by Alexa Davis
“Yeah, well, I really do hope that things work out between you.” He leaned back in his chair and shot me an odd look. “God, if you’d told me when I set up that investment meeting that we would end up here, I never would have believed you.”
“Me, neither,” I admitted. “But I’m glad that’s what happened. It’s worked out much better. Now I don’t want to expand, I want to stay here and write more books. I want to be there as much as I can for Rae.”
“That sounds amazing,” Roy nodded, totally agreeing with me. “Now that you put it like that, that sounds like a much better plan for you. Plus, you have your fan club; you can’t let them down.”
I peeled into laughter about that. “I know, I can’t believe it. It’s all so much. I can’t believe that they all like the book, it seems insane to me.”
“I can believe it; you’re an amazing writer. And now you have to believe in yourself, there’s nothing holding you back.”
With that, he stood up and shot me a wink before heading out on his way. As he left, I felt so glad for him for so many reasons. He was great friend, next to Nancy he was one of the only other people that I trusted, and now he’d led me to love of my life, too, without even realizing it.
“Now, I’m going to make the coffee this time,” I said loudly to everyone. “So let me know what you all want.” I just wanted everything to return to as normal as possible; the attention was too much for me.
***
“Hey, handsome,” I said playfully as Justin picked up the phone. I’d been wanting to talk to him all day long about what he’d done for me, but I didn’t just want it to be a quick, five-minute conversation. So I’d had to wait until I was home, with everything done, and Rae fast asleep. “How are you?”
“Urgh, painful, I miss you so much!” he exclaimed loudly. “Plus, I’ve had all kinds of lawyer-related stuff to deal with today, so that hasn’t been fun.”
I gulped, shaking my own past from my mind, wanting to only focus on what was happening right now. This wasn’t me and Billy; this was Justin and Garrett. If I just kept that thought at the forefront of my mind, everything would be okay. “How is it all going?”
“Oh no, we don’t have to talk about it,” he did his best to insist. “That wasn’t why I brought it up.”
“No, I want you to be able to talk to me about it, please?”
“Okay, well, it doesn’t look good for Garrett,” he sighed sadly. “He’s going to be locked up for a long time.”
I wanted to tell him that it would never be long enough, but that seemed inappropriate, so I bit down hard on my lip instead to silence myself. “But there’s nothing that I can do for him while he’s being so stubborn, so he’s going to have to dig himself out of this one.”
“Oh, you’ll always be there for him,” I replied knowingly. “But I think that you’re right. You can’t spend your whole life worrying about someone else. His behavior is his own choice.”
After a brief thoughtful pause, he continued. “So, do you have any news for me? Anything exciting happen today?”
“Oh, like you don’t know,” I teased. “You know for a fact that everyone in Florence got a copy of my book today. I was absolutely swamped at work today, it was a nightmare.”
He laughed out loud, which was exactly the reaction that I wanted. I wasn’t really mad at him, how could I be when he’d made all my dreams come true? “So it was a good day, then?”
“It was amazing,” I replied sincerely. “Thank you so much, I really appreciate everything that you’ve done for me.”
“Well, I appreciate you, too. More than you’ll ever know.”
That made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, just knowing that I made him feel good, too. This was all so new, so exciting, and I never wanted it to end. Luckily, it didn’t feel like it ever would. Luckily, it felt like Justin was going to be in my life for a very long time to come.
As we talked, I lay on the bed next to Rae, no longer caring that she was spending an increasing amount of time sleeping next to me. That was something that she would grow out of, I was sure of it. I held her close and relaxed as Justin’s voice soothed me.
I felt at peace, really happy with my life, and for someone who had spent a lot of time feeling the opposite, it was nice. He really made me feel amazing,
I loved him – that was becoming more apparent with each passing day. I just hadn't quite worked out how I was going to let him know. With all of his talk over the weekend about the future, I knew that he was planning to be in this for a long time, even if he wasn’t saying it aloud, but that still didn’t make it easy for me to express it.
I would though, eventually. When the moment was right…
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Justin – Friday
I pulled my suit on and grinned at the reflection staring back at me. Outwardly, I was still the same man, I still looked exactly the same, but I could tell that there was something very different about me. I looked happier, lighter, like I had a whole lot more to live for.
I grabbed my phone quickly when it started to ring, hoping that it would be Annie on the other end of the line, but instead I found myself faced with another number that was becoming annoyingly familiar to me: Garrett’s lawyer.
The problem was every time I spoke to him now, it was bad news. He never had anything positive to tell me, which drove me insane. Why couldn’t Garrett just play ball for once? Just to help out the people who were trying to help him!
“Hey, there,” I answered wearily. “What’s going on now?”
“I just thought that you should know that the court case date has been set. The trial will be in four months’ time.”
“Okay,” I replied slowly. That seemed quite quick to me; usually these sorts of things took up to eighteen months, but maybe there was a reason for that. “Does Garrett know?”
