Chapter 16
Thane – POV ?
We were late getting ready and out of the house, to which I took full responsibility for, but I couldn’t keep my hands off her.
I finally got to touch her, taste her and I was obsessed.
“So, there are several events today?” She asked, straightening her dress around her legs after I snuck my hands under it to grab her ass.
“We normally hold three events. The biggest draw is bicycling one of the three nature trails. Each trail is for a biker’s level of beginner, intermediate or expert. The winner gets a $1000 check and a 3-night stay at Sweet Dreams Inn.”
“Ohh, that’s nice.”
“The other events are held around Main Street and it’s like a cook off. One is for pizza, and the other is BBQ. Those two bring in a pretty large crowd just by themselves. A lot of locals participate but it’s more of the city cookers who come in to show off.”
“Sounds like a lot of fun. I’m not gonna lie, I’m looking forward to the pizza.”
I helped her into the truck, pausing to give her a kiss, enjoying the way she melted into me, before I buckled her in and moved around to the driver’s side.
“But this year is going to be different.”
“How so?”
“We added a fourth event,” I smiled at her, “because of you.”
“Me! Oh, God, what did I do?”
I laughed and reached for her hand, “you showed me that we were leaving out an important group of people, so I spoke with the higher ups and they all decided to include a Drawing event catered to children. It will be held at the school and kids from one year old to twenty-one can enter.
They can take their time as long as they are done by 2pm. We have the teachers being the judges and a child from each age group will win a prize.”
“Thane,” she whispered, squeezing my hand. “That’s absolutely perfect.”
“Not that I’m complaining,” I said, pulling her hand to my lips, “but we missed the start of the bike race, however the pizza and BBQ won’t start for another two hours, so we will have plenty of time look at all the displays.”
“It’s your fault.”
“I would be happy to miss the whole day if it meant staying in bed with you, honey.”
I parked the truck around the back of the Inn, then we headed out to find Mako. Apparently, she kidnapped Ava early this morning to help out with her art display and we wanted to see the final look.
We passed by one stand after another, pausing to browse at each one, sometimes buying a little trinket here or there. Courtney was smiling ear to ear at all the stalls, excited to explore each one when we came to a stop at a massive line wrapped around the corner.
“Where are all these people going?” She asked, gripping my arm to stand on her toes to try and see around the crowd. “It’s not time for the food, is it?”
“No, it’s not time for the food,” I replied, pushing my way through the crowd, holding onto her hand, “I think they are lined up for the flower shop.”
It was a struggle, but we managed to cut through the line and make our way to the other side of the street and around the back of the flower shop only to be meet face to face with a very pissed off Hunter.
“What is the matter with you?”
Hunter who was a large man and could come across as scary, but when he went into his ‘military mode,’ he was even more intimidating. Standing there with his arms crossed, feet braced apart, he looked like he was ready to go headfirst into a losing battle.
“That damn woman is blackmailing me,” he snarled, “and what’s worse is that she is using Ethan too!”
“Who’s blackmailing you?” Courtney peeked around Hunter to try and see what was going on.
“Mako,” he hissed. “That bloody woman came to the ranch yesterday and demanded I provide her animals for her little side show and if I didn’t then she …”
He clammed up, his hand came up and swept his ballcap from his head while the other scrubbed his face. It looked like he was blushing.
“Animals for what?” I asked cautiously. Hunter was not someone who flustered easily. The man was a decorated military hero, survived one deployment after another, but whatever Mako had on him was something he was … embarrassed about?
“Dad, Rocky pooped again!” Ethan’s head popped through the gated fence.
Courtney squealed when she saw Ethan dressed like a prince, complete with a long flowing cape, riding boots and a sword, looking like a male version of Mako.
She swooped down and placed kisses on his face, telling him how amazing he looked.
Meanwhile, his dad was cursing the bloody horse for shitting for the fourth time.
I raised an eyebrow when I saw Hunter snatching up a bucket and shovel. “That woman will pay for this, Thane. I swear.” He grumbled walking passed me, “I don’t know what I’m going to do, but she will hate it.”
We followed Hunter through the gate, ignoring his mumbling as we stepped into an alternate reality. Mako had turned the small greenhouse into a fairytale wonderland, complete with flowering swings and animals.
Hunter stomped his way to where Rocky was standing while Ethan tugged Courtney over to one of the many swings.
“Coco!”
A tiny little missile covered in pink lace with glittering wings shot out between the bushes and dove straight into Courtney’s arms. “Coco, I’s a fairy!” Ava squealed. “Look Bear, I’s a fairy!”
“The most beautiful fairy I’ve ever seen, Poppy,” I told her, kneeling down to brush her hair away from her face.
“I was wondering when you’d show up,” Mako announced, coming around the corner holding black rabbit. A sharp contrast to her embellished white laced dress. “Ava and Ethan have been the best help I could ever ask for.”
I smiled up at her, “oh, yeah? What about Hunter?”
She grimaced, but her eyes were shining in amusement. “You’d think working with animals he’d be better at his job, but he’s terrible.”
“Listen here, you …”
“Oh, Thane,” she interrupted, “would you like to see a video?”
Hunter immediately clamped his mouth shut and went back to shoveling.
Well, that’s interesting.
“Come on Courtney,” Mako twirled away, waving her phone in the air, “let me show you what we’ve been doing.”
“Let’s go Bear,” Ava said, tugging on my hand. “We take pretty pictures.”
Mako showed us around her little greenhouse that she had divided into sections where people could come and take fairytale pictures with either a horse, three baby goats, seven rabbits or a peacock.
People were lined up around the corner for hours she said, and even quite a few were dressed up in costumes for the photos.
“We are going to finish up here and then take a break,” Mako said, “I know both Ava and Ethan want to go to the drawing event by the school.”
We stayed around and helped out with the pictures as best we could, but Mako had a solid routine of getting people in and out, so it didn’t take long for the crowd to empty out.
In fact, she timed everything perfectly with the sessions ending just as the pizza and BBQ cookouts were ready to dish out their food.
Soon, I had a glittering, fairy troll sitting on my shoulders and a beautiful, smiling woman tucked under my arm as we headed to the school so Ava could try her best at the drawing event.
Ava told us all about her day, how Mako transformed her and Ethan into a fairy and prince and how much she loved taking pictures and playing with the animals.
We dodged around the smaller crowds, chatting with a few locals, helping the tourists find their way until we finally made it to the school. Ava scurried off to find Ms. Andi, who was in charge of the four year old contest, leaving us alone to take in the activities.
“This place is magical,” Courtney whispered, watching people laugh and having a good time.
“It’s been a long time since I felt this … I don’t know, unburdened, I guess. I loved living where I was before, but when things became too hard, I knew we needed to leave.”
She turned and wrapped her arms around my waist, resting her head on my chest.
“I never thought we would be so lucky to find this perfect little town, with such loving, caring people,” she tipped her head back to look at me, her chocolate eyes shining with emotion, “I never thought I’d find you.”
I slid my hand to the back of her head and took her mouth in long, sweet kiss, pouring all my love and happiness into it.
“I feel the same,” I murmured into her hair, resting my cheek against the top of her head.
“After my career blew up with that scandal, I had nowhere else to go but here. A place that I thought I could just disappear into, but then one day a little troll screamed Bear and a gorgeous woman smiled at me and I knew that this is where I am supposed to be, here with you and Ava.”
I tugged her hair back, forcing her to look up at me. “I love you, Courtney.”
“I love you, Thane,” she whispered against my mouth.
“And me!” Ava yelled standing beside us, causing both of us to jump.
“And you, Poppy,” I laughed, picking her up and twirling her around. “I love you too, Ava baby. You are so full of sunshine and happiness, you make every day brighter.”
She looked at me with such a serious face, her small hands clamped onto my cheeks that I was momentarily stunned. She looked sad, her eyes welling up with tears, before she shook her head and smiled big. “I’s love you too, Bear.”
I wrapped her up in a big hug and just held her as tightly as I could. I know that both of them have some dark shadows lingering from the past, but I want to be the one to take away their pain, to fight the shadows and bring them both happiness.
“Come on beloved,” Courtney rubbed her hand up and down Ava’s back, “are you done with your picture?”
“I’s didn’t make one.”
“Why not, Poppy? I thought you were looking forward to it?”
Ava looked everywhere but at us, her teeth nibbling on her bottom lip. “I’s hungry and want to eat pizza, now.”
I glanced at Courtney, who was looking at Ava for anything that could be wrong. She must not have seen anything amiss, and we all went back into the crowd of people to get plates of pizza and BBQ.
Somehow, we managed to meet up with my family mid-afternoon at the same time and we all sat down, laughing and talking about our day, trading plates of food and giving our ratings on which ones were the best.
Courtney had convinced Ava to take off her fairy wings so she wouldn’t get them dirty, so Ava had declared that she now was a princess and was going to go around and greet people.
Despite his grumpy attitude early, Hunter was joking around with everyone, even encouraging Ethan to be a good prince and make sure princess Ava stayed safe. It was cute watching them walk around the tables, saying hello to people, asking if they had a fun day.
We were all having a great time, when Courtney suddenly grabbed my thigh, her nails digging in. “Somethings wrong,” she mumbled, standing up.
I tensed and looked around, getting to my feet.
“Ava!” she shouted, moving away from the table.
My eyes snapped to where Ava was standing. Her face pale, tiny hands shaking as she brought them up to her ears, covering them before she let out a blood-curdling scream.