Crooked

Epilogue

Juliette

Two years later

I opened the door to find our new neighbor, Patrice, standing there with a scowl on her face.

“What the hell is burning?” she asked. “I almost called the fire department until I saw your husband out back, apparently up to no good.”

“It’s not a fire. My boyfriend is smoking sausage in the backyard.”

“Well, tell him he needs to do that somewhere else. I can’t stand the smell of smoke.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll let him know you stopped by.” I closed the door.

I walked out back to meet Wes by the smoker he’d set up. “The neighbor came by to complain about the smoke.”

“I’ll drop some off for her when I’m done. Once she tastes it, she’ll never bitch about it again.”

“We should’ve moved to the middle of nowhere like I wanted,” I said. “Then you wouldn’t have to worry about anyone complaining.”

Wes and I had just bought a house in Irvine, about an hour away from LA.

I’d wanted no neighbors at all. But we didn’t have the luxury of moving too far from Los Angeles.

We needed to be close enough that Wes could still commute to his movie-consulting gigs.

This was at least away from the hustle and bustle.

I also needed to be relatively close to the city for the occasional meeting; although, I pretty much wrote from home full time now.

We’d had two requirements for a house: more than one bedroom and space for a basketball court. We’d managed to get both.

Today would be the first time we’d had guests since moving to the new place. I was hosting book club for my old LA crew. We normally got together in the evenings, but we’d planned a Saturday noontime gathering today since traffic during the week to get to where we lived was a bitch.

And as we were no longer close to Wes’s infamous sausage guy in West Hollywood, he’d recently learned how to smoke his own and was smoking some today for the ladies.

Up until now, though, the only sausage they’d ever really been interested in was the one in his pants.

Pam did know that Wes was my boyfriend now, so at least we didn’t have to pretend he was just a friend anymore.

When the four ladies arrived, both Wes and I went to the door to greet them.

“Wes, it’s so good to see you again!” Pam said as she hugged him, the other three ladies following her in.

“You, as well.” He smiled. “Make yourself at home.”

My nerves were really on fire today, and it had nothing to do with hosting my first gathering.

The ladies didn’t realize the book I’d suggested for this month’s meeting was mine.

Guarded was a romantic thriller I’d written under a secret name, a pen I’d carefully selected since it had a ring similar to Ginocassi: Gina Wesley.

I thought it would be fun to incorporate Wes into my pen name, too, since he’d been my biggest inspiration to start writing books after my transition from screenplays.

But more than that, this book was about seventy-five percent our story with some fiction mixed in.

For instance, in my book, they’d caught the person who’d shot at the heroine, whereas in reality, there’d never been an arrest for the shooting at the farmer’s market.

I’d changed all the names and altered enough of the circumstances that no one could figure out that it had anything to do with Vince Ginocassi.

I’d come to trust this group’s judgment about books after years of reading together, so they were the perfect test subjects for my novel-writing debut. I was both bracing myself and eager for their feedback.

Once we got underway, Sandy read one of her favorite passages.

“This novel was a little different than the bodyguard stories we’ve read in the past,” she said.

“It was so much more than a romance. It had everything. Mystery, intrigue…” She sighed.

“When you find out that he was actually still a cop? I mean, I didn’t see that coming. Did you?”

Pam shook her head. “Not at all. I loved every second of this one.”

I filled with pride as the discussion continued.

“The part when he wrote her that letter?” Karly placed her hand on her chest. “My heart broke for him.”

“I know,” Maria agreed. “He really never meant to hurt her. His hands were tied.”

Pam turned to Wes. “What did you think about it? What was your favorite part?”

He put down his plate. “You know… It’s hard to pick a favorite part of this one.

What I’ll say is that even the hard things they went through sort of seemed necessary to get to where they end up, you know?

I’m just glad it had a happy ending.” He exhaled.

“Had me sweating there for a while. You know those books where you have no idea how the hell the author is gonna get her characters out of a sticky situation? Kudos to the writer for working it all out so well.” He looked over at me and winked.

I clasped my hands together and looked around the room. “Well, I’m relieved you all loved my choice.” I wished I could’ve said, be sure to leave a five-star review, but that would’ve been weird.

By three PM, everyone had gone. After Wes and I cleaned up, we still had much of the afternoon left to chill.

I’d planned a surprise for him later, but it was contingent upon a UPS delivery.

Our neighborhood was usually one of the last ones the delivery truck reached, so it could be as late as nine PM, or maybe seven at the earliest. I had some time to kill.

Wes threw a dish towel over his shoulder. “Want to shoot some hoops?”

“Sure.” I grinned.

I still remembered that the first time we’d visited Jersey, Wes’s mom had told me that if he and I ever lived together, we would need a basketball hoop out front.

She’d said he threw himself into shooting hoops when he needed to blow off steam or work something out.

Come to think of it, he’d seemed a bit anxious this afternoon.

And now his suggestion that we go out and play basketball made me wonder if he was stressed about something.

“I just got a new ball,” he announced. “So it should feel nice and tight, freshly filled with air.”

“Cool.”

We took the new ball outside and threw it around for a while. Could have been my imagination, but it seemed like he was trying to let me win today. He kept missing shots and passing me the ball when it should have been his turn.

