Page 27 of Taking It Off

I roll my eyes and smack his arm. “Stop. This isn’t funny.” But Jeremy and Luke are laughing at Will’s joke. I have to admit, it really did play out like a weird movie. I won’t tell them that, though.

“You know how I got paid for what I did, right?” I figure now is as good a time as any to admit what I’ve already done with the money.

“Yeah, I mean, you said they were jobs. We assumed that you’d get paid for them,” Luke answers.

“I got a contract for Franklin after you left last night. It was a lot more than the other two. Probably because he was in charge.” I pause and wait for a second while they process. “I did something with the money, and I need you guys to know about it.”

“What did you do?” Will asks. Jeremy stares at me in disbelief.

“How could you not tell us?” he asks.

“I didn’t want you to think I was only doing it because of the contract. But I’m telling you now, because I trust you guys. I pooled the money for all three jobs and split it between your families. There’s enough money for each family to make up for what you’ve all lost with your fathers’ crimes.” I pull up the info on my phone and hand it to Will.

“That’s a lot of zeros,” he says, handing the phone to Luke.

“Holy shit,” Luke exclaims, passing it to Jeremy.

“Is this the total? Or is this what each family got?” Jer asks.

“That’s what each family got. It was twelve mil total. Four mil each. Your moms will be taken care of and there will be a lot of money left for you guys. I hope that’s okay.” I start to panic, thinking that they’ll get angry that I’ve given their families blood money.

Will drags me into his arms. “That is a very generous thing to do, especially when that was your payment for doing a job.”

“I can’t believe you did this. Mom can get the house back now. Thank you,” Luke says quietly.

Jeremy just looks at me. “I don’t know what to say,” he whispers.

“Look, you guys don’t have to say anything. I didn’t do it so you’d thank me. I did it because it felt like the right thing to do. Given everything your moms and families have been through, they deserve to be taken care of. I want them to have this money. And it can’t be traced to me at all, so no one will ever know where it came from. It’ll look like your moms were hiding money from your dads, and the cops will let it go.” I buried my tracks very carefully to ensure that the police would not be able to confiscate this money or seize it in any way.

“Now that all of this is behind us, we should really talk about that vacation you mentioned,” Luke says.

“Oh, you remember that, do you?” I tease.

“We all do. And we’re hoping you wanna go somewhere sunny and warm,” Will says.

“Why’s that?” I ask, curious at their reasoning.

“So, we can see you lounging around in a bikini when we have to leave the room, and nothing at all the rest of the time,” Jeremy answers.

My cheeks turn red, and I dip my head to avoid their eyes. These three are a handful, but they’re mine. “Tropical vacation it is, then. Have you guys looked into any resorts or cruises?”

EPILOGUE

SIX MONTHS LATER

EMILY

“I don’t want to go back, either, but you promised your mom we’d all come to dinner,” I say, throwing my towel at Luke.

“That shouldn’t count. It was forever ago, before I knew we’d be traveling for six months,” he argues.

Will steps between us, pulling me to him and kissing me deeply. “You two need to stop arguing about this and start packing. Our flight leaves soon.” And just like that, he releases me and walks off.

I go back to tossing clothes into my suitcase. What was I thinking buying new clothes while we’ve been away? I’ll never get them all into this suitcase. A moment later, Jeremy walks in carrying a large suitcase I’ve never seen before.

“You’re gonna need this,” he says, laying it on the bed and unzipping it. Then the fucker walks away laughing.

“I can’t believe none of you are going to help me pack!” I yell at them, before collapsing into a fit of giggles at how absolutely normal things have been for us the last six months. I mean, I never expected our beach trip to become semi-permanent, but we all love it here.

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