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Chapter 23
Xander hung the phone up. He had just spoken with his parents about coming to New York for Thanksgiving. They were all going to Suzanne’s home in Stamford, Connecticut for dinner. Kaycee’s parents were in the UK visiting friends and would not be back until Christmastime. He didn’t want her to spend the holiday alone, so he invited her to join him. She had been to New York several times but not with someone who knew the city intimately. He wanted to take her to all the places he frequented when he lived there.
He also found out that Robert and Samantha were having an engagement party that weekend. He had not received an invitation and was a bit put off by it. He had been friends with the Keenes for many years, particularly Robert whom he was close in age. Regardless of his relationship with Ava, he still should have been invited.
Finally, his father had told him that they were attending Jason and Felice’s wedding on November ninth. Suzanne and Lidia had been invited but declined because both had work obligations. He knew he would never be invited because Jason Keene disliked him even though he had mended fences with Peter and Gabby. Jason would do anything to keep Ava away from him. Not that it mattered; he was with Kaycee, and he was happy. That is what he told himself, anyway.
He started to go through the paper to see if he could find a place to live. He had been staying with Lidia and Brett but even though the house was large; he felt he was wearing out his welcome. Lidia and Brett were totally mobile now. They had completed physical therapy and were back to working their graphics design business which was keeping them busy.
He had been living with them for over four months and spending time with Kaycee there was complicated. The guest bedroom was next to the master and Kaycee was not one to be quiet when they had sex. He found himself spending more and more time over at her place. She had asked him to move in with her, but he didn’t feel that they had been together long enough. He told her that three and a half months was not enough time to know someone. He wanted his own space before he decided to share it with someone.
What Kaycee didn’t know is that he would have gladly lived with Ava after a month, since that was all the time it took him to decide he wanted her to be his wife. He didn’t talk about Ava much to Kaycee. She asked about the ring on the chain that he kept hanging off the mirror in his bedroom. He told her it was from an old girlfriend. She got angry at him and said he should discard it. Instead, he hid it in his underwear drawer in the same box as the engagement ring he had planned to give to Ava before the accident.
She also didn’t know that he still wrote in his journal each day. A romantic entry whether it be a poem or a few sentences. He kept the notebook on the upper shelf of his closet. She would never find them there. Deep down he knew it was deceitful to continue with her when he still held a torch for Ava. He was hoping the lack of an invitation to the engagement party was an oversight. He needed to see Ava because that would be the deciding factor in his future.
Two days later he got his answer; Robert texted him to ask if he had sent in his RSVP for the engagement party. He and Sam were trying to figure out seating arrangements for the hotel caterer. Xander let him know he never received an invitation to the party. Robert apologized and said he was invited. Xander told him that he and his girlfriend were indeed going to attend.
* * *
Ava preparedher suitcase for her trip to Georgia. She was leaving on Thursday, the next day, two days before her father got married. She had an argument earlier in the week about staying in the guest house. David still lived there, and he didn’t want her to stay there, too. She argued that she stayed there with him already and he had stayed with her when he came to New York. She knew her father was worried about her having sex with him — or any man for that matter.
She had found out that David talked about her endlessly. Michael had questioned her about their relationship, and she told him it was platonic. Nothing ever happened between them or would. Michael was satisfied with the explanation but told her he would be keeping an eye on her. It was just one more reason why she didn’t want to stay in the main house. Her aunt and uncle would be staying there as well as Peter and Gabby. She preferred the pool house where she could relax.
Tim came to see her that night, and they made out for awhile. He had been pushing her to have sex, but she told him they had only been seeing each other for two weeks. It wasn’t enough time for her to feel comfortable having sex with him. He wondered how long she would make him wait. He was getting sick of using his hand to satisfy himself. It had been months since he had sex with a woman.
He was annoyed because he knew that she had slept with her friend at that apartment building near that bar after he sent the email from Xander and possibly with David when he stayed here. Why was she making him wait? He wanted her, and he had been courting her for the last two weeks. She would be the ultimate prize for him. He never got the beautiful woman, and now she was his girlfriend. He wanted her completely.
