Real Girl (Aston Creek High 4)

Slade Cruz is completely mine, body, heart, and soul. For now until forever.

Epilogue

Six Months Later

The breeze blows in through the open window of Slade’s Dodge RAM, messing up my hair. I groan and do my best, trying to catch it, but it’s no use. The second I let it go, it’s just going to fly free again.

I tried to put a little effort in today. I wanted to look nice, but it’s ridiculous. It’s not as though they can actually see me. They’re not going to know that I chose a pair of jeans that don’t have any holes in them.

I glance back at Blake sitting in the back. He’s been excited about this too. Well, maybe excited isn’t the right word. It’s a strange excitement mixed with a bittersweet sadness.

We’ve been talking about this ever since Maria was arrested and put away. The whole shitshow that was Maria and Lucien Valentine is finally over and now that we’ve closed the book on that bullshit, it’s finally time to get a proper goodbye.

This moment was robbed from us as kids and I’m not going to lie, I’m actually a little nervous. I’ve pictured this day so many times. What I would say, how I would feel…I just don’t know. Maybe it’ll fill me with strength or maybe it will tear me down and crush my soul into a million shattered pieces.

It’s something that we’ll have to wait to find out.

Blake wanted to wait until he was up and walking again. He wanted to walk in there proud and strong, which is exactly what he’s going to do. He’s defied every single doctor who has looked at him over the past few months.

They all said he wouldn’t be able to walk so soon, he proved them wrong. They said he wouldn’t be able to run, he proved them wrong. They said he wouldn’t be able to play ball, and because he’s a stubborn asshole, he went ahead and proved them wrong there too.

The little turd is playing his first game of his senior year next week. He’s not the captain like he’d always dreamed about for his senior year, but with the way he’s bouncing back, he’s still going to be the incredible star I always knew he would be. The fact that he can play is just astounding, so he’s happy. It was a hard few months getting him up and going again, but his determination and strength kept us all going.

Which brings us right to where we are now.

Slade brings his Dodge RAM to a stop and I look around him at the cemetery as he watches me.

My mom and dad are in there.

We’ve driven the few hours into Haven Falls just for this and I kinda can’t wait while I’m also shitting my pants. Deep down I know they’re bones in a fancy box under the ground, but something inside my soul has me feeling as though this is so much more. This is visiting my parents and it feels so real, it’s as though I can imagine walking through those gates and my parents are just going to be there waiting for me.

Truth be told, I’ve claimed that I was waiting for Blake to be ready, but it was me too. I needed to wait until all this bullshit with Marcus blew over and as of three weeks ago, it finally did. His body was found in the burned mansion and after close examination of his remains, the police opened a murder investigation.

Lucien went down for his murder after the security cameras in his office provided the evidence I needed of me bolting out of there during the fight. The footage showed the two men fighting and me breaking free the second I could.

I was lucky that there was no footage from the hallway outside of Lucien’s office, otherwise, I’d be on trial claiming self-defense. I’m certain that a handful of the cops had suspected that I was guilty, but the evidence against Lucien was too damning.

The fire though…while there was plenty of evidence showing that I was there, Noah had used his knowledge of fires to make it look like a genuine accident. No one could fault that evidence so all we had to do was wait until it all blew over.

I couldn’t face my parents today with that storm cloud hanging over me.

“Are you ready?” Slade murmurs, reaching across the center console and taking my hand, rubbing his thumb over my knuckles.

I nod as a smile pulls at my lips. “I’ve never been so ready.”

Blake lets out an excited little chuckle and throws the back door open before jumping down and making me gasp. He’s been running for the past month yet I still get a scare every time I see him on his feet.

“Hurry up,” he hollers over his shoulder, walking to the gates and not waiting for me.