Page 131 of It's Complicated

Jamie glanced up like he sensed me looking at him, his eyes meeting mine and another of those soft smiles tilting his lips.

I smiled back, my nerves settling. Zander was right. Everything was going to be fine.

Jamie held my gaze for a few more seconds, then winked and turned his attention back to Johnny and Andy.

I took a moment to look around the small space. I’d rented the private room of a restaurant near the garage, and it warmed my heart to see all the important people in our lives having fun and sharing the night with us.

Jamie’s sisters and parents, along with Emma’s husband, were standing with Nate and Devon. I had no clue what they were talking about, but they were laughing and smiling and having a great time.

Jesse and Sebastian were on the other side of the room with Adam, Quinn, and some of the guys from Jamie’s work and their partners, and a group of Jamie’s high school friends weretalking hockey with Luka near the bar. Cass and her girlfriend were chatting with Delilah and her husband a few feet away. Nate’s two youngest kids were set up at a small table with Cody and Sophia doing crafts with the sitter I’d hired so their parents could have a break and enjoy the party with the other adult guests.

It wasn’t a huge crowd, but the people who mattered were there, and that meant the world to us.

Things had changed a lot over the past five years. I’d gone no contact with my mother, which hadn’t been nearly as dramatic as when I’d told off my dad. Instead of confronting her and saying all the things I’d been holding in for years, I just stopped calling her. It wasn’t like she’d listen to anything I said, and I was done trying to make her care about me.

My father still wasn’t a part of my life, and that was entirely his fault. He and Bri had broken up shortly after my little brother was born. She’d made out like a bandit in the divorce settlement, and my father had pretty much washed his hands of another kid and was back to his old ways of tossing money at him instead of being an actual father.

Bri and I weren’t on great terms, but I kept in touch with her so I could be part of my brother’s life. I didn’t get to see him often since they lived in California now, but I loved the little guy, and Bri had redeemed herself a bit by accepting that Jamie and I were together and we were a package deal.

Jamie’s family, on the other hand, had been nothing but accepting of our relationship. Emma hadn’t been surprised at all when we told her, and neither had Laura. Their parents were a bit shocked, but they welcomed me into the family with open arms and showed me more love than my own parents ever had.

We came out to Jamie’s friends after telling his family, and most of them had taken it well. A few of his old hockey buddieshadn’t, but he’d cut them out of his life without a second thought.

Another big change was that Jamie quit his job at the bank about six months after the layoff scare. The environment was toxic, and his hours had been cut down to part-time. Jesse had helped hook him up with Quinn, who’d been looking for an office manager for his construction company, and he’d been working there ever since.

He loved his job, and he’d made friends with everyone at the company but was especially close with Quinn and his original crew, who also used to work with Quinn at the strip club back in the day.

I still worked at Legacy Mechanics and had no plans of leaving. I loved my job and really loved the family we’d created there.

It might not be the life that my family had envisioned for me, but I was happy. I had friends who loved me, and I had Jamie. And that was all I needed.

“Feel better?” Asa asked. “Or do you need Zander to keep using his phone sex operator voice on you?”

I spluttered out a laugh and tossed Zander a grin. “I mean, I’ll never say no to hearing some sweet nothings if you’re in the mood.”

“How do you even know what a phone sex operator is?” Zander asked. “Aren’t those before your time?”

Asa flashed him an innocent-looking smile and shrugged mysteriously.

Before I could wonder what that was about, a flash of color caught my attention. I glanced toward the door as April came into the room, her yellow top bright under the dim lights.

“Heya, stranger,” she greeted as she came to stand with us.

“Hey.” I leaned in to give her a hug. “I’m glad you could make it.”

“Wouldn’t miss it.” She shot me a conspiratorial grin. “Especially since I’m the reason all this happened in the first place.”

Asa, who’d just taken a sip of his drink, spluttered and started coughing.

Zander slapped him on the back a few times as Asa composed himself, looking between April, me, and Jamie a few times with a knowing grin on his lips.

The guys at work all knew about the threesome, but they hadn’t met April.

“I like to think we would have eventually figured it out on our own,” I said as Asa finally stopped coughing.

It wasn’t often that he was taken by surprise, and it was funny to see him all flustered for once.

“Probably,” she agreed, waving at Jamie, who’d looked over when Asa started choking.

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