Chapter 22

Chapter

Twenty-Two

DEVIN

I hoped like hell Victoria had been reading the articles I’d been posting to the lifestyles and entertainment section of our local newspaper. It took a rather large donation to get the editor to agree to it in the first place and then he only agreed to the subsequent posts because of how popular the first one. As if humbling myself to the woman I loved more than anything wasn’t hard enough. The damn ode to our broken relationship had received national attention.

At first, everyone thought I was talking about my the love affair they thought I had with Justice. Things obviously weren’t adding up though, as was evidenced by the comment section on each post. So, then everyone tried to figure out who in the hell had stolen my heart so much that I was making very public posts about loving a woman who wasn’t my wife.

I wondered if it would all backfire on me because Victoria had always been big on privacy. She was the one who initially wanted us to remain a secret. It was possible that telling our story would make her dig further into hiding away. Then again, she and her family had been seen spending more time together, so I assumed the relationships there had been healed. They were at least better than they were when Dallas took off for his vacation and then never came back.

That too sat like a heavy weight on my shoulders, because I felt like I was part of the reason my best friend had been driven away from our town. I knew the way his family saw him - as a full-frown man-child who refused to grow up - had always bothered him, but not enough to stop being true to himself. If they only knew he was the most successful person in our whole town, let alone their family.

I glanced around nervously once more and tugged on my tie as I stood off to the side of the stage at the Tippler’s Lounge. Houston knew what I was about to do and had approved it. I wish he wasn’t the first to know. That honor should have gone to Victoria. Since it was the Mercer brothers’ bar, I needed someone’s permission. We also needed to coordinate for extra security for the revelations that were coming down the pipeline instead of resolutions.

It was New Year’s Eve and I hated that I hadn’t been able to spend Christmas with my woman, but my lawyer and I finally had all our ducks in a row and it was time to give the love of my life, and the rest of the town, a little insight into the final article I had to publish in my series on Monday.

Depending on how it all worked out, it might be a happy ending to some, or a beautiful beginning for Vic and me. Then again, it all might go to shit and it would just become a cautionary tale for the masses. Secrets never remained and life was too short for them anyway.

I scanned the crowd once more and was annoyed to see that Justice was there. It sickened me to watch as she laughed with Melissa, Brody’s wife while he stood by and allowed that interaction. I supposed he had to. What was he going to say? ‘Don’t talk to our best friends’ daughter because I’ve been sleeping with her for the better part of two years and that baby she is carrying is mine.’

I didn’t think it would work out well for him, but then again, everyone’s secrets were going to be spilled by the end of the night anyway. It would probably be better for him if he did come out and say it. I wondered if the new apartment Brody was paying for to house his mistress and their soon-to-be-born son would become their home together after this. Not my circus.

My eyes trailed over the crowd until I finally saw her. My beautiful Victoria wore a black beaded dress with thing straps. It came up just above her knees and depending on the lights she walked under, her dress looked as though it was embellished with silver, then gold, then a red hue. The lights caught and reflected the beading just right to give her an ever-changing appearance that suited her vivacious personality.

The very same personality that had been dulled and refused to shine for months - since she found out I had fucked us up with my jealous tantrum. It was good to see her wearing something that suited the confident woman she was supposed to be. Her red lips stood out almost as much as the dress did. Vic always had beautiful, full lips that made you want to linger and suck at them for days. The red lipstick she wore on them seemed like a beacon meant to draw me close and do just that.

Her blond hair was left loose with a bit of a wave to it and it swayed and shimmered under the lights with every step she took. I wasn’t sure if it was a statement, or simply went with the dress, but she wore the platinum and diamond necklace I bought her for our second dating anniversary. The little bit that dangled from the column of her throat seemed to point straight down the cleavage she had on display.

“You going up there or what?” I turned my attention away from Vic to find her brother standing there beside me. Austin glanced down at his watch and then back up at me. “Houston said you were supposed to go up and give some speech before the big ball drop. That’s less than ten minutes away, so you’re running out of time.”

“I think everyone will forgive me.”

Austin tried to stifle his chuckle, but failed. “Something tells me you only need one particular person’s forgiveness.”

“You’re not wrong.” I called back to him as I hopped up on the stage and made my way to the microphone positioned front and center.

I adjusted my tie for the fiftieth time that night and smoothed down my tailored black suit pants. Everyone was dressed to the nines for the New Years’ Eve bash, and I was no exception. I wanted to wear something that matched with Vic, on the off chance I ended the night with her back in my arms. It seemed fitting that we should be able to make a public debut while looking our finest. Still, no one would tell me what she planned to wear, so I had gone with solid black from head to toe and was thankful for it because we ended up matching perfectly.

“Can I get everyone’s attention?” I called out. Vic was the first head to turn in my direction. That might not have been true, but hers was the only one I noticed. “For those of you who don’t know who I am, I’m the sad sap who has been writing the articles in the local paper about how I ruined my relationship with the best woman to ever walk the planet.”

Vic’s lips tipped up at the corners even though she tried to hide her reaction. Other people turned in her direction too, having noted who had all of my attention.

