Back to the Drawing Board (37 page)

Julia sipped her coffee while I whipped us up some eggs, both of us quiet. It had been a late night, and we’d probably had too many ‘celebratory’ drinks. I knew she was worried about the voice mail she still hadn’t checked from her father.

“Play me a song,” I said. “Breakfast is almost ready.”

Julia reached for her phone and clicked a few times. Music notes filled the kitchen. I didn’t recognize the song, but that was usual for us. I listened to the lyrics for a minute.

“What is this?”

She looked up at me, tears in her eyes. “‘Where it All Begins’ by Hunter Hayes and Lady Antebellum.”

“Why are you upset?”

She shook her head. “I’m not. Just happy. These lyrics are exactly how I feel about you, Carter. I feel like my life just began since you came into it.”

“I like this song,” I said, sliding a plate of eggs in front of her. “And I feel the same way, baby. I think we need to play this at our wedding. It’s perfect.”

A knock at the door made both of us look up in surprise. It was rather early for visitors, and I didn’t usually have company unannounced.

Julia stood up to go back to our room since she was dressed in only a tee shirt and a thong.
Our room
. I loved the sound of that. I walked to the door, hoping it wasn’t someone trying to sell me something or convert my religion.

I didn’t expect to see Mr. Gibbons standing at the door with his wife right behind him. I thought immediately of the voice mail Julia hadn’t listened to. They were both wearing casual clothes and looked like they hadn’t slept in days.

“Hi,” I said, blocking the doorway with my body.
Stay in the room, Julia
, I willed her.

“Carter, we’re sorry to interrupt you so early. I assume since Julia’s moved out of her apartment that she’s here?” Mrs. Gibbons wrung her hands, looking obviously upset.

I crossed my arms. “Does this have to do with you calling her last night?”

“We need to speak to both of you,” Mr. Gibbons said. “It’s important. Can we please come in? Is Julia here?”

I sighed, wishing I could go back to our room and warn her at what she was about to walk out to. “Come on in. Julia’s in our room.”

Her parents nodded, following me silently into the family room. “I’ll be right back. Please have a seat.”

I hurried to the bedroom, smiling when I saw her in a pair of tight jeans and a long sweater. She was leaned over the bathroom counter, applying mascara to her long eyelashes. Her hair was braided down one side. Julia looked over at me as I walked in. “Who was it?”

I sighed. “Your parents are here.”

She stood straight up. “What?”

“They want to talk to us.”

“I never listened to his voicemail.”

“I know. I guess he figured out you were gone from your apartment so they came here.”

“Are they . . . mad?” Even after everything, she was still intimidated by them.

“No. And they won’t disrespect you in my home, Julia.
Our
home. So we’ll listen to what they have to say, but if they cross the line even once, I’ll escort both of them out of here.”

She nodded. “Okay. Let’s get it over with.”

We walked down the hallway, Julia gripping my hand for dear life. When she saw her parents sitting on our couch, she stiffened. We sat on the loveseat across from them.

“Julia, you’re looking well,” Mrs. Gibbons said. Mr. Gibbons looked at both of us but didn’t say a word.

Julia nodded. “What are you doing here?”

John leaned forward and opened the briefcase that was on the coffee table. “I called you last night to tell you this, but it’s better to show you in person, anyway.”

Julia leaned forward. “What is it?”

John started laying out papers on the table, all pictures of men with information printed under it. The word DECEASED was stamped across all of them. It had to be at least twenty sheets of paper.

“What is this?” I didn’t have the patience for their games. If this was some sort of scare tactic to get Julia to give up on seeing Johnny and come back to them, I was done.

“A huge standoff happened while you were in Florida.” I didn’t know how he knew we were in Florida, but that was beside the point.

“What does that have to do with us?”

John looked at Julia. “This happened in Mexico. They’d been looking for these guys for years, and they finally received a tip on where to find them. They surrounded the house when gunfire started coming from inside. The police had no choice but to open fire back. All of them were killed.”

Julia looked up from the papers. “Are these the guys?”

John nodded. “They’re all dead. The rest are locked up. The head honcho was in the house, as was his second and third in command. There’s no one left. It was a huge victory for law enforcement.”

“Who called in a tip?”

The pieces of what he was saying were all falling into place. This must be the group Johnny had been talking about. They were all dead? Johnny’s dream had come true.

“I saw your brother last week.” They couldn’t have shocked me more if they started spewing green stuff and had their heads turn completely around.

Julia gasped. “What? Johnny did this? But he said . . .”

“Your father did it,” Aileen interrupted. “He convinced Johnny to tell him the truth. He called in his contacts and gave them the tip that took down the entire group.”

“Johnny is free?” Julia jumped up. “You did this for him?”

“He’s not free yet,” Aileen explained. “But it’s in the process. While you were gone, we met with the DA down there. They have to verify some things, but we’re hoping it will be soon.”

Julia turned back to me. “Carter. He’s going to be free! It’s over! It’s really over!” I stood and folded her into my arms.

“Thank you,” I mouthed to them over her head. They both nodded.

“We also wanted to tell both of you how sorry we are. Julia, we completely overreacted. We’re determined to make things right with both you
and
Johnny.” John looked at me. “Your words caused us to re-evaluate some things, namely our priorities. What you said was right. Thank you for having enough gall to stand up to us, and for being there for Julia. We have a lot to make up for.”

Julia turned to look at them, her mouth open and her eyes wide. “Really?”

