Chapter 18
Thane – POV?
I knew that what they had suffered was terrible, but for it to be that traumatic, no wonder Ava had horrible outbursts, why Courtney seemed to be guarded and cautious of letting people get close.
She’s had to carry this burden for so long and all on her own.
We followed Sean, who was carrying Ava into the room my mother had set aside for us, down the long hallway. Courtney was barely standing on her feet, so I bent down and lifted her up, breathing a sigh of relief when she leaned her head on my shoulder.
“I’ve got you, baby,” I whispered against her head. “Thank you for telling me your story, for trusting me with your pain. I promise you, I’m here. I’ll always be here.”
She just buried herself deeper into my hold, “I don’t want to be a burden, I don’t –”
I dropped her legs and pinned her to the wall, my hands had come up and cupped her face, “I don’t want to hear you ever say something like that again or a sore ass will be the least of your worries, do you understand me?”
Her red puffy eyes widened as I pushed her harder into the wall, “answer me, honey.”
She nodded.
“Words, sweetheart, I want to hear your words. Tell me you understand that I would never think of you as a burden or any other thing like that. I love you and I want to take care of you, support you and be the safe place you need. Understand?”
Her eyes welled up again as she licked her lips, “I understand.” Her hands gripped my shirt tightly, “I understand, Thane.”
I kissed her softly, sealing her words with a promise. “Come on, honey, let’s get some sleep.”
Fortunately, Sean had already placed Ava in bed and, on his way back, gently patted my shoulder and gave Courtney a brief kiss on her head. “Get some rest, sweetheart.”
I grumbled at Sean for touching her, but at the same time, I was grateful that my family was here, that they stepped up and held on just as tightly to Courtney and Ava as I did.
We walked into the room to find Ava tucked carefully into bed.
I didn’t wait, didn’t ask. I simply started undressing Courtney until I had her in nothing but her panties. I took off my shirt and slipped it over her head and pulled it down until it covered her legs.
“Into bed, sweetheart,” I sighed against her forehead, giving her another kiss. “Tomorrow, we will come up with a plan. Tomorrow, honey. It can all wait, so for now rest for tonight. We will work on it tomorrow.”
The three of us slept until late morning, cuddled together.
At some point, Ava had crawled out from between us, so when I woke up later, I had an arm wrapped around her small body as she was sprawled on my chest and Courtney had her head rested in the crook of my neck, her hand laid protectively on Ava’s back, a leg thrown over mine.
“My beautiful girls,” I squeezed them tighter, “I promise, we are going to work on everything, and I will give you the lives you deserve.”
And we did.
----
In the months that followed, Courtney and I worked hard in establishing a safe routine for Ava, talking to her about her emotions and finding the best ways for her to cope when she got stressed.
Mako was tenacious in her search to find a therapist in the city that specialized in childhood trauma that dealt with death and loss.
It worked out well when Ava started summer school three days out of the week and the other two, we drove into the city for her sessions.
She made improvements in leaps and bounds.
Ms. Andi was kind enough to instill some of the therapeutic practices in the classroom, and she stated that not only Ava, but the other students benefited from it as well. She was impressed with Ava’s academic skills and touted that she was the class's big sister, encouraging and uplifting everyone.
Courtney had also started taking some therapy sessions and her outlook on life became more positive and she began to blossom even more.
She decided to hire some teenagers to help out with her private business as she began working on building relationships and connections with those here in town. Creating a chosen family.
Once she learned that it was my family that was technically in charge of the town, the festivals and overseeing the growth of the place, she was determined to make it more of a family-friendly destination while preserving the natural environment and the close-knit community.
Everyone was on board.
She had mentioned before that I should draft plans to turn the mountain cabins into something more eco-friendly, but when Courtney showed me the sketches of her ideas, I was blown away.
She had come up with a forest village, complete with rope bridges built to connect several treehouses that were above the cabins. She created it around one of the nature trails and even sketched a community building where guests could come together to eat and play.
I took her advice to heart and began working on various drawings for the cabin community but also continued to work on the plans for the new Once Again playground that would be large enough to accommodate all the children of the town,
including several pavilions and cookout spots for the townspeople to use and come together.
In between our busy schedules, we still managed to work on her house. Devin had the front and back yard cleared and the ground prepped for planting in the spring, dad had worked on building the oversized wrap-around porch while Sean tackled the cutout archway in the room that was off the kitchen.
She finally caved and showed us her plans for that room, and I have to say, everyone was impressed, and jealous.
She wanted the cracked wall to be opened not to the outside but instead she had planned to have a large greenhouse attached to the back wall and use it as a luxurious bathroom.
