26. Boob Tape
BOOB TAPE
COLE
My plan is simple.
I’ve replayed it in my head every waking moment for the last ten days, and it hasn’t changed. It’s still the best option I have. I’ve tested it against every variable I can imagine—even worse-case scenarios that are so unlikely, they could be science fiction—and my plan holds.
It’s solid.
Hudson may be barely talking to me, but he’s helping. He’s ensuring Junie won’t get hurt. That’s what matters. I’ve been friends with him for twenty-five years. We’ll get through this.
Hopefully.
My one small mercy is that Natalie’s name still hasn’t appeared on the publicized guest list. These things always have a receiving line, and if she were there, she’d be waiting for me.
Not having to avoid her all night is a relief I desperately needed.
Now we can say hello to the CEO, then head straight to our table to wait for the nightmare to end.
We’ll get through dinner, speeches, awards, and then, as soon as I win, I’ll get Junie the hell out of there.
And the moment Hudson gives me the okay, I’ll confront Natalie privately. Tell her it’s over.
She’ll fight me on it. But I’d rather know I’ve done everything possible to be with Junie than continue the lies that keep me from her for another minute.
If I hadn’t been so young and terrified six years ago, I never would’ve agreed to leave in the first place.
This is one night.
Fifty thousand dollars.
Everything on the line.
I can do this.
Junie has done her part. She’s cleaned my books. Filed the paperwork that will clear my name.
Now it’s my turn.
I will fix this.
Junie will never have to know how close she came to emotional and financial ruin, or that the secrets she never knew existed were weaponized by my ex.
That stops now, and I feel more centered than I have in six years.
The moment I step outside, I see Junie on her stairs.
Behind her, Katie is still fluffing her hair, and I smile at the frustration billowing off Junie in waves.
Perhaps I should’ve warned her that the entirety of The Haven was invested in seeing Junie shine like the last standing bachelorette from one of their dating shows.
“Just one more thing,” Katie huffs, but this time, Junie flees, practically flying down her stairs, and my next breath lodges itself in my throat as I race to catch her.
Visions of Junie tumbling down those steps have me moving faster than I have in years.
We collide like titans at the bottom of her stairs.
She releases a huff of air that almost sounds like a word. My hands clasp her bicep on instinct, holding her steady.
“Jesus, Cole. You’re like a fucking brick wa—” The words die on her lips when she gapes up at me, but I’m the one knocked off my axis.
Juniper Mercer is breathtaking.
Beautiful.
Exquisite.
“Gorgeous doesn’t do you justice, Junie.” I step back to take her all in.
She’s wearing a dress in a deep smoky purple. She’s a midnight sky. The dress is fitted through the ribs and hips, then gets loose from the knee down with a neckline that means every time she moves, my entire year readjusts. The C-cut is so dramatic, it’s practically to her navel.
“Wait until you see the back,” Katie taunts.
Without looking away from Junie, I spin her in place and bite off a groan. The dip back here is even lower. She’s basically wearing two scraps of fabric that keep her decent but make my imagination conjure very dirty things.
“How is this even staying on?” My words sound like a battle raging in a field.
“Boob tape,” Junie snaps. “She fucking boob-taped me into this thing.”
Katie shrugs as she makes her way down the stairs with multiple tiny suitcases and what looks like four curling irons. “It gets the job done. And stop being a big baby, it doesn’t even hurt. Plus, your tits stand out on their own, they don’t even need a bra.”
“Katie. Don’t talk about my girl’s tits.”
“And that’s my cue to get out of here.” Katie lifts her pinched fingers to her lips and kisses them. “Perfection. My best work yet.” Then she saunters down my driveway in the weird heels she’s always wearing.
“I should’ve bought my own dress instead of trusting Katie to lend me one of hers,” Junie grumbles.
“She’s not getting this dress back. I’ll pay her for it. This”—I run my palms up her bare arms—“this is… You’re stunning, Junie.”
Her long blonde hair is pulled high into a sleek ponytail that shows off…everything. I can almost feel the silky strands wrapped around my wrist. She’s not wearing a necklace, but her dangly earrings shine like diamonds that have my gaze drifting to her ring finger.
I’ll have to do something about that soon. It needs to be a permanent fixture, not a problem seeking a solution.
That’s a situation for future Cole to figure out.
Then I notice the thin gold bracelet she has on her right wrist. It’s the one I bought her for her college graduation but wasn’t sure if she kept it or even if she ever received it.