“Yes, I’ve spoken to him about it, but, well, you know how he is.”
I knew only too well. He had clearly abandoned his plan of getting out of jail now that he’d seen how impossible that was, and he’d decided to get locked away for as long as possible. He was doing everything that he could to make everyone else’s lives harder. At this rate, he would never get out, but if that was what he wanted, then so be it. There was nothing that I could do anymore.
“Okay, well, I might go and see him today,” I replied decisively. Even if it was the last time that I saw him, I had to give it one last try. Even if there was nothing that I could do, I wanted him to know that I would be there when he needed me.
My father would just have to understand that I’d done all that I could, and that all I had left was just being there.
“All right. Good luck.”
After I hung up the phone, I glanced at my watch to see that I still had enough time before heading into the office. I didn’t have a lot planned, I just wanted to discuss my idea moving forward with Lucia. As my PA, she would have to be very involved with whoever I got in for the managerial position because it was likely she would then be working under them. She was an awesome personal assistant; I didn’t want to do anything that would get rid of her.
I definitely had enough time. It was time to suck it up and go and see him.
***
“Thank you,” I murmured to the guard as she showed me the way. “I appreciate it.”
I sucked in a deep breath to calm me down and turned to face Garrett, who looked even more aggressive than he had the last time I laid eyes on him. This wasn’t going to go well, that was immediately apparent, but to be honest, I hadn't really expected it this time. This wasn’t really about that anymore.
“How are you, Garrett?” I asked cautiously. “Did you hear the news about your court date?”
“Yep,” he snapped back, anger dripping off his tongue. “So why the fuck are you here, because it sure as hell can’t be about that. You haven’t given a shit so far, so why would you now?”
I sighed loudly and sat in front of him. He was just doing
what he could to push me away; I needed to be the bigger person about this. “Of course I care about it; you just need to face up to what you’ve done. It has to be made right.”
He rolled his eyes at me and folded his hands stubbornly across his chest. “Sure, you keep telling yourself that. What I imagine is that you’re here to tell me that you’ve decided to ignore my advice, and you’re still going to hook up with that woman.”
Wow, he was good. I mean, I hadn't come to tell him that, but the fact that he could tell that was the case was something else. I didn’t dignify the comment with a response, but I didn’t really have to.
“Well, you carry on, brother. You’ll soon see that you’re just like Dad.”
“Give that a rest,” I warned, unable to help myself. “I’ve made my decisions in life, I know what I want, and there’s nothing you can say to change my mind. Maybe the Gains gene is a bad one, I don’t know, but that doesn’t mean that I have to behave in a certain way. I am my own man, and I can do what I want.”
I stared at him intently. If this was going to be the last time that I ever saw him, then I needed to say it all. “I feel bad for you that you found Mom’s suicide note. I know that must have been hard for you. Maybe if you shared that with me at the time, I could have helped you, but you didn’t.
“However, that doesn’t mean that you need to carry the burden, either. You are your own man, as well, and the choices that you’ve made are your own. You can’t blame that on anyone else.”
“You know nothing,” he spat back. “Don’t you dare come in here all high and mighty when you have no idea about my life.”
“You’re right, I don’t,” I replied simply. “You never wanted to share yourself with me, so I didn’t ever stand a chance.”
It hit me how he’d lived with me for all those years, carrying all that weight on his shoulders and I never noticed it. We might have been there together, but there was never any real support going on. I was wrapped up in the business, and Garrett was on a downwards spiral that had consumed him.
“Look, I know that you don’t want me here, so I won’t come again. But please know I’ll be there at your court case, and that I’m always willing to come and visit you, whenever you need me to. All you have to do is ask.”
“Don’t hold your breath,” he shot back coldly. “Just go.”
I did as he asked, but I felt much lighter as I left the prison this time. He would be in one place for years, contemplating what he’d done. He would come back to me when he was ready, I was sure of it. And when he did, I would be a better big brother. I would make up for all the mistakes I’d made the first time around.
Now it was time for my meeting with Lucia, to see what she thought about the future of the company.
***
“So, that’s my plan,” I smiled at Annie across the dinner table. She hadn't been expecting me to come until tomorrow morning, I hadn't told her about it, but after my amazing meeting with Lucia where she told me how willing she was to help with the next step in the company, it felt like the right thing to do.
“I’m going to start looking for managers now and spend as long as it takes to train them up, then I will be free to move down here. I’ll still have to go back to Portland for things now and again, but mostly I’ll be here with you…if you want me, of course.”
“Oh my God,” she gasped loudly, clapping her hand across her mouth. “Are you serious? That’s incredible.”
“I want you to come and live with us!” Rae squealed excitedly. “You can have my bedroom if you want; I’m hardly ever in there.”
That made us all laugh appreciatively. The future wasn’t here yet, and it would take a while for all of that to happen, but the fact that we were planning for it was enough. It showed Annie just how committed I was to making this work.
