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“Summer!” Jax’s tight voice cut through the moment. Theo and Luke pulled back just before Jax swept me into his arms. The ground disappeared, and he spun me around, grinning wider than I had ever seen him. “You absolute star!”
“Was it good?” I asked breathlessly as he set me down. Jax clutched my jaw and peppered several kisses over my mouth. When he pulled back, his eyes were shining.
“My lawyer took your recording straight to a judge who, after reviewing everything and the severity of Felix’s actions, aided by Marina, signed off on my case. She’s mine! Bonnie is mine!”
“Full custody, baby!” Theo yelled and Jax was pulled from my arms into a bouncing group hug with Theo and Jax. They ruffled his hair and hugged him hard, congratulations spilling from them as Jax bounced between excited laughter and overwhelmed sobbing.
“I-I need to tell Bonnie!” Jax kissed Luke on the head then sprinted away through the crowd. We laughed, then paused as Jax reappeared and threw himself at me. Our mouths crashed together in a frantic kiss, and I scarcely remembered to breathe.
“Thank you,” he said, then he was gone again leaving the three of us to chuckle.
“Summer, what you did, that’s incredible.” Luke touched my arm, and a warm shiver swept across my shoulders.
“It was the least I could do,” I said softly as the lump in my throat rose higher, cracking behind my eyes and warming me with tears.
“The least indeed,” Theo replied.
“Honestly, she’s so cocky that getting her to talk down to me was the easy part. I just had no idea if it had any worth.”
“Money can buy you out of a lot of things, but I think Felix attacking Bonnie thanks to Marina was the final nail,” Luke snorted. “Summer… you’re incredible.”
“Pfft.” I waved one hand, blinking back tears. “Nonsense.”
Luckily, they didn’t listen to me. I was swept up into their arms and cuddled tightly, only released when the desire to see their children took over, and together we slipped back through the crowds to our table.
Halfway there, I caught sight of Marina through the crowd. She was dressed beautifully in a figure-hugging floor-length golden dress that looked like she had been dipped into a gold pool. She stood in the corner with her phone pressed against her ear, and while only a few words made it across the crowd, I knew precisely what news she had just received.
“Lost?! What the fuck do you mean? The Hemmingways don’t lose!”
Her obsession with her name and her reputation was the real smoking gun here. While victory was sweet, I couldn’t help but hope this would shock her enough to change her ways and try to be a good mother to Bonnie.
At the table, celebrations were wild, and after an excitable show of love from Jax, he ended up sitting down and sobbing as the relief and the rest of his emotions overwhelmed him. He had been fighting so hard for so long that the end had seemed impossible far away. Now it had paid off. He was a fantastic father, they all were, and as I sat down, it warmed me right to my bones.
The family was core here and being welcomed into it was beyond a dream.
The night wore on quickly, creeping closer to midnight and the New Year. We ate good food, drank good alcohol, and danced until the children were exhausted and my feet ached from my heels. At one point I spotted Tabitha in deep conversation with one of the musicians and she winked when she caught my eye. I happily left her to it and with the children all busy with their fathers, I enjoyed my freedom of dancing with the warm knowledge that no more surprises were lurking in the dark.
Marina was taken care of, Felix was in jail, and the guys knew my secrets and loved me anyway.
I danced until the heat of the ballroom became smothering and my feet ached. The desire to cool off and breathe in some fresh air that wasn’t a musk filled with cinnamon, alcohol, and sweat grew strong, so after the next song ended, I stumbled through some double doors out onto an empty veranda.
The bitter chill of the open air stole over my overheated skin. Still, initially, it was delightful, and I moaned softly, breathing in deep lungfuls of the cold. The veranda was lined with fencing and each pillar supporting the roof was wrapped in twinkling colorful lights. Satin mesh draped between each post like silk curtains and two large Christmas trees nestled against the building, decorated in silver stars, flashing white lights, and candy canes. From the room, a million twinkling white lights hung like falling stars, suspended just above my head, and I admired them as I walked toward the edge of the railing. Just beyond, the mountain stretched high up into the darkness, and the perfect snow spread out from the resort like an undisturbed glittering ocean.
I was going to miss this place. It was like something out of a fairytale.
“Summer?”
I spun around in fright, pressing a hand to my racing heart as Jax appeared behind me.
“You scared me!”
“Sorry,” he chuckled, “I wanted to check on you.”
“Oh, I’m okay,” I assured him. “It was so hot I was getting a little dizzy and needed some air. What about you? How are you feeling?”
“Well,” Jax laughed, “I feel like I’m in a dream. I’ve called my lawyer three times just to get him to tell me everything again, to remind myself that it’s real.”
“It’s very real,” I smiled warmly as Jax stood next to me. “You deserve this.”
