Not a single one of us could hold our shit together when Julep walked down the aisle to Holden on April sixteenth.
It didn’t matter that Giana, Riley, and I had helped her get dressed, that we’d already seen the way that elaborate cream lace hugged her body in a perfect hourglass shape. We still lost it when the doors opened at the back of the garden and she walked through them holding Coach Lee’s arm.
The fact that he was crying might have been what made me lose it more than anything.
Julep’s father beamed with pride just as much as he broke with heartache as he took the slow steps toward giving his daughter away. Julep’s deep brown eyes were glossy, too — her hair swept up into a classic updo with curls and a thick braid, a small flower crown thread through the strands, and a simple, yet gorgeous, pearl-drop necklace adorning her neck. She’d found the wedding dress at a thrift store, along with every accessory from her pearl-stud earrings to the designer high heels on her feet. Every piece was old and borrowed, and yet they looked as if they’d been made just for her.
And while everyone in that garden was transfixed by Julep, she couldn’t take her eyes off Holden.
Sniffing back my tears, I glanced at where he was waiting for her, and immediately wished I hadn’t. Because one look at him completely falling apart at the sight of his almost-wife made me cry again, too.
He was like a GQ model in his garnet tuxedo, the gold pocket square and trim making him look like an NBU legend. And I supposed he really was. The deep red against the lush green of the botanical garden was dreamy, like a fairytale. But he couldn’t fight back his tears, and he pinched the bridge of his nose, shoulders shaking before he wiped his face and stood straighter with a smile like he couldn’t believe he was so lucky.
That smile was aimed right at Julep.
When I looked back at her, she rolled her eyes on a playful laugh like she was making fun of him for crying, but she was a mess, too.
My eyes drifted to Leo then, who was standing behind Holden as his best man. He had the rings in his pocket and his eyes on me.
It was entirely unfair how he and the rest of the guys looked so good in their suits. We all knew they were hot in football pants and jerseys, but seeing them dressed to the nines was enough to make every girl in their vicinity feral. I wished I could say I was excluded, that I was immune, but watching Leo with that devilish smirk on his face and knowing I would get to strip him out of that suit later made my skin tingle with heat.
His eyes were hooded where they stared at me, as if he was saying without words that this would be us one day. I felt his possession in the air as if it were hands on my hips, and I bit my lip a little, tearing my gaze away from him to look down at my flowers before the whole garden of people caught on to our little show. Then again, I didn’t have to look to know Zeke and Riley were eyeing each other the same way, and Giana and Clay, too.
When the music died as Julep reached the end of the aisle, there was a chorus of sniffles through the crowd, which made us all smile and wipe our faces and laugh a little at ourselves. Coach Lee gave his daughter’s hand to Holden, who stared at her like every dream he’d ever had was coming true in that moment, and the ceremony began.
It was sweet and short, which didn’t surprise me considering Julep hated being the center of attention. And when Holden dipped Julep back in a dramatic kiss to seal the deal, we all went wild, cheering and throwing rose petals over them as they walked back down the aisle.
Then, the party began.
Edison lights came to life as the sun went down, casting the garden in a beautiful glow as the band began to play and guests flooded to either the bar or the dance floor.
“I have to pee so bad,” Giana said when we were free of our ceremonial duties, and she abandoned her bouquet on the wedding party table before practically running toward the bathroom.
“I need a shot,” Riley chimed in. “I’ve never cried so much in my entire life.”
“Besides when you realized how much you love me, right?” Zeke said, sliding up behind her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back into his chest, and she smiled, leaning into the touch.
“Those were tears of frustration,” she shot up at him.
“Oh, that’s right. You were still pretending to hate me, huh?”
“Trust me — I didn’t have to pretend very hard.”
“Sure,” Zeke said, nuzzling into her neck. She flushed and turned into him, and I looked away just as they started to kiss.
So much had happened in the last five months for all of us, it was almost dizzying.
