leg coming across my thigh, her hips slowly rocking into me and a breathy moan escapes her.
Fuck.
Her movement slows and I can see she's still firmly asleep. Holding her a little tighter against me I drag my hand slowly up and down her spine. Another soft moan escaping her.
“Ace.”
It's almost a whisper in the air the way she says my name.
Fuck, is she having a sex dream about me?
“I love you,” she moans into my chest, the sporadic small rocking of her hips continuing against my thigh.
“I love you too, darlin'. More than you could ever know.” I mumble into her hair. A soft untroubled sigh comes from her, before her little snores resume.
The sun creeps over the mountain and shines right in my damn eyes, not that I was sleeping. Nova has the ability to sleep like a tornado, tossing and turning all through the night, but she finally stilled when she wedged herself into the small gap between myself and the back cushions at some point in the early morning. Now, however, the sun is up and I'm in desperate need of a coffee. Slowly, I ease myself apart from her, tucking the blanket in tightly before I put the kettle on and make myself an instant cup of joe. Even though Nova is the queen of coffee in Hidden Valley with her coffee shop Beans, I still prefer a strong cup of instant first thing in the morning. No milk or sugar, just two spoons of instant and some hot water is all I need to start the day. I learned rather quickly from my time in the army that luxuries are nice to have but they slow you down so I trimmed the excess anywhere I could until Nova started showing me that sometimes a little extra is okay every now and then.
Leaning back on the kitchen bench, I take in the stillness of the morning and hear Nova let out a yawn from the couch. Her arms reach up stretching over the top of her head and the blankets get thrown to the floor. I've been staring at the gold-foiled invitation stuck to her fridge for the past hour as I nursed my first coffee and have just started on my second.
Stumbling off the couch, she walks toward me like something out of a zombie film, her feet dragging, hair askew as she pulls the collapsible foot stool out from the pantry and locks it in place. Setting it at my feet, she climbs up the two steps bringing her to eye level and drapes her arms over my shoulders, hugging me.
This is my favourite time of day.
Every morning we are together she does this. She reasoned that because I'm so large I never get to be the little spoon in a hug so at least once a day she hugs me like this. My arms wrap around her waist and I hold her tightly, her body relaxing into mine. At 6’5 to her 5’3 the footstool brings her up to my height and means I don't have to lean over to hold her.
“Are you going to let go of me ever?” she questions, and I can feel her grinning as she nuzzles into my neck.
“I was just wondering something is all?”
“Hmm.”
“I never really looked at the invitation on your fridge but the sun was shining on it this morning and the gold foiling caught the light.”
Her body remains relaxed against mine as she listens to me.
“So I moved it, and I read it.”
“Hmm. Yeah, I told you it's for my sister's wedding but I’ve already talked to her and I don't think I’ll go,” she says, still draped across me.
“I was just wondering if I was going to get to dance with my wife at the wedding is all?”
I try to keep the emotion from my voice but it's not an easy feat when suddenly your wildest fantasies are coming true.
“What are you talking about? Who's your wife,” she chuckles.
“Well, darlin'. It seems I'm holding her now ain't I,” I say, a huge smile on my face as she rears back and looks at me. Scrambling from me she rushes to the fridge and rips the invitation from where it was placed, the magnet flying to the floor as she looks it over.
“I didn't read it when I opened it,” she whispers. “I just put it on the fridge.”
Her big eyes stare up at me and I close the distance between us, picking her up with one arm as her legs wrap around my waist. This is not something we do very often as it borders the line of what are we a bit too closely, but right now I don't care. She yelps and grabs onto me as I move around the kitchen, waving the invitation in the air.
“Ace?” she questions, a worried look in her eyes. “I can explain.”
“ Mr and Mrs James Wilson are invited to the wedding of Philip Montague and Elizabeth Davis. And then I happened to turn it over and see Lizzy wrote us a note as well. Imagine my surprise when she said to Nova and Ace, I'm so excited to see you both at the wedding. I can not believe you eloped without me!”
“It's not what it looks like.”
“Oh no, you don't, there's no getting out of this one so easy. I need at least a day to call you my wife,” I say, softly looking at her. Her body relaxes a little then and I let her down from my hold, sitting her on the bench top. “You want to start from the beginning for me, wifey?”
In the Light of Day - Coming 2025