“I just can’t believe you would do all of that for me. I mean, I know that I said I wanted to stay in Florence, but I didn’t expect…” She was starting to lose her words now as she welled up with tears. “I don’t know, it’s all just so much.”
This was it, the moment was here, no time would ever feel quite as perfect as this one. Sure, it was chaotic and slightly messy, but so was our relationship, so actually it felt really right. I took her hands in mine and stared deeply into her eyes.
As I looked at her and smiled, I wondered what had taken me so long. I should have known that any declaration of emotions would only please Annie, not push her away. Honesty was what she needed, especially after all that she’d been through.
“I love you,” I told her quietly. “I love you, and I love Rae, too. You’re both the best people that I’ve ever met.”
Annie was gone, tears streaming down her face, but luckily Rae was there to jump right in. “I love you, too, Justin,” she smiled excitedly while bouncing up and down in her seat. “I liked you the first time I saw you.”
“Me, too,” Annie eventually managed to blurt out through the tears. “I liked you from first sight, too.”
“No you didn’t,” I teased her playfully. “You thought that I was arrogant and annoying…I know I came off that way.”
It still made me cringe how weirdly show-offy I became around Annie the first time we met. I thought that I’d impress her by letting her know how successful my company was, when really what I should have been doing was showing her who I really was deep down. “But I don’t blame you for that. I’m just glad that you stuck around for long enough to see me.”
“Well, admittedly that was only because I wanted your money,” she joked back. “But I’m glad, too. I don’t know what I would do without you in my life now.”
The same was true for me. Being here with her in Florence made me feel peaceful in a way that I never had done before. It was like I belonged there. Sure, Florence was the place I’d planned to retire to much later in life, but places could always change. I was nothing if not flexible. I loved it here, and if I could find a way to keep my company mostly running with me working from a virtual location, then everything would be perfect.
Then, if one day I could make things right with Garrett, my life would be complete.
“Wow, so you’re going to be busy for a while, then,” Annie interjected, shaking me from my thoughts. “Getting everything sorted with the company.”
“True, but I’m not the one who has more books to write. I guess you’ll just have to make time for me somewhere…”
She tugged me from my chair and planted a kiss on my lips, not even caring who was watching. “I’ll always have time for you,” she told me sincerely. “No matter what.”
“Even if I have to sit there and watch you write books?” I asked through a smile, feeling so special that I clearly meant so much to her.
“Even if you have to write them for me!”
In that moment, I felt complete, like I finally had a properly functioning family that wanted me. All the past simply melted away, and all that was left was me, Annie, and her adorable daughter, Rae. And that was perfect, all that I would ever need.
Epilogue
Annie
2 Years Later
“Oh my God,” I muttered as I gathered up the letters from the front door. There was a redirected envelope, which was common now that Justin lived with me permanently, but this one was different. It was addressed from the prison.
Garrett…it had to be. After all this time.
I clutched it tightly to my chest, wondering how this was going to change things. Justin was hurt by Garrett’s rejection, even if he would never say it aloud, I could still see it.
He’d done his best to channel it into something positive, though, by working on his business and new manager, to get everything in place for him moving, but I could always see it there, haunting him in the back of his mind. How will he feel now that his brother wanted him back in his life?
Justin now had someone amazing running the company for him, meaning that in the past six months where he’d been living in my apartment, he’
d only had to go back to Portland a handful of times because he could do most of what needed to be done virtually.
We were also working really well, too. Boffees was going from strength to strength, with Justin running the place when I had writing deadlines to meet, and my second book was on its way out. With the way that sales had gone with the first one, it seemed that the second one would be just as successful, so that was really exciting.
Of course, there was the third book to think about, but I was getting there with that one.
Rae was also doing really well at school, using her bright nature to succeed and making a lot of friends, too. If I’d ever been worried about her struggling there, I was so wrong. She thrived in that environment.
I also hadn't ever had to worry about Nancy, either, because she was now a married woman. She still came in to help me with Rae whenever I needed her, but her life was now a whirlwind of trips and excitement. She’d found true love, and I was happy for her…especially as I had it in my life now, too.
Everything was so great, going so well, and I honestly had no idea how this new development was going to change things. I leaned my back against the wall for a moment and slid my eyes shut, praying for the best. I hoped that whatever was inside this envelope would be a good thing. I just loved how wonderful everything was, and I didn’t want any of it to go back downhill.
Then I took the long walk back to the bedroom, to show Justin what I had in my hands. Well, it wasn’t exactly a long walk. Justin was always making jokey remarks about how the place was too small. I got the impression that he wanted to move us all to a bigger place, but for the time being, I was happy enough where I was. This was the home where I’d risen from the ashes and started again; I wasn’t quite ready to give that up yet.
“…yeah, and he’s so cute,” I hear Rae chatting away to Justin, sounding far too grown up for my liking. She was already involved in fights with other girls over boys – the sort of problems I hadn't been expecting for years yet. “And he likes me, too. He told Tiana that he thinks I’m the prettiest girl in class.”
