Page 151 of Love Without Control

Then he shocked the shit out of me by tossing a casual arm around my shoulders and grinning. “Cool, bro. Let’s go feed our women.”

And just like that, I felt the thrill of acceptance, the warmth of a family that was good and loving. And now I was a part of it.

Epilogue

SIXMONTHSLATER

“You look gorgeous,” Juliette said, her eyes filling with tears as she adjusted my veil. My hair was longer now and back to its natural caramel color. Earlier today, Kassie and Lehra had set my locks in natural-looking curls that bounced around my shoulders while Gianna had done my makeup.

“Thank you for being here. It means the world to me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Like I would be anywhere else when my bestie from the nestie gets married.”

I laughed at the nickname from when we were kids at summer camp. “I know we’ve been married for years, but this feels special, having an actual wedding in front of all our family and friends.”

“It’s cool that you’re doing it on New Year’s Day since that was your original anniversary.” Her big eyes sparkled as the door opened behind her.

Our other friends Holly and Arya entered the hotel room, followed by Madalynn and Emersyn, who were arguing. As usual.

“No way McDreamy’s penis is bigger than McSteamy’s,” Mady was saying. “McSteamy is just so… hot.”

“Hot doesn’t translate to the size of the man’s junk,” her twin argued back.

“That’s true,” Holly threw in. “Some of the ugliest guys I’ve been with had huge cocks.”

Arya shook her head and lowered her brows. “How does that even happen? Like, how do you end up in bed with an ugly guy?”

Holly shrugged and took a sip of her champagne. “Mostly dares but sometimes alcohol. Not every man looks like the men Juli writes in her books. Ugly guys deserve love too.”

“But you married a handsome guy,” Mady pointed out.

“Well, yeah,” she said in aduhtone. “If I’ve got to look at him every day, might as well pick someone pretty.”

We all laughed at Holly’s feigned shallowness because she was so madly in love with her husband, Bubba. Who also happened to be Juliette’s brother.

Juli also still lived in Texas and was, of course, a romance author. Arya had gone to medical school and was now an internist in California. Emersyn worked in their family business, and her eyebrows no longer resembled caterpillars.

And Madalynn Papadopoulos? Well, no one really knew what Mady did. She had graduated from college, but now she flitted around the world with a series of sugar daddies who all seemed to know about each other and were surprisingly okay with it. It was bizarre.

This wasn’t the first time we’d seen each other since I’d come out of hiding. I’d made sure to call each of them the morning of the press conference so they wouldn’t have to hear that I was alive on the news. Then we’d all gone on a retreat together—not to Mexico, thank you very much—in July. We’d spent the week together in our Florida home and reconnected.

“Time to get you dressed, Miss Bride,” Juliette announced, handing me a tall flute of champagne. “Finish this off because you’re not going to want to spill anything on your fabulous dress.”

I drained the glass, letting the clear pink bubbles dance across my tongue before following Juli into the bedroom. Ten minutes and about eight-thousand buttons later, I emerged in the most gorgeous dress ever made. It was made of a lustrous ivory Baronet satin that seemed to flow in waves down the full princess skirt. The bodice was fitted with long lace sleeves that gave a peek of skin beneath.

“Damn,” Emersyn said as she fanned her eyes to hold back tears. “If I ever get married again, I want your brother to design my dress. You look stunning.”

Mady smiled and took my hand. “Makes me almost want to get married,” she said and then emphasized, “Almost.”

“Let’s all take a picture together,” Arya suggested. “With Evie and our tattoos.”

“Mine is on my ass,” Holly pointed out.

“Then hike up your skirt, woman. Let’s go. We’ve got a wedding to attend.” Arya set up the camera and everyone gathered around me and bared their ink, mostly on arms or ankles, but yes, Holly’s was indeed on her backside. The matching tattoos were of a lilac with a script E in the center. They’d all gotten them on the one year anniversary of my disappearance. My tears had flowed for a solid hour after they’d shown them to me back in July.

“Wow, look at that,” Holly said, looking at the picture on Arya's phone, all of us smiling—and her mooning the camera. “I know all of you are going to want to get this blown up so you can have my butt plastered across your living rooms.”

“Told you that you should have gotten it on your shoulder,” Mady sang. “But nooooo, you insisted.”

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