October 21st 2022

Chapter 180
And We Are Lead to Those

"Hey! Did you do those?" Lucas grinned when Ava opened the door and climbed into the front seat. He'd watched her come dashing from the house, big smile on her face. Today her hair had been neatly pulled into a pair of braids… French braids, right? For sure, he didn't see her mother having done those, and he was right.

"Yeah! Pretty good, huh?" she told him before holding up the bag she carried in her lap. "I brought different clothes, so I can change between each video."

"I… I did not think to do that," Lucas chuckled. "It'll be fine, but yeah, you can definitely do that."

"Do they have people to do makeup for something like that?" she inquired.

"Well, I never did, and you're ten, so… I'm not sure."

"It's not a lot of makeup, and they all wear it on television, men and women."

"I did hear that, yes. Tell you what, we'll ask the film crew when we get there, yeah?" That worked. "I don't know if they'll have sent anyone for that or…" Even as he spoke, she was reaching into her bag, pulling a smaller one that rattled.

"I've been practicing," she smiled.

"Why am I not surprised?" he smiled back as they finally drove off toward the ranch.

They were going to be recording all five segments for the week to come. Everything looked good for them to have exactly the conditions they needed. Over the last few days, Lucas had been preparing himself and his young co-star, who continued to impress at every turn. She did very well in front of a camera (for practice at least), although it seemed to Lucas as though she did a whole lot better if she just said what came to mind. They'd tried a couple of things with some lines written ahead of time, and no matter what they did, she just couldn't sound half as genuine as she did when they let her be herself. So, that was how they were going to play it. They'd have the plan for each segment, which Ava would know all about. All Lucas would have to do would be to go on and say what he wanted to say, and she would cut in from time to time. She was very good at deciding when this was the right time or not. All at once she'd come off so mature but also just her age.

As the day started and they recorded one segment, and another, and a third, Lucas could feel it in his gut… He'd been feeling it already, whenever he'd done the ones before, and then when he'd gotten the call for this week-long gig, but now especially, as they were making those videos, him and Ava, and some of the horses, and others from around the ranch… They were making something happen, and he could see it carrying on. How long it would last, that remained to be seen, yes, but he wasn't looking at some finish line on the horizon. He was focused on this, right here, on this week, and then the next thing, and the one after that when this was behind them.

He'd gotten Ava's family to reconsider the Maine camp deal on this suggestion that, after Sullivan Stables week, there would be more segments, and as it was summer, Ava could continue to be a part of this. He'd even worked it out, thanks to Juliet, so that she could spend her days at the ranch. Even if he wasn't there and he was off at the office with his father, Ava Nash would be out here from morning to dinner time. The arrangement was beneficial for all parties, which was probably why it had worked.

This had only been going on for a week so far, but what a week it had been for Ava. She absolutely loved being here, whether she got to ride horses or do pretty much anything else from helping in the stables or in the main building, wherever. Whether she said or not, to Lucas it seemed to be that her reasoning went 'I'm here, I got to stay.' She was happy, and that was all that mattered.

Lucas' favorite part of the day came near the very end, after they'd finished recording the segments. They got to see some of the footage, and Ava was just in awe when she got to see herself out there. The mature and eloquent side was good and gone right then. Now she was just a ten-year-old girl who'd had the best day of her life.

"You're not nervous about these being on TV, right?" Lucas asked as he drove her home. She looked at him, not following. "Just that I figure… kids can be mean about things like that," he shrugged.

"They just like to see that they can get to you," Ava told him. "If you show them that you're not bothered, then they'll get bored." He smirked to himself. There she is.

"Fair enough."

As confident as she was about this, when they got closer to her house, Lucas felt as though Ava might have considered another thing, mainly her family. They would be watching, too, or at least her parents would, he imagined. Her brothers had moved out of the house more or less the moment they'd gotten back from graduation. He saw her father being proud of her, but her mother… He hated to think that the woman would go and extinguish the spark in her daughter's eyes with whatever comments she put out there.

"You know, I bet your uncle is going to love seeing you out there," Lucas told her as they pulled over. The thought made Ava smile, and it stayed with her after she said her goodbyes and climbed out of the car. Do what you can, for as long as it takes. That's what he kept telling himself, every time.

X

It had taken a week, after the day when Abigail had dropped by the bakery, for any news to emerge with regards to the proposal, specifically the answer: she'd said yes.

Maya found this out before any of her Hart siblings or either of the Brett girls, specifically because the newly engaged couple wanted to let her know, so she could be there when they told the kids. It was hard to say if she'd be there as backup to her siblings or her stepmother and… Would Stephen Brett be her stepfather now? She supposed he would be, wouldn't he? Yes, he was marrying her stepmother, but Abigail was just… She was as much her mother as Melinda Friar had become through her relationship to Lucas, so as far as she was concerned… yes. Stephen Brett would be her stepfather, and Daphne and Stevie would be her stepsisters. It was strange to consider it, possibly because they'd all made their peace with the fact that Abigail and Stephen's relationship had not worked before, but now that was all about to change again.

