For my part, I just kept coming around.
I tried not to push with the boys, but I made my presence known, quiet and stalwart. I showed them, little by little, that I was there and I wasn’t going anywhere.
On Aidan’s advice, we signed the whole family up for counselling, which I think has been helping a lot. We each have individual appointments, and once a month, we get together for a group session. We’ve only done a few of those so far, but I’m finding I actually appreciate them the most, because it’s allowed us all to air our grievances—the ones we’ve already discussed with the therapist in our private sessions—in a guided and safe manner with a moderator who knows how to de-escalate tense situations. Betrayal, abandonment, and loss of self or of identity, are common themes in our family discussions, and though the sources of our trauma differ, the shared feelings and communication have actually brought us closer together.
I know we still have a long way to go, but I’m proud of us and the progress we’ve made as a family.
And thatiswhat we are.
A family.
I knew it the moment Matt cracked that joke about his uncle Aidan on the ridge. And I knew it again, later that same night, when Alex turned to me, totally deadpan, and announced I was demoted back to zero points. We often use humor as a means of easing the pressure, and our therapist encourages it as long as it’s not meant to deflect or avoid the issues that need to be dealt with and the conversations that need to be had. I took it as a good sign, anyway, and I’m even regaining ground with the points. The release ofShattered Kingdom 4on PS5 didn’t hurt either.
Things are going well on the work front, too. Bobby approached me this morning and proposed a deal for me to buy him out of Aroma’s. I couldn’t fuckin’ believe it, but he has no one else to leave it to, and he says he knows it’ll be in good hands with me. We still have to work out the particulars—I told him I’d have to discuss it with Steph, first—but essentially I’d make quarterly payments into the business with the goal towards owning it free and clear in a few years. Learning to manage the place, I’ve really come to love it, so I’m pretty excited about the prospect of it one day being mine. I’m honored Bobby trusts me to carry on the legacy he built with his beloved Ellie, and eager to continue to build on it for Matt and Alex, should they want it someday.
Connor’s ears perk up, and he raises his head from where he’d been sleeping, curled up next to me on the bed in Steph’s room. I spend quite a few nights here, now, with the boys’ knowledge and consent, but we’re not rushing any talk about me moving in.
I bookmark the fantasy novel I’d been reading—one Piper couldn’t stop raving about—and set it beside me at the sound of the front door opening. Con leaps from the bed and flies out of the room, and I smile as I listen to Steph greeting him, muffled exclamations about what a good boy he is, carrying down the hall. She tells him he’s sweet, and smart, and handsome.
I’m grinning when she finally appears in the doorway to the bedroom, the little dog panting happily in her arms. She sets him down on the bed, and he resumes his earlier position, settling once more against my thigh with a soft doggy sigh.
“Hey, babe.”
She smiles. “Hi. How did your session with Aidan go?”
I’d joined my brother for our first joint therapy appointment earlier this evening.
Progress is happening everywhere.
“It was good. Tiring, but good. How was dinner with the girls?”
She offers me a bright smile as she moves across the room to the closet, unbuttoning her blouse as she goes. My mind stalls out as I watch her cleavage being revealed, button by torturous button.
Oblivious to my reaction, she answers, “Also good. Tessa joined us this time, and I really like her. I’m glad she’s settling in here and starting to find her place.”
“A good addition to the girl gang,then?”
“She is.”
Steph slides the shirt off her shoulders, uncovering a pale pink bra, and I let out a groan. It’s one of my favorites, with delicate little flowers embroidered on the cups, and it pushes her tits together in a way that is nothing short of mouthwatering. She tilts her head at my reaction, finally catching on to what she’s doing to me as I shift to adjust my hardening cock. Turning to face me fully, she allows me the time to devour her with my eyes before reaching around behind and unzipping her skirt, ever so slowly. With a smirk and a raised eyebrow, she lets it fall, the fabric sliding easily over her hips and puddling at her feet, her lithe body on display for me. My gaze drops to her panties—not perfectly matching ones, but a coordinating pink pair that I know, without her having to turn around, is a thong. She steps out of the skirt, lifting one leg and then the other with a sensual deliberateness that steals my breath.
Her voice is husky when she asks, “The boys in bed?”
I grunt before responding. “In their rooms … unlikely they’re asleep.”
Biting her lip, she nods, then turns, finally giving me an eyeful of her bare behind, the thin strip of fabric tucked snuggly between her round cheeks taunting me in the best way. My hands clench at my sides as I imagine gripping onto that sweet flesh and grinding my cock against that slip of pink silk.
She smirks at me over her shoulder. “Guess we’ll have to be quiet then.”
Her hips sway, and her ass jiggles as she strides into the ensuite bathroom. A moment later, the shower turns on, but I’m already off the bed.
“Stay,” I shout to Connor over my shoulder.
It’s all I can do to get my boxers off before I join her under the spray and press her against the tiles.
Fortyminuteslater,we’reboth clean and sated and tucked under the covers together. Connor has moved to his dog bed in the corner, and Steph is curled into my side with her head on my shoulder. Our legs are intertwined and her hand rests on my chest. She idly draws patterns across my skin while I comb my fingers repeatedly through her still-damp hair. She looks ethereal in the pale moonlight spilling in through the window. The one I used to climb through, a lot less stealthily than I’d thought, apparently.
Steph lets out a contented hum when I press a kiss to her forehead, reveling in the simple domesticity of this moment and how far away this still felt only a few months ago.