Sean was excited to do something so intricate and the idea of combining two different styles influenced him to add different elements into his construction portfolio.
The inside of the house was not in as bad of shape as we anticipated, so when the updated electricity and plumbing were completed, Courtney, my mother and Megan began cleaning the inside from top to bottom and prepping the rooms to be decorated.
First, they had gone through the old building outside and discovered that a lot of the furniture was something Courtney wanted to keep. Then, they had worked on cleaning those pieces and refurbishing them to fit into the house.
At some point both Mako and Andi had joined their shopping adventures, buying the ‘small stuff’ as Courtney called it and all of them spent the evenings decorating and rearranging rooms until it all felt just right.
In the meantime, I had been in contact with Yara Callahan the young woman who was the assistant HR that helped me before and asked if she would be willing to come to Once Again to discuss the possibility of running the rental business for the mountain cabins.
I was surprised by how excited she was and promised to come out as soon as possible.
It was something that I had already discussed with the family, and they were all in agreement that this would be a perfect time to grow the town and expand.
As we worked hard and planned for our future, we continued to live our lives one day at a time, laughing, loving, and learning what it meant to create our own family.
“Bear, Bear!” Ava yelled as she came running in the house, “guess what?”
I came out of my office just in time to catch the happy little troll as she launched herself at me. “Hey, Poppy girl,” I said, tossing her in the air, loving her infectious laugh, “what’s happened?”
She smiled so big, “I’m starting school next week! And, and, Mako said that she got me a pretty dress to wear on my first day of kindergarten!”
“That’s amazing sweetheart!” I held her tightly, “and do you have the dress with you? Can I see it?”
“Oh, no,” Courtney said, coming around the corner carrying Ava’s overnight bag that she uses when she stays with my parents.
“Mako will be here any minute to pick Ava baby up. She said that since Ava has been growing so much, she needs to make some adjustments to the dress and asked if Ava could just spend the night.”
I looked over at Courtney and saw the small smile playing at her mouth. “When are you leaving, Poppy gir –”
There was a loud knock on the door and we all heard Mako screaming for Ava.
“Mako’s here!” She screamed, kicking her feet. “Night, night Bear,” she said, giving me a sweet kiss on the cheek before she wriggled out of my arms.
“Come on Ava baby, let’s go see Mako.”
We both followed behind the little hurricane, spent a few minutes talking to Mako about their plans for the night and agreed to pick Ava up tomorrow afternoon at the bakery.
“Have fun, Poppy.”
“I will!”
Courtney and I waved them off and as soon as the door was shut, I had her pinned against the door, my mouth devouring her soft lips and swallowing each moan.
Breaking a part, I picked her up and tossed her over my shoulder and quickly carried her to the bedroom. “You’re saying that I have you all to myself for the next 24 hours.”
I threw her to the bed, delighted when she laughed. “Oh my, whatever are you going to do with all that time, grumpy bear?”
“First, I’m going to eat you out until you pass out,” I growled, pulling my shirt off, “then I’m going to fuck you for hours, honey, hours.”
I walked up to the bed and tugged on her shoes and tossed them over my shoulders before I pulled on her pants and jerked them and her panties off in one shift motion.
I watched as she wriggled her shirt off and unsnapped her bra, throwing both at me. I caught them easily, throwing them to the floor next to the rest of her clothes. Her hands gripped her breasts, even as she spread her legs, showing me her perfect, wet heat.
“Well, who am I to stop you? I mean,” she lowered one hand and traced a line down her body until her fingers parted her lower lips, and slowly pushed one slender finger inside herself, “if that’s how you want to spend your day, I am more than happy to give you what you want.”
This woman makes me crazy.
One moment, I feel like I have found myself and the next, she makes me forget how to breathe.
“Honey, I’m going to hold you to that,” I said, as I pulled my pants off, “giving me exactly what I want for the next 24 hours. The things I want to do to you, to make you feel, damn baby,” I growled, “you make me feel out of control. I don’t want to scare you.”
I watched as she crawled to the edge of the bed, “I would never be scared of you, Thane.”
She brought her hands up and cupped my face, scraping her nails down through my beard, “I love when you lose control. I love that you want me so much you forget yourself, you throw me around, you talk dirty to me. Everything gets so primal, so intense. If I make you lose control,
then you make me forget everything but you – only you. I love you and everything that you do for me – to me.”
It was like a dam was broken. She loves me, loves the things that I do for her, the things I do to her.
“Is that so, baby,” I rumbled, as I pushed her back and forced her to crash against the bed. “Then lie back and let me have my way.”
“Yes, Bear,” she smiled, as she threw her hands up and gripped the headboard.
I pounced.