“You left out arson,” I add.
Max laughs.
“Setting a house on fire is a lot easier than I thought it would be, if we’re being honest now,” he gloats.
“And that,” I say with a satisfied smirk as I pull my phone out of my pocket and turn the voice recording off. “Is exactly what we needed, thank you.”
“What do you mean?” Max asks incredulously. “You recorded me? What good do you think that will do you anyways?”
“A lot of good,” I say. “You just admitted to harassment, pressing false charges, stalking, and arson. You’re basically screwed.”
By the time I was turning around to tell Ava to call the cops, she is already on the line with them.
“They’re on their way,” she says.
Within minutes, the entire squad is at the house and taking Max away in handcuffs. That is a sight that I have been waiting to see since all this began. I hand my buddy on the force my phone and show him where the audio recordings are.
“What’s going to happen to him now?” Ava asks the police. “When he gets out, he’s going to come right back at us again, I just know it.”
“No need to be afraid of him anymore,” the cop says. “He’s going to be transferred back to the Manhattan police station where he’ll be serving out his jail time in his hometown. And let me tell you, they aren’t too fond of arsonists there in the city. I’m fairly certain that you won’t have to deal with him again.”
“And all of the charges that are still pending against me?” I ask.
“Dropped.”
Ava and I can finally take a deep breath and relax. Max is getting locked up, all of the charges against me are dropped, and we don’t have anything to worry about anymore. We can finally focus on starting our business and our farm and planning our beautiful spring wedding.
When the cops are finally gone, Ava and I lock up the house and head upstairs to bed. Tonight, we hold each other and sleep, and in the morning, we can start fresh all over again for the—well, I’m not really sure what number of times this one will be, but it doesn’t matter. The only part that matters is that we get to start over again.
9
Ava
With everything going smoothly now that Max is gone, and it is nearing the winter holidays, the business that Trevor and I have started has several initial projects in the works. The garden that we wanted has been prepped, and the few animals we got to start off our little farm were snuggled into stalls and pens during the cold winter nights. It seemed as if our wedding was right around the corner and that springtime would be here soon.
“I think it would be a fun idea to have something like a winter engagement party,” Trevor says over coffee on a briskly chilly morning. “Since we have a few more months to go before the wedding. We can invite some of the people in town, a few friends and clients. What do you think?”
“I think it sounds fun,” I say in agreement. “I love a winter-themed party. It can even double as a holiday party. It will be a great way to network and promote our projects, in addition to just being super fun.”
“Agreed,” Trevor smiles as he gives me a kiss on the bridge of my nose. “Let’s do it!”
We put out a kind of “open invitation” around town so that anyone who wanted to come could. The house and farm are big enough to host a large event, and now that Max is gone there isn’t anything to be apprehensive about with opening up our home to our community. It will be a good way to meet people too. We are both really looking forward to having our first ever party together. Well, our first ever party together as adults—the ones in high school don’t count.
We make a ton of food and Trevor stocks up on drinks. Then we have fun decorating the house together and even putting up some outdoor decorations that make the farm look and feel a bit like a winter wonderland. We announced the party as an engagement/holiday mash-up, and I’m really excited to see how it’s going to turn out.
“Wow, you look absolutely stunning,” Trevor says when I come out of the bedroom in the silver cocktail dress that I chose for the party. It’s one of my favorites—sleek, sparkly, and long-sleeved so it’s perfect for the cold weather. I even have a pair of silver heels to match from my days in the city nightclubs.
“I honestly didn’t know if I’d ever have a chance to wear this dress here in town,” I laughed.
“Trust me when I say that you can wear that dresswheneveryou want to,” Trevor said with a big grin. “You look amazing.”
“You clean up pretty good yourself,” I smile.
And he does. Trevor looks so hot that I kind of want to just ditch the party and head straight back up to the bedroom, or to the tub that is still sitting outside behind the house. There is a palpable sexual tension that we can both feel and I’m not entirely sure that either of us are going to be able to keep our hands off each other until after all of the guests have left. I’m kind of hoping now that the party I was so excited about ends early.
When the guests start to arrive, the party quickly begins to fill up with people. Some of them we know, others we have simply seen around town, and a few of them neither of us have any idea who they are. Everyone seems to be having fun and introducing themselves, which reaffirms the notion that this was a great idea. But just when I thought that all of the guests that were coming had finally arrived, a woman walks through the door with a rather oversized entrance and makes a beeline right for Trevor. When she gets to him, she plants a huge open-mouthed kiss on his lips that both catches him off guard and immediately infuriates me.Who the hell does this woman think she is?
I walk right up to her and stick my hand out to shake in-between her body and Trevor’s.
