Here is another chapter for you'll to read.

I was curled into Jesse who never moved his eyes trained out the window, but we left them far back my only worry was Mae and Angus. But for now, the rain beats down like stray bullets pelting the truck, snow was clearing as Miles just drove while every so often I gave snacks out until we had to stop for an actual meal. Miles sighed, "Sorry, going to be fast food we need to get to the safe house," it was at least a place that served chicken, some placed called chick-fi-le or something.

Jesse walked in with his brother, we just sit in the truck to wait, I asked. "Celia, what is wrong with, Jesse," keeping my tone low as if he was sleeping next to me.

Her eyes are so kind as she turned to face me fully, "Love, real love changes us. It sounds like some crap vampire romance novel but it does. He finally found you and the thought or action of you gone, hurt, in danger it is painful to him. Same with Angus and Miles with Mae and I," she made sense and I never would want to hurt him, but this is even out of my reach.

But soon they come back and the conversation is done as Miles drives off, the food wasn't horrible but a homecooked meal is better. The old house looked like a miniature fairy book castle after a typhoon had passed by. The main body of the house was a rectangle but added on were curved portions that looked like towers with grey peaked rooftops. The outside of the old house was covered in a kind of tile that had ivy crawling up. Perhaps this little kingdom was once loved and would be again, it needed a good cleaning for sure.

The boys left us for supplies, Miles given a list of everything we would need as for this next week we would get the place in perfect shape. It was supper time and it was nothing fancy, just chips and sandwiches as Miles got the electric on so the fringe could be stocked. Jesse was done tired, we all are with luck everything was covered, it just looked as if it had been vacant for a few months.

The next morning, we started in on the kitchen it needed a lot more work, plus this was our space. I finished sweeping and was adding pine sol to the hot water to start on the mopping and doing it the hard way on my hands and knees as Celia was scrubbing and polishing the entire kitchen, the wooden surfaces, and cabinets. After it was gleaming we move on as the boys leave, we are both scrubbing floors in the sitting room when they leave.

It had only taken two full days to have the little castle stocked and cleaned, now we felt better this place was not a permanent house, it was their little safe nest. It was smaller, only three rooms so now with Mae and Angus due in four days guess, Jesse and I would be sharing a room. That was very scary but we are getting married in June, so it was only a matter of time.

But Celia said we didn't share until Mae and Angus arrived, but my stuff was stored in his room everything nestled into place. There was a gate of rough wood was as big as a cow and ivy cascaded over the fence, growing tendrils in every direction. The stone path was punctuated with flowers after every stone. The manicured lawn was more grass than moss now and was overshadowed by huge weeping willow flowing down onto the dank and squishy ground. Clusters of defiant daffodils reared their golden heads amidst the gloom and there were smatters of fuchsia alongside the scarlet and saffron-hued primroses.

I liked to walk out here, it was right out of a fairytale, I could be a Princess waiting on her Prince charming, but here and now I had found him. Jesse, he just smiled his body leaning against the willow with his arrogant smile, it was my favorite smile. "Sorry, Finley. I know I haven't been pleasant to be around,"

Like that he just holds me impossibly close, "You're scared," the words coming out as a whisper, hesitant of his reaction.

"I was, I am. It isn't an emotion I ever really had, scared of my family being hurt, yes. But the worry, pain, scared is all new and encompassing with you," the raw truth and emotion he was showing was welcomed.

"I am safe, we're all safe," but are we, I don't know and neither does Jesse.

During the day we just talk, read, and have fun. Jesse was giving me a look, "I have to go for a week the moment ma and pa come. I have things to settle," he did have a life before this and maybe some of his affairs had to be in order just mine had after meemaw had passed.

All I could do was agree, "Well be safe. I rather you did not leave at times like these but affairs have to be in order before anything can move forward,"

"You ever just going to tell me no?"

My snort is louder than normal, "If there is logic and things that have to be done, than no. Once we're married and the brotherhood is done then I can just go with," like that he was leading me into the house he and Miles are fixing the roof while we ladies whip some supper up now that the little castle is cleaned and stocked for the next two weeks.

Celia was already in the kitchen, it was six already so a late supper it was as I started in on frying the chicken. Her hands are covered in dough she used her elbow to turn the water on, "I have the beans boiling and the pie is done, what else?"

I smiled, "How about we use the left-over potatoes add some sour cream, cheese, and cooked bacon. Cover them in egg then bread crumbs and fry them up?" it sounded good in retrospect.

"I will do the bacon, grade the cheese, baby girl," another new culinary recipe was underway in the Tuck kitchen, they smelled so good as they fried in the oil.

Celia called, "Boys set the table,"

Dinner was great, but not having Mae and Angus missing was scary. None of us knew so it was weighing on us all. I knew Miles and Celia are worried sick, so was I, Jesse seemed angry all the time. Miles and Celia are laying by the fire while she read, behind them, we lay on the sofa just watching the fire blazing. The flames curl and sway, flicking this way and that, crackling as they burn the dry wood. It's so good to feel their warmth at last, even if is from only one direction. We watch in hypnotized joy, holding hands his breath touching my neck.

"Can you start sleeping with me tonight, it be nice to have before I left,"

I felt a ping of worry.

"You comin back, right?"

He bolted up giving me a look of disbelief and anger. "I will be back, seven days," his tone was like an angry ball of husky energy. But after he just lays back down pulling me flush against his back, his long hair touching my cheek.

"I will, just Jesse. You need to start acting right, I know how you feel but you see me acting a fool. I am going to go change, I am dead on my feet," my body sore from the actual work that we had put into this fairytale. I was writing with Celia how this place could improve, the grounds are large, it was a Snow White fairytale.

People can grow strong enough to whisper at the iron bars that hold them and see them bend out of their way, like the craziest magic. That's what love can do: fix souls, fix brains, cure us all. I left my now dirty clothes in the wicker basket, only pulling on the pastel blue, light cotton sleep set the shorts not very long but this was bedtime not like I was going outside in this.

But with a deep breath I walked out to brush my teeth and hair, Celia was in the same state everyone getting ready for bed. Miles warned us there was ample protection here, that we shouldn't leave the grounds. Jesse was waiting in the room, in only his sweats, it brought jitters and my nerves turned to fire. This was new and welcomed, but still new and anything new was sure to cause this reaction.

But Jesse he just smiled as the door closed behind me, "Finally," but it was in a joking manner.

But then everything flipped.

He was the only healthy drug there is, the one that puts my mind into a frenzy of sparks. The simple touch of his hand leads me into moving in ways I never learned but know so well. The feelings rock my head backward as he kisses my neck and pushed his body into mine; they engulf my senses and steal away my worries. At that moment I am only alive in the present, all thoughts of past and future melted away. This medicine Jesse brings heals me, and though I am addicted I feel safe because he was equally addicted to me.