The After Party (A Badboys Boxset)

by Karr, Kim

  Time to help heal as best we could—together.

  As Jake and I had done for each other.

  I’d thought about calling him and asking him to meet me here, but in the end, I decided to honor his wishes and let him do what he had to do. I understood grief manifested itself in different ways, and he was working his out the only way he knew how. I hadn’t given up hope for the two of us, but I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to fight for him right now. I hoped someday soon I would be though.

  I had to find myself first before I could show him the way.

  I’d spent the days since Jake had left at my uncle’s farm. I’d also gone to see George and Ethel to tell them the truth about me. Believe it or not, Jake had gone to see them before he left and already told them everything. They weren’t angry or spiteful. They were only happy to see me.

  They were good people.

  Step by step, I walked slowly toward the names of my parents, and when I did, I allowed myself to remember that last morning I’d spent with them in our kitchen. The love I’d witnessed between them. The family we’d once been. The person I was then.

  Everything that had happened since that day had made me who I was now. I wasn’t perfect, but I’d come to realize I wasn’t that imperfect either. How could I be when they had helped shape me? Circumstance might have ripped them from my life, but they would always be in my heart.

  As I approached the only place I knew my parents to be anymore besides my heart, I spotted a single white rose laid over their names.

  I blinked in surprise as a shiver danced down my spine. There were red roses all around. On names to the right, to the left, but this perfect white rose had been carefully set directly between my parents’ names. My heart started beating wildly, and I whirled around to find Jake standing so close, and yet so far.

  That’s when my world stopped moving, and he became the only thing I could see. He was my prince charming. My white knight. My Tony the Tiger. My Ying. My everything.

  He had another white rose in his hand, and he looked every bit the same, but at the same time so very different.

  I couldn’t say exactly why, but I wanted to use the words carefree, unburdened, lighter.

  It looked good on him.

  Jake held out the rose for me, and my mind whirled back to that day so long ago when the boy that he had once been had given me his rose.

  It was a selfless act, and so kind.

  Who knows, maybe we had formed a bond then and never even knew it.

  Could something good really come out of something so very bad?

  Maybe we really were meant to be.

  Maybe we were written in the stars, after all.

  I didn’t accept the rose right away, not because I didn’t want to, but because I was trembling so much I couldn’t move. I was suddenly that lost girl from so long ago. I didn’t know what to do, which way to go, where to turn.

  Mimi wanted me to show Jake the way, but it ended up that he was the one to show me the way.

  He stepped forward to put the rose in my hand and then held onto me. “I love you, Juliette,” he said. “And I’m sorry I was such an idiot. I never should have left. I can’t stand being apart from you.”

  “But your job?’

  He shook his head. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it later. But bottom line is that I realized I don’t have to follow in my father’s footsteps to be like him. I just have to be me.”

  Tears welled hot in my eyes, and for once I didn’t care that they fell. “I missed you.”

  “I missed you, more than anything.”

  “How’d you know I’d be here?”

  He kissed each of my fingers. “Because I know you. Because I feel what you feel. Because we are the same.”

  I looked at him in awe. Our connection was unbreakable. That I already knew, but was it otherworldly too? “You mean like some kind of cosmic connection?”

  The corners of his lips tilted in the smallest, itty-bitty way. “And . . . I might have called Finn to ask him if you were coming to the city for the memorial and where you were staying. He told me you were on your way, and that he was certain you’d be here first thing this morning, like you are every year.”

  “I was late this morning.”

  He nodded and those lips tilted again. “I know. I’ve been waiting for you. I would have waited all day if I had to. But now that I have you in my arms, I don’t want to wait another minute to have you in my life.”

  I looked at him through teary eyes. “What are you saying?”

  He pulled me closer to him. A heartbeat from his lips, and whispered, “I want to be your North Star. Will you let me?”

  I closed my eyes.

  He was the Ying to my crazy Yang.

  He was my perfect.

  He was my soulmate.

  Of course, I’d let him.

  Breath fast and ragged, I opened my eyes. Jake was down on one knee and holding out a box. “Juliette, I want to come back to Atlanta, and I want you to be my wife.”

  With trembling fingers, I took the box and opened it. Inside was the perfect match to the necklace he had given me, but it was a ring.

  A huge sparkling diamond.

  “Will you marry me?”

  I looked down into his bright blue eyes, which were clearer than a summer’s day. “Oh, Jake,” I cried, and went to my knees so I could throw my arms around him. “Yes, I’ll marry you. I love you so much.”

  The bell rang again, and for that silent moment, we stared at each other. And then his mouth was a fever on mine. It was burning grief and spiking love. There was need and desire poured into it—his running as deep and desperate as mine.

  Even on my knees, I could feel my leg kick up and toe point. The love I felt for him was like a wild surge. It crashed into me and left me unsteady. Giddy. On cloud nine. I had no idea how I was going to stand up because I felt like I was floating.

  I broke away fighting for air, and Jake took my hand to bring me to my feet. His was a rock. A boulder. The steady I needed in my unsteady.

  “Come on,” he said.

