Epilogue

Our flight from Barbados landed an hour ago. The twenty-four-hour flight was brutal but at the last minute we decided to fly from Canada to escape the freezing temperatures and laze around the beach in Barbados for two weeks, and I'm glad we did. Rory surprised me with a ride in a submarine and it was the best thing I have ever experienced.

Milo insisted that he would pick us up from the airport. We all gather around the curb with our luggage as I look for him. He said he was two minutes out, three minutes ago. A damn minivan pulls up to the curb and my brother beeps the horn. The guys all drag their luggage and Milo gets out to help them all put it in the damn trailer he has attached to the back. This looks ridiculous but we don’t say anything, just laugh at the absurdity of it all.

I send a text to Chloe to let her know we're back and that I will call her when I know where they are taking me.

The guys have all been super secretive and as they whisper with Milo it’s clear that he knows what's going on.

Once we are all loaded into the van and get out onto the highway I realise we're going in the opposite direction of Rory's house and heading towards New Hope.

“Guys, where are we going? I want to go home and relax.” I complain.

“Um, about that. My dad and Chelsea have moved into the house.” Rory says and my nose screws up at what he just said. I like his dad and Chelsea but they have a three month old daughter. Yep, Rory is a big brother to Melodie Anne, she is the cutest and looks so much like her big brother. He's been a little on the fence with how he feels about her but he’s come around and is excited to meet her. The weirdest part though is his mother, she's been out of rehab for a while now and is seeing a school teacher. And get this, they’re living in a middle class suburban area. She even sent Rory a picture of her and Melodie, she is her godmother. We've missed so much while we were away, but as long as they're happy, we are too and both are making an effort to actually get to know Rory.

“We can’t live with your dad Rory, I’m sorry but that's just weird.”

Rocky snorts. “Babe, can’t you just accept a surprise?”

Babe, it’s what he has taken to calling me since we were in Great Britain and some lad called me babe. He was blind drunk and Rocky thought it was hilarious that the poor guy was trying to pick me up right in front of them.

“What surprise, guys, what are you up to?”

They all zip their lips, mimicking putting on a lock on them and Milo turns up the radio. I guess I’ll just have to wait. I’m confused when we pull into the same parking garage as I did just over a year ago when I remembered Milo.

Milo parks the van and we all jump out.

“Welcome to our new home!” Rory says with a flourish. “Milo has been overseeing the contractors for us, while we’ve been away.”

“I can’t accept this Milo.” I say, shaking my head. “This was Mum’s and was left to both of us.”

“JD, I want you to have it. Can’t you just be gracious and say thank you?” he chuckles.

“Thank you,” I chirp.

“We haven’t told you yet, but Maximus was accepted into New Hope University. Levi, Rocky and myself got into Neverland. And Rory is in talks with your cousin about a clothing brand and has found some open space to build a motocross track.” Mercer says.

“And you didn’t think to tell me?” I ask, hurt lacing my voice.

“We just wanted to make sure we have all our eggs in a row,” Rocky declares.

“Ducks.” I correct, rolling my eyes.

“Huh?” he says dumbfoundedly, making us all laugh.

“Let’s show JD around and you can argue about this later.” My brother says taking off towards the lift.

The lift takes us all to the top floor. The doors slide open and I’m in complete awe as we step out.

What used to be the main living area in this building is now a full basketball court, with a running track around the perimeter of the room, and along the massive glass window is now a gym. I can barely recognise that it’s even the same space.

The guys all usher me back into the lift and we go down to the second floor. We step into a small living room with an L shaped couch and massive flat screen tv mounted on the wall.

“You have to see the master bedroom. There are six bedrooms on this floor, one for each of us to have our own private space, but yours by far is the best,” Rocky says excitedly and pulls me to the back corner of the space. We step into a massive open plan bedroom. The bed itself is huge, dominating the room. Rocky drops my hand and runs, jumping onto the bed. Everyone else follows after us, filing into the space.

“You even have your own bathroom,” Rory says, pointing to a door on the side of the room. “We have one to share.”

“How will you all shower in time?” I ask.

“That's the best part, Milo suggested we set it up like a locker room. It has three showers.” Mercer explains.

After a quick tour of the rest of the floor, they take me down to the ground level.

The space is set up amazingly. There’s a kitchen, lounge room, games room, dining room and a study slash office.

Milo walks over to what I’m presuming is the back door and slides the curtains open, tears spring to my eyes when our family yells, “Surprise!”

Maximus takes my hand and leads me through the large glass door onto a patio area where there is a BBQ area that leads down to a massive pool.

I’m so overwhelmed at how beautiful this place is and how they guys managed to keep it a secret for so long. Rocky is usually a dead giveaway that he is hiding something. We do the rounds and say hello to everyone. Rocky and Maximus’s fathers are manning the grill as the women are in the kitchen pulling out all of the salads and side dishes.