“The woman I have been talking about in those articles deserves a far better man than me, but I’m hoping she will reconsider dating beneath her station after she hears what I have to say tonight.”

Vic lifted a brow, as if to say: “I’m listening.” So I decided not to keep her in suspense. “I love you, baby. I have always loved you, but I fell so much harder than I ever thought possible. The last few months have been absolutely miserable without you. The last year and a half has been a mixed bag of fake relationships to hide what we had and the blissful days where it was just the two of us. I want that back. The me and you part, but out in the open because we both deserve to be seen and so does the love we share.

“I know I hurt you, we hurt each other because we were too busy trying to live up to what other people thought we should be. Who they thought we should be with.” I tacked on the last because it was true. When my parents first found out I was dating Justice, they had been happy to know that I was finally over my obsession with Dallas’ big sister. Little did they know then that it was all a ruse.

“I laid everything out in the article I wrote, but the part I didn’t spill yet is that my love wanted to hide our relationship from all of you because she feared your judgment. She was afraid of what you would think about her dating a younger man - her littlest brother’s best friend.”

Gasps and other sounds of shock and surprise rose up amongst the crowd as Vic made her way slowly closer to the stage. I wondered if she moved closer in an effort to get me to shut up. Then I looked down and saw the smile on her face and knew that wasn’t it. She was onboard for whatever was about to go down.

“We went so far as to bring a third person into our relationship - though not our bed. Get your minds out of the gutter,” I teased. “The girl we chose for me to ‘fake date’ needed a fake boyfriend too. I’m not proud of my involvement in what she was doing, but I’m about to lay it all on the line for you.”

I pointed out into the audience, close to the bar, where Justice huddled in near her parents and Brody looked like he had seen a ghost. His head shook back and forth as if he could get me to stop this train before I derailed his life. No such luck, buddy. He had no problem allowing me to take the blame for his baby mamma drama, so I had no qualms about the next words that came out of my mouth.

“I need you all to know that Justice was only ever a fake girlfriend and only in public. She needed a fake boyfriend to hid the affair she was having with her dad’s best friend, Brody. That is his baby in her belly. Well, I can’t say that for sure, but that is what she told me. They’ve been seeing one another for the better part of a year and a half, almost two years now. In fact, Brody just leased an apartment for his growing little family to live in.”

We all heard the shriek from his wife just as Justice’s dad laid his best friend out with a single punch. “Nice job!” I called out. “And by the way, your daughter is crazy and tried to blackmail me. Nasty business there. I have it all on video, as well as her admissions to breaking into my safe, setting fire to legal documents, stealing a felonious amount of money, and some other potential crimes I don’t think should be mentioned here. We’ll just say I don’t remember the night she claimed I got her pregnant. The same night that led to me marrying her.”

More gasps rang out around the room and that was when my attention moved back to Vic who had stopped a few feet short of the stage. “There is another revelation we can be thankful for. Justice and I were never actually married.”

“Yes, we were!” Justice yelled.

“No, we pretended to get married, just like we pretended to date. The papers were never filed - kind of like that prenup you set fire to.” I winked at her and the taunt did its job as she shrieked in response. Her parents turned their backs on her and walked away just as Austin stopped Brody’s wife from slugging Justice.

I wished he wouldn’t have because she deserved that hit, but I understood that he couldn’t let a heavily pregnant woman be abused in his club, even if the bitch did deserve it.

“Victoria Marie Mercer,” I called out into the microphone. “Would you do me the honor of being my first kiss of the New Year and the last woman I kiss in this lifetime?”

Vic was there as I jumped off the stage. I pulled her into my body and held her face between the palms of my hands as I leaned in and counted down the final seconds to midnight.

“This is our year, baby. We get to live it any way we want and forget about what everyone else thinks.”

“Okay,” she whispered against my lips as everyone shouted “ONE!” My mouth dropped onto hers and we rang in the New Year with a fresh slate, the secrets behind us, and a sizzling kiss for everyone to witness.

“I missed you,” she whispered against my ear after I pulled away.

“You’ve been in my heart this whole time, baby. It’s you and me and fuck the world.”

That made her giggle. “I like that.”

“Good because that’s our new motto moving forward.” She nodded just as flashes from cameras started to go off around us. “I hope you’re okay with the limelight for a while, my last article went live on the website a few seconds ago and it reached a national readership.”

“I think I can handle it if you’re by my side.”

“I’m not going anywhere ever again, Vic. I promise.”

I pulled the microphone back up to my lips and spoke to the crowd one more time, but I did it after dropping to my knees in front of the woman I loved. This bit, this promise of our future, was worth begging her for.

“Hopefully, one day we can sit in our rocking chairs on the porch of the house where we raised our family, and look back at this crazy time in our lives and laugh it off as our disastrous beginning. The rocky start won’t matter by then, only the rest of our story that we decide to write together. I love you Victoria, and I am begging you in front of all these people to give me another chance. A better chance to love you the way we both deserve to be loved.”

“I love that,” She said loud enough for the microphone to pick up. Everyone cheered for us and it was the best feeling after the years of worrying what everyone would think about our age difference. The distance between our years never mattered to me before. What always mattered was how much I loved the woman she was and how well she loved me back.