Epilogue
One month later…
Jelly
“All I’m saying is that I’m starting to feel like some kind of matchmaker,” Carmen said huffily. She looked at me. “Seriously, this auction is getting a reputation. Y’all are the third couple to get married after doing it.”
“Well, we’re not married yet. This is our engagement party,” I said, glass of champagne in hand.
She gave me a huge eyeroll. “Like that’s supposed to make me feel better.
Don’t get me wrong,” she said quickly, “I’m happy for y’all.
I really am. I love you, and I love Paolo, and I think y’all make a perfect couple.
I’m just not thrilled that you got together through my auction.
I’m afraid men are going to quit wanting to do it, or that I’m going to attract women who’ll expect a ring at the end of their contract. ”
“I don’t think you have anything to worry about. What do you do? Like ten contracts a month? So, that’s one hundred and twenty contracts a year for three years—and you’ve had three marriages. That’s a teeny tiny percentage.”
“You’re right.” She took a deep breath. “I’m getting worked up over nothing.”
“Exactly.”
“Oh, there’s Daisy. God, she looks adorable. I can’t believe she’s pregnant. And with twins! I’m going to go talk to her.”
I smiled and watched as she and Daisy had their reunion, Jack standing close by. He still stared at his wife with so much love it almost felt like I was watching something private just seeing him look at her.
I looked away and took in everything about the engagement party.
We were having it on the beach in front of the cottage.
The wait staff was using the large chef’s kitchen, and I finally saw why there was a need for an elevator so they didn’t have to come up and down the front porch steps over and over again.
I looked around, thrilled with the lanterns and all the tasteful decorations Madeline had set up. It all looked perfect. Magical, even. And everyone I cared about was there.
Except Nadine. I looked at my watch and bit my lip. Where was she? She, Byron, and Reynolds were missing, and it was weird for them not to be here.
“Hey, baby.” Paolo came up and kissed my exposed shoulder, causing me to shiver. We might or might not have had wild sex in the bathroom a few minutes before. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, really. Everything is perfect,” I said, breathing in the salty sea air and enjoying the gentle breezes coming off the ocean.
“Something’s bothering you.”
“It’s just that Nadine’s not here yet.”
He frowned. “They’re pretty late. That’s strange.” He looked around for Nadine’s mama, who I’d seen earlier. She was still dating two different guys from her beachfront condominium, and we never knew which one she’d show up with.
I didn’t see her. “Oh, well. I’m sure they’ll be here soon.”
But they weren’t.
The engagement party went long into the night. Paolo and I had an amazing time, opening presents, eating, drinking, laughing with friends—even dancing. Madeline had hired a DJ, and everyone had ended up kicking off their shoes and dancing in the sand on the beach, tiki torches all around us.
It was perfect. The stars were bright, the weather nice, the food and drink wonderful, and the friends were the best a girl could ask for.
Especially a girl who grew up with one friend, unable or unwilling to relate to anyone else.
Or maybe it was just that I was protecting my heart from getting hurt again, and Nadine had been the only person who could cut through all my defenses to reach me.
And that brought me to the only thing that was bringing me down.
Where the hell was Nadine? Of all people to miss my engagement party, she was the one who hurt the most. All of the Cinnamon House girls were in attendance—Madeline, Bethany, Nora, Abbi, Glory, Carly, and, of course, Nia.
Carmen and all the Salazar boys were here.
Cleo, Otto, and all our friends from the hospital had come.
We were only missing three people: Byron, Reynolds, and Nadine. But they were three of the most important to us both.
I gave up on them about mid-way through the party. What else could I do? I figured Nadine would have a really good reason why she flaked.
We cut the cake, strawberry, of course, and soon after dessert most people had taken off. Our closest friends hung out a couple more hours, drinking by a bonfire Madeline had made sure was set up for ‘atmosphere’ at the party.
But eventually, the last of them had given hugs and left.
Finally, it was just Paolo and me, standing on the beach and facing the ocean. He stood behind me with his arms around me. “This.”
“What?” I looked over my shoulder at him, and he kissed me.
“This. I want this right here for the rest of our lives.”
“Me too,” I whispered. I turned in his arms, ready to kiss him and have him take me to bed.
And that’s when we heard the honking.
I jumped, startled, and looked towards the road. “Is that Reynolds’ car?”
Paolo looked as shocked as I was. “I think it is.”
One of the doors opened and Nadine jumped out.
She started running, full speed, at me. “What the hell?” I hoped this wasn’t one of those times she threw herself at me expecting me to catch her in a hug.
She’d knocked me down every damn time she’d tried it.
I started to turn and run from her, but then I saw that she was crying.
“Nadine?”
She stopped right as she got to me and threw her arms around me. “Oh, Jelly,” she cried, sobbing. “You’re not going to believe this.”
I gave Paolo a wide-eyed look over her shoulder. He just shrugged, mystified.
I saw that both Byron and Reynolds had gotten out of the car and were walking slowly towards us, grim-faced.
Nadine pulled back and stared at me. “I have a sister.”
My eyebrows shot way up. “What now?”
“I have a sister,” she practically yelled at me.
I gaped at her, having completely lost the power of speech.
“I know, right?” My beautiful best friend tossed her long brown hair over her shoulder and wiped her eyes. “And we’re going on a re-con mission.”
“What?” There were so many questions I could ask right now, but that seemed like the most important one. It kind of covered everything.
“I don’t have time to explain. Just go get changed and then meet us back out here.”
I turned and ran towards the cottage, but Paolo had maintained his senses. “Um… what do we wear?”
“All black. Like spies.” I turned to look at her, and that’s when I realized Nadine was wearing a black body suit and black tennis shoes with those wedge-type heels that were supposed to work out your calves or something.
“Carmen made me get rid of all my black clothing that wasn’t formal. Should I wear an evening dress?”
Nadine gave me a look, her hands on her hips. “Jelly Pinkoe. All you wore from the time we was in seventh grade until about a year and a half ago was black. You can’t tell me you don’t got any of that shit leftover.”
Nadine’s grammar suffered in times of stress. It had never been her strong suit, but Madeline and Lonnie Maitland pretty much beat it out of her before she married Reynolds.
“I think I probably hid a few things from her. I’ll be back.” I ran through the house, remembering a few things I’d actually bought recently since Carmen could no longer veto my clothing choices. Good thing I had stocked the beach house well with things I might want to wear while here.
Paolo and I almost fell over each other we were working so hard to get changed quickly. We hurried back out to where they were waiting for us.
“This okay?” I gestured to my cold weather black workout gear and Paolo’s hoodie and joggers combo.
“Perfect. Let’s go. I’ll tell you everything on the way over there.”
“Over where?” I asked as I crawled in the back seat of the SUV. Byron was driving and Reynolds was sitting up front with him. It was me, Nadine, and Paolo in the back seat.
“Gray Bones Motorcycle Club.”
I gasped. “What the hell? In Shitty Wilkins?”
“Yes.” Nadine nodded emphatically.
“But they’re…”
“Stone cold killers?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“I know. That’s why we’re all dressed like this.”
I took in Byron and Reynolds’ garb as well. They also could pass for spies. At least the movie version of spies.
I looked out the window and thought about how late it already was. It was going to be around three in the morning when we got there. “What exactly are we doing?”
“We’re going to rescue my little sister.”
“You’re going to have to back things way up and tell me about this sister. I know she’s not your mama’s.”
“Goodness, no.” Nadine sighed. “It’s crazy. Mama called me a couple of days ago. Apparently, my daddy didn’t die right after he left us and went to Shitty Wilkins. He got married again, even though he was already married to Mama, and had another kid. Her name’s Jessica Fletcher.”
“Oh, did her mama get remarried?” I knew Nadine’s daddy’s last name was Walker.
“No. Her full name is Jessica Fletcher Walker.”
Paolo and I exchanged a look.
“Wait. Is that like Jessica Fletcher from Murder, She Wrote?” I asked.
“Exactly. That was her mama’s favorite show.
Anyway, my daddy did eventually up and die, leaving Jessica Fletcher and her mama broke.
So, when she was eighteen, she found out the Gray Bones MC had a strip club out behind their clubhouse.
” She looked at me. “It’s apparently members-only, just like Sugar and Cayenne. ”
Reynolds snorted. “Please tell Nico and Carmen that.”
Nadine rolled her eyes. “Okay, not just like the Salazar gentleman’s clubs. It’s actually pretty sketchy. You know how we had a choice about working the VIP rooms?”
