Chapter Twenty-Nine
A loud noise startles me awake, my eyes popping open.
After a few nights in the old cottage, I haven’t gotten used to the new sounds, or the critters that have made their homes in the walls over the years.
“I can’t wait for the pest control to get here.” Aubrey grumbles next to me.
“They’ll be here today. Are you sure you don’t mind waiting for them so I can set up for the orchard sessions this afternoon?” Our legs tangle together as she snuggles into me.
“Nope. Lily and I will come meet you after they’re gone.”
“Wyatt will be here with you. He can bring you over.” I remind her.
“I don’t think we need a babysitter, Cooper. Wyatt can have his day back.” The slight tick of annoyance is in her voice again. It’s there whenever we discuss her being alone.
“Just give me one more week. Please?” I let my hand drift down her side, slipping under her waistband.
“Mmm.” She moans. “Maybe we could work something out.”
“Oh yeah? What would it take for me to get you to agree?” I push her panties down, and slide under the covers.
“I think you might be off to a good start for a couple days.”
A couple days?
“How do I get a week?” Kisses trail along her inner thigh, and when my lips find her clit she bucks off the bed.
“That might help your case.” She rasps.
Reaching up, I slide my hand under her shirt to find her breasts. Playing with her nipples to add pleasure. I lick a circle around her clit and push two fingers inside making her moan.
Small footsteps pad down the hall into the living room and I know we’re on borrowed time until we have someone knocking on the bedroom door.
“You need to come quick, gorgeous. We don’t have much time.”
She doesn’t respond but she presses into me and I move quicker, harder.
She’s panting and moaning on a whisper. I know she’s close. I nip at her clit and curve my fingers to hit her G-Spot.
“Oh shit! Cooper—” She cries out.
But I don’t let her finish screaming. I move up her body, throwing the blanket over my head. Covering her lips with mine I swallow her screams and work her clit with my fingers and her nipples with the other hand. She writhes underneath me, a sheen of sweat covering her body.
When her movements still, I reach down and pull her panties back up. Just in time for the little knock on our door. Emma and Roman brought not only our mattress, but also Lily’s that we put in the small craft room where Grandma used to sew.
I climb over Aubrey to go get the door. “Good morning, princess.”
“Mornin’ Coopa! Bweakfast?” she asks.
“Of course. I’ll be right there. You put on some cartoons.” She nods and runs off. Turning to Aubrey, I say, “You stay and relax. I’ll go get her breakfast ready.”
Making pancakes for Lily has become a morning routine at this point. This girl would eat pancakes all day, every day if we let her.
"Coopa, my pantates weady?" Aubrey and Lily join me in the kitchen.
"Just taking the last one off now.” I plop the last pancake on the plate and carry it over to the makeshift card table.
When we uncovered the dining room table that my grandmother loved so much, it was chewed up by some animal that made their home in it over the years.
Luckily Liam had the small card table at the inn, and between mattresses on the floor, folding tables, and a fireplace for cooking until we got the propane, we have our little home away from home.
Complete with iPad TV that magically connects just enough to Mom’s Wi-Fi.
“Everyone dig in.” I say sitting down.
“Tank you, Coopa!” Lily says as she sits down with a thud.
“Thank you very much.” Aubrey echoes.
“Anything for my girls.”
We all eat in silence as the children’s cartoon drones on from the living room.
“What time do you need us today?” Aubrey asks.
“I think maybe three o’clock would be good? Everyone else will show up around that time. They want to do a family photo with the tripod for Ma and Pops this Christmas.”
“That’ll be nice, Anna will love that.” She smiles.
It secretly makes me happy how close she and Ma are. They spend a lot of time together with Lily May, Emma, and Olivia. Lily loves Olivia and it’s like a future is taking shape in front of me, one I remember having once before.
Picking up our plates, Aubrey brings them over to the sink to be washed.
The front door swings open, and Wyatt’s loud voice booms out. “Ladies! I’m here to spend the day with my favorite little princess and her mama.”
“Wyyyyy!” Lily is up and running into his arms, sticky syrup mess and all.