“Don’t,” she says when she sees me eyeing it.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t start things we don’t have the time to finish. Plus, if Nana Mae catches us, she’ll turn this into a photo shoot like we’re heading off to the damn prom.”
I glance around the driveway because I suddenly want those photos. “Juniper.”
“Cole.”
I hand her the clutch she’d left on my kitchen counter. She takes it without meeting my eyes. That’s good. If she does, I won’t pass a decency test in any county in South Carolina.
Nana Mae materializes on my porch wearing lipstick that means war and a dress that means Paula Van Holten is going to have a very bad evening. We purchased four tickets to this thing, and in hindsight, I should’ve purchased an entire table to hedge my bets.
“Are you going to tell me who your date is now?” Junie asks Nana Mae just as Hudson’s rental car pulls up the driveway.
The number of things that Hudson’s pissed off at me about are too numerous to count, but the one I feel worst about is asking him to keep this a secret from Nolan. But my reasons for keeping the secret haven’t changed. I don’t want Anna and Tommy Mercer’s actions to hurt their children—my family.
“There he is,” Nana Mae says. “Cole.” I stand up straighter.
“Fix your bowtie. Juniper, stand up straight. We’re not walking into that ballroom looking like a funeral procession.
” Then she tilts her head to the side. “Though, Junie, I think you just might start an inferno. You look beautiful, dear.”
Junie flushes on every inch of visible skin. “Nana Mae—”
“Don’t Nana Mae me. This is the night I beat Paula in a room of three hundred people and Cole finally gets the recognition he deserves. I need both of you to comport yourselves.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Junie bites back a smile.
A car door closes behind us, and when I meet Hudson’s glare, it’s like meeting a stranger. I’ve never felt this level of hostility from him.
“Oh, Hudson,” Nana Mae gushes. “Look at you. You do clean up nice. Now, let’s get out of here. Can’t be late.”
“Can’t have that, now, can we?” Hudson holds out his elbow for my grandmother without so much as a hello for me.
“Did you know he was coming?” Junie whispers.
“Yeah,” I say because there are already too many secrets between us.
She peers up at me, waiting, but it’s all I can give for now.
As the two most important women in my life enter Hudson’s rented BMW, I allow myself to have one uncomplicated thought.
This is what I’m fighting for. This is mine.
Almost.
After tonight, this is mine.
The ballroom at the La Foire hotel in Charleston is opulence in understated tones. I haven’t been in this building in years, but my body remembers. The cold breath of the HVAC. The specific glimmer from the chandeliers. The way the acoustics swallow your voice when you stand near the south wall.
“I don’t know what the fuck you did, but I can’t find Junie’s name on anything,” Hudson hisses in my ear while Junie and Nana Mae select a glass of champagne. “Fucking nothing. Are you sure her name was on the original loan?”
“I sent you what I had. When I beat the shit out of Tommy, he specifically said that the house and the loan transferred to Junie’s name the second she turned eighteen. Isn’t it good that you can’t find her? That means that the asshole did what I told him to do.”
“You don’t get it, Cole. There’s always a paper trail. Alw—”
Junie slides her hand around my elbow, and Hudson plays chaperone to Nana Mae as if we hadn’t been mid-conversation.
He barely spoke the entire drive here, instead allowing Nana Mae’s constant chatter to fill the space. But his gaze met mine in the rearview mirror more than once, filled with fire for all I’ve done.
The weight of Junie’s hand in the crook of my elbow is a fact I can focus on.
Nana Mae peels off toward a table of women her age, two of whom are probably watching the door for Paula, but thankfully, she drags Hudson with her, and the first fissure of doubt sweeps across my palms.
“Twenty minutes,” I whisper to Junie. “Receiving line, greet the hosts, go to our table to the left of the podium. Then we sit and wait it out.”
“Jesus, Cole. You said that in the car three times. I’ve got this.”
She does.
Everyone does.
Everyone except me.
Every time I repeated my plan, Hudson’s brow lifted further in the rearview until I was sure his head would explode.
He has a million and one reasons to be angry with me, every one of them valid, but he also knows what’s on the line. So no matter how much he may want to kill me, he’ll do everything he can to help me first.
That’s why guilt sits like spiky talons in my throat. I’ve now implicated him in my crimes. He said I should’ve done it sooner. Maybe he’s right, but here we are now.
And we both know that I’ll set fire to anyone to save Junie—I just hope it doesn’t come to that.
“I’m reassuring myself,” I say, absentmindedly scouting the layout.