Junie

Junie – (One Year Later)~

It was a good thing that I typed as fast as I did and that ten-key was my jam, because being the senior billing accountant for the city of McLaurin was a busy freakin’ job. The town was big enough that my job would never be eliminated, which was a good thing. Nevertheless, if there was one thing that I’d learned while working for the city of McLaurin, it was that all city councils were just as greedy as big government corruption.

They all wanted their money, and they wanted it on time.

Returning to McLaurin hadn’t been the plan when I had graduated from college. However, my life’s plan had changed dramatically the night that I’d overheard Paul talking to his mistress on the phone. After that night, other plans had been made, one of them being coming back home to regroup. Still, not only had I regrouped, but I’d found a job with McLaurin’s city management, and I’d ended up liking it so much that I had decided to stay-much to the delight of my parents.

Flynn and Tori Becker were the best parents any girl could ever ask for, and I wasn’t just saying that. They were the kind of parents that supported you but didn’t hover. Dad was in property management, and he made his money as basically a landlord. However, his real estate ventures were limited to commercial properties because he’d had no interest in residential properties. I’d always suspected that he had too much of a conscience to evict families, and that’s why he’d chosen to stay away from that part of the real estate business.

Mom was his bookkeeper, and it really was a family business. Mom had originally worked for a small health center, but when Dad’s business had started growing, she had quit her job to help him with his books. Together, they did well enough that they’d been able to send me to college without the debt hanging over their heads for years. Luckily, I’d been an only child, so while expensive, they’d only had to make the sacrifice for one kid, instead of many.

College had been everything that it’d been expected to be, and I had enjoyed every single year of it. I’d gone for my business management degree and had gotten it with some rather respectable grades upon graduation. My first job had been working for a law firm in their billing department, following Paul in his quest to chase his dreams with Pearl Marketing. I hadn’t minded living in Mercy, but it hadn’t been the city of my dreams, either.

However, while Paul had ended up being one of the biggest mistakes ever to come out of going to college, Roark Storm hadn’t been. Roark was my best friend, and he’d been since our sophomore year of college.

We’d met at a party where Clint University had been celebrating its fifth football win in a row. Clint was a die-hard sports college, and the hysteria of its wins was insane. However, liking sports, it hadn’t bothered me. I enjoyed watching sports, especially winter sports. Winter was my favorite season of the year, so hockey, ice skating, snowboarding, and skiing were some of my favorite things to watch. While I enjoyed football, basketball, and baseball, I preferred to watch winter sports. The Winter Olympics were my guilty pleasure whenever they were on.

Anyway, we’d been at a party, the crowd drunk, high, wired, and just plain crazy, when Roark Storm had grabbed me by the arm, dragged me down the hallway, my beer splashing all over the place, then had promised me a thousand dollars if I would pretend to be his crazy, possessive, violent girlfriend. Apparently, some girl wouldn’t leave him alone, and he didn’t like being nasty to females. His desperation had been so endearing that I’d made a complete fool of myself-and him-and had acted like I’d been auditioning for my own reality television show.

After that, we’d been inseparable. We’d become best friends, and despite how our friendship had started, something had placed us firmly in the ‘friends only’ zone, and there’d never been anything more between us. A lot of people hadn’t believed that we’d been just friends, but I hadn’t cared. I also hadn’t been willing to give Roark up whenever whichever guy that I’d been dating had taken exception to our closeness. Paul had been the only guy that hadn’t minded that my best friend was a guy.

So, while we had a tight group of friends that still kept in touch with each other, Roark was my best friend, and he’d been for the past six years. We’d done the meeting of the families, had gone on trips together, and had even shared the holidays together. Roark knew all my secrets, and I knew all of his. I had no doubt that he was going to be godfather to my children one day, and I was going to spoil the shit out of his children in return.

I also loved his parents. Julius and Chanel Storm were warm, welcoming, and the cutest couple ever. They had accepted me right away and had always treated me like one of the family.

The only person that didn’t seem to care for me much was Roark’s older brother, Ripley. He was older than Roark by two years, and he was a professional snowboarder. I’d met him during our junior year of college when I’d gone to visit Roark’s parents for the weekend, and he’d been there. Already graduated from college, Ripley had just won his first snowboarding competition the week before our visit, so when he’d been a little cold with his greeting, I had just assumed that he’d been dealing with a lot. It’d been hard to imagine that Roark and his parents could be so accepting, but not Ripley. However, I had quickly learned how wrong I’d been when I kept getting that same cold reception whenever he was around.

At any rate, one sour older brother wasn’t enough to make me stay away from the Storms. Hell, when my relationship with Paul had blown up in my face, Mrs. Storm had called me to let me know that they were there for me, no matter what I needed.

Needless to say, with the support of my parents, the Storms, and Roark, I’d gotten over my heartbreak, and I was happy with where I was now. It’d only been a year, but I was completely over Paul Hopper and that waste of three years. While I hadn’t dated anyone since we’d broken up, I was only twenty-six and in no hurry. I had plenty of time to find the love of my life, so I wasn’t going to force the dating thing just to prove that I was over him.

As I was locking up my computer and shutting things down for the day, my phone chimed with a notification. It was only Thursday afternoon, but I was gearing up for a four-day weekend that was bound to be awkward but fun.

My Goofball: I’m calling u n an hour. U better answer

Out of habit, I glanced at the watch on my wrist. I was very aware that my phone had the time on it, but old habits died hard. My father had this thing about watches, and so I’d always worn one because he was always buying me one.

Me: So demanding

My Goofball: I know ur schedule better than u do. U better answer

It was true. Roark did know my work schedule as well as his own. He was a CPA and handled a lot of accounts, mainly those of his family, but his hours could be erratic depending on what he had going on. Tax season was especially horrifying.

Me: Relax. I’ll answer. I promise

My Goofball: Just want 2 make sure everything’s a go

Me: You have control issues

My Goofball: U have no idea

That was probably some kinky sex reference that I wanted to know nothing about. At six-foot-two with rich brown hair, bright blue eyes, and a body that made girls want to fight over him, Roark Storm was simply too gorgeous for words. He was also so damn charming that I had no doubt that the woman of his choice would let him tie her down and control whatever the hell that he wanted to.

Me: Dork. I’ll talk 2 u soon

My Goofball: (smile emoji)

Making sure that everything was locked up tight before I took off for my extended weekend, I grabbed my purse, then headed out. While I was looking forward to a four-day weekend, things were bound to be awkward at first. However, I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I was not going to let Paul Hopper ruin our tradition.

Besides, I was completely over him, remember?