ELEVEN
“NO, BUT IT’S never that easy!”
Ten days went by a lot faster than someone might think. Okay, so technically they were on day nine. The wedding was the next day. Tomorrow! Yes, she was already married to the man, but her girls filling the private pod at Crimson LA didn’t know that.
“Toria’s right,” Rylee said. “We’re being pretty smug over here.
It’s easy to encourage someone to take the jump after our guys already caught us.
Before them? No one knows if any guy is for real.
Think about how many bullshit relationships and asshole dates we all went through before getting to where we are. ”
Here were her girls, all together, it was fantastic to see them as a group. It was well beyond time for them to gather. She’d have to make a regular thing of it.
“It’s there to see looking back,” Merci said. “We didn’t know at the time. We didn’t know our guys were our forever guys.”
Toria may not be as grateful for the gang. Not while in the midst of a how to find love debate.
“Until you took the leap, that’s what I’m saying, you have to take the leap.”
“I’ve been with a lot of losers in my time,” Toria said, raising her glass before sipping. “And maybe I just don’t want to take the leap.”
“There is a valid point there,” Thea said. “We had to be ready, it had to be… the right time.”
“I didn’t know I was ready,” Roux said. “Hell, I’m still not ready and the guy’s wearing my ring.”
“Thought you didn’t wear rings.”
Roux tipped her head and her drink. “No, because I admit my husband’s identity to the fewest number of people as possible. And, who knows, I might get a better offer.”
“Rourke is a lot of guy to take.”
“Oh, ladies, you have no idea.”
Laughing, the group enjoyed Roux’s tease.
Most of them were in committed relationships, some married, some expecting or breastfeeding. Lilya deserved the break but often got a slightly frantic air. Since birth, she’d been needed to sustain life. Switching that off couldn’t be easy.
“Are you missing Zay-Jay?” Jane asked almost like she’d been thinking the same thing.
“I never thought I’d be one of those women,” Lilya answered.
“We’re all that woman when it comes to our kids,” Rylee said, resting a hand on her barely there baby bump. “Even as they grow.”
“It’s so sweet,” Jane swooned. “I can’t imagine how you wouldn’t miss him, he’s so precious.”
“We haven’t been separated before,” Lilya replied, shifting in her seat. “But I know he’s safe.”
“Because Zach’s at the hotel? Is he checking on him?”
“Might be,” Roux said. “Until he gets too drunk.”
Lilya accepted the tease with a smile. “Daddy’s staying sober tonight.”
“You sure about that? Maybe someone should check on Daddy. The guys will be onto the shooters and hookers by now.”
“Do you mean strippers?” Mieux asked.
“Depends who hired them,” Roux said to the laughter. “If it was Rourke, the whole state will be out of hundred-dollar bills. He doesn’t believe in singles.”
The guys were enjoying Zairn’s apparent last night of freedom at the hotel while the women got Crimson to themselves. Could’ve gone the other way except her guy knew the music was important to her partying.
“They had a party in New York two days ago,” Sway said. “Vegas last night.”
“And LA tonight. How many bachelor parties do these guys need?”
“This is Zairn Lomond,” Sequoia said, pouring more of the virgin cocktail she shared with Lilya and Rylee. “A lot of broken hearts tonight, a lot of tears across the globe.”
“And a lot of relief,” Freya said. “Some people thought he’d never settle down.”
Jane beamed at her. “He just needed to find the right woman.”
Okay, Kesley was sitting right over there. You know, Zairn’s ex-girlfriend? The one who’d have jumped at a chance to marry him. Probably still would. Though she seemed cool. Everyone was relaxed. Except Astrid, but that girl didn’t know how to chill.
They’d had dinner together, with the moms and more mature women who may not like the sex talk.
No, she was no fool, those women knew and enjoyed sex just as well as the rest of them.
But some of the matriarchs were related to her girls or their men.
With a few drinks, they may have heard things about their children’s sexual habits that no parent should ever know.
So dinner was a respectable affair, then the group split, and she came to Crimson with her girls.
“You know who’ll never settle down?” Rainie said. “Tripp Breckenridge.”
“Oh, God, that guy is all kinds of fine.”
“He’ll settle down,” Sequoia said. “It’s in the Breckenridge blood.”
“When he finds the right woman,” Savvy said. “Tripp’s a sweetheart.”
“I, for one, am sorry I never got the experience,” Roux said. “Would be some kind of travesty to take him off the market completely.”
“Yeah.” Bambi straightened. “Some might say he provides a public service.”
More laughter.
“And with Zairn unavailable now, that service is needed more than ever.”
“Any second thoughts?” Rylee’s narrowed eyes probed. “About walking down the aisle?”
“Oh, please don’t scare her,” Jane declared. “It’s going to be such a wonderful day.”
“And you deserve an award for organizing it.” Roux raised her glass to toast. “To Jane’s wonderfulness… and her secret inner banshee.”
Yep, her friend could assert herself when needed.
Moreso now that she had the entire Collier clan backing her up.
Jane hadn’t changed, didn’t need to, but she did carry herself a little differently.
She got that. She did. Knowing love was a true part of life brought security, the soulmate thing maybe wasn’t bullshit after all.
Was it confidence? Perhaps Rylee said it better with “smug.” Regardless, Jane always found it easier to fight for others than herself.
Another reason their secret plan was a good idea.
All reciprocated the toast and drank.
“You’ll have trouble when it comes to planning your wedding now, Jane,” Merci said. “From what I understand, you didn’t get a lot of input from the bride or groom.”
“We trust Jane,” she declared. “We asked her to plan the most perfect wedding she could, and we have full faith that’s exactly what it will be.”
