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In Sheep's Clothing	By : ParisWriter Category: +G through L > Harvest Moon Views: 2169 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter Twenty-Two

Avery hummed happily to herself as she set up things upon the cart Gunther had made for her to use for displaying her wines at the trade depot, carefully arranging various bottles and glasses she had brought along to allow any potential customers who stopped by an opportunity to taste her wines before making a purchase. Three days had passed since her birthday, and she was still in a rather good mood.

The Harvest Festival hadn't exactly gone the way she'd hoped, but it still turned out well. She lost, but – surprisingly – so did Elise... to Fritz, of all people. He later admitted to her that he'd had some help in the form of Reina and Nadi, who both came by his farm at his invitation to give him some tips on how to more effectively use his land so that he'd be able to produce more abundant and higher-quality crop yields. She didn't mind that, though. After all, Fritz was still doing the majority of the work on his land by himself, unlike the way Elise ran things on her farm, so what harm was there in asking the two people in town who knew plants like the back of their hand for a bit of advice?

"Hey, Avery."

She looked over her shoulder and smiled as Cam approached, hands in his pockets. She greeted him and put the last finishing touches on her display, then turned fully toward him and nervously bit her lip as she watched him look over her small stand.

"Looks good," he told her with a warm smile. "Very inviting. I'm sure you'll sell out before noon."

"Are you looking to buy, yourself?" she asked him, and he nodded as a slight frown pulled at his lips.

"Yeah, I am, actually. It's just... I've never been that big of a wine drinker, you know?" he told her with a shrug.

"What's the occasion?" she wondered as she led him closer to where she had the few different varieties of wine she had available displayed.

"Well, I'm going home this weekend to see my family for a few days," he said, reaching up with one hand to rub the back of his neck. "Maybe you could recommend something that would be good for drinking with my wife after our daughter's gone to bed?"

"Why, Cam... Are you going to seduce your wife?" Avery asked him with a wink and he chuckled as a light blush colored his cheeks.

"Pretty sure I don't have to actually 'seduce' her, but it would be nice to set a romantic mood."

Avery nodded and selected one of the bottles, which was made of the same plain blue glass as the others but sported a small charm of an apple around its neck.

"Try this one," she suggested, pouring a bit into a glass and handing it to him. "Apple wine infused with spices. A perfect blend for the start of the fall season."

"You certainly have your sales pitch down already," he told her with a bit of a smirk before taking a sip of the wine and blinking in surprise. He then took a second sip before downing the rest of what was in the glass all at once.

"This is really, really good, Avery," he told her, nodding as he handed the empty glass back to her.

"You can also drink it warm, if you prefer, and it's just like mulled cider."

"Mulled cider that'll get you drunk off your ass," Cam remarked, causing Avery to laugh a bit.

"True. So, would you like to try another?" she gestured toward the other bottles lined up, each with a different fruit-shaped charm hanging around its neck. Cam shook his head.

"No, I think I'm going to go with that spiced apple one," he told her, and she nodded and began packing up a bottle for him to take home.

"Daddy!"

Both of them looked over toward the exit of the depot which led out of town toward the train station and found a little girl with light brown hair in pigtails running straight for them, the sound of her black dress shoes tapping against the stone ground intermingling with her squeals of happiness.

"Lucy?" Cam's initial surprise at the sight of his daughter melted into an uncontainable grin, and by the time she reached them he had knelt down to scoop her up in a hug and spun her around as she giggled.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her once they stopped spinning, his voice choked with emotion, and the little girl kissed him on his cheek.

"We came to suppise you on your birfday!" she informed her father, her voice slightly muffled by his shoulder as she continued to cling tightly to him.

"Is that so?" Cam said, turning his head in the other direction and smiling even more.

Avery took a step to the side to see what he was looking at and found a woman probably a few years older than she was, with the same color hair as Lucy hanging loose to just below her shoulders and held out of her face with a teal-colored headband that matched the shoes she was wearing. She also had on dark thigh-high stockings, a denim mini skirt, and a short-sleeved brown jacket over a plain white scoop-neck shirt. Around her neck was a thin golden chain upon which was a plain gold band – likely Cam's wedding ring since Avery had never seen him wearing one and she already had her own on her left ring finger.