The next day Ava left for Georgia. Her flight was in the afternoon, and she arrived in Atlanta in the early evening. The line at the rental car counter was long, and she tapped her foot as she waited to speak with an agent. Normally, she wasn’t so impatient, but she wanted to see her nieces and nephews before they went to bed. She would have to make her rounds to Brooke and Michael’s house before she went to her childhood home. Fortunately, they lived in the same neighborhood, and she could park at one house and walk to the other.
By the time she arrived at Brooke’s, William was just finishing with his bath. Walter brought him out of the bathroom wrapped in a terry cloth robe with bear ears on the hood. When he saw her, he struggled so much that Walter almost dropped him. He handed William to her and the boy wrapped his arms tightly around her neck and planted kisses on her cheek. Of all the nieces and nephews, he was the most affectionate towards her.
She took him to his room and helped him get into his pajamas. She was tucking him in bed when Brooke came to the door.
“Don’t I get any love?”
He blew his mother a kiss and asked Ava to read him a story. Ava went to hug Brooke who was now six months pregnant and had a slight bump. She was carrying small, but she also did that with William. This time, she was getting the girl she always wanted.
Ava sat on his bed and read him a story while she stroked his hair. He was asleep before she finished it and she kissed his forehead as she turned out the light. She said her goodbyes to Walter and Brooke, then made her way to Michael’s house. Jackson was asleep by the time she got there, but Alicia was reading to the twins. They jumped out of Elizabeth’s bed to hug her, and they pulled her to sit with them. Alicia handed her the book, and she finished the story for them. They begged her to read them another, but Alicia nixed the idea saying they had to get up early the next morning.
The twins attended nursery school for half a day and if they didn’t go to bed by seven they were impossible to get up in the morning. They grumbled when she pulled the covers over them and kissed them goodnight. Ava told them she would be able to see them for the next few days, and she promised to read them two stories the next night.
After she had visited with her brother and Alicia, she walked back to Brooke’s house to retrieve her car. She wanted to get to her father’s house before David got settled into bed. He was working for a firm in the Atlanta area and needed to get up early each day. She missed him and wanted to talk with him for a little while.
She rolled her suitcase into the main house, and her father and Felice greeted her. He pursed his lips when she said she was heading to the pool house, but he decided not to make a big deal out of it since Uncle Daniel, Aunt Mavis, Gabby and Peter were already here. She went through to the back door and rolled the case down the back lawn and into the pool enclosure.
She could see the lights were on in the pool house which meant that David was home. She rushed to the door and opened it. David jumped up and ran to hug her. He took her suitcase and deposited it in the bedroom opposite hers.
“I’m so glad you came early. I missed you so much,” he said.
“I was hoping to catch you before you went to bed. I stopped by Brooke and Michael’s houses to see the kids before I came here.”
“I don’t have work tomorrow. I asked for the day off because I wanted to help with the wedding. I don’t think they need help, but I need a day off. They are making me work my tail off with studying.”
She told him how Jacob was torturing her with studying, too. David would not meet him since he and Sandra decided to forgo the wedding. Nicole was only a month old, and they were concerned about traveling with her. Robert and Sam were supposed to come the next afternoon. Rachel was still on light bed rest and Dani had a gallery opening.
She settled on the couch. He sat down very close to her and put on a movie. He stroked her arm, and she leaned against his chest with her back. He kissed her head, and it was the same scenario that occurred a couple of months ago. His lips pressed against hers, and she let him push his tongue into her mouth. She knew that this could not happen, but she hadn’t had sex in such a long time. She was only seeing Tim and as far as she knew they weren’t exclusive though they never defined their relationship.
David continued to kiss her, and she broke the kiss to bury her head into his shoulder. He smelled clean, and she kissed his neck. She looked up at him and could see him silently pleading with her to let him continue what he was doing.
