Epilogue University (Court Legacy)

Epigraph

Greer

“Baby, what do you think of this one?” I asked Bow. “I think it’d fit the house quite nicely.”

I was helping my daughter pick out furniture.

She was moving in with her boyfriends, so this was an exciting time.

Bow’s relationship with Bru and Wells was unconventional, but her father and I supported it.

Well, I supported it and brought my husband, Knight, around to the idea.

Honestly, I didn’t think it was the fact that Bow had two boyfriends that bothered him so much, rather that she had a boyfriend at all. She was his baby girl.

My daughter came over, looking the epitome of confident, radiant.

Bow could be shy but, recently, she seemed to have come out of her shell, and I was so happy about that.

She had so much love and beauty to give to this world, and it was wonderful that she was finally seeing that.

She beamed at the faux leather couch. It was a cream color and would go with her new home quite well.

“It’s stunning, Mom. Seriously,” Bow said.

She looked like a mini version of me plus her dad, which was interesting.

Her dad was a huge former lacrosse player, and I was, well, not.

I was pretty petite. Bow got my size, but she got her father’s blue eyes.

Her hair was dark like Knight’s as well, and I didn’t know where her style came from at all.

She dressed in a vintage-academia style.

She liked pleated skirts and button-ups, where I had liked more of a pinup style when I was her age.

I still loved shopping vintage, so the pair of us had that in common.

“You know you don’t have to say you like something just because I do,” I said, bringing my arms around her small waist. I smiled. “You won’t hurt my feelings.”

She wouldn’t, and I only wanted her to say she wanted something if she did.

I knew getting Bru’s and Wells’s approval wouldn’t be hard.

They wanted Bow to have anything her heart desired.

Surprisingly, the boys used their trust funds to buy the house.

I guess it just showed how much they loved each other.

How much they loved my daughter which, of course, I loved.

“No, I really do love it,” Bow said, her grin so wide, which made my insides dance.

Between the two of us, we managed to furnish a good portion of the house.

Well, the three of us. My good friend Billie joined us today.

She was a globetrotter with her husband, LJ, but they both happened to be in town this weekend.

LJ was playing golf with Knight and the other husbands in our friend group. I believe the sons joined them as well.

“If you love this couch, Bow, this coffee table would be perfect with it,” Billie said.

She was a redhead who was a beauty queen in a former life.

I wasn’t joking. She’d won beauty pageants before I knew her, which didn’t surprise me.

We both may be women of a certain age, but Billie could easily fit in with girls half her age in regards to style and her lack of age lines.

She lived a pretty relaxed life with all the traveling she did, so that may have had something to do with that.

Billie eyed the coffee table. It was short and woodgrain and would go with the couch. Billie grinned. “What do you think?”

“I think I’m happy that I have you both today. I don’t have an eye for this stuff like you and Mom clearly do,” Bow said, hugging Billie. My daughter was being generous including me in that statement. Billie definitely picked out the majority of the items Bow had approved today.

Billie returned the hug, and it was so strong. Billie didn’t have children, but she was always good with mine. My son, Thatcher, loved her, too.

Billie would have been a good mom, but it just wasn’t in the cards for them. They had many fertility issues in the past, which broke my heart. LJ would have been a great dad, too. They both had such big hearts.

I came over to the pair. “Sweetie, you and I both know Billie picked out all the best stuff for your house.”

Billie’s eyes lifted. “Oh, whatever, Greer.”

“It’s true,” I said, laughing. I grabbed Billie’s hand. “Seriously, thank you for coming today and helping.”

“Anything for you guys and this girl.” Billie squeezed Bow, which made her laugh. The woman towered over my daughter since she was so petite. Billie pulled back. “What do you say we head out and get some lunch? My treat.”

“Oh, girl, you don’t have to do that,” I said. Billie shook her head.

“No, let me. I know this great Italian place that—” Billie’s attention drifted.

Her gaze caught on to something, and that caused Bow and me to look in that direction.

We both stopped on a young woman over by the same coffee table we’d been looking at.

She was a beautiful girl with dark hair.

It was a wash of big curls. She was quite tall.

She also appeared to be a myriad of races.