It was all still so new. All they knew right now was that he'd asked his question and she'd given him her answer, and now they needed to tell the kids. They hadn't started to plan anything for the wedding, and they certainly hadn't figured out their living situation. Seeing as the Harts had just moved to Austin a few years back, and there were more of them, the logical step might have been for the Bretts to move in with them, but at the same time the Bretts had lived in their house for as long as the girls had been alive, so would it be fair to make them leave? Those were only some of the questions they knew they'd be facing in the near future but, again, that wasn't the issue at the moment. First things first…

"How do you want to do this?" Maya asked her stepmother as she went with the phone tucked between ear and shoulder, back in special order mode in the bakery kitchen. "Your house, his house… Public space, so no one makes a scene?" Abigail chuckled, but only in a way that showed the small joke had been needed.

"We haven't figured it out yet, but we both feel like it shouldn't be at either one of our houses. It would just feel as though one side was home territory and the other one wasn't, and…"

"How about you all just come here?" Maya suggested. "Neutral ground… Cara and Eliza work here, so does Daphne… And it's where this whole thing restarted with you two…"

"You make a good point," Abigail replied, and Maya could hear her smile.

Finally, the day had arrived. Maya didn't think she would be nervous about all of it, not until morning came and, as much as she would try and tell herself that everything would be fine, there would be this part of her that pictured nothing but chaos, and she would try not to let her mind go there, but it clearly had other plans than she did. It was enough that, while the boys were left with their great grandparents, Lucas accompanied his wife to the bakery. He knew what was coming, too, and Maya swore he was nervous, too, under that whole Huckleberry veneer. They really didn't want this to be anything except the great start of something wonderful.

"I can't even tell if I'm feeling them move right now or if it's just nerves…" Maya sighed as she pulled her apron from its hook and put it on herself. She'd felt those first flutters for the first time just the day before and, even if it wasn't something that someone else could feel with her yet, it had made Lucas' morning, his whole day… It still had some power now, on both the expecting parents, and with any luck it would see them through the uncertainty of what was about to happen.

"Let's just say it's them, yeah?" Lucas suggested, coming up to touch her belly, just because.

"Yeah," Maya smiled in agreement, just as they both stopped, turned their heads to look at the door that led out into the front of the bakery. They'd both seen something out of the corner of their eye and, even though it was gone when they turned to look, it quickly returned. If there was one thing that Wyatt Hart loved about coming to the bakery – other than… well, all the things he got to eat – was getting to go stand at the door and then hop up and down, to see through the circular window and spot his big sister if she was in the kitchen. As soon as she'd spot him there, he'd smile and push the door open. "Hey, hopper," Maya laughed as the eight-year-old came to hug her.

Going by the road of trying not to veer too close into what could be downright lies, Maya didn't ask anything like 'hey, what are you doing here' or 'is everyone here?' She just led him back outside, Lucas right behind her, and they soon found Abigail there with the other kids. Well, kids… Time spared none, and while Eliza had just finished the seventh grade, Cara was going to be a senior in the fall, while Sam… Well, by all accounts, Sam should have been just starting college right about now, but instead, because he'd finished high school as early as he'd done, he was now about to start his third year there.

Maybe for that, unlike their little brother, the older Hart kids were currently existing in a state of suspicion. They knew there was a reason why they'd been brought to their big sister's bakery that day; they just didn't know what it was… yet. They didn't have long to wait. They were still chatting with Maya and Lucas, exchanging the usual topics, like how were the boys, and anything new with the babies, when the door opened and in came Stephen Brett and his daughters. There was one brief instant, as the two parties saw one another, where it could be thought that this was all a coincidence, but it came, and it went, and after that…

It hadn't worked the last time, and that was just what it was. No one's fault, no one incident… It had been many things, and Abigail and Stephen both were big enough to admit that, to some degree, their children's hesitations had played into it. They couldn't be blamed for that; who could ever blame Stevie Brett for missing her mother, or Sam and Wyatt for missing their father? Nothing about what had or hadn't happened back when the two widowed parents had split up was the kids' fault; they had only ever thought of what was best for them, and that mutual respect had gone a long way in safeguarding their friendship and getting them to this day.

It hadn't worked the last time… but that was a couple of years behind them now, and a lot had happened in those years. They did not miss the parents they'd lost any less, and that would never change. But also they could see the bigger picture of this new world around them, and as they all stood there in the bakery, seeing one another, understanding a great part if not all of what was going on… All they had to go on was this revelation, unsubstantiated as it may have been, that Abigail and Stephen were seeing each other again, and suddenly it felt like… clarity. Stevie Brett was the first to find it, and the twelve-year-old stared out across from where she stood with her father and her sister, over to Abigail Hart where she sat with her children… and she ran to her, ran and threw her arms around her neck. She held her, and there was a tremor to her frame like she might have been crying. As surprised as she'd been to see her come like that, Abigail had not missed a beat, and she'd closed her arms around the girl, held her as she would any child of hers.

Stevie's reaction, as unexpected as it had been, acted like a release over all of them. The Hart boys may not have run to embrace Stephen Brett, but they looked at their mother with Stevie, and it felt like… This made sense to them. There was nothing out of place, only something that felt right, and they looked from the two of them there to their sisters, and to Daphne, and her father, and… and the prospect of the two parents giving their relationship another try actually made them happy.

Even with all that had already happened, both Abigail and Stephen continued to feel and act just a bit nervous as they all sat together and revealed to the children what had been happening, how they had been seeing each other in secret, and now how they had decided to get married. Whatever they had feared, it never came to pass. No, when the six of them found out that they were about to become one family, the only reaction they had was amazement. This would be great! It might have felt as though it was all happening so fast, but that wasn't it at all. What it really felt like was that, without their knowing it until this very day, this moment had been a long time coming.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners