EPILOGUE #2
“That’s right, Teacup,” Reed said, his eyes locking onto her face. She didn’t have the guts to retain that contact, even when Reed used his nickname for her.
Placing my arm through Nix’s, I added. “I just wish it wasn’t so far away.” Hoping that would encourage Storm to say something. Fuck, maybe even take him to one side? Have that overdue chat?
“You could always stay,” I suggested, ignoring how Nix squeezed me in warning. We weren’t supposed to get involved, Hudson’s orders.
And then Reed put the final nail in the coffin or the knife in the heart. “There’s nothing for me here, now.” He said those words directly to Storm, and she raised her eyes to his. Her expression was forlorn, and I wanted to shake some sense into her. Strike that, into them both.
None of his brothers, Molly, or I said, ‘What about us?’ We got the point he was not so subtly making.
I glanced pleadingly at Hudson, but he just shook his head as if to say no. That was the same message he’d given us when the news of Storm’s hidden fiancé had come out into the open.
The atmosphere between us thickened, the air becoming stifling, due to the elephant in the room scenario.
As if perfectly timed, Storm’s cell started to ring. “Anyway, I just came to drop Molly off and say hi, so I’ll leave you to your party,” she croaked, her voice breaking slightly.
“Why don’t you stay and have a drink?” Molly encouraged, after Storm’s phone went silent when she didn’t answer it.
“I know you have someplace else to be, but you could stop for a quick one?” Both Molly and I knew where she had to be: the country club where she would meet up with her fiancé, Jasper, and his extremely important parents.
Reed’s face tightened, and a tick in his jaw appeared. He then crushed the can in his fist and dropped it onto the sand.
The movement snapped Storm out of her trance.
“No, I'd better not. I’m driving.” I watched as one of her infamous fake smiles appeared.
Storm’s cell then started up again, and she slipped it out of her pocket and scanned the screen.
Her eyes told me exactly what I already knew: she wasn’t pleased about the caller. “Look, I need to take this.”
Reed smirked. “Let me guess, the fiancé, right?” he said, pointing a gunned finger at her.
She nodded. “Right.”
Her ex-lover raised his eyebrows and stated. “Better not keep him waiting then.”
Storm’s expression switched as quickly as a lit match. “Goodbye, Reed, take care of yourself.” Her words were cool and lacked feeling, and my gut clenched. Why they couldn’t work it out was the question on everyone’s lips.
“Always do. You too, Teacup,” he replied beneath his breath as she turned away.
“Laters,” I called.
Reed watched her go with a tormented expression. As the heartbroken, but too stubborn to admit it, girl walked away and answered her call, we all released a breath of air, at varying moments.
“Well, that was awkward,” Hudson said, moving to sit back in the chair and pulling Molly down onto his lap.
Reed went to sit next to him, kicking the empty beer cans in the pile of trash we had started to create earlier. “It was more than that. Anyway, Micha just got here. Who’s for a piggyback race?” he said, nodding towards where Micah was jogging down the beach towards us.
“How’s that going to work?” I said, leaning back against Phoenix’s chest as he came behind me.
“Hudson, takes Molly, Nix takes you, and I’ll have Micah and I’ll still beat your asses,” he declared arrogantly. I wasn’t so sure of his confidence, considering how well-built Micah was, and Molly and I weighed nothing.
“You’re on, bro,” the other two Sawyer Brothers echoed at once, grinning at each other.
And it was game on.
As we all got into position, Reed counted down, and we were off.
Both Molly and I were in fits of giggles as Hudson almost dropped her, and I banged my chin on Phoenix’s back.
Reed and Micah fell behind almost immediately, looking hilarious as they bounced across the sand, wobbling as they tried to keep up. “Fuck man, how much do you weigh?” I heard Reed bellow from the back.
As the race continued, I felt thrilled. It was just another one of those moments that I wanted to bottle. I had my boyfriend, my brothers, and my best friend, and together we were a united group.
Over the last year, I had undergone counselling, and my shrink had taken me back to the night of the fire and encouraged me to start from scratch, sharing my feelings about what I went through.
It was almost like unpicking everything and pressing the reset button.
The fire took all my trophies, and with Nix’s help, I was able to draw a line under that side of myself.
His mother got her picture back, and Tate’s purse was sent to Paris, where she was studying.
I’d gotten her address from Storm, but I’d sent it anonymously.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t ever feel those urges to take something, but I hadn’t stolen anything since that night. Dr Rhodes, my shrink, had given me excellent coping methods, and I had the support of my boyfriend, Ma, and the others, all of whom now knew about my past problems.
After we’d told Ma about our relationship, Phoenix decided that it was the right thing to do to move into campus housing, so we could be a proper couple and start from the beginning.
You wouldn’t usually live with your boyfriend off the bat, and although I missed our midnight calls to each other’s rooms, it made us stronger.
We had downtime when we needed it, and each day there was something new and exciting to talk about.
Molly and Hudson were still going strong, and a few of her English friends had come over for the holidays. They were cool, even Casius, her male British bestie, whom Hudson struggled to accept. No surprise there then.
Phoenix saw his half-brother Alex every week with his birth mother’s permission.
They attended games together, and Nix coached Alex in football to help him get into the school’s team.
Nix’s relationship with his mom was still strained, but they were civil.
However, his bond with his biological father had gone from strength to strength, hence Dominic Summers asking Phoenix to move onto the Summers’ estate.
After becoming friendly with the fire chief, the man who had interviewed him after that day at Radcliffe Manor, Phoenix had started toying with the idea of dropping out of college to join the fire department.
He already had his High School diploma and had started taking driving lessons.
Yep, I eventually found out that after all those years of Nix taking Reed’s Jeep, he didn’t even have a license.
After he was officially allowed on the roads, Phoenix would need to take a written exam and a physical, and the chief had said they’d give him a shot.
He would be well-suited to the job, considering how big and strong he was, and the thought of him fighting something I was afraid of was romantic. His being in danger still worried me, of course.
Storm and Nix were also more settled now, and he treated her like a sister, taking the piss out of her in a brotherly way. He even managed to be civil to Jasper, her fiancé, although not too much. His loyalty to his brother made sure that it was measured.
Micah was still living it up in New York and had secured an internship at a pharmaceutical company. He would start one week after he graduated.
And then there was Reed. On the upside, Reed had been poached by a hotshot college in New Jersey that offered him a scholarship, endorsed by the NFL. There was no doubt in everyone’s minds that he would one day be selected for the draft and go pro.
On the downside, Reed had fallen in love with Storm, and I would have said vice versa, but they had both turned their back on that love.
It truly and sadly was a case of the one that got away. Life isn’t a fairytale, like the ones you’re told when you’re a little girl. The princess in her castle falls for the prince, not the broken bad boy with a tainted past.
But for this girl, I had found my happy ever after in Phoenix. Irrespective of our differences and what we had faced, we were together, in love, and I, for one, couldn’t wait to see what other exciting challenges life decided to put our way.
The twisted cruelty of our past had unwound, and we had replaced those dark nightmares with a future full of sweet hopes and the kindest of dreams.
THE END