I nodded.
“Well, these girls don’t. And Jessica Fletcher is, um, their top earner.” She got tears in her eyes. “Anyway, her mama saw in the paper where I’d married Reynolds a while back, and she thought maybe I could help, seeing as how Jessica Fletcher is my half-sister and all.”
“Does she go by Jessica Fletcher instead of Jessica?” I asked gently.
“I think so. That’s what her mama’s called her every time I’ve talked to her.
She never calls her just Jessica.” She frowned.
“It would be weird, though, don’t you think, for her and some MC guy to be going at it in the VIP room and for him to be all like, “That’s right, Jessica Fletcher, suck harder,” or something like that?
” Nadine said, using a deep guy voice to help make her point.
It took everything in me not to laugh, but somehow I managed. Paolo? Not so much. He covered it by pretending to cough, though, so I don’t think Nadine caught on.
“Maybe she has a nickname, like Goldie or something,” Nadine continued.
“That’s… specific. What made you think of that?”
Nadine shrugged. “I don’t know. It just seems more… strippery.”
I decided we should maybe get off the topic of names before Paolo completely lost it and started snorting. “So, what? We’re going to bust into a members-only strip club run by a scary motorcycle gang to rescue your sister?”
“Yes.” Nadine said emphatically.
“Okay.” I rubbed my hands. “What’s our entry point?”
“I told y’all she was good at this! Anytime I wanted to do anything the slightest bit on the wild side, I asked Jelly for help.” Byron and Reynolds were smiling.
“She might’ve mentioned it a few times,” Byron said, his deep voice filling the car.
“I didn’t know you had such a wild streak,” Paolo said, waggling his eyebrows at me.
I looked at him. “I think you did know that.” I gave him a saucy wink to remind him of the times we’d fucked in public.
He grinned at me.
“So,” Nadine said, “how was the engagement party? I was so, so sorry to miss it.” She looked at me with worried eyes.
“It was great.” I grabbed her hand. “Of course I missed you, but I totally understand now.”
She looked relieved.
“Tell me more about your sister.”
She seemed to be searching for something else to say but kind of looked like a deer in headlights. “Yeah, that’s all I’ve got.”
“That’s it, really? You found out you have a sister, she’s being held captive in the VIP room at a strip club owned by a motorcycle gang, and we’re on our way to Shitty Wilkins to bust her out. But you don’t have more to say?”
“I mean… that kinda sums up what I know so far.” She shrugged.
“So, when we get there, you and I will go up to the back door and distract the bouncers while Byron and Reynolds go inside. They’ll head straight to the VIP room, I mean, once they know where it is, find Jessica Fletcher, and get the hell out of there. ”
“How will they know which one Jessica Fletcher is?” I asked.
“Jessica Fletcher’s mama said that’s how she knew we were related. She said she looks just like me.”
“Oh.”
“Except she’s blonde, has blue eyes, and she’s short.”
I exchanged a quick glance with Reynolds. “So… she looks just like you except for her height, hair color, and eye color?”
“Yes.” Nadine smiled.
“That might actually not be the easiest person for Byron and Reynolds to find…”
“Here’s a picture of her that her mama texted me.” She held out her phone. The girl in the picture was gorgeous with a great body.
“She does look just like you.” I didn’t know how she could have all those differences and still look almost identical to Nadine, but the woman in the picture sure did. “How old is she?”
“She’s only twenty-three. She’s been working for the motorcycle club since she was eighteen. Isn’t that awful?”
“It is,” I couldn’t even help the horrified look on my face. That was a lot of years to have to give blowjobs in the back of a biker bar. “Don’t even worry, Nadine. We’re going to get her out of there.”
Byron nodded. “We’ll get her out and then take good care of her.” He looked at Nadine in the rearview mirror.
“Thanks, y’all.” She wiped tears from her cheeks again. “I just can’t wait to meet her. We can have long talks and binge TV shows together. It will be so great having a little sister.”
I caught Byron’s eye in the rearview mirror and could tell he was thinking what I was. There was a good chance that Nadine’s little sister, top earner in the VIP room of a motorcycle gang’s strip club, might not be into the same fairytale romances Nadine loved so much.
It seemed like we were about to find out.
The End