Good Girl Gone (The Reed Brothers 7)

“We want to thank the fans first,” Finch says. She then thanks producers and various others. Then she stops and looks into the camera. “You might have noticed that one of our sisters isn’t with us. She’s off getting engaged! We love you, Star, and we’re so happy for you! Now get your ass home so you can tell us all about it!” They bleep out the word “ass” but you can tell what it was. The camera leaves them and I’m so damn excited that I can’t even sit still.

A woman’s voice I haven’t heard before rings out: “Someone forgot to take the trash out.”

I recognize her from the veranda of his former home when Josh and I came here for the first time. I’m pretty sure this is his mother.

“You should go home, Liza” Mrs. Jameson says. She bustles forward and takes the woman by the shoulders. But she fights against Mrs. Jameson’s girth, screaming obscenities.

“Let her stay!” Josh says, his voice deep and strong.

Mrs. Jameson reluctantly lets her go, and Josh’s mother shakes herself like she’s shaking off the touch of the other woman.

She points her skinny finger at Josh. “You should not be here.”

“He’s welcome here,” Mrs. Jameson says. “It’s you who is not!”

“Don’t worry, Mother,” Josh says. “I’m leaving very soon.”

“Good riddance!” she cries.

He scrubs a hand down his face like he’s suddenly so tired. “Why did you come over here?”

“I wanted to see the man you didn’t become.” She sneers down at his chair. “You deserve everything you got. And more.”

Josh doesn’t say anything for a long moment and a heavy silence falls over the room.

“You bought the beer, Mother,” he suddenly says, very quietly.

She gasps, but doesn’t say anything.

“What?” Mrs. Jameson asks. Her eyes flick from Josh to his mom and back.

“When we were getting in the car that night, she whispered to me that there was a surprise in the trunk. It was a cooler full of beer.”

“They were sixteen!” Mrs. Jameson cries.

“She thought someone else was driving, but I was the least drunk at the end of the night. Looking back, I didn’t feel drunk at all, but I was, all the same. I was very drunk. I never should have driven. I hurt a lot of people.”

“Did you really do that?” Mrs. Jameson asks Liza.

Josh’s mom sputters out a crazy laugh.

“When I woke up in the hospital, the first thing she said to me was, ‘You can’t tell anyone, Josh. You can’t tell anyone at all.’ Then she sent me away, to be sure I couldn’t tell anyone.”

A sharp slap rings out in the room. Mrs. Jameson has hit Josh’s mom, her palm print slowly reddening on the other woman’s cheek. Josh’s mom covers it with her hand, her mouth gaping open.

“Don’t!” Josh cries. He gets between his mom and Mrs. Jameson. “She made a mistake. An error in judgment. That doesn’t make her a bad person.”

“Thank you.” Liza starts to adjust her clothing, jerking and pulling, trying to right herself.

“What makes her a bad person is what she did after the accident. Not before. She threw me away like trash. She cut me off from everyone.”

Her eyes dart around the room and land on Emilio. “Surely you understand.”

“I understand that you don’t want him in your family,” Emilio says.

“Of course, you do understand.” She appears slightly mollified and smiles a triumphant smile at Mrs. Jameson.

Emilio comes forward and lays a hand on Josh’s shoulder. “But we want him in ours. We appreciate him, and my daughter loves him. You may not want him, but we certainly do.” He looks down at Josh. “Her loss is our gain.”

Josh is too moved to speak.

His mother leaves as quickly as she arrived, slamming the door behind her.

“Well, I wish that had gone better,” I say.

“I’m glad it went just like that,” Josh says. He nods and looks up at Emilio. “I’m honored to be invited into your family.”

“The honor is ours, Josh,” Emilio says. He claps Josh on the shoulder.

“Well…who wants a cookie?” Mrs. Jameson says brightly.

“Cookie?” Emilio says hopefully. He follows Mrs. Jameson, and his nose, out of the room. I can hear them talking as they walk down the corridor. “You got one hell of a swing, Jameson,” he says. “That bitch never saw it coming.”

Mrs. Jameson chuckles. “I have wanted to do that for so long!” She laughs heartily. “And you can call me Evie.”

Their voices fade away.

“Are you all right?” I ask Josh.

He nods.

“You sure?”

He grins. “Your dad totally took up for me.”

“He likes you.”

Emilio comes back into the room with his mouth full of cookie and two more in his hand. “I wouldn’t go that far,” he says around his cookie.

Josh laughs. I kiss Emilio on the cheek. “Love you, Melio,” I say against his chest as I wrap my arms around him. He holds me tight.

Epilogue

Star

Marta fluffs my veil and reaches under it to swipe her thumb beneath my eye. “If we have to apply your makeup again, I’m not sure we’re going to be able to repair the damage,” she scolds. She squeezes me against her and sets me back. “I used to daydream about this day.” She looks around the room at my sisters, who are all here. They’re my bridesmaids, my best friends, my confidants, and they’re my sisters in every sense of the word.