“Hey,” Chloe whispers.

“I’m so glad to be home.” I say holding my arms out so we can hug it out. The old me never used to be a hugger but now it’s become a habit.

“I bet you are, after all that sun and lounging around the beach for the last two weeks.” she says with a laugh.

“How are things with you and the guys?” I ask and she sighs.

“Really good. Echo and Mossy are amazing as usual, and well, Chev is just Chev,” she laughs just thinking about him. “But I miss Mac, he has set his sights on the commonwealth games and he is that good but I’m worried he's going to burn himself out. Or that he might get injured. There is no back up plan for him. It’s all or nothing.”

“I get it, I do.” I say.

“How about you and your guys? Is everything still as good as it was twelve months ago?”

“Better, even though we’ve all found out the hard way that traveling with Rocky is not ideal. He is like a small kid at Christmas. He always woke up so early and wanted to jet off and do everything. Jam pack our days full of sight seeing and sometimes it was a lot.”

She nods.

I look around, making sure no one is in earshot. There is something else I need to tell her. I haven’t told anyone yet.

“I think I’m pregnant,” I whisper at the same time she says, “I’m late.”

We both laugh, even though it’s really not funny. I know I’ve been constant on birth control, but a couple of weeks ago I was really sick and a google search tells me that throwing up the pill isn’t ideal.

“I have a test in my bag but I’ve been too scared to take it. Chev made it clear that he hates kids, Mac is always gone, Echo and Mossy joke about it but I’ve only just finished my first year at Uni…”

I quickly stop her rambling. “How about we go up stairs and do the test?”

“It’s a two pack,” she says and smirks at me.

“Fine, we will both do one. Let's sneak away before they come and find us.”

Chloe fetches her bag and we head upstairs. I didn't want to say anything to the guys yet, I freaked out the day my period didn’t come and stopped taking the pill a few days ago after my google search. I’ve been faking bad period pains so they don’t question why I don’t want to be intimate.

I shut my bedroom door behind us and Chloe pulls the clear blue box from her bag. She opens it, pulling out the instructions and gives them a read through.

“Ok, seems easy enough, pee on the tip and wait a few minutes. One line is negative and two lines are positive.

“I’ll go first. Let’s sit them upside down on the vanity over there.” I say pointing to the very cute antique makeup vanity set up by the window.

I take the package and go into the bathroom; I tear the plastic open and open the cap. I don't know how long to pee on it, but I hold it there for a few seconds as I empty my bladder. When I’m done, I put the cap back on and slide it back into the plastic sleeve so I can’t peek before Chloe is done.

After I wash my hands, she goes in and does the same. Once we are both done we line our tests up on the vanity face down and Chloe sets her timer.

After a very long few minutes passes we stand side by side staring down at the tests. When the door bangs open, I swipe the tests up and shove them into the front of my shorts. Not the smartest place but they’re trapped between the waist band. We both turn to see Chev walking through the door, followed by Levi.

“What’s going on in here? You disappeared.” Chev asks with a brow raised.

“Nothing,” she squeaks.

“I know when you’re lying Chloe,” he demands and Levi just looks at me, guilt clearly written over my face. His lips pull into a straight line, worry flashing across his face. Rocky bounds through the door next and looks around the room, unsure of what's happening. Within minutes, all of my guys and three of Chloe’s are standing in my room, all confused as to what the stare off is for.

A test slips and falls through the leg of my shorts, hitting the floor with a thud. Eight sets of eyes dip to the ground as I swoop down quickly and pick it up, shoving it back in my pants.

“JD,” Rocky says playfully. “What are you hiding in your shorts?”

“Nothing,” I snap.

He steps closer, closing the distance between us. “Come on, just show me.” he says with a devious grin on his face, clearly oblivious to the fact that this could potentially change all of our lives. He pounces and tickles me, making me lose the grip on my pants. He gets a hold of the tests and holds them into the air.

“What the fuck!” Chev roars. “Who do they belong to?”

Chloe and I both look at each other and her shoulders sag in defeat.

“They're mine and JD’s, we haven’t even looked yet.” she groans.

“But we didn’t get a chance to look yet since some rude individuals barged in on us.” I snark.

“Why does one have one line and the other have two lines?” Rocky asks, confused.

“Because one of them is pregnant,” Chev snaps.

Echo has a smile plastered on his face, Mossy is silent as usual. Chev looks like he wants to murder someone just as he turns and stalks from the room.

I turn my gaze to my guys, Maximus has gone white as a ghost, Mercer runs his hands over his shaved blonde hair, Rocky still looks confused as hell, Rory comes and pulls me into his arms and Levi looks undecided on what to do.

