Ever After (The Christmas Cottage - Book 2)

by Samantha Chase

  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!”

  “It 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 stroking 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 squealed 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.

  “My appointment isn’t until four in the afternoon but if we leave in the morning we can get up there and get settled in. The property is beautiful; it’s particularly spectacular in the winter when it snows. Lacey and Ean got snowed in up there last year and that’s how they ended up reconnecting with one another. We got some beautiful pictures from their wedding…”

  Brian could see that she was still talking but he stopped listening. That elusive something that had been nagging at the back of his mind finally clicked in to place. Her parent’s home. The cottage. Her wedding to Mason.

  He was completely blindsided. Why on earth would she want to take him to the place where she’d almost married his best friend? What could she possibly gain from that? What kind of game was she playing? Looking over at her he couldn’t comprehend how it was that he could love Ava and completely not understand her.

  “So what do you think?” she asked anxiously, placing their dinner plates on the table.

  He stared at her as if she’d grown a second head and looked from her to the table and back again. Shaking his head to clear it he asked, “I’m sorry, what do I think about what?”

  She looked crushed. “Haven’t you been listening? I was telling you about how we can go hiking and we can set up a fire outside by the fire pit that my grandfather built and go exploring the town or we can maybe just spend a cozy weekend in the cottage.” Her voice trailed off a bit at the end of the statement and that was the final piece of the puzzle for Brian.

  “I’m not spending the night in the cottage, Ava,” he said bluntly.

  “What? Why? I don’t understand.”

  “Really?” he asked, stalking toward her. “You don’t understand why I wouldn’t want to spend the night in the place where you were going to honeymoon with Mason? Don’t you think that’s a bit of an odd request to ask of me?”

  She truly looked puzzled. “I don’t see why? It’s not like we actually did spend the night in the cottage. For crying out loud, Brian, Mason never even saw the cottage let alone sleep there! I just thought it would be a nice little getaway for us and a little less boring than spending the night in my parent’s house.”

  Now she sounded hurt and while Brian felt bad, he wasn’t convinced that he wasn’t being played somehow. “Under any other circumstances, Ava, it would be; but to me, it feels a little weird. I want us to make our own memories; not tack on to somebody else’s.”

  “We’re not; honestly, we’re not. I have no memories of the cottage, Brian. All of the memories involve other people. I just thought it might be nice, that’s all. If it bothers you that much then just forget it. No big deal.”

  But Brian knew that it was a big deal. If her tone didn’t convey it then the way that she sighed as she sat down and pushed her food around her plate certainly did. On one hand Brian wanted to feel bad and to cave in and give Ava what she wanted but he just couldn’t. There was something not right with the whole situation. While he loved the idea of going away for the weekend with Ava, he wanted it to be someplace that she hadn’t been before and especially not the place where she almost married her ex-fiancé!

  Reaching across the table he took one of her hands in his and waited until her big blue eyes met his. “Look, I know it seems like I’m being ridiculous but I just want us to make our own memories. I don’t want to take you places that you’ve been before with other men; I especially don’t want to take you to the place where you almost got married!”

  “But I love that place, Brian!” she interjected. “If we continue with this relationship, eventually you are going to have to go to the house and to the cottage because my family does spend time there; we spend holidays there and there will eventually be a wedding there.”

  Not ours, he thought to himself sternly. “I get that, Ava, I really do, but if we’re going to have a romantic getaway, then I want it to be someplace fresh, someplace new. Especially when it’s our first time going away together.” He stroked a thumb over her knuckles before gently squeezing her hand. “I want to take you someplace that when you look back on it, you’ll remember it because of me, because of us and no one else. Does that make sense?”

  Damn the man for being so practical! How was she supposed to get her night in the cottage if he refused to go? All sorts of dramatic scenarios played through her mind: running away and having him chase her there, having her car break down on the property so he’d have to come and get her, being kidnapped by big foot and left for dead at the cabin… She almost chuckled out loud at that last one but if she got desperate enough, she knew she could come up with some way to get him to that cottage.

  She noticed that Brian was looking at her expectantly and realized that she never answered him. “Of course it makes sense and I really do understand; I guess I just wanted to share something that is a big part of my life with you. I know that the cottage isn’t any big deal but I always wanted to spend the night there and never had anyone to do that with.”

  “What about Mason?”

  “Oh,” she waved him off, pulling her hand from his. “Mason hated the mountains and was merely tolerating having the wedding there because it was what I wanted. He didn’t want to spend the night there at all.” She smiled sadly at Brian. “I guess I wanted to have my moment, my night, with you.”

  Well hell, how was he supposed to say no to that? Those big sweet eyes were like saucers looking at him and in that moment he knew he’d give her anything that she wanted. Even if it meant spending the night in the one place he should be avoiding at all costs.

  Chapter Seven

  Later that night, Ava lay in the dark listening to Brian breathing and said a silent prayer of thanks that he didn’t out and out refuse her request of going to the cottage. In all of her planning she had never considered the possibility of Brian having an issue with going with her because of her history with Mason. How were they going to overcome this? She certainly didn’t want her previous relationship to become a hindrance with their moving forward. There was no doubt in her mind that she was completely over Mason and he was over her. The man w
as getting married; how much more over her could he be?

  In a flash it hit her; they were going to have to look at the possibility of getting together with Mason and clearing the air and making sure that there were no hard feelings. Ava cringed; this was certainly not in any of her plans. Sure she didn’t have any hard feelings toward the man but that didn’t mean that she wanted to hang out with him and be friends! If she was okay with going back to the place where she almost got married, why wouldn’t Brian be? She turned her head and studied his shadow in the dark and smiled. He was going to have to get used to it if she had any hope of ever getting the wedding that she wanted and her happy ending.

  ****

  Two days later found them sharing a dinner again. Ava decided the best course of action was to just throw it all out there and hope for the best. “We’re going for drinks with Mason tomorrow night.”

  Brian almost choked on his food. “What?”

  “Well, it seems like you maybe have some issues and I thought it would be best if we all sat down together and talked about it; you know, cleared the air. Mason thinks it’s a good idea.”

  “Wait a minute,” he said, rising from his chair to pace the kitchen. “You called Mason and told him that we’re dating?” Ava nodded. “Why? Why would you do that?”

  Ava rose from the table as well, her tone defensive. “Was it supposed to be a secret? Were you planning on hiding our relationship from your friends?”

  “This isn’t about my friends, Ava, and you damn well know it! This is about one friend in particular and I didn’t think it was necessary to inform him.”

  “Ever or just for now?” she asked snidely.

  Brian sighed with frustration. “Look, I just don’t think it was your place to go about arranging this little get-together. I have no problem talking to Mason but it was my decision to make as to when I wanted to do it.”