The Rebels had gone on to have their first undefeated season since the nineties, sending them straight to the championship game. Sadly, they’d lost by a last-minute field goal, which had crushed all of us. But even with that loss, there wasn’t a graduating senior who didn’t get a call during the draft.
Every team in the NFL wanted a North Boston University recruit.
But while Clay, Kyle, Braden, and Leo had signed contracts with fat signing bonuses, Zeke had withdrawn himself completely.
It had shocked us all at first, but when he and Riley took us out to dinner and told us about their business plan, the only emotion we felt was ecstatic. They were working with the NFL to launch the Novo Football Coalition, a program dedicated to exposing young girls to football and giving them opportunities to play as they grew older. It was the first program the NFL was directly involved with that supported females stepping into the arena, and there was a partnership with the Women’s Football Alliance to make a future in football for girls, too.
They had a long road to walk, one that we all knew would be bumpy and full of roadblocks. There were so many adversaries to women playing football in our country, but with Zeke and Riley behind the wheel, I had a feeling there was nothing they couldn’t achieve. Maybe one day, there would be a Women’s Super Bowl with two teams of bad ass bitches just like Riley.
I couldn’t wait for that day.
We’d all told them we were there to help every step of the way, too. Some of the guys even forked over a big part of their signing bonus to help them get started. The first branch of their coalition was set to open in the fall right outside of Boston, and Riley’s brother, Gavin, was to be general manager.
“There’s my girl.”
I bit my lip on a smile as Leo’s arms wound around me from behind, his lips finding my neck before I was spun in his arms to face him. He trailed his eyes down every inch of me before making a deep noise in his throat.
“You in this fucking dress, Stig,” he mused, shaking his head. “Remind me to keep you away from all roads. We don’t need a car pile-up to ruin the wedding day.”
“Shut up,” I said swatting at him.
“No chance. Unless you think of a creative way to make me,” he added with an arch of his brow. “Sitting on my face might work.”
He kissed me before I could laugh at him, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, reveling in the way it felt to have him cling to me like I was all he ever wanted. I was also now very distracted by the thought of following through on his invitation later.
Leo was drafted in the third round to the Minnesota Vikings. And while I was secretly hoping we’d end up somewhere hot and tropical, I was just ecstatic for Leo that his dream had come true. There was a high chance he’d end up starting in the fall, too, with how awful the Vikings’ run game had been the past couple of years. They needed Leo, and he was all too happy to step in and step up.
As soon as he signed the paperwork, we were loading up a moving truck and heading to Minneapolis.
Leo’s mom had moved with us, buying a place just outside the city because she couldn’t bear the thought of being too far from her son. We’d welcomed her and the meals she loved to make for us, and my parents helped us move, too, before telling us we always had a place to stay when we wanted to visit Boston.
There was also a threat that we would be back for the holidays — and we were to bring Leo’s mom with us.
Leo’s relationship with his father was strengthening now, too, especially with Leo entering his career with the NFL. Nick was at our condo at least one weekend a month, running drills with Leo to prepare him for the season and walking him through everything he could expect once training camp started in the summer.
And as for me? I was busy renovating.
Because Leo did, in fact, buy me my first tattoo shop with his signing bonus.
Of course, the only way I allowed it was by him promising that he’d accept me paying him back once we were profitable. I still wasn’t convinced he actually would, but I was thankful for the chance to try.
My emotions surrounding tattooing had been a tangled mess after what happened with Nero. Skill wise, I felt like I was bursting at the seams, like I had just cracked the code on my style and was so anxious to get started on my clientele that I would go insane if I didn’t have my own chair. But mentally, I was shut down, afraid of my next move, of what might happen if I tried to work at another parlor in Boston while Leo and I waited to see what would happen in the draft.
For a while, I did nothing.
I allowed myself to come down off the crazy rollercoaster of everything that had happened, finding safety in Leo’s arms. I’d moved back to The Pit, thanks to my roommates who were more than happy to welcome me and Palico back into their space, and I found my joy there with them through the holidays.
