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Chapter 33
KEALY
Iwas beyond exhausted, having worked around the clock for weeks getting my collection ready for the Fashion Week shows.
Was it worth it?
I’d just delivered my own designs to the definitive approval of the fashion world, and I was bowing on the runway with my four loves. Well, five, if you counted little Joey.
So, yeah, it was worth it. Fuck, yeah, in fact.
It’s funny how life gave you second chances sometimes. And third, and fourth ones. Maybe even fifths if you were super lucky.
Even Muse, the thief, was getting a second chance. Forest had agreed not to press charges against him. But he told him not to work in fashion again. Last I heard, he’d left town. Moved to Miami or someplace like that to work in a sandwich shop.
As camera flashes blinded us and applause shook the room, I took a couple bows. I felt utterly ridiculous, but it was an end-of-show tradition among designers.
Speaking of designers, I peered into the front row on my right and looked down on Forest, who was on his feet and clapping harder than anyone in the room. If I wasn’t mistaken, he had tears in his eyes. I released Cross and Marlon’s hands and gestured toward my mentor and biggest fan. The applause got even louder, if that were possible. Everyone knew I owed endless thanks to Forest. I’d be nothing without his support.
Actually, I was lucky enough to have the support of several amazing people, not least of which were my guys.
In the few months since I’d gone out on my own, a lot had changed.
Rand, my muscular, earring-wearing love, was finishing up his finance degree while working as my company’s CFO. Thanks to his connections in the business, he was doing a bang-up job of wrangling investors who believed in my work. It was a stamp of approval that I couldn’t have hoped for. And yet, it came my way.
He was eager to give up modeling, but he had promised to keep doing my shows. He couldn’t get off that easy. He was probably the only finance guy in New York with a modeling side hustle. The other guys thought it was funny as hell.
My beautiful brown-skinned Marlon was the company’s president. As the majority investor, he’d built a small board of directors to guide us. And guess what? His dad joined. Yup, after years of resisting each other, Marlon and his father had found common ground.
And their matching bald heads were freaking adorable.
The dreamy Shane, my red-headed Irishman, had seen his attackers put behind bars. He’d stopped absentmindedly rubbing the raised scar on his chest. It was almost as if it had gone away altogether. And like Marlon and Rand, he was phasing out his modeling gigs. He’d saved enough money that he was now expanding the operations of the community center and building kids’ sports teams as fast as he could find volunteers to coach them. My heart was so full of pride, and even more so when he’d asked me to design team shirts for the center. I was honored to be able to contribute in my own small way.
And Cross, father of Joey, his mini-me, was the only one of the group who planned to continue modeling. It gave him the flexibility he needed to be a single parent and provided a nice living at the same time. Of course, he’d be in all my shows and advertisements, as would Shane, if I could manage to tear him away from the basketball court.
It was incredible how the gods of good fortune had smiled down on me. There I stood on the runway of my first fashion show, with my loves at my side. I knew things wouldn’t always be smooth sailing, but with the support of these amazing, gorgeous men, any bumps that lay in the road ahead would be barely noticeable. One day, maybe they’d cease to exist. Until then, we had each other.
And that was more than enough.
THE END
