AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Randy takes out a business card he swiped from the diner and hands it over to me. It has his cell number scrawled on the back in blue ballpoint ink. “Thank you, Sheriff. You have yourself a blessed day.”
“You, too, Randy.”
He gets back behind the wheel of the sedan and drives off, the tires slipping slightly across the frozen patches along the main route out of the parking lot. I look up and see the skies darkening again. It’ll snow for the third time this week. It’s the snowiest winter I’ve seen in the past few years. Not that I mind.
Snow days mean less traffic in my county and more time for me to spend at home with Avery and the girls. They’ve become an integral part of my life in such a short time. I should be worried about how quickly I’ve become attached to them, but on the other hand, I keep thinking maybe this could be it. The moment I’ve waited for my whole life.
The woman who might change everything for the better.
16
Avery
It’s a sunny Sunday morning in the middle of winter.
The garden stretching behind the house looks picturesque, a snowy wonderland unraveling at my feet. Everything is white and sparkly under the sun’s golden light. The old pine trees wear thick crowns of snow over their branches, and my girls are having the time of their life as they run around, cheering and laughing and chasing each other.
They’re snug and warm in their pink and orange ski overalls and snow boots, their cheeks ruddy as steam rolls past their lips with each exhale. I can’t remember the last time I saw them so happy, so free and careless and simply able to be themselves. They are safe and loved and it shows. It makes me feel proud and a warm tenderness fills me up.
I keep an eye on them while Luke and I sit on a bench close by. Annie has a hard time keeping up with her sister, frequently falling face first, but the snow is soft and cool, so she pulls herself back on her feet and immediately resumes chasing after Miley. They’ll be sleeping like logs tonight, for sure. Luke unscrews the steel cap from a large thermos and refills our tin mugs with mulled wine. The smell of winter spices fills my nose—cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange peel with just a dash of honey and pepper. Absolutely delicious.
“Who made this magnificent concoction?” I ask, leaning into him.
He’s got an arm around my shoulders, occasionally planting kisses on my temple. “Aunt Helen of course. It’s a family recipe. Kellan and Fallon’s mother used to make it every winter too. But I think Aunt Helen’s is the best. It’s got love in it,” Luke says.
“I can taste it.”
I look up and lose myself in the soft, blue pools of his eyes. Luke smiles and kisses me on the lips. “Last night was something else,” he whispers.
It was. I’m still reeling. My whole body is sore, every muscle taut and overworked. They shared me again, filling me and stretching me, claiming me over and over. My pussy still aches, but in the best way. It feels good to be with them, to belong to them in such a profound way. We did agree it’s physical and fun, yet I think we all know it’s becoming more than that.
“I’m baffled by how much energy they both have. These two are frickin’ nuclear,” Luke says.
Affection glimmers in his eyes as he looks at my girls. They’ve grown on him. They’ve grown on Fallon and Kellan, too. The Cassidy twins melt whenever Annie and Miley run into the room. Annie gravitates to Kellan more—probably because she remembers him rescuing us that snowy night, when we were stranded on the side of the road. Not to mention he’s dashing and strong, much like the knights in the fairytales we read every night before bedtime. Miley seems to have a cute crush on Fallon. He’s big, burly and dark, yet he melts like a popsicle left in the sun whenever she goes up to him and wraps her arms around his leg.
As for Luke, the girls adore him. They feel comfortable with him, showing a silent respect toward him, listening when he speaks, when he asks them to do something. They help him with the dishes, they argue over who gets to pass the salt to him during dinner, and they follow him around the mansion like puppies whenever he’s not in his office, eager to please him. Once a week, we gather together in the study—Annie clinging to Kellan’s neck and Miley resting on Fallon’s knee, me sitting in between them—while Luke reads a story to us before we all go to bed. It’s become a family tradition of sorts.
Family.
What an odd word for this situation. Yet it seems to fit somehow.
“What’s wrong?” Luke asks, likely noticing the tinge of sadness in my gaze. I can feel it washing over me, the pain in my heart swelling whenever I think about the day I will inevitably have to leave this place.
“Nothing. I’m just… I’m just so grateful for everything that you’ve done for me and my girls,” I tell him with a warm smile. “And I guess I’m sad that someday it will all be over.”
“Everything ends, eventually,” Luke sighs deeply. “It doesn’t have to happen tomorrow, though. Are you in a rush to leave, Avery?”
“No, not at all.”
“Then what’s stopping you from enjoying this moment?” he asks, pressing his forehead into mine. “Why not enjoy the here and now more before we let tomorrow take over? We can’t change the past, we can’t predict the future, but we can live in the present and make the most of it.”
“You’re absolutely right, Luke. But I’m a mother of two. A single mother. Sooner or later, I’m going to have to do something in order to give my girls the home and the healthy environment that they deserve to grow up in.”
Luke gives me a curious look. “Don’t they have that here?” he asks.
“Well, yes, they do. But it’s temporary,” I say. “I know it. They know it too. We are guests here, and while we’ve made a home of this place, it’s not really our permanent home, is it?”
He thinks about it for a moment, gazing out into the distance while Miley plucks Annie out of a mound of snow, trying hard not to laugh.
