The Village

Seth’s Perspective

As we lay there in bed, I had so many questions about what had happened that day. “How in the hell did you end up with David and Kayleigh driving Joel’s car back to BroMax?” I asked my husband.

He turned on his side and looked me in the eyes as he stroked my hair, “Seth, David is a freaking god” he said with a grin. “He showed up at my office to discuss charges against the church and Gerald, Joel’s father. When the Senior Partners at my firm realized who he was they joined us in the conference room.”  There was a spark of excitement in his voice as he told the story. “This guy plays hardball. He had all his ducks in a row. He had had a video conference with the judge before he even left New York and had gotten a protective order against Gerald. He had written up criminal charges alleging kidnapping and wrongful imprisonment and was ready to present them to the D.A. if Gerald didn’t cooperate. He also wrote up civil charges on behalf of Joel and Benji.” I could see the admiration in Zach’s eyes as he spoke about him. “Kayleigh was waiting in the car, and after our meeting, the three of us went over to Gerald’s office. David just walked in, interrupted a meeting in the conference room, and told the others to leave. Seth it was so fucking cool! The other guys just got up and left while Gerald stuttered in protest. David presented Gerald with the protective orders, then he set down an envelope with the other allegations and charges, summarized them then said, “Gerald, this is how this is going down. We’re going back to your house and packing all Joel and Benji’s stuff into Joel’s car then the boys are coming with us, or… Zach leaves now to present the criminal charges to the DA, I call the police and you and I wait here until they walk you out in cuffs in front of your colleagues.” The guy just wreaked of confidence, damn Seth, his balls must be the size of fucking watermelons” he laughed.

“Oh my god! So, what happened next? What did Gerald do?” I asked.

“He took us back to his house to pack up the guy’s stuff. When we got there, their mother didn’t say a damn word… she just sat there like a mindless slug” Zach said. “Kayleigh took her into a different room to try to reason with her but I don’t think she got anywhere. When we left Kayleigh looked at her sister and said, “You chose Gerald, I chose the boys” then she got in the car and slammed the door. I got into Joel’s car and we came back here.”

“Holy shit” I said responding to his story. I was having flashbacks of my own family, there was a point where Brad asked my mother to choose… either Father or her children. She chose her husband over her children, just as Joel and Benji’s mother had. It was a painful time for my siblings and me and the war with my parents had officially begun. I was relieved that the guys had Kayleigh and David to rescue them, just like we had Brad and Scotty.

“We filed a restraining order against Gerald and the church on behalf of The Village too. They can’t come within 100 feet of Harrington House, The Village employees, or its clients.” Zach said finishing his story. This was a huge relief.

We had both recently started our careers and they were very demanding. Zach had a team of supportive people behind him and kept worrying about me because I was in this alone… He was wrong, I wasn’t in this alone. It may have been just me at the office, I may have been the one in the fray of it all, but I was far from alone. There was a village backing up The Village. I laid my head on Zach’s chest and just listened to his heartbeat. I felt so safe with him. I had since day one.

I planted a kiss on his chest between his nipples and he kissed the top of my head. We laid like that for a moment or two and I inhaled his addictive scent before I moved up and kissed him tenderly on the lips “Thanks” I whispered into his lips with my eyes wide open.

“For what?” He asked with a little chortle and a loving smile.

“Just for being Zach. Fucking. Hall” I said quietly and topped it off with a kiss. He let out another chortle. “You jumped into my drama-filled world and you’ve been riding that freaking roller coaster for six years” Our eyes were locked and our lips were lightly grazing.

I could feel his hot breath against my lips as he let out a loud “HA!” then quietly said, “the six most exciting years of my life” and punctuated his words with a kiss. “God, I love you and this crazy world you made me part of.” Our eyes were locked as he pulled back a bit, lifted my chin and said, “this world we’re building, everything I was part of today… it all invigorates me” he kissed me lightly again. “Seth, every day I watch you drive yourself crazy helping other people and it inspires the hell out of me. Today I was in the middle of it.”

“You’re always in the middle of it” I said. It was his support that made it possible for me to do what I did.

“But not like I was today” he said with a lilt in his eye that made me smile. “Seth, I was on the front line; it was scary as hell but amazingly satisfying. David walked in there confident as fuck, he had his shit together! He had all his ducks in a row, he knew what he wanted and he had no intention of leaving until he accomplished what he came to do. It was so damn inspiring.” Oh my god he was so animated. So, alive and I fucking loved it.

He was so excited and pouring his heart out to me, and I know this sounds a little trashy but all I could think was that he was never hotter to me than he was right then. I kissed him while he was midsentence, “god, I love you” I said with a goofy grin on my face.

Zach smiled with a similar grin on his perfectly chiseled face, “I love you too, you inspire me” he giggled a bit as he said it.

