Aspen Falls

BRB -- January 21st

      "What are you thinking about so hard over there?"  Aspen had been in her own little world for the last three or four hours, making this road trip silent and long.

      "Hmm?"

      I squeezed her thigh a little, drawing her attention from the window she'd been staring out of.  She drew her feet up from the floor and crunched her knees up.  It was just another reminder of how small she was in comparison to me, if she could curl up in the front seat and still have room to move around.

      "You're thinking....massive hard.  I just want to know what about?"

      "Oh.  Nothing much.  Virginia is actually gonna have winters.  Snow, ice...all that shit.  I don't think I'm ready for that."

      We had packed the bed of my truck and half the backseat with things this girl thought she'd need for a month.  Well, longer than a month actually.  She'd decided that she could split things between her house back in Alabama and whatever house we were going to live in in Virginia.  

      I grinned.  She would most definitely hate winters.  Aspen was a southern girl thru and thru...hot blood ran thru her veins.  "Is that really what you were thinking?"

      "Not really.  I mean, I'm not especially looking forward to it.  The snow will be cool to see Blue in but I don't like being cold."

      I laughed a little.  "Trust me ACE, I know."

      She rolled her eyes.  "I was more so thinking about that store space Bristol and I were looking at online the other day."

      That threw me for a loop.  "What store space?"

      "You know Bris left out yesterday to come this way to Hunter right?"  I did not know that but it didn't really shock me.  Both him and I had huge surprises that we wanted to show our girls.  "The store space is in Virginia.  Beach front."  I let out a breath.  Currently in Alabama, they just strictly took online orders and then they delivered.  But a store front, beach side nonetheless, in Virginia?  That was big.  "We were looking at it online, but we're gonna go look at it sometime this week while we're here."

      "Nervous?"

      "Fuck yeah.   There's a lot of things to work out if we do this.  Store, building wise.  Then the matter of splitting time between Virginia and back home...how much would we need to sink in to the building?  Is it a good business move?  Are we ready for it?"  She sighed, huge, and leaned her head against the window to stare at me.

      "You two are a pair of badasses ACE.  Don't overthink things yet.  Go look at it.  H and I will go with if you want.  But just look at it and if you two wanna do things from there then we can all set down and work out the logistics."

      Honestly I was glad they were looking at doing this.  I was still very much on edge about leaving Aspen to do missions again.  Now wouldn't be like the last time I left, but it didn't make it easier to leave the love of my life.  If they decided they wanted to open a store up here, Hunter and I would gladly sink in whatever seed money they needed.  It would give them something to focus on and keep busy while we were away.  I had no doubt they could make it successful.

      Aspen let out another sigh against the window and Blue leaned his head against her knee.  She would overthink things regardless of what I say.

      "Want a distraction?"

      "Um...you're driving, so a distraction wouldn't be a good idea Beau."  She went to drawing little circles on the back of my hand that was laying on the inside of her thigh.