  Blurry eyed and love swept, I looked up at him. I knew he wanted me to take him to my parents, but I couldn’t move.

  Lacing his fingers through mine, he showed me the way to the names cast in bronze, and together we laid the second white rose on top of the first. Like an x between my parents’ names, it linked them to Jake and to me.

  I sucked in a breath, allowing my grief to pour out and my love to wash all over it.

  People around us had stopped to look on with mild curiosity, but when Jake took the velvet box from my hand and with steady hands slipped the ring on my finger, they clapped with joy.

  I looked at the ring. I looked at the names. I looked at Jake.

  He and I were children of 9/11.

  We might have been damaged, but I knew in my heart we were not broken.

  And together we would make each other whole.

  EPILOGUE

  Piece of Cake

  JULES ~ EIGHT WEEKS LATER

  UNCLE EDWARD NEVER MISSED.

  He was that good. Thank goodness he’d come out of retirement for one last wedding—mine.

  The dress was me to a tee.

  With its acres of frothy tulle and hint of sexy in the sparkle of the low-cut silk bodice, it was both romantic and modern.

  Looking at my reflection in the window, I beamed at the garden of fabric roses that practically bloomed on the warm white of the elaborate pick-up skirt and along the sweeping train fit for royalty.

  I felt like a princess.

  The long veil no longer shrouded my face, but now framed the upsweep of my hair. I was covered in silk and satin and pearls and lace. All I needed were a pair of glass slippers, and I would be Cinderella.

  I touched my earrings, the fire diamond necklace Rory had worn, my wedding ring, and the pearls Mimi had given me. My something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue, which was buried u
nder all the fabric of my skirt for Jake’s viewing pleasure.

  In the reflection, I saw the wonder that surrounded me, and I reached out and touched my fingertips to the cool glass.

  I no longer felt so far away from it, but rather I felt a part of it.

  Everything was soft, soft, soft, and so romantic. Twinkling lights and white candles were everywhere. White roses and eggplant calla lilies had been scattered across the entire barn. And the crystal chandeliers that Jake had insisted on and installed himself really made the place sparkle.

  “There you are.” Jake’s voice alone sent shivers racing up my spine, but in the glass, I could see the way his gaze swept over me, and the hunger in it brought goose bumps to my skin.

  I smiled at him. “Yes, I saw you talking to Dr. Wright and thought I’d give you a minute. Everything okay?”

  He nodded. “More than okay.”

  “Did he say anything about how your mother is doing?”

  “She’s in a rehab center.”

  “That’s good.”

  He nodded again, moving the tulle over my shoulder and kissing behind my ear. “Have I told you how beautiful you look yet?”

  I turned and wrapped my arms around his neck. “As a matter of fact, yes, but I don’t mind hearing it again.”

  He kissed the corner of my lip. “You.” He kissed the other corner. “Look.” And then his lips brushed against mine, soft and sweet. “Beautiful.”

  I closed my eyes. The warm air, the easy play of his hands, his velvet lips, they made stars explode behind my lids. He made me weak, and it was the kind of weak I didn’t mind being. He completed me.

  “Mimi told me to show you the way,” he said around his kisses, “But I think you showed me.”

  I pulled back. “She told me to show you the way, and I think you showed me.”

  We both laughed and said at the same time, “I think she showed us.”

  He lowered his lips back to mine and this time his hands moved to my rear. “There’s an awful lot of material around your hot little body right now. It makes it hard to touch you the way I want to.”

  “I know,” I beamed, “That’s why I didn’t wear any underwear.”

  His eyes went wide. “Fuck me. You’re killing me, Juliette. Come on,” he said, taking my hand. “It’s time to cut the cake so we can hop in the limo and get started on our honeymoon.”

  Music pumped out hot, drawing a crowd to the dance floor. This wasn’t the large-scale wedding I had planned for Rory, but it was what Jake and I wanted.

  Small.

  Intimate.

  And ours.

  Stars winked on through the windows as we walked across the wooden planks and the moonlight creaked in from the slated roof of the barn. This was the new and improved Sunshine Farms, which was not only where we had chosen to get married, but also my new business and our new home.

  Remy and Rory would be moving into Rosewood right after graduation, and Jake and I and Mimi’s seven dogs had already moved to the country.

  As it turned out, George wanted a change and Jake and I wanted what George no longer did. So while George and Ethel moved to California to help run the Champagne label of Cupcake Wines, which Jake had funded, Jake and I purchased Sunshine Farms.

  I would soon be opening my new wedding planning business here. And as for Dr. Kiss, he had already opened a family practice in town, where he worked during the day, but came home to be with me every night.

  Jake stopped, or rather was stopped by an older woman in a peach chiffon dress. “Gladys,” he said cheerfully, “I want you to meet my wife, Juliette.”

  Juliette.

  I liked when he told people to call me that.

  “Nice to meet you,” she said.

  “Nice to meet you, Gladys,” I smiled. “I heard you’re coming to work for Jake in his office.”

  She smiled brightly at me. “That’s right. Someone has to keep him in line.”

  Jake shook his head. “She’s a kitten,” he whispered in my ear.