Then, at one point after he passed it to me, I froze. I couldn’t tell you why we’d been out here for ten minutes, and I was only now just noticing it. But in black ink on the ball where the logo would normally be, it said: Will you marry me?

My hands shook, and the ball bounced as it slipped from my grip. By the time I looked over at Wes again, he was a foot away from me, down on one knee.

He looked up, his eyes sparkling in the sun.

“Baby, I don’t even know how to put into words how much you mean to me.

I hope I’ve proven to you by now that I will always love, honor, and protect you.

Please say you’ll be my wife, so I can continue doing that for as long as we live.

” His chest rose and fell as he awaited my answer.

“Oh my God. Yes!” As he stood, I wrapped my arms around him. “You really surprised me. I knew this was coming…but not today!”

Wes held me tight in the middle of the driveway, the ball having rolled into the grass.

I looked down at the gorgeous, pear-shaped diamond on a gold band.

At the end of my book, where the couple got engaged, I might’ve snuck in details about my favorite diamond shape.

Good to know he’d been paying attention.

Although, of course, when it came to love, the ring didn’t matter.

Wes could’ve given me one that came out of a bubblegum machine, and I would’ve been just as happy.

I pulled back for a moment. “It’s beautiful.”

“I’m happy you like it.”

“Like it? I love it.”

He kissed my forehead. “You’ve been long overdue for a beautiful piece of jewelry. The only other piece I’ve ever gifted you was that cheap cock and balls from Venice.”

“I thought it was a cactus.”

Wes smirked. “It was always a cock and balls. It was my cock and balls you’ve been wearing around your neck all this time.”

“I knew I should’ve gone with my first instinct. How was I so gullible? I’ve worn that thing to church!”

He cackled. “I think you should wear it when we get hitched.”

“I might.” I laughed.

My attention then turned to an ice cream truck approaching in the distance. I’d never seen one in this area before. When I looked over at Wes, the smile on his face told me this was planned.

It parked right in front of the house, music blaring. I was certain our neighbor was going to be pissed at us yet again today.

I turned to him. “What’s going on?”

“The final surprise.” Wes beamed as he took my hand. “You once told me your dad used to have the ice cream man come after all of your soccer games when you were younger. That was one of your good memories about him.” Wes grinned. “He sent this for you today.”

I covered my mouth. “He did?”

He shrugged. “With a little help from me, yeah. Since…you know…he can only do so much from where he is. But it was his idea.”

Wow. That warmed my heart.

Wes took my hand as we walked toward the truck. “He gave his blessing, by the way.”

Warmth flooded me. “Oh, I hadn’t even thought about whether you’d asked him…”

“Well, he gave me his permission—right after he told me he’d have me killed if I ever hurt you.”

I shook my head. “That sounds like my father.”

Wes let go of my hand. “Let’s order a celebratory ice cream.”

As I perused the menu on the side of the truck, the window where you order slid open.

“Surprise!” someone yelled.

My jaw dropped. “Mom!”

My mother ran out of the truck to wrap her arms around me. “Hope this is a good surprise. Wes wanted me to help you celebrate the engagement.”

“I can’t believe this.” I squeezed her. “This is the best day of my life.”

“Do we have room for one more person?” my mom asked.

“I thought you were no longer using Paulie…”

She shook her head. “Not Paulie.”

“Surprise!” Wes’s mom shouted as she came out of the truck as well.

“Oh my God!” I ran to her. “Joanna!”

She hugged me tightly. “I think you can call me Ma now.”

“I’m so lucky to have two beautiful moms.” I looked at each of them before smiling over at Wes.

After Wes embraced them both, I turned to him. “How the hell did you pull this off?”

“I’ve been orchestrating it for weeks.”

Wes explained that he’d hired a friend to pick up both our mothers at the airport and drive them here in the ice cream truck.

As the four of us entered the house together, all I could think about was the surprise I’d planned for him tonight. I hadn’t expected there to be an audience, but perhaps the more the merrier.

Later that evening, Wes had cooked a delicious Italian dinner with a side of smoked sausage for the moms. We’d finished eating, and I was chomping at the bit, looking out the window for the delivery man.

When I finally saw the lights of the truck pulling up outside, I rushed out to fetch the box, my heart pounding.

Our mothers and Wes were sitting at the dining room table, still lingering over dessert when I entered the room carrying the box.

Here goes.

“Look what just came!” I opened it in front of them and took out the single copy of my novel.

“It’s your book,” Wes said, confusion on his face. “But we already have a zillion copies in the garage. I don’t get it.”

“This isn’t just any copy, though. It’s a new, one-of-a-kind special edition.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “Cool.”

I offered it to him, and he flipped through the pages as our mothers looked on. “It looks the same, though.” His eyes narrowed. “What’s different about it?”

I swallowed. “The dedication.”

“Oh…” he said as he flipped back to the beginning.

My mother leaned in. “What is it?”

I braced myself as he read it out loud.

“To Wes, this is our story, but the best part—created by both of us—didn’t make it to print.” His lip trembled as he looked up at me and whispered the last line. “The next chapter will be coming in nine months.”