About a month later
Lucas answered the door one Sunday morning in mid November, expecting Elizabeth who was bringing Nora over for a sleepover with Amie and to spend the day with him and the kids. It wasn't Elizabeth.
"Crystal? How do you know where I live?"
"May I come in? It's cold out here."
"No. I think you need to leave."
He started to close the door but then he heard, "Daddy!" from adorable Nora who was climbing up his front steps.
"Hi, punkin." He scooped her up and smiled past Crystal, making her turn around.
"Hi, babe," Beth said, kissing his cheek as she walked in.
"Babe?" Crystal repeated. "Daddy?"
Nora hugged his neck and patted his beard, playing a part she didn't know was appropriate for this situation.
"So you're married?" Crystal said, shivering.
"Crystal, you don't get to know anything about me. We are no longer married. How did you find out where I lived and more importantly, how did you get in through the gate?"
"Henry assured me you wouldn't mind if I stopped by."
"Henry?"
"From Abigails. He said any friend of yours is a friend of his. So he let me know. It wasn't that hard to get the security guard to let me in. I have my ways. You know this."
"Goodbye, Crystal. Leave the area. If I see you here again, I will call the cops."
He shut the door and turned around, grateful for the promptness of Elizabeth.
"Hey," she said, walking over to him and hugging him. She was what he needed right then and he knew it for a certainty…she grounded him. She made him a whole person again.
"Thank you, Beth."
He bent down slightly and kissed her, very aware of the toddler in his arms.
She reached up to cup his cheek. "I love you," she whispered.
"I love you," he whispered back.
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely. You make me a better person, Beth. I realized that I was struggling with myself, not with trusting someone again. I know that you are what I need. What my kids and I need."
"I feel the same way about you. You are what Nora and I need. You complete our quirky little family."
"Well, maybe one day, we will be a quirky, bigger family."
"Yeah. Maybe," she said, kissing him one more time.
"And…I liked it when you called me 'babe' in front of her. That felt right."
"It did. Babe."
They both chuckled and walked further into the house.
Lucas didn't know where to go from there. The holidays were coming up. It was mid November so Thanksgiving was around the corner.
"Do you have plans for Thanksgiving?" Lucas asked, figuring she would be with Vi.
"Yeah. I'm not really looking forward to it though."
"No? Why not? Thanksgiving is the best."
"It is normally, but my parents will be in town and my younger sister."
"Where do your parents live?"
"In the Orlando area."
"Is that where you grew up?"
"No."
"Its okay if you don't want to tell me."
She sat down on the stool at the bar and sighed. "No, its not okay. I need to tell you anything and everything. Now that we said how we really feel, we need to share."
He nodded, putting a squirmy Nora down who ran off to find Amie and Ace.
He took her hand and led her to the living room where there was a warm fire going and a nice couch to snuggle up on.
"I figured this is more comfy for a serious talk," he told her.
She moved as close as she could, covered their laps with a blanket and put her head on his chest.
"My first love," she began.
"Trevor?"
"No, before him. Jack Thornton. We dated our junior and senior years of high school. I loved him as much as a seventeen year old could. We made choices that now I see might not have been wise."
She paused and he waited while she gathered her thoughts. "We got tattoos and drank beer and we got really close. He was my first of so many things. I slept with him, Lucas."
"I'm not going to judge you, Beth. We both have things we may regret in our pasts."
She nodded. "It wasn't just the choices we made, but my parents didn't think he was a good choice for me. They hated the Thornton family. My parents are stuck up, rich snobs, for lack of a better description. I wish they weren't. To be honest, I see them once a year and they haven't even met Nora. I never send pictures. If that makes me a bad person, I'm sorry."
"It doesn't," he assured her. "Did you go all in with Jack to defy your parents?"
"I guess in some ways, that was my thinking. I did love him, though."
"Where does Trevor fit in?"
"I met him after college. He was wonderful and made me feel loved again and my parents approved of him and loved him, mostly because he had money and he treated me well. Until, he didn't. Needless to say, my parents blamed me for him cheating and since we divorced, its become an annual Thanksgiving visit and the whole experience becomes a 'what are you doing with your life, Beth' thing. I just don't want to do it anymore."
"Its going to my first thanksgiving with the kiddos and Lee and his new girlfriend is going to be here too. We would love to have you and Nora come. If you want."
"I do want to. Very much."
"Okay, good."
"May I cook?"
"Sure."
"Will your parents be here too?"
"No. They are coming down for Christmas."
"Turkey or ham?" she asked, closing her eyes. She was in her happy place.
"Turkey with stuffing and that canned cranberry sauce and green beans with crunchy onions on top."
She laughed. "And for dessert?"
"I don't need any dessert but you."
"Are you flirting, Mr. Bouchard?"
"Yep."
"Okay, just checking."
"Mama!" Nora called, walking in the room. "Mama, potty!"
Elizabeth popped open her eyes and got up, leaving Lucas by himself for a moment. He imagined the mantle, that currently had a family picture of himself and the kids, with a picture one day of all of them. Maybe a picture of just him and Elizabeth too. A wedding picture perhaps. Maybe Beth liked candles so she'd put a cinnamon and apple scented one up there, burning it around Christmas time.
He also pictured a large Christmas tree with all the ornaments and silver tinsel that they decorated together. As a family. He put mistletoe in the doorway and make sure to stop her everytime she walked through from the kitchen to the living room.
"Daddy," Amie said, making his musings disappear.
"Hey, baby doll."
"Daddy, Nora is staying tonight, right? Can she stay in my room?"
"Sure thing."
"Can we all read stories together in my unicorn room and snuggle on my bed?"
