The next few weeks went by in a very similar matter.
Anna and Colton spent their time at the base while he recuperated, Ben helped and accompanied Lily with her daily routine and Claire was buried beneath mountains of work. Nothing she couldn't handle with ease.
Aiden on the other hand had started a new routine of his own.
Much to the surprise of everybody at Villan Enterprise, Aiden had begun to leave work earlier or arrived at the office later than usual. Seeing as Claire was more of a go with the flow of things kind of woman, he took it upon himself to make sure to see her as regularly as possible. He was convinced that since their relationship was extremely new, and had already immeasurable amounts of factors that made them being together rather complicated, his top priority was solidifying their bond. He would try to make it a daily habit to have at least one meal a day together. If not, he would make sure they stayed in contact throughout the day. Be it working silently by each other, grabbing a quick breakfast together or being the one to take her back to the base, Aiden was actively trying to mark his presence in her life. Something Claire was evidently not against.
Nobody besides Lucas and Jacob, who had avoided him since their little office spat, knew the reason behind his sudden change in behavior. But even so, his work performance wasn't affected negatively. In fact, he had even managed to increase Villan Enterprise's stock value by fifteen percent since he started to spend less time in the office. Everybody was both in awe by his ability and curious about what had their boss performing better than they had ever seen him do so far.
Something they thought was impossible to accomplish seeing as he was already the very definition of "being at the top of his game".
People had already started to spread rumors as to the reason behind his recent change. Not that his cold, distant and brooding nature seemed any different than it usually was, but the air around him had started to seem less dark than they were used to. Everybody had a different say on the matter. Most business men had come to the assumption that Aiden had started to expand his international connection even more, which made the company's stocks rise. Others believed that he had started another company after being bored with Villan Enterprise, which made him have to divide his time between the two. The lady's on the other hand, being the gossip lovers that they were, had started making up theories on how their boss had found a new 'toy' or lover that had him hooked. Even story's about a member of the Villan's family being terminally ill had started to circle around the city's socialite groups as to explain his change in behavior. None of which could be confirmed due to Aiden Villan's amazing ability to keep his true intentions and motives under wraps.
And thanks to the immense amount of made up scenarios that people kept spreading around reaching far and wide, Aiden's once relatively easy way of finding how to spend his time with Claire in a secretive manner, started to become a tinge more challenging. Something that entertained him even more.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Villan Estate.
Claire was taking out a piping hot cookie tray from one of the yet to hit the market ovens in the newly remodeled kitchen. Seeing as it was sunday, and she had finally managed to reduce her workload enough to not be cooped up in a room behind a computer, she decided to spend the day at the estate after Aiden's, Lucas's and even Lily's persistence.
She turned around and placed the tray on top of the ginormous kitchen island, where Lucas was holding back a chuckle while watching Lily teach Aiden how to frost an already chilled batch of cookies.
"Out of all the things I've seen you do, this definitely takes the title for most depressing outcome." Lucas couldn't contain his need to tease him anymore and burst into laughter. "What is that even supposed to be man?"
"Shut it." Aiden grumbled as he struggled with delicately squeezing the green frosting out of the icing piping bag he had in his hands. "It's harder than it looks."
'Why don't you try it?' Lily signed to him before passing him another piping bag filled with red colored frosting. Since the year was ending, they were baking and decorating holiday cookies.
"Watch and learn Bro. Watch and learn." Lucas placed a pine tree shaped cookie on his plate and bent over slightly. He hovered the piping bag's tip over it and squeezed the silicone bag to push the sweet frosting out. To his surprise, an overwhelming amount of it came out thanks to him practically strangling the bag empty.
Everybody immediately burst into fits of laughter that made Lucas's cheeks turn bright red with embarrassment. Even Aiden hadn't failed so horribly. Sure his cookies looked like they had been ran over, but Lucas's couldn't even be seen under the sugary disaster he had made.
"Oh! I learned so much from that Lucas thank you!" Aiden said sarcastically as he stood up from the stool he was sitting on.
'It's okay Uncle Lucas! I can help you practice!' Lily signed to him as she giggled. She had started to call him Uncle Lucas after the man wouldn't respond to her unless she addressed him as such. And seeing as Claire didn't really mind it, Aiden let him go on with his childlike antics.