I kissed him hard, no more tender loving pecks. He kissed me back in the same way. Passion took over and his tongue slipped past my lips and into my mouth wrestling with mine. It was soft and hard at the same time as we both lay on our sides, pushing our groins against each other. I slipped my arms around him, pulling him closer by his shoulders, my left arm was pinned between him and the old mattress, almost going numb but who the hell cared? What’s pleasure without a little pain, right? I loved the feel of his bare chest against mine… he was so damn muscular and his soft skin was so taut; I couldn’t help but move my left hand over his bicep and give it a little squeeze as we kissed. The fingers of my right hand were tangled in his blond locks, god I loved the way his hair felt. So soft, so thick. I dragged my fingers from his hair and down his back until a reached the curvature of his perfect ass. Damn, those soft mounds of flesh in the palm of my hand lit a fire in me that I can’t describe. I squeezed them, as I did, my fingers rested in his trench and gently touched his hole. He thanked me for the attention by moaning into our impassioned kiss and putting his arms around me. We were entangled in a hot, naked kiss, pulling each other tighter.

I could feel the heat of his manhood as at grew against my own. The soft intimacy of our scrotums touching and was an amazing sensation… I could feel his testicles moving inside their haven as he pushed his groin harder against mine. It felt so fucking good! It wasn’t rough like the night before, but tender and loving… I needed to be loved, just as I had needed an escape the night before. Zach always knew what I needed and never failed to deliver. I pulled from our kiss and licked his nipples, playfully biting them both before I licked my way down to his perfect, now-hard cock and took it in my mouth. He placed his hands lightly on the back of my head and slowly pushed himself in. I reveled in the feeling of his warm, veiny cock moving over my tongue until his cockhead found the back of my throat almost gagging me, but not quite. He was in just deep enough to make my eyes water. I pushed down taking him fully then for good measure gave his root a playful bite making him jump just a little. I moved my head up and down his shaft making him hard and lubing him up with my throat slime.

My fist joined my lips in stimulating his hard shaft, and I mean hard. Zach was so turned on as he just lay there letting me do my thing. His hands were still resting on my head but he wasn’t pushing me down on his throbbing phallic god, he knew I didn’t need help. I slurped, sucked, and occasionally gagged as I brought him to the edge and back several times. After a good fifteen to twenty minutes of me ecstatically working his steeled manhood, my big, hot, blonde jock of a husband begged in a whimper, “Please let me cum.”

“I want you in me” I whispered back then rolled onto my back. His cock was still slick from my tongues long, undivided attention, he leaned in and prepped my hole with his talented tongue. Oh my god the little laps to my sphincter had me squirming and writhing as I lie there holding my knees tight to my chest. My ass crack was wet and cold from the air conditioning blowing through the room, but my hole was warm and ready. “Please make love to me” I begged with a pathetic look on my face. Zach pulled his face from my ass and positioned himself at the ready. I could feel the bluntness of his perfection knocking on my backdoor as I let out a whimper signaling my readiness.

Zach’s eyes locked with mine as he entered me slowly and with purpose. Inch by inch he forged forward into my passage, I gripped him trying to pull him deeper into me. He bottomed out in me, his warm nut sac was nestled against my cold ass and the bulbous head of his member was deep in my bowels. He leaned in for a tender, lovers kiss, his lips barely touching mine and our eyes still opened and locked. It was so intimate, so private, and I knew this was one thing that no one in the world had ever experienced but me… making love to Zach Hall. He was all mine and our intimacy was unexampled. After a minute or so, he slowly pulled back until his head plopped out of my wanting hole even though my ass ring grabbed tight trying to hold on for dear life.

Before the emptiness could overwhelm me, he pushed back in. My whole body welcomed him as my hands found his back and my nails lightly pierced his soft, taut skin. In and out he moved with his lips still pursed against mine and his tongue now forging its way into my mouth. We had discovered years ago that our bodies fit perfectly together and we had learned how to move perfectly in sync for maximum pleasure. Our maneuvers were like a perfectly choreographed ballet as we moved together. Each and every stroke was perfection as we brought ourselves closer to orgasm. The heat ramped up and so did the speed as our lovemaking gained fervor. “I’m gonna cum, Seth” Zach said in a heavy pant, “fuck, I’m gonna shoot.”

“Pull out and shoot on my cock” I begged. A few more strokes and he did as I asked. His heavy cream unloading onto my hard manhood, some splashing onto my abs and balls. I immediately spread his warm seed on my cock and stroked it fast and furious using him as lube. It didn’t take long before I exploded with a grunt of joy, but before my essence could escape my shaft, Zach bent down and took my Zach-covered cock in his mouth and swallowed every pearl I could muster. He licked and sucked until my balls were emptied and my sensitive tip sent shudders through my body.

Zach plopped himself next to me and kissed me, I could taste us both on his lips as we said good night and fell into each other’s arms… exactly where we both belonged.

