Their New Beginning (Oh Captain, My Captain 5)

“I guess we better stop then. C’mon. Aunt Avery fixed breakfast.”

We hop off the bed and follow Avery down to the kitchen. She’s already fixed our plates and I realize that we slept in pretty late. It’s eleven in the morning. It’s been a long time since I’ve slept in that late.

“Your mom will be here in a couple of hours, Reed. Is there anything you want to do or go shopping for before she gets here?” I ask as we start eating.

“No thanks, Uncle Jax. We already got a lot yesterday. Thanks for buying me all that stuff and letting me spend the night. When can I come back?” He grins at me with hopeful eyes.

“You’re welcome. I don’t know when. Maybe you can come stay with us sometime this summer.”

“That would be awesome!”

When I glance at Avery, she’s smiling. Maybe once we see if I’ll get a new contract and stay in Vegas for a good few more years, and things are going really good for us, we could start our own little family.

We hang out at the house, watching cartoons and listening to Reed talk more about Sadie, Lexie, Ashton, Brooke, and even a bit about Nate, Brooke’s boyfriend. The knock on the door comes too soon and I have the pleasure of being face-to-face with Brooke.

“Hey, Brooke,” I say, stepping aside so she can come in.

“Hey, Jax. Has he been behaving?” She gives me a hug as I tell her he has.

“Mom!” Reed runs over to her and immediately launches into telling her about everything I bought him.

Brooke gives me a glare and shoves my shoulder with her free hand. “Jax! I said not to buy him anything.”

“We jumped on the bed, too,” Reed adds.

“We stopped as soon as he said you told him we aren’t supposed to,” I quickly add. Reed needs to learn how to keep secrets. “C’mon.”

We go into the living room, and Avery and Brooke exchange hellos. Brooke hangs out with us for a while before I load her car up with Reed’s stuff and send them on their way. Once Avery and I are back inside, I turn to her.

“Well, how did you like having a kid in the house?”

She laughs. “I’m ready for a nap,” she jokes. “It wasn’t too bad though.”

Not too bad at all.

~ ~ ~

A couple days later, I come home full of energy with the night off. “Avery!” I call out when I enter the house. Silence answers me. She’s home because her car is in the driveway. I can hear the TV in the living room, so I make my way in there.

There she is, sound asleep, lying on her back on the couch with the blanket half on the floor. I quietly go to sit on the coffee table, wondering how I should wake her up. It’s late in the afternoon, but she’s wearing one of my shirts and a pair of shorts. My answer is a no-brainer.

I rest my hand on her leg, down by her ankle, and slowly make my way up her leg, which is so smooth; I know she had to have shaved them in the shower this morning. When I reach the skin above her knee, her legs twitch, pulling together. When I reach her mid-thigh, her legs relax a little, but go to cross as I inch higher. My eyes are on her face, waiting for a reaction.

The corners of her mouth lift slightly before her eyes blink open in confusion and I stop my hand at the hem of her shorts. She jumps when she sees me.

“Jax Godwin!” she half snaps at me, pushing my hand away. “You scared me.”

I laugh, leaning forward to kiss her. “Looks to me like you were having a good dream,” I smirk.

She smiles. “It did suddenly get interesting there at the end.” Avery sits up, crisscrossing her legs. “I had a headache, so I laid down and apparently fell asleep. How was your day?”

“Good.” I don’t want to talk about my day. “Yours? Do you still have a headache?”

Avery shakes her head. “No, and it was okay.”

“Well, I’ve been thinking.”

“That’s never good,” she teases.