“I don’t know if I’ll get married,” Jane said, forcing a smile. “I thought for a minute, but—I don’t know.”
“Don’t talk crazy. Knox is nuts about you. You’ll get married.”
“We haven’t talked about it for—I’m not sure he wants to. He hasn’t really wanted to talk about wedding things. He did at first, but…”
“Trust me,” Toria stated. “It will happen.”
“Wait…” Roux said. “I thought you and Knox got married on Crimson Isle a million years ago.”
The misconception was common and hilarious every time, until then anyway. Did Jane really think Knox wouldn’t marry her? No, she didn’t know he’d ask tomorrow, but had he somehow given Jane the idea they weren’t planning forever ever?
“No, that was… The media said so, but we didn’t really.”
“How long have you and Knox been together now?”
Jane perked up a little. “It’s been almost a year since our first kiss.”
“Which happened in the hotel Rox is getting married in,” Toria said.
“Yes! Day after the wedding will be the first anniversary.”
Which was no coincidence.
“You’ve been through a lot with him.”
“We’ve all been through a lot with our guys.”
No one could deny that. Barring Sequoia and her Breckenridge, Roxie and Zairn had been together the longest. Oh, no, sorry, her sister, Sonia, had been with Blayne for… some amount of time. With all its back and forths, she could be forgiven for blocking that relationship from her memory.
Speaking of… “How do you know?” Sonia asked. “How do you know he’s your forever guy?”
“You and Blayne fighting again?” Toria asked, used to the tides of Sonia’s relationship. “Sometimes fighting is good, it’s passion. Ask Rox or Roux.”
“If fighting is foreplay, I’m all for it.” Roux was quick to straighten a finger from around her glass to point. “But if he’s just being an asshole, get rid of him. Life is way too short for that shit.”
“You don’t know it,” Jane said. “You can love them with your whole heart, but all you can do is trust he feels the same.”
It wasn’t great to hear Jane insecure in her relationship.
She always had been, sort of, but with the wedding and the Gramercy legacy board causing way more issues than any of them wanted to deal with, things had been on-ice for everyone.
She hadn’t seen Zairn in person since leaving New York with Tripp and Sequoia two weeks ago.
That hadn’t been the plan, not that there had been a specific plan beyond being at the church on time—so to speak.
She never doubted how Zairn felt, or her feelings for him, not since they’d smacked her upside her head. Their kind of security couldn’t be taught or bestowed.
“You have to love him more than anything else,” Roxie said. “More than anyone else. He has to be like the air you breathe. You can’t imagine the world without him, you wouldn’t want to be in it if he wasn’t at your side. It’s right when there is no life without your guy.”
“Aww,” more than a few of the girls swooned.
“Shut up,” she played, fighting to flatten the smile that fought for control of her lips. “Like you people don’t feel the same.”
“I could live without Rourke,” Roux said, nonchalant. “Providing he left the money behind.”
“See that’s it,” Sonia interjected, jolted by some kind of urgency. “Isn’t it easier to want forever with a guy worth all that money?”
Various calls of yes and no came out of the women.
“I don’t care about the money,” Merci said.
“You don’t have to, honey. Reid’s all about anticipating your needs. He overprovides.”
“JD tries that with the kids sometimes.”
“Not with you?”
“I’d never let him,” Rylee said. “But I have access to everything anyway.”
“Yes!” Rainie agreed, maybe a few too many sherries up. “It gets to a point when it’s just… there. I don’t think about it much.”
“Who’s single here?” Sonia asked.
Roxie pointed. “Toria, Astrid, Mieux, Sway, Kesley… according to latest intelligence reports anyway.”
“Yeah, and none of them had a billionaire fall madly in love with them. Bet if they had, they wouldn’t be single right now.”
Oh, abandon course. Abort. They may not have had a billionaire fall for them, but one, at least, had been in a relationship with a billionaire who did reject the idea of forever: Kesley.
“Uh…” Bambi raised a flat hand. “Struan isn’t a billionaire.”
“There you go, see,” Rainie said. “He doesn’t have to be rich. Love is love.”
“Baer isn’t financially rich.”
Did that really count? Freya sure was. Rich and then some.
“If you want to dump Blayne’s ass, dump it,” Toria said. “Come live in New York with us.”
Despite her sister’s instant jolt of elation, Roxie shook her head. “Oh, God, no, that’s a terrible idea.”
“Not like you don’t have the space.”
“I love everything about my life,” Roxie said. “Me. I do. Sonia wouldn’t do well in this kind of life; she needs a lot of… support.”
“You’re just through saying the money doesn’t matter. If it’s just there, why shouldn’t I spend it?”
“Money you can spend, sister. Knock yourself out,” she said. “It’s the rest of the time I’m worried about.”
Sonia needed a lot of direction and didn’t have much motivation to get up and do…
anything. In New York, her sister would be swept up with some group of undesirable friends, and likely a lot of spongers.
There was a reason she hadn’t set up a trust for her sister.
Blayne, and her other friends, might care more about the cash than the kindness. Sonia wouldn’t recognize being used.
Zairn taught her that she’d develop a nose for those who were genuine or not, and she had.
Sonia wouldn’t be so receptive to learning those lessons, she liked to be popular and in demand.
Plus, in truth, even if Sonia did dump Blayne’s ass now, they’d probably be back together soon enough.
And she couldn’t live with Blayne long-term, even in a skyscraper.
No, the day Blayne moved in to Crimson Palace would be the day she moved out… and she’d be taking Zairn with her.
Sonia was easily led, that was it. Easily led. And would rebel against any kind of sisterly advice, and any Zairn tried to give too. They’d end up parenting Sonia and they definitely didn’t want that to be a part of their life.