The next morning I jumped into The Green Dragon and Zach got in his GTI and followed me across the street to the house to check progress and recalibrate our game plan. Zach had gone over to the house every night after work and helped move things forward, I hadn’t been there since Tuesday night when Eli and I sat on the patio and talked. I had not been pulling my weight on the rehab. We walked through the front door and Zach showed me the progress. Every stitch of carpet was out and the floors of the dining room, living room, and small den off to the side were stained and awaiting a coat of polyurethane. We moved into the kitchen and again, the floors were stained and half the cabinet doors had been hung, the weathered look Kelly had chosen was amazing, I could see the finished room. In my head the room was filled with family and friends and the smells of an amazing homecooked meal.

Zach took me upstairs where all the floors were finished and they were in the middle of painting the bedrooms. The master bedroom was painted and looked beautiful; Riley had already painted “their room.” Apparently, the plan was for her to move down in a couple of weeks to start her new job and Eli would join her in a month or so when their lease was up… or sooner if he found a job. They were going to stay with us until they found a place.

Zach led me to the master bathroom and opened the door. Bubba had it ripped out and reframed already. We were putting in a big shower with black and white subway tile, a new vanity with a cement countertop, and a new toilet. The fixtures were in place and he had half the shower tiled. Then we went to the guest bathroom and Zach opened the door.

“Holy Fuck!” I said in shock. It was almost completed and looked amazing!

“He just needs to grout the tile and put in the countertops and sink in, then it’s ready” Zach said as we both admired the vintage room. We left the old clawfoot tub in there, added some more traditional tile, and updated the fixtures; it had come together nicely.

We went back downstairs, through the kitchen, and left the house through the backdoor to head to the old barn. When we got to the patio, I could see kids playing in the yard… maybe our kids, maybe nieces and nephews but either way the yard was full of love and laughter. This place was becoming a home in front of my vary eyes.

Out in the barn the cabinet doors were all finished and ready to rehang. The countertops were still curing and obviously not finished yet, but they were very cool; our house was going to be an original. “The guy’s coming to check on the countertops tomorrow and if they’re ready he’s going to sand and stain them, and then install them early next week. Then the kitchen is done” Zach said.

“Except for the appliances” I replied with a sigh thinking about spending more money that we didn’t really have.

“I know you want stainless, but the old one’s work… well at least for now. We don’t need to get appliances tomorrow or anything. It’s not worth stressing over”

“So basically, once they install the sinks and countertops in, we can move in?” I asked. Zach nodded then came up behind me, wrapped his arms around my waist, rested his chin on my shoulder, and whispered “We’re almost home, Seth.”

We looked around a bit more as we made our way down to our cars. “I can’t believe how much you all have done. I’ve totally been slacking” I said. I felt bad that everyone was working so hard to build our home… except me.

“Slacking? SLACKING?!” Zach said with a laugh of disbelief. “You’ve been working your ass off and running that entire show at The Village on your own.”

“Not for long” I replied. “I meet the first Case Worker candidate, Robyn today. And the second one, Rodney tomorrow. And… thanks to you getting me off my ass… I have my first volunteer office assistant starts today” I added excitedly.

“Awesome! Who’s taking the first shift?” Zach asked.

“BA” was my reply. BA was Brody’s stepmom and she was awesome. She was a hoot and a half (to quote her) and she loved all of us unconditionally. For some reason she and Zach had become best buds over the years… they just bonded. She called him biscuit “onaccounta I could just dip ‘em in honey and eat him up” (again, to quote BA).

“Fuck!” Zach exclaimed then laughed, “I wanna work with BA.” We kissed goodbye and went our separate ways for the day. Zach went into his office and I went to mine.

I parked behind Harrington House to find pamphlets from the church on the windshields of the cars… again. Well, the restraining order apparently wasn’t keeping them away from the building. I collected them all and just set them down on the reception desk. I did my usual make coffee, respond to emails routine then decided to go to the coffee shop to update Marilee and get coffee for me and BA to welcome her to her new volunteer position. As soon as I walked in the door, Marilee came running from behind the counter “How are they? What happened?” It had been two days since Benji and Joel wandered into her shop and I had been so preoccupied that I hadn’t updated her. She got me a cup of coffee and we sat down, I told her about what had gone down and she listened intently. “So, they’re safe now?” she asked hopefully.

“Yeah, Benji texted to say that they got Joel settled at school and that he was flying home with his aunt and uncle.

“Sounds like a happy ending” Marilee said with a smile.

“So far” I said trying not to pee on her parade, “but I doubt that their father and the church are going to give up that easily.” Then I confessed, “I went through the same thing ten years ago, I still have baggage.” I ended up sharing my life story with her, she was more and more intrigued about what The Village did and asked a lot of questions. We had made a knew ally… if you add David and Kayleigh to that list, we made a few new allies. After my chat with Marilee, I went back to the office and got there just in time to greet BA.

