That, and I couldn’t imagine going in public looking the way I looked. I could barely stand my reflection; seeing the mascara trails down my cheeks, my bloodshot eyes, and my ratted hair, I seriously considered that Luke might’ve had zero standards.
“I’m fine, Luke, really. I just want to go in and take a shower. I’m beat.”
“Okay,” he nodded, and then something at the end of the driveway caught his attention. “Did you put something in the mailbox?”
“Hmm?”
“The flag’s up on the mailbox,” he nodded at the white postal box at the edge of the road. “Did you—”
“No,” I shook my head, “haven’t touched it.”
He scrunched his brow and watched it curiously.
“Go on,” I knew that the raised flag would only drive him crazy until he got to the bottom of it. He handed me the house keys and turned back down the driveway. I, though, didn’t waste another second waiting around. I needed that shower.
Two minutes later, I’d stripped my clothes to the floor and slid under the hot stream of water.
“Hey, Jules,” the bathroom door clicked open and I rolled my eyes. I should’ve seen that coming. I’d been living with Luke for almost a week now and he hadn’t traipsed into the bathroom yet. Of course he’d wait until the one time I really needed a distraction-free shower to just bust in.
“Yes?” I asked slowly, probably feeling just as annoyed as he’d felt when I snuck in on him the week before.
“Any idea what this is all about?”
Taking a moment to rinse the shampoo out of my hair, I stepped to the side of the tub and stuck my head out of the curtain. Luke stood at the doorframe holding a small cedar box, and he hadn’t looked up at me once. He examined every bit of it from top to bottom and then checked out the sides. He finally let his gaze meet mine and he held it up a little higher. “It was in a paper bag in the mailbox, but it wasn’t postmarked. I guess someone brought it over?”
I stared at the box and then back to Luke. “Was there a note?”
“Nope,” he shook his head, “the bag just had my name on the front, and this box was inside. I don’t know why it was left for me,” he said, turning it around. “It has your dad’s name carved in the front.”
He studied my stunned expression for a few long seconds.
“Do you recognize this? Do you know what it is?”
“Yeah,” I nodded, and then I stepped back in the shower and closed the curtain.
I stood under the steady stream of hot water for another ten minutes. I never heard Luke leave, so I assumed he was still standing there, quiet and patient, and curious as to why something that belonged to my dad showed up addressed to him.
“Are you still there?” I shut the water off.
“Yes.”
“Can you hand over my towel?”
“I can,” he teased, “but—”
“Luke.”
He stuck my towel through the side of the curtain, and I took it. I wrapped it around my body, making sure it was tight and secure, and then I opened the curtain fully. I stepped out on the rug and let my body drip all over the bathroom floor.
“It was my dad’s,” I watched his confused stare. “It was his key to the city of West Bridge. It was given to him for his service on the force, and he got it just after he took down the drug ring and brought in Conan Milton. It was probably the thing my dad was most proud of.”
“Besides you,” he smiled.
“Right,” I nodded, “and I gave it to Charlie.”
“Yeah?” he asked, opening it up to study the golden key a little closer. “So why’s it here?”
“I don’t know,” I rubbed my neck. “I mean, that thing meant as much to Charlie as it meant to my dad, and I couldn’t imagine anyone else having it. I thought of giving it to you, but—”
“Oh, no,” he shook his head, “you don’t have to justify that, kid. Charlie deserved it.”
“Apparently he wanted you to have it,” I watched Luke blink a few times too many. “I think that might be his peace offering, Luke. I think maybe it’s possible that we finally have Charlie’s blessing.”
News of our engagement spread through Oakland like wildfire. I wish I could say that I didn’t know how everyone found out so fast, but there was no secret: Luke told anyone and everyone we passed— friend, family, foe, or stranger. We could barely make it down the street without him telling someone, and then all of those people told everyone they knew, assuming Luke hadn’t gotten to those people first.
There were gifts pouring into the house left and right after word got out. A lot of the gifts were truly sweet and sentimental—like the gift from Derek. He’d had a canvas photograph made of me and Luke, and it was one of our favorite pictures as a couple. Luke hung it in the entryway so that everyone could see it the moment they walked in the door. Grace and Lonnie’s gifts were just as sweet. They’d sent dozens of flowers, candies, and balloons, and Elvis was having a ball chasing the balloons around his bedroom.
But not all the gifts were as endearing as those. Matt had simply stopped by one afternoon with two gifts: one for Luke, and one for me. Mine was a basket full of baking ingredients and a cookbook, sweet enough, right? Well, he’d given Luke a smoke detector and some back-up batteries.
Bruno stopped by with his gift late last week. He’d (no doubt) spent more money than the rest of our friends and family combined, but price didn’t necessarily equate to ‘super-sweet gift.’ He carried in a manila envelope and handed it to Luke, and I watched as my fiancé (God, I loved saying that!) tore the seal. He took a moment to read the papers inside, and then he looked at Bruno as if he was far from impressed. When Luke passed the papers to me, I nearly squealed with laughter.