“My girlie. Did you eat pancakes? You smell like a pancake. And you’re as sticky as one too.” He holds one of her offending hands away from him, putting her back on the floor.
“Uh-huh. My Coopa mate them for me.” She grins wide as a Cheshire cat.
“Well. Let’s see what Uncle Wyatt can do today to sway you over to my side instead of Coopa’s.” She giggles not having a clue what he means, but happy to have the attention.
“Well, while you three have the time of your life today, I’ll be busy, and I’ve got to get out there.”
I give them hugs, and drop a kiss to Lily’s head before Aubrey walks me out to the four-wheeler.
“Wyatt really doesn’t need to stay.” She purrs into my ear.
“I thought I earned myself a week this morning?”
A deep sigh. “I suppose you did. I could use some more convincing though.”
“Is that so? Was this morning not enough for you?” I kiss her neck.
“Of course it wasn’t. I want more. Always.” Her hands wrap around my middle under my tee. Her fingers gently roaming over my back.
“I’m leaving before you convince me to run off into these woods and I miss my first round of sessions.”
“Not your worst idea.” She raises a brow.
“Goodbye, gorgeous.” I kiss her lips once more before hopping on the four-wheeler and taking off.
I watch in the side mirror as she waves from the porch.
Turning around and whisking her into the woods still sounds like a solid plan.
I’m ready to collapse. I do not want to keep going, especially for this family photo. But I have to. I have to ignore the email that I got around lunchtime from Nolan.
You stole money from me with the Adirondacks. I told you to stop. Now you’ll pay the price I deem fair. >
I immediately forwarded the email to Wyatt. But he hasn’t done anything that would warrant an arrest.
Gathering my tripod I start to set it up in the perfect position when a small thud slams into my legs.
“Coopa!”
“Hey, princess!” I swing her around in a circle, her toes catching on the tripod and knocking it over.
“Cooper! Your camera!” Aubrey yells, lunging for it.
“It’s over in my bag. No worries. Just a piece of metal.” I drop Lily back to the ground and lean over to kiss Aubrey. “I’m so glad you’re here. I could use a break.”
“Good because we brought you some lunch. I know you haven’t eaten today.” She hands me a brown paper bag. “It’s not much. Just a sandwich, chips, and a cookie.”
“Sounds perfect.” I walk over to a spot in the sunshine, patting the ground next to me. “Come sit with me.”
Lily is first to sit between my legs, opening the bag and handing me half a sandwich, taking the other half for herself.
“Lily!” Aubrey admonishes. “We made that for Cooper. You already ate.”
“I hungwy.” She says over a mouthful.
Tickling her side, I take a bite of my half. “Good thing I don’t mind sharing.”
Aubrey rolls her eyes. “You two are impossible.”
Lily looks up at me, smiling with mustard on each side of her mouth.
“What is wrong with you? Lime green? Do you pay any attention to the group chat?”
“We need to get you a woman.”
I look at Aubrey. “Sounds like everyone is coming.”
She laughs when one of them, I assume Wyatt, claims, “I’ve been pulling overtime! I haven’t had time to do laundry.”
“You have not one, but four brothers, you didn’t think to text one of them for a shirt and instead chose a lime green polo you probably haven’t squeezed into since high school.”
“Hey! Don’t call me fat! I’m the best built one out of all of us.” Wyatt comes into view flexing, making Aubrey laugh at the whole ridiculousness of the situation.
“You guys couldn’t even get it together for a family photo?” I call out.
“At least we aren’t sitting on the job! Look at this. He’s not even set up.” Liam jokes with me.
“I mean, you definitely get what you pay for.” I wipe off my hands and scooch Lily off my lap so I can get this tripod set up.
“Good thing we aren’t paying anything!” Evelyn adds.
“Yeah, lucky me. Start setting yourselves up. I want guys lined up first.”
Hunter salutes me. “Anything you say, sir. Right away, sir.”
He and Gunnar crack up at themselves. Probably some inside joke from the military.
Rolling my eyes I grab the tripod from Lily who picked it up for me. “Thank you, princess.”