"Sure."
"Okay. Is Miss Elizabeth staying?"
"She will be sleeping in the guest room."
"Cool. Can she make us breakfast in the morning?"
"You can ask her, sweetie."
"Okay. Daddy? Can she be my Mommy?"
"Honey, right now we are just boyfriend and girlfriend. It takes time to get to that point."
"Some day, though? We need a mommy and you need a wife."
"I do, huh?" He couldn't disagree. He was starting to feel that fact every single night that Elizabeth went home and he went to bed alone.
"Yep."
"I'll keep that in mind. Now, what do you think we should do today?"
"Um…" she said, using the tip of her finger to tap her chin.
"You are a silly girl, Amie Lynn Bouchard."
"I know. That's why you love me."
He tickled her sides just to hear her giggle. He loved the giggle sounds.
"Yes I do. Very much."
"What's so funny in here?" Elizabeth asked, Nora and Ace trailing behind her. "And who's hungry? I thought we could make breakfast pizza."
"I love pizza!" Ace said, his eyes lighting up.
"Have you ever had it with eggs and bacon and ham on top?"
"No! But I want to!"
"Great. We can all make it together."
"What do we make the crust out of?"
"Crescent rolls."
"I don't think we have those."
"I do. I have everything we need in the car in a cooler."
"Look at you being all prepared. I'm not surprised in the least. Come on, Ace, lets go get the cooler from Beth's car."
….
Elizabeth showed Ace and Amie how to roll out the crescent rolls flat and then they soft-scrambled some eggs and crisped up some bacon while the oven was pre-heating.
"What do we use for the sauce?" Lucas wondered.
"Cheese sauce," she said, pulling a jar out of the cooler.
Once they had the toppings on and the pizza's slid into the oven, they all went to the living room to find a movie to watch.
Elizabeth snuck away a few minutes later to clean the kitchen up. She didn't want to leave it messy, since it wasn't her kitchen.
"Hey, you don't have to do that. You're a guest,' Lucas said from behind her. He placed his hands on her hips and stepped up close so his feet were on either side of hers.
"I don't mind," she told him, instinctively leaning back against him and tipping her head to the side to give him permission to kiss her neck.
"You don't have to sleep in the guest room tonight," he mentioned, tickling the sensitive skin behind her ear with his mouth.
"Mm. Yeah. I do."
"Why's that?'
His fingers teased the soft skin on her stomach as his hand slid under the edge of her t-shirt.
"Lucas," she playfully scolded as she turned around. Instead of looking mad though, he could see the desire in her eyes. He captured her lips in the next second, stealing her breath and making her second guess her reasoning.
"Daddy and Miss Elizabeth, sitting in a tree," Amie teased from the doorway.
"Amie, what movie did you and Ace pick?' Lucas asked, changing the subject but keeping his arm around Beth.
"Nora picked."
"What did Nora pick?"
"Tangled."
Lucas looked at Elizabeth, questioning.
"Its like Rapunzel," Elizabeth explained. "She loves that movie."
"How long before the pizza is ready?" Amie asked.
"About ten more minutes, girlie. Why don't you go watch Tangled and I will finish cleaning up."
"Was Daddy helping you clean?" she asked.
Lucas turned red and chased her out of the room, making her giggle again.
"So, will you tell me why you have to sleep in the guest room later?" he asked when he returned.
"Yeah. I will."
He assumed it was because of the kids being in the house. He understood that but they didn't necessarily have to know, did they? Unless Ace needed him because of his dreams. Hmmm.
After pizza and a movie, the girls went into Amie's room to play dress up and Ace grabbed his tablet to play a game in his room so Lucas and Elizabeth sat on the sectional again, under a blanket.
"Its not just that the kids are here. It's been a long time since I've been with someone and you and I just finally admitted our feelings."
"So you're not ready yet."
"No."
"I understand. I am not pressuring you. You just let me know when you are."
His cell phone rang and he picked it up. Rick, an office manager of the Vermont branch of Bouchard Realty, was calling.
"I'll be right back," he told her, standing up and walking to his office.
"Lucas Bouchard," he said, answering the phone.
"Lucas, its Rick."
"Hello. How are things going in Montpelier?"
"Doing well. I was just touching base with you at your request. Are you still planning on a visit in December?"
He had truthfully forgotten all about it. He would need to go for a few days to conduct a board meeting and make sure all the numbers added up. Kind of like an audit.. He visited each office twice a year.
"Yes. I should make that a priority. Let me look at my calendar and call you back."
"Alright. Thanks, Lucas."
"Thank YOU, Rick. Talk soon."
He paced for a moment, looked at his calendar and went out to see Elizabeth. He peeked in Amie's room and smiled at the two princesses and tiaras dancing around the room. They were so cute and filled his heart with all sorts of emotions.
"Beth?"
"Hm?"
"Ever been to Vermont?"
"Nope."
"Would you like to go? Next month? I have to go to my office in Montpelier and I thought we could make a long weekend of it. We could fly in Friday morning, I would work that day and then we'd have Saturday and most of Sunday before flying back."
"You want me to go on a work trip?"
"Yeah," she said with a shrug. "I thought maybe it could be something special for us. We could have time together for just us. Its about four weeks away and my parents would be here then so they could watch my kids."
"I guess, Vi could watch Nora."
"No pressure, but I thought it would be good for us."
Elizabeth blushed as she thought about it. They would likely not be sleeping in separate rooms on that trip. Was she ready, one hundred percent, to take that next step with Lucas?
"Sure, Lucas. I'd love to go with you."
"Great. Let's find a place to stay," he said, grabbing his laptop.