Obviously Bruno knew his gift would tickle me silly, but it was simply an added bonus that Luke hated it. He’d bought us a shared burial plot at the cemetery just out of town, a gift in keeping with the tone of our engagement, he’d joked. He went on and on about how he thought we should have a comfortable resting place to look forward to, and he wanted to spare Luke the trouble of searching for the perfect spot.
Bruno had been giving Luke a really hard time over the way he’d proposed since the day he found out, and we all knew this was just his attempt to be silly. And though I shared a laugh with Bruno over that silliness, I thanked him a million times over when I realized that he hadn’t just bought any plot; he’d bought the empty space right next to my mother and father. So, morbid as it was, I kinda liked that I’d end up right where I belonged in due time.
The only person who hadn’t stopped by to wish us congratulations was—
“Charlie,” Luke opened the front door, “come in.”
I turned out of the kitchen and watched as Luke invited my uncle inside.
“Oh, good,” Charlie nodded up at the picture Derek had given us, “I see you got your gift from Derek.”
“Yeah,” I said, still stunned that he’d even come by, “he brought it by last Thursday.”
Neither of us had heard from Charlie in two weeks. The last time I’d seen him he was standing at the kitchen sink, unable to utter anything other than the words “I know.” Luke had seen him for about an hour after that, an hour that he hadn’t really given me a lot of details about. He said that he just sat Charlie down, talked to him, and tried to make him understand his intentions. He told Charlie that one way or another—with or without his blessing—he and I were going to move forward, just so long as I would have him.
Maybe that’s all it took. Maybe Charlie just needed to hear that Luke wasn’t going to let anything come between us and the rest of our lives. Or, maybe it just ticked Charlie off. I don’t really know because we hadn’t heard from him. But Dad’s key in the mailbox seemed like a huge gesture, a peace offering of some sort, so I assumed that Charlie was doing his best to come around to the idea.
Luke took my uncle’s coat and hung it in the closet. Charlie clutched
a large, wrapped gift in his hands, and he held it a little higher. “You want this now, or—”
“Come in and sit down,” Luke threw me a questionable glance. I took the gift from Charlie and propped it against the entryway wall. I shrugged and followed them as Luke showed my uncle around the house. Luckily we’d finished all of our furniture shopping last week, and the house finally looked like a home.
Luke gave Charlie a similar tour to the one he’d given me when he’d first brought me by. He even stopped at the home office and bragged all about how excited he was to get Just a Little Soiree up and running in the next couple of years. Charlie seemed impressed by Luke’s enthusiasm for the house and my future business; I caught a brief glimpse of a smile as it crossed his lips.
After giving my uncle the grand tour, Luke excused himself from the living room and into the basement for a minute, giving us some lame excuse about how he thought he’d heard something weird with the pipes as they were passing through. Honestly though, I knew he just wanted to give me a moment alone with my uncle.
“How’ve you been?” Charlie asked after Luke disappeared through the basement door.
“Great,” I answered honestly. “Perfect.”
“That’s the ring, huh?” he reached over to take my hand. He examined it closely, but still expressionless. “It’s nice.”
“It was his mom’s—”
“I figured,” he looked away.
I should’ve known that time alone with Charlie wouldn’t result in much progress. He was all about the small talk, but I was thankful that he was talking to me at all.
“Listen, Charlie—”
“It’s okay, Julie,” he finally brought his gaze away from the floor. “I know.”
“But I’m so sorry for what I said. I shouldn’t have—”
“It’s okay,” he said. “You were… you were right.”
He didn’t have to say about what. Charlie had only been holding out on us because of his own insecurities, not because of any ill feelings toward Luke.
“I love you, you know?”
“I do,” he said, and then I finally saw the smile I’d been waiting on for weeks. “I love you, too, Pumpkin.”
Charlie took another step forward and grabbed me, and we shared a hug that lasted for a few long minutes. I held my arms around his plump center, perfectly content with the fact that he was holding me so hard that my ribs felt a little crushed.
“You want to open your gift now?” he asked.
“Yes!” I said, springing away from his hug. “I’ll get Luke.”
I ran to the basement door and threw it open, fully prepared to yell for Luke, but he was standing right at the top of the stairs. He bore a smile that stretched ear to ear, so I knew he’d been listening to my conversation with Charlie all along.
“You okay?” he whispered so that my uncle couldn’t hear.
I nodded once and looked back, “Present time.”
“Hold on,” he pulled me back to take the first step downstairs. Once on his level, he pulled the basement door shut and cupped his hands to my jaw.
“I’m so proud of you, Jules,” he brushed his nose to mine, “so proud.”
“I know,” I nodded and closed my eyes as Luke’s soft lips met mine. Standing there in the narrow stairway, I wanted to sink back into the wall and let Luke’s kiss continue for the rest of eternity, but he quickly pulled away and smiled.
“Let’s not keep him waiting.”