Chloe runs out of the room with tears falling down her face and her guys follow after her. I’m sure she is probably going to find Chev and get him to calm down.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything, but I was planning on seeing a doctor first. When I was sick, there’s a possibility that I could’ve thrown up the pill. I feel like an idiot.”

“Don’t. We’ll call a doctor tomorrow and find out if it’s you, but we will figure it out together. I promise.” Levi says as he wraps his arms around me from behind since Rory still has me pulled to his chest.

“I love you guys.”

“How about we head back downstairs and enjoy our time with our friends and family?” Mercer offers, trying to break some of the tension in the room.

We all agree not to say anything until we know for sure and head back downstairs. The food is ready and Rocky races off, pushing his way to the front of the line. “You snooze you lose”

I break off from the guys to go and find Chloe, but instead, I find Mossy sitting outside down by the pool.

“Hey, is Chloe okay?” I ask and he looks up at me in surprise.

“She will be, her and Echo have gone to talk to Chev. I just needed a break from Chev, I don’t know if I can do it anymore.” He whispers, brokenly.

I place my hand on his shoulder for comfort. “I’m sure whatever happens she will understand.”

“Will she though, because we can’t bring a kid into this when Chev is unstable. And it’s not fair if I ask her to choose.”

“Give it some time and see a therapist. It’s honestly the only way me and the guys communicate so well.”

“Thank JD, I should go and make sure Echo doesn’t kill Chev. There's only so many times he can make her cry before he snaps.”

I nod as Mossy gets up and exits the pool area. I follow behind, stopping when I hear something. I have to strain my ears in order to hear it again.

“Someone help.”

I look around but can’t see anyone.

“Hello,” I say.

“Hello, please help me. I'm stuck.”

“Where are you?”

“Next door.”

I walk towards the fence and notice there’s a gate, that’s super weird but I open it and I giggle, a heavily pregnant girl is stuck in a unicorn pool floatie.

“Don’t laugh. No one is home and my ass is stuck. Chase and Arden will be back soon but I’m turning into a prune.”

“Arden Blakley?” I ask.

“The one and only.”

“I’m JD Blakely, his cousin. My brother didn’t mention he lived next door.”

I make my way to the pool steps and walk down into the water where she is holding onto the ledge.

“I’m Yasmin, Chase is my fiancé and Arden’s best friend, we live in an apartment here.”

“Nice to meet you, now let’s try to get you out. We don’t want you giving birth in the pool.”

“We don’t want that,” she giggles. “Arden is against a water birth, he thinks the baby could drown.”

I quirk a brow at her, why would Arden get a say? “Don’t ask, you'll find out soon enough.”

We both giggle and I take hold of her hand and try to wedge her out of the unicorn floatie. After a few attempts, I finally manage to get her free. I throw the floatie on the side of the pool.

“It was nice to meet you Yasmin, but I should be getting back to my boyfriends before they worry.”

“Boyfriends?” she asks, but there is no judgement in her tone. “It must be in the water, our friend Mady has a few boyfriends. I couldn’t do it, one fiance and an OCD friend is enough for me. And I only sleep with one of them.”

“I also have a best friend who has four boyfriends.”

“Definitely something in the water.” she says with a chuckle.

“JD, What are you doing?” Rory asks, looking over the fence.

“Making a new friend. This is Yasmin, Yasmin this is Rory.”

Rory gives an adorable wave and Yasmin says hi.

I turn back to her, “I should be going.”

“Come visit anytime, I’m always here lately. Stuck inside resting,” she mutters, rolling her eyes.

“Arden?” I guess.

“How did you know?” she laughs.

“A wild guess.”

We both get out of the pool. She wraps herself in a towel and makes me promise to come and visit her. It would be nice to make a new girlfriend.

Rory is waiting for me at the gate with a towel; he wraps it around me, trying to dry me off. We both join everyone around the outdoor table. Chloe and her guys have vanished but everyone else is laughing and having a good time.

My life is great, my step mother and step brother were charged and are both currently in prison. Not for as long as I would have liked though. Sebastian only got himself a slap on the wrist, his lawyer was a shark but he also spilled the beans on all of Carter's plans and that he was being blackmailed but refused to go into any detail about that, so it must have been something that could have gotten him into more trouble. My father took it hard when he found out about Shandra and her plans. He has bounced back now and even started seeing a new lady not that long ago but insists that he will never get married again. Not after all the heartbreak he has been through.

I never would have imagined my life would turn out like this but I’m glad it did. If my deranged stepbrother hadn't shot Milo and if I was never sent away, I never would have met Rory and in turn, the others. So in the end it was worth it. I would go through it all again without hesitation if it meant this is where I would end up.

The end.

Want to know if JD is pregnant? Keep reading for a bonus scene from the boys POV