November 18th 2022

Chapter 184
Long Time Coming

Summer advanced at a steady pace. Already August was upon them, and it was not slowing down. It was odd to think about what they had imagined these weeks would be in comparison to what they actually became. They were making the most of the season with their sons, as they had been eager to all along, even as they slowly but surely worked toward the arrival of two new little brothers for Elliott, Noah, and Jamie. The bakery was still thriving, especially as they entered what had already been Maya's busiest time when she'd been doing it all on her own. So many weddings, so many cakes... and here was where they had one of those deviations.

Maya would not have guessed, not so long ago, that she would soon be working on a cake and other desserts for her stepmother's wedding to Stephen Brett. She had not expected to be helping in planning this wedding, or in getting her siblings ready for one more move, this time to join their future stepfather and sisters. She had definitely not expected that for herself either. A new stepfather, two new sisters... They were all still working out how they all fit into each other's lives, truth be told.

Daphne and Stevie Brett had it the easiest on that front, for sure. Yes, they had been interacting most of all with Sam, Cara, Eliza, and Wyatt, would soon be living with them, but then there was Maya, their half, grown up sister, off on her own with her husband and kids. It could be questionable where she fit, but then they both knew her, both cared for her already, especially Daphne who'd known her better, so she would be their sister, too, and that was all.

Now as to their father, well, that was trickier, and Maya did not fault him for it. In marrying Abigail, he was marrying into this family that included those four sons and daughters of her previous marriage, one each to elementary school, middle school, high school, and college, sure. But there was also Abigail's first husband's daughter from his first marriage, who was as a daughter to Abigail now, yes, but to him? Twenty-six years old, married with three children and two more on the way, children who called his future wife their grandmother, so... was he about to be a grandfather, three, five times over, the moment he said I do?

He'd come by the bakery one day, on his own, so he and Maya could talk. He was a teacher, too, high school science, and they talked about their jobs for a while, her with just one year under her belt, him with several more... A lot of the kids she'd known at some time or another at the middle school were now in his classes, and Maya was more than happy to swap stories and hear about how they were all doing. Sooner or later though, they had to get down to why he'd shown up in the first place. He realized that there was this thing hanging over both their heads, and the longer they ignored it, the worse off they would be. She agreed.

It wasn't as though Stephen did not want to step into this role, to be a stepfather to her, grandfather to her sons... He didn't see this marriage as a 'pick and choose' deal, no, he was all in. But he could also empathize with her situation and any possible ways in which she might not want him overstepping any bounds. He would be to her and her sons whatever she wanted him to be.

"You know, there might have been a time where I would have wanted to keep the lines as sharp and unbending as could be," she'd told him. "But then I met Abigail..." she'd smiled, and she hadn't needed to say more for him to understand the rest. Abigail Hart had shown her how important it could be to open herself up to the possibilities, to how changeable the definitions of family could be. "Also I think the boys have already adopted you as a new grandpa," she'd admitted, and to see how that notion had made the man smile...

Maybe it would take time, maybe she'd never go and call him Dad, only time would tell, but if she was ever to describe the structure of her family, she would say 'and this is my stepfather, Stephen Brett.'

While all these preparations were being made, for the wedding, and the honeymoon/family trip, and the combination move, Lucas had his own summer alterations to contend with. The first of those had started to take shape the moment the TV station had contracted him to that week of Sullivan Stables content.

He'd already been getting noticed for his other segments, but after that week with him and Ava, it didn't take long for the station to take the feedback they had been receiving and decide to run with what they were being told. Since then, Lucas had been a regular contributor to the morning show, doing his weekly segment with Ava by his side.

Ava... If any part of their summer could be said to have been even more unexpected than the Hart-Brett wedding, it was the very presence of the Nash girl in their lives. Unexpected... Life-changing... Wonderful...

They could not ignore the reasons why she'd taken up as much of a place among them, but that wasn't what they needed to put their minds to, was it? They were support, they were care, where it was needed by both father and daughter. In the month since Mrs. Nash had left and the Friars had made their arrangement with Ava's father, they had been working in tandem, Maya and Lucas here, Bill there, all with one thing in mind... two... Ava was and would always be number one, making sure she was looked after, protected, but beyond that, barely a hair below because it connected right back to Ava's side, was to give her father back-up while he tried to get himself pulled back together.

He'd started going to meetings, some more regular ones but also others when he felt that he needed them. When he'd go, Ava would be dropped off at the Friars' house, or the ranch, or the bakery... Once, in a pinch, she'd been dropped off at the office shared by Thomas and Lucas Friar. She'd merrily played office assistant for a couple of hours until her father had come for her again. Thomas had been so glad having her there, and he'd told her how, in a few years' time, if she wanted to have a job, all she had to do was call.