  “I heard that, Dr. Kiss.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Not you, too.”

  Laughing, we said our goodbyes and Jake continued to beeline toward the cake.

  It stood proudly on the pedestal table in the far corner, and Jake practically ran the rest of the way to get there.

  Picking up my skirt, my sparkly Converse were on full display. I’d ditched the heels right after Jake and I had said I do over on the riverbank with the magenta sun setting over the water.

  The music stopped as we took front and center. I felt like all the air was floating around us. Montgomery smiled at me as he handed me the sterling silver knife. “Here you go, my darling.”

  I got up on my toes and kissed his cheek. “You outdid yourself this time.”

  “You say that every time.”

  “This time though, you really really really, outdid yourself.”

  “You did, darling,” Archer said, taking his hand.

  And I think he blushed.

  They were too cute together.

  This cake was truly a masterpiece. A mix of silk, real, and handmade sugar-paste flowers covered four round layers. It looked like a dream. I really hated to cut into it.

  “I’m so glad he didn’t go with the birds,” Jake murmured in my ear.

  I elbowed him in the stomach.

  “Ouch.”

  Turning my head, I got up on my toes again to kiss his cheek. “Sorry, but not sorry,” I snickered. “I really liked those birds. And just so you know, I packed that dress to wear on our honeymoon,” I added smugly, but then quickly glanced back at the sky. This was the calm before the storm, and the weather would be turning very soon. I just prayed it didn’t turn before our flight. “If we have a honeymoon, that is.”

  He slid his hot mouth to my ear. “Oh, we’re having a honeymoon, and I don’t care what you wear while we’re on it as long as I can slide my dick into your wet pussy while you’re wearing it.”

  Pink now painted my own cheeks and I suddenly felt incredibly hot. I went back on flat feet and looked behind me at his gorgeous face. My knees started to wobble, but it wasn’t nerves this time, it was the flutter of excitement in my belly. This was a new chapter in my life, and I couldn’t wait to start it.

  “Are you two lovebirds ready?” my uncle asked.

  Jake snickered, and I rolled my eyes. I was never going to live the lovebird’s thing down. Not ever. Now even my uncle was in on the joke.

  Jake tossed his hot baby blues at me, and he looked like the happiest man alive as he covered my hands, and together we sliced through the cake.

  Jaxson was beside us with his camera, and he was snapping away, capturing these moments that would last a lifetime.

  When he lowered his lens, he looked sad once again.

  I frowned at him, but he smiled back, wiping away whatever sorrow he’d let bleed through, and then he raised his lens and started snapping again.

  He’d won the photography contest and would be jetting off to some tropical location tomorrow, permitting the forecasted storm didn’t ground all flights, including Jake’s and mine.

  “Smile,” Jaxson mouthed.

  And I did.

  I knew then that although he might not be happy right now, he would be soon. And Sundance deserved happiness.

  Archer plated the first piece, and placed it right on Montgomery’s favorite silver-lined dish, and then he handed it to me along with two forks. As soon as he did, Jake moved beside me and took the forks to set them down. I gave him a curious look, but not for long.

  Not even a second later, the piece of cake was off the cute little plate and in his hand, and then he was smashing it in my mouth. Chocolate morsels fell from my lips and onto my dress when I opened my mouth wide in shock and surprise.

  “Paybacks are a bitch,” was all he said as he picked me up and twirled me and twirled me and twirled me. Crashing his mouth to mine, he licked at my lips and shared the chocolate cake with me, along with
one heart-stopping kiss.

  “That was classic,” Finn bellowed, almost doubling over he was laughing so hard. And he wasn’t the only one. Uncle Edward, Archer, Rory, Remy, Jaxson, and I swear even Mr. Darcy was laughing hysterically.

  In the echo of laughter that surrounded us, Jake set me down and wrapped his arms around me. Then he took my mouth again, cake and all.

  Soft.

  Sweet.

  Romantic.

  Laughing, because really, how did I not see that coming, I held him strong and close, and tasted chocolate and him.

  My two most favorite things.

  When I was breathless, I laid my head on his shoulder and knew this was my home. He was my home.

  I’d not only learned so much from him and so much about myself, but I’d learned that love wasn’t just one thing . . . it could be many things.

  It could or could not conquer all.

  It could be patient or impatient.

  It could be kind or ugly.

  It could be happy and it could be sad.

  It could make you feel like you were climbing the highest mountain or free falling from the tallest cliff.

  It could be so many things I never knew until him.

  And each and every one of them were beautiful in their own way because they were a result of being in love.

  The problem all along was I’d been looking for perfect. And who knew, maybe Jake and I were perfect together, and maybe we weren’t.

  It didn’t really matter.

  The thing about love was it didn’t have to be perfect.

  It just had to be right.

  The beautiful end!

  COME A LITTLE CLOSER

  KIM KARR

  “Dare to love yourself as if you were

  a rainbow with gold at both ends.”

  ~Aberjhani

  SADIE BANKS

  THE ONLY REMAINING CONSTANT IN my life was the ocean. Other than the scent of him, the sound of the sea was the most familiar thing to me.