Once the new year rolled in, I decided it was time to pull myself out of the rubble and rebuild.
My first plan of going to the other girls at Moonstruck failed miserably. Half of them wouldn’t talk to me at all, like I was a plague and if they so much as answered my texts, they’d be fired and blacklisted, too. The few I did manage to get a conversation out of denied Nero ever making them feel uncomfortable — even though I would have bet my life savings on them lying.
So, my final move was to tell his wife.
Arianna agreed to meet with me after I left an anonymous note with my phone number on the windshield of her car. I felt a little creepy reaching out that way, but I wanted her to know the story of what happened. She deserved at least that much. In the end, I couldn’t control what happened to Nero. In a world set up for men to get away with shit like what he pulled, I didn’t have a whole lot to work with.
I just had the truth, and the desperate hope that Arianna, at least, would believe me.
She’d been quiet when we met for coffee, and she wore dark sunglasses and a scarf that covered her head. When I’d finished, she cleared her throat and said she had to go.
I never heard from her again.
But two weeks later, there was a breaking news story about how Moonstruck Tattoos had been shut down after an anonymous tip to the police that the owner was laundering money for a local drug lord. Nero was arrested, his bail set so high he was sure to be stuck in jail until his court date.
He was served divorce papers while in custody.
I never did hear from Arianna again, and I could only grasp at straws when I tried to put the pieces together of what happened. But justice had been served, even if it wasn’t in the way I wished it had been.
It was closure, and it set me free.
Now, all my time was spent at the shop, and I’d turned a drab, old brick building into my dream parlor, complete with an all-female crew of artists anxiously waiting for our grand opening.
I’d also instilled a little of my best friends into it — a pole for Julep, which she’d already tested and approved, a mini bookstore in the front corner for Giana, which she insisted on being the curator for, and an impressive art collection from local artists for Riley, each piece for sale with the artist taking all the profits. Palico loved spending her time there more than at our condo, since I’d had a custom-built cat tree installed that consisted of various heights and textures.
There was also a gaming corner — a giant screen with an Xbox loaded with games for our clients and staff, alike.
That had been for me.
I just had a few final touches before it would all be ready, and we were planning to open the doors on the first day of summer.
“Alright,” Giana said breathlessly when she returned from the bathroom. “Is the food out yet? I’m ready to eat.”
“Me, too,” Clay said salaciously, and he picked her up like she weighed nothing, scooping her and her long sage dress into his arms.
“You’re a brute,” she said through her laughter, but she clung to him with her rosy cheeks and let him carry her to the wedding party table where our dinner was being served.
The garden filled with cheers as Julep and Holden were introduced as husband and wife for the first time, and once they were seated at the table with us, the band played softly while the staff served a dinner fit for the president. Julep’s mom had taken over so much of the planning that it didn’t surprise me one bit. It felt like a southern ball, but with a boho touch.
Leo drew circles on my knee with his fingertips under the table, his other hand shoveling food into his mouth as we all talked and laughed through dinner.
It was the most bittersweet feeling, because we all knew that we wouldn’t be together like this very often now that we were all spread out over the country. Riley and Zeke would be in Boston, Holden and Julep in Charlotte, Clay and Giana in Denver since Clay had been drafted to the Broncos, and Leo and I would round out the stretch in Minneapolis.
Giana must have really been feeling it, because as our plates were being cleared and we were about to make our way to the dance floor, she started bawling.
“I’m sorry,” she said, taking Clay’s handkerchief when he offered it to her. She dabbed at the corner of her eyes, shaking her head, her wild curls bouncing with the movement. “I just… I love you all so much.”
“We love you, too, G,” I said, reaching over to squeeze her hand with mine.
“I bet some dancing will make you feel better,” Julep said as she stood, and once again, I was breathless looking at her. She was the most beautiful bride.
“Psh, I know what will make her feel better,” Clay argued, putting his arm around Giana. “A trip to the bookstore tomorrow. I saw you eyeing that little one downtown when we were on our way to the hotel.”
Giana smiled up at him through bleary eyes. “You know the way to my heart.”
“I think Clay only pretends like he does it for you when we all know what the kinky bastard really wants is more highlighted pages to re-enact,” Zeke said with a smirk.
“Two birds, one stone,” Clay confirmed. “Though at this point, I’m pretty sure we’ve done it all.”
“TMI,” Riley said, standing and folding her napkin before dropping it to the table.
“Well,” Giana said, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “There is one trope we haven’t tried yet.”
“If you’re referring to the reverse harem shit, I’ve already told you — I don’t share.” Clay looked almost murderous with that comment, which made us all laugh.
“No,” Giana said with a laugh of her own. “Um… I was thinking more… accidental pregnancy.”
Clay laughed, kissing her temple. “Yeah. Sure.”
But the rest of us were frozen still.
Because Giana did not look like she was joking.
She watched Clay with worry etched in every feature, wringing her little hands in her lap. When Clay saw us all staring at her, he found her again, and his face went snow white.
He searched her eyes, a thousand questions in his, and then he trailed that gaze down to her stomach.
Giana unfolded her hands and smoothed them over her flat belly, framing it in a little heart.
“Wait…” Clay swallowed, his eyes snapping back to hers. “You’re… You’re really…”
“Yes,” she whispered.
I clamped a hand over my mouth, tears springing to my eyes as Julep let out a little squeal. But no one moved, not as we waited for it all to sink in for Clay.
He blinked — once, twice — and then, he shoved back from the table, his chair grinding against the floor as he fell to his knees. He wrapped Giana in his arms, burying his head in her chest as his shoulders shook.
“Come on, guys,” Leo said. “Let’s give them a moment.”
He nodded toward the dance floor, and we all followed, but not before the girls and I snuck another look back and found Clay’s massive hands spreading over Giana’s belly, his eyes thick with tears.
“I’m going to be a dad,” he breathed a question up at Giana.
When she nodded, he broke entirely, and we all tore our eyes away, linking arms and letting out unnaturally high-pitched peals of laughter as we ran to the dance floor.
The band was a hit, transitioning from the soft music that had played through dinner into a broad range that pleased everyone from twenty-one to eighty. We danced in a circle, mostly around Julep and Holden, though we all took turns doing stupid dance moves in the middle. I laughed particularly hard when Zeke, Holden, and Leo did some sort of mime act that involved them stuck in invisible boxes.
We were all sweating by the time Clay and Giana joined us, and the guys wrapped Clay in a loud bear hug of congratulations while the ladies swarmed Giana. We fawned over her, taking turns touching her stomach even though nothing was showing yet. Julep said she hoped it was a girl. Riley tried to pester her for names. And I just gave her a high-five for finding a way to make a book-related joke about her pregnancy.
Soon, we were all dancing again, and more and more players joined us.
Braden and Blake started a train at one point, pulling me right between them and giving me no choice but to join. When we were dancing in a circle again, Kyle held up his phone to show us the photo he’d posted of all the guys in their tuxes before the wedding. It had half-a-million likes already, along with thousands of comments — most of them from women who were heartbroken Holden was wifed up now. He’d garnered quite the following after the starting quarterback for the Panthers was injured near the end of the season and Holden stepped in, taking them all the way to the playoffs. They went out in the first round, but once again, Holden was in the spotlight.
I had a feeling he’d live his entire life there.
When I was sweating so much I had to down an entire glass of water to keep from overheating, the band finally gave us a break with a slow song. They crooned out a beautiful rendition of “Scenic Drive” by Khalid and Alicia Keys, the male and female lead singers somehow making it sound even better than the original.
Leo took me by the hand as the first notes played, pulling me to the edge of the dance floor that was the least crowded. His hands found my hips and held me close as I threaded my arms around his neck.
For a while, we just swayed to the music, our eyes dancing over one another as soft smiles played at the corners of our lips. I’d never been to a wedding before, but there was something about being surrounded by such young, promising love that made me want to lean into Leo and tell him how much he meant to me in a hundred different languages.
As if he felt the same, he tugged me in even more, until I could rest my head on his shoulders and close my eyes as we danced. I inhaled his scent, his soul, intertwining mine with it and absentmindedly wondering what our wedding would be like.
There wasn’t even a doubt in my mind now that it would happen one day.
“What’s on your mind, mi amor?” he asked, his words low and sultry in my ear.
“Forever,” I answered softly.
Leo pulled back on a smile. “With me?”
“And Palico.”
“Of course,” he said, but his smile leveled out as his eyes searched mine. “I can see it.”
“Me, too.”
“What do you think,” he asked, nodding to the grand scene around us, the garden lush with plants and flowers and trees, the lights golden, the band more expensive than our mortgage. “You want something like this, too?”
I let out a long breath, considering. “Maybe,” I said. “Or maybe, just you and me and a quiet beach somewhere far away.”
“An elopement?” Leo asked, surprised. Then, after consideration, he nodded. “I could get down with that.”
“Yeah?”
“Hell yeah. But,” he said immediately. “You know there’s no way we can get away without having my mom there.”
I laughed. “Would never dream of it.”
“But you do want to get married?” he asked, almost tentatively.
“I do.”
“And kids?”
“Um…” I cringed. “Maybe we could be the cool aunt and uncle?”
“Oh, come on, Stig,” Leo said on a low, throaty laugh, his lips pressing against the soft skin under my ear. His next words were whispered just below it, sparking chills down my legs. “Let me put a baby in you.”
“Not tonight,” I said, pressing a hand against his chest. “We have a fur baby, and a shop to open.”
“Fair,” he conceded. “But one day…”
“Maybe,” I said, holding up a threatening finger. Leo grabbed it and kissed it, and my ovaries tightened like little traitors at the touch.
The music picked back up after that, and we rushed to join our friends in the center of the dance floor. We partied until well after midnight, Julep’s dad paying the band and the event staff to stay later so we didn’t have to stop. It wasn’t until almost two in the morning that we finally gathered our belongings, the girls holding our heels in our hands as we walked barefoot out of the garden.
Holden and Julep left the venue under a parade of sparklers, ducking into a vintage car that took them to their honeymoon suite at the hotel. They were leaving for their honeymoon in the morning — two weeks traipsing through Europe.
Once they were gone, we all took the shuttle back to the hotel, hugging each of our former roommates when we were back in the lobby. We made them promise to come see us before the season got under way, and Kyle booked his flight right then and there to prove he would.
Riley and Giana tackled me next while Leo said his goodbyes to Zeke and Clay, more tears being shed before Leo and I rode the elevator up to our own room. It was so quiet compared to the wedding that my ears rang as we undressed, and then Leo ran a hot bath in the massive marble tub, both of us easing into the sudsy water with heavy sighs.
We got more dirty than clean in that tub, eventually toweling off and moving to the bed. With all the emotion of the night still clinging to us, we made love until dawn, not stopping to sleep until the sun started slipping through the curtains of our room.
When we finally did curl up in the sheets, Leo spooning me from behind, I inhaled a long, sweet breath before letting it out as I cuddled closer to him. I’d never felt such joy and happiness for people I loved before. I smiled wider with each passing thought — Braden and Kyle playing together for the Seahawks, Blake staying another year as quarterback to lead NBU, Riley and Zeke starting their coalition, Holden and Julep starting their marriage, Clay and Giana starting a family.
My heart was so full, I thought it’d burst.
And when I rolled over, pressing my forehead to Leo’s and feeling his warmth radiating over me, the most blissful peace enveloped me like a blanket. A laugh bubbled out of me as I realized the most hilarious, beautiful truth.
I had everything I’d ever wanted.
All because I begged my parents to buy me Halo.
