EroticReverie

Ariella

We wait a few more weeks. Deciding it's best to wait until the guys have had a little bit of time to return to the normal life of being able to go in and out of town. We joke about how many girls we think Westlan has hooked up with since the snow melted enough for him to make it into town.  Part of me feels guilty joking about it, when I know he was beyond loyal to me. But I also know he'd be laughing and making even worse jokes about his habits with women if he was here. 

I'm bundled up and behind Asher, holding on as we go over the small bit of snow still covering the mountains. We spent the last few days tidying the cabin, burning the trash and we leave the canned foods in the cabin incase we come back, or for whenever one of them comes up here to get away. The small hitched sled that was packed to the brim when we came up, seems nearly empty, with just our duffels of clothes. 

My heart races the closer we get. My emotions getting stuck in my throat and tears flood my eyes as one of the familiar tall frames I know so well comes around the corner out of the garage, watching us approach on the snow mobile. 

I can see his smile from her. Beaming white teeth, his brown hair that was a bit lighter than Ashers or Cades, was now no longer long on top. Westlan had buzzed his fucking head. And....it looked good. He looked...so good...so fucking happy. 

"Smurf baby!" he yells and I choke on my tears and laughter and I can't help it, jumping off the snowmobile, my boots crunching on the gravel and half inch of snow in the drive as I run to his out stretched arms. I slam into him. My arms going around her waist, my face burying itself in his flannel , inhaling him, crying as he wraps me in his arms. 

"you crying?" he says and I shake my head. 

"no" I sob. 

He chuckles and Asher is behind me. 

"yeah she is." he says and just hug Westlan tighter. 

"I missed you." I choke out. 

"Course you did smurf baby, what's not to miss?" he says, teasing me, same old Westlan, but the smurf baby nick name doesn have the same underlying tone to it  that it used to. There's no suggestive impression given to the words to attempt to make anything inside of me stir. 

I just laugh as I cry. Asher was right. They were okay. We'd all be okay. 

"Missed you too trouble" he says and I  still feel somewhere deep down the learned instinct to lift my chin and kiss him. A part of me selfishly wishing I could. Another part of me grateful that the feeling doesnt seem as strong as it would have been before me and Asher left. Grateful that resisting the small urge still there isn't as hard as it would have been before. 

"You cut your hair" I say pulling back, tears still soaking my cheeks, but ive managed to stop their flow. 

He smiles, lifting his hands to my face, his thumbs swiping. 

"Sure did....you wouldnt believe these girls after a winter without me...they pull on it like a horses reigns!" he says and I choke out a laugh and throw my arms back around him. Asher laughing, because we both are thinking the same thing, of the bets we made of how long it would take for Westlan to make a remark about all the women he'd be fighting off. 

"I missed you so much" I say , holding him tight. 

I feel him press a kiss to the top of my head. "Missed you something crazy smurf baby" he says and kisses my head again and we hug each other tighter. 

"Dad and Cade here?" Asher asks as Westlan lifts a hand to my head, brushing it over my hair messying it up. Playful still, but not flirtatious and im thankful that somehow there's no awkwardness currently between us. Like the intimate things that happened between us this past Winter had never acutally happened, as if he's just a loving part of my life that missed me. I was sure eventually talk would come of what happened. Of how they all chose to deal with the fact I'd chosen Asher. But I was grateful for Westlan making me feel wanted still, for making me feel like he was still my family. 

"Dad's due back soon, Cade's in the gym. Fucker is swoll as fuck. He could probably kick your ass now." Westlan says and Asher rolls his eyes. 

"Like to see him try" he says , not in a menacing way, just the way that borthers would and grabs his duffel and my hand and I smile. Westlan following us inside.

"Cade quit jerking off with protein shakes  and get up here!" Westlan yells down the stairs into the gym making me laugh a little and Asher grabs the back of my head, leans down, kisses the top of my head. 

"I'll be upstairs." he says.

"West...help me bring this shit upstairs." Asher says.

"do it yourself you beast looking lumberjack mother fucker" West argues as if we've spent no time away at all. 

"grab the fuckin bag" Asher growls. His eyes glaring at West.

"oh. okay" he says and I bite my lip as they walk upstairs, their steps retreating as new ones come up the basement steps.

"The fuck you yelli-" Cade's voice cuts off, sweat drips down the youngest Stone brothers face and chest. 

"Ari." he says, blinking a few times, lifting  a small towel, wiping his face as he walks over to me slowly, and god West was right. All of them had muscles, and Asher was the most jacked of any of them, Cade was the smallest in terms of muscle, but it looked like he'd been lifting weights non stop since we left. 

"Hi." I say quietly as he draws closer, his specific set of that special Stone brothers blue looking down at me. 

"you're back." he says, his eyes taking me in and I just nod.

"I am. Asher is too, he's...upstairs." I say and my heart breaks just a little bit, because I could see that while maybe I was ready to come back, and maybe West was ready for me to come back, and probably Reed too...that maybe Cade wasnt.

"the blue is almost gone." he says nodding to me hair and I let out a small little laugh or surprise, and I look down at my hair, the faded blue ends.

"Yeah almost." I say. 

"You should go into town...get it redone or something...you see Westlan?" he asks. I bite my lips together and nod.

"Yeah."

"Yeah, his new hair makes his head look a like a dick." Cade says and I laugh, tears coming again to my eyes and he smiles. I missed seeing their smiles, missed seeing their faces. 

"You look...different too." I say and he looks down at himself, in nothing other loose black gym shorts, even his thighs that once didnt fill out the holes in the legs, the shorts now appeared tighter. 

"Lots of down time. It'll fade back out over spring and summer, when I get preoccupied doing other stuff." he says with a shrug as if his form is nothing. 

I was only human, so it was hard for my body not to respond to these men. Even though my heart belonged in full to the six foot four long brown hair, bearded, tattooes mountain man upstairs, my body still remembered the way it felt against each of them. 

"I'd give ya a hug....but....covered in sweat" he says with a shrug. 

I just nod. Because Im not sure if it's an excuse and if he's ready to hold me in his arms for even just a hug. Because I can feel the hurt still lingering from him, but he tries to joke, to make it as normal as possible. But it isnt. Unlike with West....our reunion is slightly awkward, which tells me one of us or both of us wasnt ready to face each other. 

"I'm gonna go take a shower." he nods to the side.

I nod. "Yeah, of course." I say, when neither of us can find anything else to say. 

"I'll get that hug to you later." he says and nudges me with his elbow as he passes by.

"yeah, okay" I say with a little laugh.

I hear his footsteps start up the stairs. 

"Ari?" he says pausing, and I turn and look at him half way up the stairs and looking at me.

"Yeah?" I blink up at him from the middle of the foyer. 

"I'm glad you're back. Both of you." he says. 

I smile, my lip trembling. 

"Me too." I say, my voice shaky with emotion as Cade gives me what I desperately wanted.  Just to know he didn't hate me still. Or Asher, that in the time away, that he took, ontop of the time away that me and Asher took, he was learning to cope with the decisions we'd all made. Learning to accept that I'd chosen Asher.