In the twomonths since Rich’s funeral, Autumn, Jackson and I attended a weekend course in Texas and had become certified as self-defense instructors. When I pitched the idea to Autumn, she cried. At first I didn’t understand her tears until she explained that it was a perfect idea because she wanted to save other women like I’d saved her. She didn’t want to go back to working at a bank and while Rich had left plenty of money behind, we both knew it would run out eventually if we weren’t working.
What stunned us both was the amount of money Rich had loaned to people. Instead of dealing with Rich’s clients, Autumn closed the doors on Jones Investments. I didn’t blame her. Rich was involved in shady shit and since it had got him killed, we all knew the best thing was to forgive each loan. It would also increase Autumn’s safety to anyone who Rich may have pissed off over the years. Autumn, Jackson and I had also become certified firearm instructors. It made Autumn feel safer even if we believed she wasn’t in danger any longer.
“You know how you think I’m the smartest person in the entire world?” I joked.
“Yeah.” She laughed and shook her head.
“I might know where we can teach our class until we can buy a warehouse.”
She perked up. “Oh? Where?”
“Club 24.”
“Really?”
“I need to talk to Blake first, but I think it would work out. Even if it were once a week.”
Since we went to Club 24 almost every day, I’d become friends with the new manager, Blake Montgomery. His brother owned the gym, and Blake had relocated to manage the compound as Jackson would say. I knew I could talk Blake into letting us teach in a one-hour time slot.
“I think that sounds perfect.” Autumn came and sat next to me on the couch. “We go there all the time anyway. Why not make money doing it.” She chuckled.
I grinned and kissed the top of her head. “That’s what he said.”
She sat up and gave me a confused look.
“Why not make moneydoing it,” I repeated.
She shook her head again as she smiled. “You’re lucky that’s not a sore subject for me anymore.”
“I wouldn’t joke if it were.”
She rolled her eyes. “Men.”
“Speaking of doing it …” I raised my eyebrows with a huge grin.
She stood. “Last one in our room does all of the pleasing.” She took off running down the hall before I was able to stand from the couch.
What my angel didn’t realize was that I’d always let her win because nothing satisfied me more than making her come.
Multiple times.
Autumn fell asleep in my arms, and while sleeping next to her was one of my favorite activities, there was something I needed to do without her knowing.
I slowly got out of bed, making sure not to wake her and slipped on my basketball shorts. I never thought that I would be doing this again. If you had asked me eight months ago where I saw myself in five years, I would have told you dead.
While my laptop booted up, I jumped into the shower in the spare bathroom to wash the sweat from my body. Rolling around with Autumn was always a workout. I made sure I gave her the best of me each time. Sometimes my arms would burn as I pumped my fingers hard and fast to bring her to shattering, and sometimes my thighs burned as I took her from the back and made her come multiple times before I would. But each time we made love, I did whatever it took to make up for what she’d missed out on before we met. I knew I couldn’t fuck the memory of Rich from her mind, but I was determined to make her forget histouch.
After turning off the shower, I grabbed my towel and began to dry my body until I saw the note on the steamy mirror.
She’ll be good for you, C.H.
At first I thought that it was Jackson playing a trick on me until I realized it wasn’t his handwriting. It wasn’t Autumn’s either. I didn’t believe in ghosts … but angels … I believed in angels and I knew Alyssa was always looking down on me. I sat on the lid of the toilet, tears running down my cheeks. Alyssa’s nickname for me was C.H. I didn’t know how it was possible, but the note was from her.
“I miss you,” I whispered. I “I didn’t get to tell you that day and I hope you knew that I loved you. I know in my heart you had something to do with bringing Autumn and me together, so thank you. I’m not sure how the other side works, but please make sure I don’t fuck this up. You’re right—she is good for me.” I wiped the tears from my face. “I’ll always love you, babe.”
When I stood and looked at the foggy mirror, the note was gone.
The last time I designed a ring, my world was turned upside down.
When I logged into my account, the ring I designed for Alyssa was still on file. As I stared at the princess cut diamond, I knew I could easily order that ring for Autumn and crawl back into bed with her. But there were three things wrong with that option: one, when I looked at the design, I saw Alyssa, not Autumn. Two, Rich called Autumn his princess and three, her engagement ring from Rich was a princess cut diamond.
So instead, I clicked the new design button as Jackson walked in the front door. He walked into the dining room, looked at the computer and said, “You gotta girl back home we don’t know about, Cap?”
I turned to him, remembering he said that when hecaughtme designing a ring before. “Something like that.”