She'd spent some nights back in the nursery, too. It was always ready to receive her when needed, so all she'd have to do was show up, with her bag, her bear, her plants... No one would be happier to see her than the Friar brothers... and Sirius. Oh, she'd never even make it to the house that the dog would suddenly stop, and stand there for a few moments, and... yes, yes, she was coming! He would bark and wag his tail and wait until she finally arrived and he could give her the best greeting a girl could ask for.

The last few weeks had been good, great weeks for her. She felt it, and they saw it in her eyes. She never spoke about the fact that her mother had left, so they couldn't say if it still affected her, but the sentiment was that maybe she'd reached a point where she just did not miss her anymore. And her brothers, well, even when her father tried to reach out to them, none of them ever picked up or replied. Ava didn't think about them either. What mattered now was her father. Each week that went by, it seemed that this new life of hers, of theirs, was everything she used to want back when it had been her, her parents, her brothers... Maybe they could be okay.

It wasn't a smooth road, even if she didn't pick up on the bumps and the holes along the way. Lucas saw those though, Maya saw them, too. There were a few times when Bill called for someone to get Ava or when he dropped her off, when they were sure either he'd dipped back or he was going to. They weren't going to judge, they knew it would be hard, now more than ever, but then they'd also the hope rising in Ava and they would fear what might happen to it if she realized her father was human and he stumbled... and fell... and struggled to rise again.

"Can I go to the wedding?" Ava asked, one week before the day, at her lesson with Lucas.

"Abigail's wedding?" he asked, and she nodded. She'd helped here and there in the past few weeks, whenever her father would leave her with them, so he guessed it was only natural that she'd be curious about the culmination of all those plans. "I'll have to check, but I don't think it'd be too hard to squeeze you in with us, I mean..." he stuck his hand over her head, alluding to her height, or lack thereof, and she laughed, stretched up on her toes to make herself taller. "Yeah?" Lucas smirked before catching her up by the waist and lifting her on to her horse, giggling all the way.

"I'm the tall one now," she raised her head.

"Yeah, this one might have more trouble squeezing in," Lucas pointed out.

As expected, Abigail and Stephen were both more than happy to include Ava among their guests. Did she have a dress she could wear? Oh, yes, she had some more formal dresses that she barely got to wear. Some she had never worn at all, the tags still attached. It seemed her mother loved to shop for these, wouldn't even bring Ava along and then she'd look in her closet and there they would be, joined by a warning that she had better not play with them and get them dirty or damaged. Maya had gone with her one day and she'd gotten to try every last one of them... at least the ones she hadn't grown out of. From the good ones, they'd finally picked The One that she would wear to the wedding. Shoes were selected to go with it. For accessories though, they went back to the Friar house, where they dug through Maya's drawers and boxes until it was all handled, set aside for the day.

The closer they had been getting to that day, Maya had definitely been trying to check in with her Hart siblings some more, even her soon-to-be stepsisters, as they neared their respective parent's wedding. As much as they had all been genuinely happy for their mother and father, genuinely looking forward to this merging of two families into one, there was no way that they wouldn't be experiencing the slightest bit of jitters, or strange feelings as they considered those they had lost. Kermit Hart had been gone for… four years, already, while Delilah Brett had passed away nearly seven years back. So much had changed, for the spouses they'd left behind, for their children, but what impact would those years really have? The grief might have evolved with the years, too, but they would never stop loving them, so they would never stop missing them, and something like this… They were taking steps that made the fact that they weren't there anymore feel suddenly very real, like they'd snagged on a scab they thought solid. Who knew what was underneath?

It wasn't going to hit the same, not for all of them. Maya didn't worry so much about the boys. Sam, if he needed to talk, she knew, would come to her of his own volition. Wyatt… Well, Sam would have him covered; she was confident of that. Now the girls… Cara had worked through a lot in her sessions, and she hoped that it would be enough to at least compel her to talk to someone, Abigail probably, if she needed it, but just in case… Now Eliza… She could be hard to pinpoint, but of those four, knowing how losing their father had hit her, willed her into silence… As to the Brett girls, she was less concerned about Daphne, to be honest. She'd known her long enough, worked closely with her over many baking days, and she knew where she stood. Stevie though… She'd been five years old when she'd lost her mother, same as Wyatt was when their father had died, and even though she'd clearly come around to her father's seeing someone else, seeing Abigail and now being about to marry her, it was hard to forget how she'd reacted the first time around. Maya wasn't concerned about her acting out so much as she wanted to make sure that she'd be okay.

Better not to single anyone out, Maya had invited her siblings present and future, Hart and Brett together, to the bakery. There, the seven of them had worked to bake up something special for Abigail and Stephen, to be served at dinner on the final night ahead of the wedding. Maybe it was using teacher tactics 'off the clock,' or just years of big sister moves coupled with mom moves. Either way, they all talked among themselves as they worked, and by the time they'd all be done for the day, Maya would come to see for herself that they were all doing very well, truly. They were ready for this, ready for the era of the Hart-Bretts.