After directing them where to go, I start to fill in spouses and test my settings at the same time before joining.
Aubrey is still sitting off to the side. “Come on, you two are with me.”
“Oh no, we aren’t family.” She shakes her head. But, Lily is up and running to me.
“Aubrey Peterson! I know you’re not pretending like we haven’t adopted you and this beautiful little girl on our own without Cooper.” Emma yells at her, adjusting Olivia on her hip.
“Coopa,” Lily whispers. “I go be wif Wibby?”
“Of course you can.” I step out of line. “Ems, let’s put the girls up front together.”
By the time they get situated Aubrey is still arguing with the women that she doesn’t need to be in the photo. So I fix that.
Running over to her, I throw her over my shoulder and carry her over to my spot.
“Cooper! Put me down!” She smacks my back.
“Yes, ma’am.” I place her down in front of me but pull her back close to me. “You are family. You’ll be officially my family one day, I’m not letting you go.”
“Oh, look at our boy getting poetic!” Wyatt laughs.
“You're just jealous.” I spit out.
When he doesn’t fire back, I feel like I potentially hit a nerve I didn’t know was there. Staring at him, he fidgets under my gaze. Guess we’ll be discussing this later in the group because all the girls have caught on to the interaction too.
“Let’s get this show on the road!” Willow calls.
I give a few different directions for different poses within the same setup.
“Okay last one! One, two—” I count down, but Liam cuts me off.
“Three, everyone yell Vi’s pregnant!”
Some of us fall for it and yell, the others let out a collective gasp and then it’s chaos. They all descend on Liam and Violet, and I keep snapping photos with my remote. Not wanting them to miss a second of this big announcement.
While we have two grandkids in the family, this is the first Keaton sibling pregnancy. Emma’s daughter Olivia was a surprise baby from one of Roman’s one night stands, and Lily.
“Ma is going to lose her shit.” I say, hugging Liam.
“She’s known for a few weeks. She was excited though.” He laughs.
Everyone hangs around for a bit more, getting photos of their individual families.
Wyatt drove Aubrey and Lily home since I was on the four-wheeler. And I’ve never been happier to get home. There’s a reason I never became a wedding or family photographer. It’s flat exhausting. I’d much rather get to travel and take photos on my own time.
Passing Wyatt on the road in, I wave to him, but don’t stop. Nothing is stopping me from getting home.
Pushing the door open, I was expecting Lily to barrel into me and the second she didn’t, I knew something was wrong.
I find Aubrey in the kitchen, frozen, her face pale, staring at her phone.
That fucker got to her. She turns her phone toward me.
Unknown: You know what I want. It’s time to pay Jack’s debts. And the payment is you and Lily. I’ve been hired to complete a job someone else couldn’t. You can’t hide from me forever. Your time is coming when I’m ready to cash in.
Looking back at Aubrey, her face is paler than before.
“They want Lily. What does that even mean?”
I can’t even focus. I’m seeing red with my fists balled at my side. Whoever this is has been hired. And hired by Nolan. This is no coincidence from the email I got this afternoon. Wyatt just needs to be able to prove it.
“We need to show Wyatt. He must be able to get a tracer, maybe if I call the number? I got an email from my boss, I think that we can definitely—”
“No. I can’t keep doing this here. I need to go. I need to get out of here. If this is your boss then maybe he’ll back off if I’m out of the picture. Maybe Lily and I can live a fresh start and check our cars for trackers all the time. We can…” She breaks down in tears finally.
“Stop. Right now. You’re not going anywhere. Neither am I. So get that out of your head right now.”
She shakes her head in her hands. “We can’t keep going like this, Cooper. Something has to give.”
Holding her hands in mine, I kiss her. “And it won’t be us. I can promise you that. I’m not letting you go.”
She swallows hard, resting against my chest. “I’m not strong enough.”
“I’ll be the strength for both of us.” My arms wrap around her, holding her tight.
“Mommy!” Lily yells from her room. “Bad dweam!”
“I’m sorry.” She slowly pulls out of my embrace and walks down the hall to Lily’s room.
I will do whatever I can to protect these two.