Chapter 35
Romeo/Aleks - Epilogue
A Year and A Half Later
It’s the anniversary of the day Julien and I met.
It’s been two years now. I can hardly believe it.
It’s really flown by in the best fucking way.
Every single day living with my chaotic family has been amazing.
Julien and Jinx aren’t chaotic, but all our animals are.
We practically have a zoo. Not practically. We do.
I chew on a piece of hay, standing on the fence watching and laughing at Big Blue and Snickers in the field being silly. They’re running around as if they’re little puppies instead of big horses. They’re so cute.
Big Blue is a thoroughbred, and he belongs to Julien. He’s a pretty gray-and-white color with white spots all over and a black mane. Snickers is mine, and she’s a tri-colored Pinto with brown and white patches and a black mane. She looks like a chocolate bar.
Coconut jumps on the fence and rubs her head against my arm.
“Hey, baby.” She’s a white cat that came to us over four months ago, as if sensing this ranch was the place to be for animals.
She’s one of the sweetest kitties we have, and we have a lot of them.
Coconut is the eleventh cat to come live with us. I named her that since she’s all white.
I reach into the pocket of my jeans and grab a couple of kitty treats I always have on me. I put them on the fence post, and she gobbles them up. Julien always laughs when we’re doing laundry because the treats for all the animals are always in my pockets.
I scratch Coconut between the ears and kiss her head when she finishes her treats.
The day is perfect, beyond being our anniversary. Not a cloud in the sky, temps in the low 80s, and the San Juan mountains look majestic in the distance, some still covered in snow.
I dig into my unzipped hoodie, and Snickers thinks I’m grabbing a treat for her, so she saunters over, snorting at me happily.
I do have a snack for the horses, but it’s the ring I pull out—the silver gleams like the sun.
When I saw it in one of the local jewelry shops, I had to get it.
It has an inlay with actual moss that looks like a mountain range, like our land was crafted on it.
The jeweler put our initials on the inside with the date we met. I hope Julien likes it.
My sugar has something planned for us tonight, so I didn’t bother doing anything special. Well, I do have something special planned, but he’s setting us up with something to do, but I have no idea what.
Surprisingly, I’m not nervous about asking him to marry me. It’s not something we’ve really discussed yet since we’ve been so busy. I’ve been doing online schooling and interning at a vet clinic, while Julien has been running the horse business.
When Snickers reaches me, I pull out an apple slice and feed it to her. I giggle at how horses eat. It’s so adorable, with their whiskers and huge teeth.
Big Blue notices I’ve got snacks and trots over to me, bobbing his head. He shoves Snickers out of the way for some apples.
“Back! Don’t you be mean to my Snickers. She has a right to snacks, too.”
I pet his dark gray snout as he chomps on an apple slice.
After they finish that, I also give them some carrots. I pet them a few times, then I jump down from the fence and make my way toward the house.
I find Jinx by the stables with all the dogs sitting at attention, waiting for his instructions in return for treats. In his spare time, he’s been training them to do tricks and to behave.
I wave to him, and he waves back. “Have fun tonight. Don’t do what I wouldn’t… or maybe I would. Anyway, have a good anniversary.”
“Thanks, Jinx! We will.”
Like me, Jinx is still in school for social work.
It’s a long process. It took us forever to get our online education just to pass the GED.
College is so much harder, so it’s been slow-going, but we’ll get there.
Neither of us needs to work, but we want to feel useful and accomplished.
We also don’t want to waste our freedom. I’ll never take that for granted.
He’s eighteen now, and he’s seeing a high school graduate who lives closer to town. She’s really sweet and pretty. Jinx seems to like her.
He’s also banned everyone from calling him Tyler.
Nutmeg sees me and rushes over. I pet her head, and she follows me inside the house. I shouldn’t have favorites, but she’s my baby first, above all others.
When I head inside, I tense when I hear Julien yelling at someone. Nutmeg and I quickly make our way to him. He must be on the phone, because the staff who help us on the ranch are all outside, not that Julien would ever yell at them.
“I don’t give a fuck if she can’t find work. How is that my problem?”
I instantly relax. He must be talking about his mother. She has no way to reach him personally, so I’m assuming he’s talking to his lawyer.