Must be Lily, Avery thought to herself, recalling her face from the picture Cam had showed her and the others that one day at the restaurant.

"Happy birthday, Kamil," she told him with a smile, tears in her dark violet-blue eyes, and Cam set down his daughter before going over to her and pulling her into his arms for a passionate kiss. Their daughter quickly followed suit, giggling as she rushed over to her parents and hugged her father's leg even as he continued to kiss her mother while they held each other tight.

Avery turned away from the scene, not so much out of embarrassment, but out of the small throb of longing it made her feel in her heart. The two of them were obviously still desperately in love with one another, even though they'd already been married several years, and Cam also appeared to be quite enamored with his daughter. She wondered if things would be like that between her and Klaus someday – if she would ever meet with him upon his return from a lengthy trip with their children in tow for a loving, heartfelt reunion like the one Cam and his family were having.

She smiled a little to herself as she finished wrapping Cam's bottle of wine in tissue paper and placing it in a bag for him to take home, thinking about how Klaus already kissed her quite often in the same manner Cam did his wife... when they were alone, at any rate. He was still a bit reluctant to be so overly affectionate in public – aside from the one time outside Antonio's, which didn't count because they were both a little drunk – and she fully understood his reasons. After all, they lived in a small town and would never hear the end of it from certain parties if they started making out in the middle of some town festival in full view of everyone. Still... Just once, she wished he would toss aside his gentlemanly exterior and let the rest of the town see that passionate side of himself which he usually reserved just for her.

Of course, then it wouldn't be 'just for her' any more, would it?

Sighing a bit, she tied the handles of the bag closed with a piece of ribbon and curled the ends with some scissors, then took it over to where Cam was still with his family. His wife was standing at his side with one of her hands in the back pocket of his jeans while he had once more picked up their daughter and was listening to her talk about how Uncle Kana was taking care of the animals at home for them.

"Don't tell me he's leaving your sister alone all day to look after the boys?" Cam asked, turning his concerned gaze to his wife, who shook her head.

"He's just going over in the mornings when he's done helping her at their place, then heading back home. Ash is making sure they get back into the stables before dark."

Avery cleared her throat a bit, then gave them all a small wave when they turned toward her.

"Oh, hey... Avery, I'm sorry. Let me introduce you," Cam said, blinking and blushing a little. "This is my wife, Lilian, and our daughter, Lucy. Girls, this is Miss Avery Durand."

"It's nice to finally meet you," Lily said with a friendly smile as she extended her free hand in greeting. "Cam's had nothing but good things to say about you and everyone else here in town."

"It's good to meet you, too, and likewise," Avery told her, glancing briefly at Cam. "Your husband has done quite a bit of gushing about you."

"Is that so?" Lily wondered, looking at Cam with a smirk. He blushed and whispered something to his daughter which made her giggle, and Lily slapped him in the arm.

"What was that?" she asked him in mock anger, her eyes narrowed slightly.

"Nothing, love," he told her with a grin, and Avery blushed when she noticed he used the same term of endearment for his wife that Klaus used for her.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your reunion, but here's that wine you wanted, Cam," she told him, holding the bag out to him. He nodded his head toward the bag and Lily took it from her since his hands were occupied with keeping the little girl in his arms balanced on his hip.

"What do I owe you?" he asked her and Avery shook her head.

"Consider it a birthday present," she told him, waving off his question. "Only the first one's free, though. I'll never make any money if I keep giving this stuff away, after all."

Cam chuckled and thanked her, and the three of them wandered off toward Asche's stall as their daughter started to ramble about how she wanted to touch the 'effelants' the trader had recently started using to pull her cart full of goods into town. Avery continued to watch them as a wistful sigh escaped her lips, her mind once more wandering toward thoughts of Klaus and the future they might have together. She was pulled out of those thoughts, however, by the sound of a familiar, masculine laugh.