We returned to the living room, and Charlie was gone. We surveyed the dining room and bedrooms, wondering where he’d disappeared to, Luke caught my attention and nodded when he found my uncle hanging out in the entryway.
Charlie was standing just inside the door, staring at the canvas picture that Derek had given us.
“I like this picture,” he looked at me and Luke as we stood arm in arm a few feet behind him. “I think maybe you should hang mine right here.”
He pointed at the empty space immediately below Derek’s picture, and then he handed his gift to Luke.
Luke offered to let me open it, but I shook my head and watched as he slowly (s-l-o-w-l-y) unfolded each taped corner of the wrapping paper. Once all the paper was removed, he turned it over to assess it.
Charlie’s gift, like Derek’s, was also a canvas, but it wasn’t a photograph. It was as simplistic as a black background with scrolled words painted in beautiful white shorthand.
“What’s it say?” I asked, trying to read over Luke’s tall shoulder, but I couldn’t see.
He stepped aside so I could get a better look at the board, and then I smiled.
“Yeah,” I nodded up at Charlie, “I think you’re right. I think that’s exactly where we should hang it.” I turned to Luke for confirmation and he, too, nodded.
“Great,” Charlie took it from Luke. He propped the picture against the wall and let it rest there. “Let’s go grab dinner. Frank’s has a special on wings tonight.”
“Frank’s?” I rolled my eyes. I guess some things never would change with my uncle. Of all the places that he could offer to take his newly engaged niece and her fiancé, he wanted to take us to a bar.
“Where would you want to go?” Charlie asked.
“Frank’s is perfect,” Luke winked at me. The sweet look he gave me just said go with it, so I did. Because I finally had both of the men I loved back in my grasp, and the last thing I wanted was to upset either of them.
Charlie pulled his coat from the closet and put it on. Luke grabbed mine and his, and then he helped me with mine. With a small peck to my cheek, he and Charlie walked out the front door.
I stopped for just a moment and turned back to the canvas hanging on the wall.
“God, what a beautiful couple,” I joked to myself, and then I looked down to Charlie’s canvas.
It certainly was perfect.
Before I flicked off the lights and locked the door, I read the words out loud, just wanting to hear how beautiful they’d sound as they resonated through the house.
“And they lived happily ever after.”
I nodded.
Yeah. It was perfect.
I killed the lights, locked the door, and took Luke’s hand.
He squeezed my fingers as we walked toward the car, and I watched the beautiful curve of his scarred lip.
“I love you, Lucas Reibeck.”
“Mmm,” he half-smiled and closed his eyes, “I love you, too, kid.”
###
Acknowledgments
To Joseph, my son and the love of my life: This has always been for you. All of it.
To my mother, the perfect fan, for being my light through the darkest times. This wouldn’t have been possible without you.
To Eric: Thank you for always believing in me. I had a million ups and downs on this journey, and your faith has kept me moving forward.
To the rest of my family (Puckett, Pierce, Wilkin, and Jameson): I love you. Thank you for your unbelievable support and encouragement.
To Nina, for sitting through the (painstakingly awful) rough drafts of this series and for offering your advice, critique, and guidance. I’m so blessed to call you my best friend.
To Caetey, for holding my hand through the worst of it. I love you.
To Nicole, for the opportunity to work with the sweetest and most understanding editor on the planet. Thank you for all of the hours you sacrificed while polishing Julie’s story. You’ll never know the extent of my true gratitude.
To Jane, for capturing the perfect image for this series and turning it into the most fantastic paperback cover design in the world. You rock!
To Mark Coker and everyone at Smashwords: Thank you for everything you do to educate and support indie authors as we wander aimlessly along this ever-changing path. Thank you for providing the platform to jump off of. Publishing this series required a huge leap of faith, and the support and presence of your company through this journey has been nothing short of life-changing.
To Ian, Chri
s, and everyone at iBooks: You will always hold a special place in my heart. Thank you for taking a chance on me. This series has grown beyond my wildest dreams because of you.
And to Oksana: thank you for letting me plaster your image all over the internet and for being the beautiful face of this series. You will always be my Julie. XOXO
To the readers:
I had a lot of doubt in the beginning. This series came very close to never happening, but Julie refused to go unnoticed. She had a story to tell, and it became my responsibility to put it on paper. I eventually sat down to write Just a Little Crush, and part of me hoped it wouldn’t be the biggest mistake of my life.
I never imagined these characters would claw their way into the hearts of so many, and now I’m not sure why I ever doubted publishing that first book. Still, I’ll never know what I did to earn your trust, but please know that I will do everything in my power to never lose it. I love you with every beat of my heart.
Through my constant indecisiveness, frantic video blogs, and disastrous publishing experiences, you stayed by my side. Thank you.
I know that this is only the beginning of a wonderful journey we’re destined to share together. I can’t wait to see what’s in store.
Thank you for believing in me, and thank you for your kindness. But most of all, my dearest friends, thank you for giving me the opportunity to live my dream. I love you.
XOXO,
Tracie
Just a Little Sequel Page 10