“Mornin’ sweetie. Put my old ass to work” she said greeting me with a hug. I handed her a cup of coffee from Marilee’s and showed her around the office. We sat in the therapy room (it’s the most comfortable space in the office) and I gave her the lay of the land. I had written out instructions on how to handle any phone calls, instructions on when it was necessary to get me out of a session, a calendar of the day’s events including the installation of the alarm system and Robyn’s interview, and a list of things that needed to be done if there was down time (mostly updates to our databases). Lastly, I warned her about the church and told her to just call the cops if they came by. BA was into it! “Oh hell, honey. If them good ole boys show up and give me trouble, they’ll be meetin’ Jesus a lot sooner than they had planned… well maybe not Jesus. I’m guessin’ those SOB’s are headed in the other direction, but you get my drift ” she said as she casually sipped her coffee. I loved Betty Ann and I so greatly appreciate having help (and company)!

She couldn’t wait to get started. She was semi-retired and worked a few days a week at Harris Teeter as a cashier. She took her coffee to her desk and made a to-do list then tackled it. The first thing she did was found an empty box and put the church pamphlets in it.

It wasn’t long before the security company showed up to install the alarm system. I got them started then got online for a session with Alejandro in Phoenix before he went to work. He was sitting in my old bedroom as we talked. He was making great progress, had saved enough money to move out of Brad and Scotty’s, and was moving in with some friends. It was a rough transition from wealthy spoiled, over-privileged brat to independent young man making it on his own but he was doing it. He was living in the same town he grew up in and working two menial jobs, he was no longer one of the haves. Occasionally, he’d run into an old friend and they would look down on him condescendingly, or a family member who would look at him with disgust. He was an object of shame and pity in his old world. It was humiliating for him at first, but as he grew more independent and confident of himself, he was starting to pity them. In our session that morning he started talking about moving out on his own, “I went out and bought a bed for my new place. I never saved for anything before. If I wanted something someone would get it for me. But I earned this bed. I know it sounds stupid, but I’m proud of myself, Seth,” It was a big deal to him, he was making it on his own instead of living off daddy’s money.

“I’m proud of you too, that’s a big deal” I said meaning every word. I could see his proud smile on my computer screen. “Did you see my car while you were here for the dedication of Harrington House?” I asked.

“You mean that old Buick… I think Mason called it The Green dinosaur. That one?” He asked.

I laughed out loud, “The Green Dragon, but yeah… that one. I needed a car for my internship when I was a sophomore in college. Brad offered me his old TT…”

“I love that car” Alejandro interrupted. I had forgotten that he was basically living in my old world. He was staying with Brad and Scotty, living in my old room, and probably driving the old TT like I used to. He was getting a start to adulting that was similar to mine.

“Kev even offered me his Jeep” I continued as Alejandro nodded his understanding. “But I wanted to do it on my own. I wanted to earn my own car. A friend sold me his grandmother’s car at a great price. It was 25 years old, but it did the job and I could afford it… I earned that car. That was six years ago. My husband keeps telling me to buy something newer and more reliable, but there is a pride attached to The Green Dragon, ya’ know?” I said injecting my experience into his world.

“YES!” He screamed. “Exactly! It’s not just a bed, it’s MY bed. I saved for it, I picked it out, I earned it… no one gave it to me.” Then he said something that struck me, “I’m proud that I’m struggling because it means I am living life on my terms.” It was an odd way to put it, but he was talking about independence. He was ready to stand on his own. We ended our session on that note, I was so damn proud of him.

After our session I checked on the alarm guys, they were only about halfway through but I felt safer already. Next, I went into the reception area and found BA hard at work updating the database, she handed me a few messages. Damn it was nice having help and I thanked her by offering to take her to lunch down the street. We only took about a half hour, but it was so nice to sit down and have lunch with someone instead of eating alone. BA was a lot of fun. “Ya’ll should join us for Picklin’ Day this year” she said as she ate her tuna melt. Picklin’ Day was a tradition That BA started when Max first moved to the country. He hadn’t started working yet and was lonely and bored out in the country. She taught him how to pickle everything from his garden. When Gina moved here, they added her to the mix. Now, every year they got together and pickled the harvest from their collective gardens while they drank moonshine and pickled themselves.

“Thanks for the invite, but I won’t have a garden until next year” I said as I woofed down my BLT.

“Oh, honey” she said with a snort. “You don’t need no garden, we got plenty to pickle. The most important thing we pickle is ourselves. You gotta be there.”

“Consider it a date.” Yup. It was nice to have a coworker again.

 

To be continued…

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Author's note: I'm back, but didn't rite a single word over my vacation, so the next few chapters may come slowly.