Ava
“I’m not sure, Mason.”
Although I was excited beyond belief, I was so nervous. We’d waited until dark, and we were hidden well out of sight, but just one little mistake and we were toast.
“Shh, look.”
Mason pointed towards the house and shuffled me further in front of him. My heart beat paused, my lungs froze, and I became rooted to the spot when the silhouette moved in front of the window. I daren’t move in case, somehow, my movement would make her stop.
But she didn’t.
My heart exploded in my chest when Katie came to stand in the large bay window. Her hair was piled on top of her head, the sight of her long slender neck making me think of the mole she had on the nape, the heart-shaped one both her and George had. She was laughing, and my spirit soared to see her so happy. I had hoped she would one day get over the death of her husband, a man she had loved enough to alienate her family for, the man her own brother had snatched away from her.
“Oh.”
Mason scoffed quietly when a man appeared behind her, and his arms slid around her waist. It was like a perfect Christmas movie, watching young lovers in the warmth of their homes through the window, festivities going on around them as friends joined them for the day.
Katie tipped her head back, resting it on her lover’s shoulder. They looked like they were singing, and when another figure came over and joined them, singing along with them, I instantly knew which song was being played.
“They’re singing our Christmas song, baby,” Mason whispered, his voice breaking at the sight of Kade.
I nodded, not wanting to turn to look at him in case I missed something. “The Pogues.”
The song played over in my head, and when Mason softly started singing the words too, I allowed myself to be a part of my family’s Christmas once again.
“She looks so happy.”
“She does.”
It was so cold that I wondered if the tears that were rolling down my face would freeze before they dripped off my chin, but as Mason and me sang along with Katie and Kade, I didn’t care if I was frozen to the spot when the sun came up on Christmas morning. For the first time in a long while, I felt alive again.
“You were handsome,” I softly sang our favourite line with a smile.
“…You were pretty,” he whispered back, hugging me tighter and rocking me from side to side.
I couldn’t hold back the sob. Where had it all gone wrong? I would trade every part of my fractured soul if it could mend the pieces of my shattered heart back together.
Casting a glimpse to the sky, I said a prayer like I was a child again, hoping to see Father Christmas fly through the stars. Silently, I whispered my wish into the night and yearned for it to be answered.
And, just as we were about to leave, Santa heard my plea.
My daughter turned to the side.
Mason caught me when my knees buckled, but I swore he had a hard time standing himself.
“She’s pregnant. She’s pregnant, Mason!”
♡
I woke on Christmas morning like I had been given the best present ever.
We stayed in a hotel overnight. We were both so shell-shocked that neither of us could face the drive back up to Yorkshire. I wasn’t sure how we managed to find a room so late on Christmas Eve, but luck was with us for a change.
“Just say the word, and we will drive back there and knock on the door.” Mason’s voice made me jump. I’d been sat in bed, hugging my coffee like it was the first gift of the holidays, a smile on my face, and in a world of my own. A world where I was cradling my grandchild with my daughter sat beside me.
“We can’t go back now. Not yet anyway!”
“Why not?” He shuffled up, leaning against the headboard and picking up the coffee I had placed on his bedside table ready for when he woke.
“Mason, she thinks we’re dead. We can’t go rocking up, wearing Santa hats with a bottle of plonk! The shock could cause her to lose the baby!”
“Oh.”
I couldn’t contain the energy inside me, and I bounced up onto my knees. “But when the baby arrives!” Mason didn’t appear as giddy as me, and I frowned. “You don’t think it’s a good idea?”
“I don’t know, baby. We left for a reason. We finally seem to be on an even keel. I’m scared it’ll tip the scales again and that we’ll slip back into the people we were. We weren’t healthy for Katie, never mind her child.”
“A moment ago, you were all for going back.” Thinking about his take on it all, I watched his face carefully for the truth. “So why are we going after George Junior, but you don’t think it’s a good idea to be in Katie’s child’s life?”
Without missing a beat, he answered. “Because I know in my heart that Katie will be a wonderful mother. George isn’t around any longer, and Etta has to be the worst mother on the planet. George Junior deserves to be with stable, loving people. I mean, she sells kids on the black market for fuck’s sake! And Jason, well he isn’t known for his sensitive side, that’s a certainty. I’m scared for our grandson, Ava.”
He was right. Nodding, I took his hand. “Let’s concentrate on finding him first, and then we’ll decide what to do after that. We have nothing but time to make the right decision.”
Agreeing, he smiled. “I’ll get my guy to hack into Katie’s hospital records and find out when she’s due. We have until then to find our grandson.”
Clambering onto his lap, I grinned. I was happy, and I already wished the months away. “Her bump was small, so I reckon she’s around four/five months. That should give us enough time.”
Placing his coffee down, he brought his hands to my face and held it gently. “Deal, Grandma Ava.”
Just the thought of my grandchildren saying ‘Grandma’ filled me with joy. Becca was only a year old when she had been so brutally murdered, and she hadn’t learned how to say Grandma. But now there was hope. Hope that I could make it right and redeem myself for all the wrongs I had done with my own babies.
“Now for your first present.” Mason grinned and then kissed me. He was tender and loving, to begin with, but then his teeth caught my lip, and he deepened the kiss.
Encircling me in his arms, he moved us around, so I was laid flat on my back. “Time has taken so much from us, but it will never take away your beauty,” he murmured as he kissed his way down my chest. Even now, twenty odd years later, my husband still succeeded in making my heart melt.
While it was hard to stop myself from squirming beneath his idolisation, I didn’t dare to move for fear that I would put him off.
He continued downward, his mouth wetting a trail the lower he went, and when he pulled my thighs apart, all hope of remaining still evaporated and I arched my back, encouraging him to go even lower.
His eyes sparkled as he looked up at me. “Tell me what you want, Ava.”
Clasping his hair, I directed his mouth exactly where I wanted it. “I want you to taste what you do to me.”
The first stroke of his tongue on my clit, I bucked at the pleasure that rolled over me. My body responded, the heaviness in my belly pulling tightly with need as my fingers tightened in the thickness of his hair. I was climbing higher and higher; the altitude Mason took me to made it hard to draw breath.
It had been so long since he’d gone down on me that I couldn’t cope with the engulfing emotions and the excruciating desire. Tears seeped down my cheeks, yet I was confused as to whether they were from happiness or the sheer bliss that was taking over everything.
He slipped his finger inside me, stroking the sensitive patch of nerves deep within and sucked gently on my clit, and when his little finger pushed into my arse, I came with an overwhelming ecstasy.
“God, I love watching you come,” he uttered between kisses as he made his way back up my body. “It’s one of the things I’ve missed.”
“Don’t you want…?”
Shaking his head, he planted a kiss on my forehead and slid out of bed. “I’m good.”
Disappointment niggled in my belly, but it was Christmas, and I didn’t want to spoil our good mood by pushing him. I had been dreading it, really, spending the day without everyone else. However, now I knew that next year I would be back, spending it with the people I loved, I decided to make the most of the quiet Christmas I would spend with my husband. After all, a few weeks ago, it had looked like I might be alone, and I was more than thankful that I got to spend it with my glorious bastard.