Lucas looked at her cute little bright smile and couldn't resist snatching her from of the counter top where she was sitting and giving her a tight squeeze. "Then I'm going to count on your wise teachings Kiddo" He said as he quickly got over his earlier embarrassment.
While the cookie decorating master and recently appointed pupil where entertained, Aiden approached Claire who had now gone on to checking another dessert she had prepared and set to cool inside the fridge. Which model and brand also hadn't hit the market as of yet.
"The last time I saw my brother suck at something so badly was during middle school when he tripped over a track and field hurdle for going too slow." Aiden said as he hugged Claire from behind and rested his chin on the top of her head.
"Really?" She smiled as she poked the dessert inside the refrigerator with a knife to check the consistency of it's filling. "But didn't you say he was the fastest guy you know?"
"He is now." He replied while letting her go so she could close the door. He then followed her over to one of the kitchen counter tops where she had her dessert making work station set up."He trained every day for over a decade straight just to get over his frustration then. So the possibility of him starting to secretly learn how to decorate things with that piping bag is high if you ask me. He's full of pride that way."
"Well then I look forward to somebody else falling in love with it as much as Lily is." Claire chuckled. "She's never been interested in learning how to bake, but whenever decorating stuff is involved she can't get enough of it. I guess she really is a miniature artist in the making."
"Speaking about making." Aiden smirked as he looked at her face. "When is today's sugar rush quota going to be accomplished?"
"What do you mean?" Claire asked in return as she moved a rolling pin over some dough.
Aiden chuckled while he gently held her head and made her turn to look at the dozens of desserts on the other side of the kitchen. There where pies, trays of baked and decorated cookies, muffins and much more. She hadn't noticed since she was having such fun, but Claire had successfully managed to turn Aiden's kitchen into a small bakery.
"What I mean is, don't you think we have enough for the rest of whats left of the year Angel? Maybe even more." He said as he turned her around so they faced each other. A smile made his lips stretch out once he saw she had flour on her cheek and on the tip of her nose.
"Sorry." Claire said as she giggled. Quickly realizing they would never be able to finish all of the sweets she baked without giving some away. "I kind of get lost in my own world when I do things I really like." She closed her eyes while Aiden wiped away the flour from her face. "But on the bright side, we can share with Aurora and the guys from the stables. Lily mentioned she wanted to give them presents for teaching her how to take care of the horses."
"That's a very good idea." He gave her forehead a kiss after not bearing holding back any longer. Seeing her stand there, in one of the dozens of aprons he had gotten her, was making him feel like locking her up in his house for only his eyes to see.
Claire's cellphone rang making her excuse herself from the group and step out to take the call. Aiden went and sat back down on his stool to watch Lily place sprinkles on to a cookie.
"I've ever seen a cookie look so good Princess. How could I even bring myself to eat it?" He tucked a few loose strands of her strawberry hair behind her ears. Claire had tied it up into a bun to avoid it from getting dirty, but just like her mother, she wasn't very good at avoiding to do so.
'Then you can eat the ones uncle Lucas makes. They aren't that pretty.' Lily giggled as she teased the grown man who hadn't given up on fixing his frosting covered cookie.
"Excuse me? Ouch." Lucas held his hands over his chest as if he were directly stabbed by Lily's words.
Aiden and Lily laughed at Lucas's reaction which made him itch with the need of retaliating. So he took one of the fuller silicone piping bags and used it as a sort of frosting gun directed towards the two who were still laughing.
"Let's see who gets the last laugh now!" With an exaggerated gesture, and a very fake evil laughter, he began to squeeze the bag. Enough for it's filling to start landing on Lily and Aiden.
"Oh you're on Bro!" Aiden yelled back at him while he lifted Lily into his arms and grabbed a piping bag for each.
-------------
Once Claire finished with her phone call, she could hear the loud laughter coming from inside the kitchen. As soon as she stood by the open door, she couldn't help but smile at the scene.
Lily was standing on the kitchen island while she and Aiden teamed up against Lucas who was covered in frosting from head to toe. Although the teamed up duo was also covered in it, it was obvious that their team work won over Lucas's one man army. There was colorful frosting everywhere her eyes landed. The floor, the counter tops and especially their heads and clothes which were now decorated with an edible mosaic of colors. They were all laughing loudly and smiling as they kept on squirting a sugary mess all over each other.
And even though they were wasting her made from scratch frosting, she didn't mind it one bit. Instead, she took out her phone and started recording the cutest frosting war she had ever seen.