She could have been Black but also Latinx, I wasn’t sure, but her skin held a glorious tan that was obviously natural to her heritage.

The young woman glanced up, and Billie’s eyes flashed.

“Sorry for staring. I guess you just look familiar to me,” Billie said, and the young woman’s mouth parted. Billie smiled. “I’m sure I don’t know you. Again, sorry for staring.”

“Oh, no problem. I probably just have one of those faces or something,” the young woman said. Her cheeks were suddenly red. She played with her big curls before awkwardly checking out some of the other furniture. I didn’t catch a great look at her face, but I didn’t recognize her.

I squeezed Billie’s arm. “You know her?”

“No, I just…” Billie stared off at the girl again. She’d already made her way toward the other side of the store. Billie shook her head. “I’m probably just losing my mind. She seemed familiar to me, I guess.”

Again, I hadn’t gotten a great look at her, but, now that she said something, a familiarity was itching at the back of my mind, too. Like I’d seen her before but couldn’t place her.

Billie waved. “Anyway, yes, that Italian place. You’ll love it. LJ and I always hit it up when we’re in town.”

I felt like I’d eaten at the majority of great places here in Maywood Heights, but I’d take her word for it. “I’m up for Italian.”

“Me too.” Bow threaded her arm through Billie’s, and Billie smiled. We probably had all day to eat since the boys were golfing. They could be gone for hours.

Knight

“Pay attention now, gentlemen. I’m about to make quick work of this.” I tapped the ball into the hole. Not a hole in one, but a birdie was just as good with the lot I was playing with. My friends and their sons were pretty good at golf, but my son, Thatcher, and I were better.

“Nice one, Pop,” Thatcher said, and, though I knew, I showed off a bit anyway: I put my hand up, and Thatcher slapped it.

The boy was the spitting image of me, which meant we were both the spitting image of my father.

We both had his dark hair and sturdy build, and, though my dad passed away when I was young, I made sure Thatcher saw pictures of him growing up.

“Arrogant fucker,” Jax, one of my best friends, said with a cough. We’d been on the green for hours, and this fucker wasn’t even in the running for the win.

I flipped him off, which made our kids laugh. Wells, his son, was beside him, as well as Bru, Ares, and Dorian. Bru and Ares belonged to my good friend Ramses, and Dorian to my best friend Royal.

Flipping off Jax probably wasn’t showcasing the best example for our kids, but they were all well into their twenties and were used to this shit. My friends and I may have been richer than gods, but we weren’t classy in the slightest.

“Watch it, Jax. Your jealously is showing,” Royal said, nudging him, and I was happy he backed me up. That was, until he leaned over to LJ, and said, “Even if he is right.”

Again, all my friends were clearly jealous of this talent on the green today.

I spread out my arms. “Instead of all the hate, maybe you guys could learn a little something.”

I’d been schooling all these guys for years.

With those final words out there, I opened my hand. The game was done, and my friends knew it. One by one, they opened their wallets. We had a nice little pot going for today’s game, and they all knew this one was mine. There was no use in delaying the inevitable.

Grunting, my friends gave me the cash I rightly deserved, and I counted it bill by bill in front of them.

“Thanks for doing business with me, fellas,” I said before opening my own wallet. There was so much cash it couldn’t quite fit, but that only helped me make a show of it. I grinned. “I’ll tell you what, though. First round of drinks at the clubhouse is on me.”

I wouldn’t be paying for the meal, but I could slide a few bucks their way for some top-shelf bourbon.

Everyone but Ramses flipped me off, and that was probably only because he liked to set a semblance of a good example for our kids.

Ramses dropped an arm around his sons, Ares and Bru.

Bru was adopted, but Ares looked just like Ramses.

The kid was tall and just had longer hair.

It was curly and wild, and Ramses’s would probably be, too, if he grew it out.

Ramses tipped his chin at the group. “My treat for dinner since Reed is too cheap.”

The dude always called us by our last names. We had a rivalry back in high school, but we were friends now, and I wasn’t cheap. I just didn’t reward talentless fuckers.

After the game, we all did take dinner in the clubhouse of the country club. We’d been members for years, so they had a table reserved for us.

My friends and I were some of the founding families of Maywood Heights. It was home, and I knew none of us would ever leave.