"Hey… Ava…" Lucas whispered, stepping quietly past the door once he'd become confident that she was awake, just keeping her eyes closed. She opened them at the sound of her name. "Got something to show you, come with me?"

It was the morning of the wedding. Everyone would be up soon, and then it would be hectic, all of them working to get themselves and the others dressed and ready to go. There was very little wiggle room for time, and so he was incredibly relieved to know that they had pulled this one off.

"Where are we going?" Ava asked, very quietly, as she followed him down the stairs.

He didn't have to answer; she figured it out when she saw the man rising from where he'd been sitting on the couch. It was by what small presence of mind she had, telling her not to make too much noise, that she kept from calling out when she saw her father. She went down the rest of the way as quickly but quietly as she could and went to hug him. Bill smiled and hugged her back. When she pulled back and looked at him, actually looked and noticed that he was wearing a suit, there was a split second where she looked hopeful, like this meant that he would come to the wedding, too, like she'd wanted him to. But then she reined it back in, just smiled.

She did want him to come, but she understood why he wouldn't… couldn't. If he went there, he would be put in a position where there would not only be a bar but waiters walking around with glasses on trays, and just so… so many ways for him to be tempted. It just wasn't wise, not at this point. So then why was he here? Dressed like this? She looked at him and Lucas both, confused.

"Remember last Saturday, at the ranch, when we saw Donna Devereaux?" Lucas asked her, and she nodded, then… yes. The dance teacher and event coordinator, knowing that Ava would be attending the wedding, had asked her if she was going to go out on the dance floor at any point on that night. Ava had said she didn't know but, after Donna had gone away, she'd confessed to Lucas how she would have liked one dance, just one, but she wouldn't get it, because her father wouldn't be there. Now she looked at him, at his suit… She looked at herself, in her PJs…

"I'm not dressed yet, can I get dressed first?" she asked both men. Lucas turned to her father, feeling as though, under normal circumstances, with her staying with them, he would have just answered, but with her father standing there… At the same time, Bill seemed to want to defer to him.

"Care to join us for breakfast?" Lucas asked him.

Everyone woke up, everyone came down to the kitchen, and there they found Lucas, Ava, and Bill Nash in the midst of preparing breakfast. Their guest had taken off his jacket and hung it on a chair, rolled up his sleeves… Seeing him like this, he looked… Well, it didn't feel right to say 'normal,' for what it would suggest, but then again… With how he'd shaved – and benefited from his young daughter's expert hair care – and dressed that morning, he looked so much younger than he'd done a month ago, younger than his actual age which, from everything they knew of the family, had to be somewhere in his late forties.

As soon as breakfast was over, Ava bolted upstairs to get ready, and Maya moved to follow her, to help her as she'd promised to do. The dress went on, the sandals, the chosen accessories, before they could decide what she'd do with her hair. Once this was done, she looked at her reflection… Yes, this was it. Maya had a good hold of composure in general. But watching Ava as she turned this way and that in the mirror before dashing off to go show her father, Maya didn't know that she'd ever so acutely wished for a daughter. Oh, she loved her sons, every last one of them, and would never trade them for anything, but this moment right here, this experience, it was just… something else…

Later, Lucas would confess the very same thing to her. He'd been struck with it when he'd watched Ava come bounding down the stairs in her wedding best, so she might share her one dance with her father. He stood back, recorded the scene with his phone after putting on some music for them, and Bill Nash danced with his daughter in the Friars' living room. Ava looked so happy and caught up in the moment. When the song ended and they slowly came to a stop, Bill crouched before his daughter. He leaned and whispered something at her ear and she nodded to him before hugging him.

Much as he tried to stay out of it, from where he stood, Lucas could see the man's face as he returned the embrace. He would give his best smiles for her, but when it came down to it they were a mask, hiding how not alright he still was underneath, and he had so much on his mind right there… He just couldn't let her see it. His eyes turned up, met those of her instructor. Neither said a word, but in the other father's eyes, Lucas seemed to see those same words Bill Nash had written down a month ago. Lucas Friar, please look after my daughter, Ava Nash. He silently nodded.

After wishing her a great day, which she promised to tell him all about when she'd go home the next day, Bill went on his way. Lucas and Ava both watched him go, and then the girl moved off back into the house.

"Where are you running off to?" Lucas called out, amused by her haste.

"I promised I'd help get the boys ready!" she called back before climbing up the stairs. He smirked as he shut the door again. "Lucas?" He turned. She'd stopped halfway up.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"I already told Elliott, and Noah, and Jamie that I'd dance with them, so… I could dance with you, too," she suggested, smiling. He smiled back.

"Is that what you'd like?" he asked, and she nodded. "Then I would like that, too."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners