A Year Later
I pulled the pan out of the oven, almost dropping it as I cheered. It was perfectly done.
It was the second Christmas I had spent with the crew, but the first one that I was cooking while on camera. At the beginning of the year, Jax had given me all the confidence to upload a video of me cooking, and it had done well enough that I uploaded another one. And then another one, until my videos were doing so well that I was making money from them, surprisingly good money.
Even the crew was getting involved. They liked to call themselves guest stars when they helped me cook something for a video. I didn’t mind because viewers seemed to love it when they came on, each one of those videos doing double the views compared to what they did when I was alone. Especially when Jax helped me.
I had grown it enough that I was starting to work on a cookbook, something I always wanted to do, and I hoped it would all continue. The sudden bit of success left me wanting more. The next thing I had on my mind was buying the diner.
I wrapped up the video and laid out the food as Jax’s head popped into the kitchen. This was one of my longer videos and they had all taken a turn coming in to help me, but now it was time to actually eat all the food.
“You done?”
“Yeah, I just need this all carried out.”
He nodded, grabbing plate after plate of food to bring out to the table before coming back.
He wrapped his arms around me, kissing me hard as he untied my apron and pulled it off.
“This wasn’t what you were wearing before,” he said, eyeing the low cut top.
“No, I went and changed after the video.”
He pulled at the top, sucking in a breath at the red lace underneath.
“I really hope this is the present I get to unwrap.”
“It might be one of them,” I said. “Have you been good?”
“My best behavior every single day,” he said, kissing my neck as his hand dipped in, running over the lace that covered my breast.
“You aren’t being good right now.”
“Neither are you. You knew exactly what this lace was going to do to me.”
I laughed. “Yes, I did, so come on, let’s go eat.”
He groaned, trailing after me. I knew he would get me back for teasing him as soon as we were alone tonight, and I was already looking forward to it.
We laid everything out on the table as the crew sat down, already deep into a conversation about next week’s races.
After everything that happened with Slaughter died down, they all went right back to their lives, moving on like nothing ever happened. They still rarely brought it up to me. At first, I thought it was because they didn’t want to upset me, but then I realized that it was because they didn’t worry about it anymore. The threat of him was gone, and they were happy to leave it in the past. I was happy to leave it there right along with them. And there were apparently plenty of other warrants for Slaughter’s arrest that, on top of stealing the cars that they found in his garage, he wouldn’t be out for a long, long time. Which meant that I could live my life in peace.
I sat down as Jax threw his arm around the back of my chair. It was the same place I sat a little over a year ago, scared of these people. I could only laugh now. I couldn’t believe I was scared of them for even a second.
“This looks amazing. Good job,” Jax said, and I smiled as he started passing dishes. I was pretty sure he complimented every single thing I made, but it never failed to make me smile.
I looked around, waiting as everyone piled their plate and started eating. “I just want to tell you all thank you,” I said, trying to keep my voice even. “I wouldn’t be where I was with all of this without you all, and I can’t tell you how much it means to me.”
“Aww, I think this is Carly telling us she loves us,” Scout said, jumping up and throwing her arms around me.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m saying,” I said, laughing as I tried to grab onto her. I might still struggle to verbally tell everyone how much I love them, but I was getting better, and they all seemed to find it more funny than anything.
Except Jax, who would tell me that he loves me over and over until I said it back.
For not having a family, I really found a great family to hang around.
We finished eating and then moved to the living room to open the mountain of presents. With eight of us here buying presents for each other, the presents piled up fast.
Jax moved them all around, handing them out until everyone had their own little pile, then sat down on the ground, his back against the couch. He grabbed me, sliding me until I was between his legs, and leaned back against him.
Riot sniffed after each box, searching through them until he found the one that held his new chew toy, and getting to work ripping it apart.
From there, I could see one box hidden at the back that he hadn’t pulled out yet.
“Did you forget one?” I asked, looking back at him. He grinned.
“No, we can open that one later, alone.”
“Oh no, what did you do?”
“Oh no? Are you worried I bought something you didn’t like?”
“No, I’m worried you bought something that will keep me tied to a bed all day tomorrow instead of going to my grandpa’s house.”
He laughed, the rumble of his chest shaking me. “No, it won’t keep you tied to the bed. I already have the things to do that. This one will be vibrating against you and making you beg to stay in bed.”
I smacked at his hand as he moved down over my jeans, pointing out exactly where he was going to use it.
“You’re terrible,” I said, laughing. “And calm yourself down. We aren’t alone yet.”
“Sorry, I didn’t know you could feel that.”
“Pretty hard not to with the size of that thing,” I said, his hard cock now pressing against my lower back. His chest tumbled again, and I laughed. For all the ways Jax liked to be in charge, he loved when I praised him about anything.
“Here,” he said, setting a box in my lap. “This is the real present.”
I looked at the small box, the horrible wrapping making me laugh. “Did you wrap this yourself?”
“Of course, I did.”
“You know the worst part,” Kye said from across the room. “He’s improved over the years.”
I laughed as Jax threw some wadded up paper at him. Kye had also really become one of my best friends over the past year, too. Somehow, our weird talks always made me feel better, and both of us knew that we could end the conversation at any moment by just walking away, and that was somehow my perfect friendship.
Jax kissed the back of my head, reminding me that I still hadn’t opened the present. I ripped the paper off and opened the small box, not hiding my smile as I looked down at the necklace.
The small font matched his tattoo exactly. “Forever,” I said, reading it.
“I figured we weren’t getting matching tattoos anytime soon, so I thought this would be the next best thing,” he said, grinning as I looked back at him. “It will at least hang in the exact same place as my tattoo, so we will kind of match.”
“That is the sweetest thing you have ever given me,” I said, trying to find any words.
“Really? Damn, I just keep outdoing myself, don’t I?” he said, kissing my head again. “But you do like it?”
“Yes, I love it. Thank you, and you are right. I wasn’t planning on getting matching tattoos, no matter how much I want forever with you.”
I had spent days trying to think of something to get for Jax. He was impossible to buy for, aside from parts for his car, and I knew he would be happy with literally anything. He had decided earlier this year that he loved helping the kids with the charity division at Holt Racing, so he had almost taken over running it entirely. Most days he was exhausted, so there was one thing I knew he would love.
“I know you’ve been going non-stop with the garage, and running the charity at Holt, so I decided to get us a trip away. We are going to our own private cabin in the woods for a few days. No interruptions or work.”
His chest rumbled and arms encircled me. “That might be the best present I’ve ever had. I don’t know what could be better than a break from everything with my girl, all to myself.”
I snuggled back against him, not wanting to move as everyone opened up their presents.
Sometimes, I could still barely believe this life was mine. I woke up every morning in a safe, cozy apartment, had coffee with Jax before either starting my day working, which was really just cooking with a camera in my face, or hanging out with one of the girls. Three girls who had become my best friends after I let my guard down completely.
Sometimes I still struggled with thinking about forever, but I also couldn’t imagine wanting forever with anyone else.
I leaned back, turning to kiss him.
“Love you, sunshine,” I said, smiling at the nickname.
He groaned. “I still haven’t gotten over you telling me that randomly. I love you too, my grumpy little witch.”
