Challen and Addy

Chapter 41 (Addy): To Love Again

Copyright © 2025 by GroveltoHEA

"You feeling up to a walk tonight?" Challen asked me on a Friday night as he was putting our dinner plates into the dishwasher.

It'd been three months since my parents had visited, and Challen and I had been getting used to our new dynamic that was mixed with a bit of the original dynamic we'd shared. We were officially a hybrid of old (the good old, before things went to hell) and new.

We slept in the same bed, but didn't sleep together. 

Yet.

He woke me every morning with a kiss that was getting more and more hungry with each passing day.

"I'm going to need one of those ice bath tubs right next to the bed soon," he'd mutter, his words almost incoherent.

"It's going to have to be big enough for two," I mumbled, my mind scrambling to string words together.

He told me he loved me, which I hadn't said back to him.

Yet.

I'd been forcing myself to take it slowly, to watch him, to make sure the changes were real and lasting. As he'd told me, he'd cut back on his workouts, and ran for an hour four days a week, lifting weights for an hour three days a week. He was home for dinner every night, and he didn't go into the office on the weekends. 

"Despite not putting in overtime, my team and I are killing the deadlines I put together for this new project. See what happens when Sales isn't driving deliverable dates?"

We went for walks together every evening, and he held my hand as we talked and dreamed about our future. On the weekends, we took day trips on Saturdays and we kayaked or canoed, or we went on easy hikes that involved a picnic lunch when we arrived at the turnaround point. Challen never once expressed impatience with the easy trails we hiked or the pace I set. 

One thing we never did, however, was ride bikes together. If I suggested it, Challen would shake his head.

"Why not?" I pushed after the second time he said no.

"Addy, you can ask just about anything of me but that. I can't see you on a bike. I may never be able to."

I let it go because we all had our own demons chasing us. 

Many of my own demons had been put to rest, knowing that the driver that hit me had actually decided to stop fighting the charges and plead guilty. He'd been given a prison sentence for hit and run and texting and driving and some other, less serious, offenses. His insurance company had given us an extremely generous settlement with quite a few zeros that our lawyer went after aggressively, assuring the driver's insurance company that fighting what we were asking for in a court of law wouldn't end well for them. 

I'd told Challen that I'd like to either build or buy a cottage on a quiet lake -- something good to come from something so devastating. 

"Maybe we should pay the house off, but...I want to do something impractical with this money. Something that brings both of us happiness and peace. Someplace we can escape to and retire to someday."

Challen had agreed immediately, which led to him suggesting we start tent camping to find a lake and a piece of property that we liked. Challen thought if we wanted to make it a weekend getaway, we should limit ourselves to looking no more than two hours away.

"That way, it's an easy Friday night drive after work and we don't have to leave until Sunday after dinner. We'll even leave clothes there so we never have to pack. Just get in the car and go."