“We were wrong to do what we did with Johnny all those years ago, and we just repeated the mistake with you, Julia. Carter, the reason I liked you from the time you walked into my office is because you remind me of myself at your age. Now, I know that you’re a much better man than I’ve ever been. You have true character, son, and I’m glad that you and my daughter have found each other.”

“Do you want to tell them?” I whispered in her ear. She nodded.

“Carter and I are engaged,” she announced, holding her hand out for them to see.

Aileen started crying immediately, pulling Julia into a hug. I could hear her whispering how sorry she was over and over into Julia’s hair.

“Congratulations, son. I couldn’t be happier about that.” John shook my hand, then pulled me in for a quick hug. “There’s something else I wanted to ask you.” He cleared his throat. “Both of you.”

Julia pulled away from her mom. “I want to ask both of you to come back to GSJ Designs. Carter, I think we can call your internship over, and I’d like to offer you a job. Julia, you and Carter can work together just like your mom and I have our entire lives. It’ll be a real family affair.”

Julia’s eyes met mine across the room. Is that what we wanted? After everything, did we want to work there? I wasn’t so sure.

“I appreciate both of you stopping by here and giving us this great news about Johnny. We’re happy where we are in our lives right now. We’ll talk about your offer and let you know.” John looked shocked, but when I saw Julia beaming, I knew I’d said the right thing. They might’ve finally admitted they were wrong, but John, at least, still liked things to go his way. Old habits died hard, I supposed. It was a beginning, though there was a long road ahead. Words were just that: words. They needed to prove to me that they weren’t going to hurt my girl again. That, and I enjoyed working with Colorado Cares and thought maybe that was where I belonged, alongside my beautiful fiancée.

Julia paced back and forth, wringing her hands. I knew it was futile to ask her to stop or to come here and sit with me. She was a wreck. The day was here. After two months of paperwork, court dates, and lawyers, testimony and evidence analyzation, Johnny was being released. Her parents were sitting across from us, neither of them saying a word. Things had been better with them over the last few months, but not perfect. I had the feeling Julia was going to make them work hard for their relationship with her, and I was glad. For her, she wanted to see if they accepted Johnny back into their family and how that dynamic would change things. I didn’t blame her.

Spring was in the air, and I was glad. I’d frozen my tail off with my first Colorado winter, and though it wasn’t nearly over, there were times we could feel a warm breeze and know we would see better weather soon. Learning to ski (or fall) had become an enjoyable activity Julia and I had started doing together. With fewer work hours for both of us, she’d been introducing me to the Colorado activities.

We’d both decided against going back to work for GSJ. My internship was up last month, and I officially took an architect position with Colorado Cares. It wasn’t nearly as much money as I would’ve made with GSJ, but that was okay with me. Julia and I were working side-by-side almost daily, and I loved every second of it. We still spent a few Saturdays a month volunteering on building the houses, and we’d met more amazing families like the Williamsons that our jobs had directly affected. It was beyond rewarding.

A door buzzed, and Julia jumped, turning towards the sound. Her parents stood, and I followed. Johnny walked out of the door, wearing a pair of dark jeans and a black shirt Julia had bought for him in Colorado. He had a leather jacket over his shoulder, and he held a bag of what must have been his personal belongings. His hair was way too long, and he had a full beard, but I knew Julia would take care of that immediately.

He dropped the bag and caught Julia, turning her in a circle as she sobbed. “Johnny! You’re out. It’s over. It’s all over. You can come home now.” We’d decided to offer Johnny a bedroom in my apartment, since all the guest room held was Julia’s shoes. No kidding.

I saw the tears streaking down his face. I remember Julia saying she’d never seen him cry in her life. “Jules. I can’t believe it.” I knew the feeling he was having. Well, okay, not really. But I knew the feeling of wanting to sob over the love this woman had for me. She did everything with all of her heart.

He put her down and reached over and shook my hand. “Carter. Great to see you, brother.” We hugged tightly. “Thank you for taking care of her.” I nodded, emotion too thick in my throat to answer.

The Gibbons stepped forward and hugged their son, which made Julia sob harder. I held onto her shoulders as she watched her family reunite; exactly what she’d wanted for all of these years.

“Let’s get out of here,” Johnny said, slinging his arm over Julia’s shoulder. “What do you say, pipsqueak?”

Julia smacked him. “Oh no, you don’t.”

“What?” Johnny grinned. “I can’t call my baby sister pipsqueak?”

“No. No, you can’t.” She didn’t mean it, and we all knew it.

“First order of business. Some real damn food. Anyone object?”

Julia laughed. “We’ll get you whatever you want to eat if you promise that the
second
order of business is cutting this mop you call hair and this monstrosity of a beard. You’re a real citizen again. Let’s make you look like one.”

“Deal.” Johnny rubbed his beard. “I might miss it.”

“I won’t,” Julia said. She reached up and rubbed my chin. “See Carter’s? That’s acceptable. Looking homeless isn’t.”

Johnny grabbed her hand. “What is this, little sister?” He grinned over at me, and I nodded.

“I’m getting married,” Julia said. “The wedding is going to be in Florida in a few months. Want to come?”

“Do I want to come? Hmm, let’s see. I thought I was going to look at the walls of a cell for the next nine years, and now you’re asking me if I want to go lay on a beach and look at chicks in bikinis? No, I don’t think I can make it.”

We all laughed, reaching the SUV we’d rented from the airport. While the Gibbons family had a long way to go, I knew they were on their way.