Brow furrowed in confusion, she turned toward the town gates. That had been Klaus' laugh, but why did it sound like he was just getting back into town this early in the morning? Furthermore, what was he laughing about? She started to head in the direction of his voice, but she stopped when she heard the one that came in response: Iris. Frozen in the very spot where she stood, she was forced to watch as the two of them approached the gates arm-in-arm, talking and laughing with one another. She tried to reason that perhaps they'd gone to town extra-early for breakfast together, but she knew that was impossible because of how to train schedule was set up. Then she saw the briefcase in his hand and suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe.

Klaus had never come home from the city the night before and, apparently, neither had Iris. They'd both been gone all night, and here they were returning together and looking very much like a happy couple.

She squeezed her eyes tight and quickly turned on her heel before the could notice her, then rushed over to Jonas' little operations stand and asked him if he wouldn't mind keeping an eye on her cart and closing it for her at the end of the day. When he asked what was wrong, she told him she was feeling ill and needed to get home to rest – which wasn't entirely untrue. The sight of Klaus and Iris together really had made her feel a bit dizzy and physically ill. Jonas agreed and she ran away as fast as she could, back through the town and up the mountain to her house, thankful that no one saw her along the way. By the time she had closed the front door behind her, her vision was so blurry from crying that she had to feel around with her hands like a blind person just find her way to her dining table and sit down.

She couldn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it. And yet... she was having a very hard time justifying what she had just seen. She knew that there might very well be a completely innocent explanation for the two of them having both spent the night in the city and then returning together the next morning, but for each logical reason she came up with she found two more reasons to think that it was complete bullshit.

Questions hurled around in her mind at a thousand miles a minute. Did they spend the night together? If they did, was it simply platonic or did something else happen between them? Had 'something else' been happening between them for a while, now? Was that the real reason why he didn't want to have sex with her? After all, he'd never actually given her a reason why he turned her down on her birthday. He's simply said she wouldn't understand his reasons. Maybe he didn't want her because he was already getting it from Iris.

And what about the locket? Surely, he meant what he said about it representing the way he wanted them to be together? Hell, the way he'd said that had made it seem practically like a marriage proposal... But what if that was just an act? She knew from Addie's past experience with some of her old boyfriends that men bought expensive gifts for their girlfriends after cheating on them in an effort to somehow ease their guilty consciences. What if that was the case with Klaus? He's not only bought her a very expensive piece of jewelry for her birthday, but he'd also gone to great lengths to personalize it for her in order to remind her of the love they supposedly shared for one another.

Avery's eyes shot open as soon as she realized she'd thought that Klaus 'supposedly' loved her, and a soft sob wracked her body as she once more squeezed them shut and shook her head.

"No... No, he does love me!" she reminded herself. "I know he does!"

She tried to recall all the times they had been together, even before they were actually a couple. He'd always looked at her with so much warmth in his eyes. What was it Cam had said? He doesn't look at Iris like that? Avery tried to recall the exact way he'd just been looking at Iris, but she couldn't do it. She'd been so utterly shocked and dismayed that she'd left without really getting a good, close look at the two of them together.

He had offered to stop spending time with Iris, and she had told him it didn't bother her. It hadn't, then... but when he originally offered, she hadn't felt threatened by the older woman's presence in his life. What would he do if she went to his house right now and demanded that he cut all ties with her? Would he do it? Refuse outright? Or maybe he would say he'd do it, but then continue seeing Iris behind her back. After all, Avery really had no idea what either of them did when they went to the city and she didn't have the time to go with him twice a week on his business trips to make sure he was keeping a promise she forced him to make out of fear. So the entire idea of asking him to cut Iris out of his life was out of the question.

You shouldn't have to keep reminding yourself that he loves you, though, either, came that little nagging voice of doubt in the back of her mind. If he truly loved you, there would be no need for you to question it. Ever.

"Klaus loves me. He loves me," she repeated the words over and over like a mantra as she clutched the locket around her neck so hard her hand began to shake.

Maybe if she said it enough times, she would no longer have a reason to doubt that it was true.
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In Sheep's Clothing