“Look, I don’t want to sound like a prick, but you have no idea what I went through with Holt and her. It’s bad enough to tell you that I don’t care what the fuck happens to her.”
There’s silence as he listens, running a hand through his dark curls. “Then, tell her to find a new sugar daddy or something. I don’t owe her fucking shit.”
He slams down the phone on the desk and winces, lifting it to make sure he didn’t shatter the screen. That’s when he notices me.
“Hey, Aleks,” he says.
After a lot of therapy, I finally ditched my hooker name.
It was fucking hard, since it was the only name I’d ever known, but I wanted to start fresh and to be called what I was born with.
There were no strong emotions attached to it, which was exactly what I needed at the time.
Now, I’m used to Julien calling me Aleks more than Romeo.
It helps that he uses my name a lot for that very reason.
“Heard that, huh?” he asks.
I step up to him and pull him against me. He holds on and rests his head on my shoulder. “You okay? Was that about your mom?”
“Yeah. She reached out to Max, my lawyer, trying to find me. Not because she wants to reconcile or beg for forgiveness, but apparently, she’s had a string of boyfriends, nothing lasting, and she can’t find work since she’s never worked a day in her life.
She refuses to bow down by waiting tables or working in a fast-food restaurant. It’s not my problem. Still…”
“You feel like you’re obligated just because she’s your mom?”
“Yeah. God, all that therapy over the years, and I still feel like a bitter asshole, but I just can’t bring myself to help her.”
“You’re not an asshole. She is. You don’t have to do anything for her. Maybe if she really tried to fix things, it’d be different.”
Julien squeezes me tighter. “I know, but the guilt is there whether I want it or not. I love how she tries to find me on the very day I left home.”
“Giving birth to you doesn’t give her the right to demand anything,” I remind him.
He steps back, but he cups my face and kisses me. “You’re right. Sorry about that… happy anniversary, baby.”
I smile and stare at him in wonder. My love for him has only grown these past two years. He still makes my stomach tingle. I fucking worship him. “Happy anniversary.”
“Let’s think happy thoughts,” he says, planting a kiss on my lips again. “I’ve got an amazing evening lined up for us.”
“I can’t wait, but you don’t have to do anything special. I’m just as happy sitting on your lap by the fire, surrounded by all our fur babies.”
“While that’s nice, too, I want to do this. I’ll always do something special for you because you’re worth it. I love you so much.”
“I love you, too.” If I were smarter, I could come up with better words, something poetic and beautiful. Saying, ‘I love you,’ has never felt like enough when it comes to Julien.
After a few more smooches, he reluctantly pulls away. “Okay, back to work. See you in a few hours, Cupcake.”
If I know anything about Julien, it’s that his gesture for tonight will be amazing and over the top. Last year, we went on a helicopter ride through the mountains. That was epic, but I’m sure he’ll top that.
Julien and I hike hand-in-hand along our property, through the trees far from the house, and along the river that lines our property.
Between hiking, traveling, working with animals, and using the gym at the house, I’ve grown a lot stronger. When it’s not too cold, I go swimming now that I know how. I don’t struggle to hike anymore.
When we reach the fancy tent, I stop in my tracks, yanking Julien back.
I’m hit with so many damn emotions at once, but the main ones are love for this amazing man, yet there’s pain, too.
Memories of that day he almost took his life hit me like a freight train.
I’d been so damn angry with him at the time and distraught that he felt dying was his only way out.
“You okay, baby?”
“Yes… no. It’s so beautiful, Julien. It also hurts.”
He wraps an arm around me and presses our bodies together. “I know. I thought it might, just like last year, but I also thought doing this tonight would be kind of healing, too. You and I have come a long way with therapy, but I know there are some things we still need to deal with… You and me.”
“We aren’t going to re-enact that night, are we?” I’m trying to joke, but it comes across as frustrated.
“Only the sexy parts. I have something special lined up for us, too.”
“I can do sexy.”
He chuckles and kisses my head. “Good.”
I don’t tell him I have a gift for him as he steps back, takes my hand again, and walks us toward the tent. A man is standing there, holding a champagne bottle next to a table covered in food and flickering candles.
When we sit down, and I look at the food, I snort a laugh, no longer having to hide my teeth since I got them straightened, thanks to Julien. “Oh my god, it’s my favorite pizza.”