My eyes snap to hers.
“You were beautiful, Jameson. The red suited you well.” She jerks her chin.
I swallow, nodding slightly, and her lips pull into a tight smile.
She looks to Sienna with a true kind smile. “That’s a beautiful necklace, dear.”
I smirk but I’m shocked when my mom pulls another small box from her purse.
“I was going to give these to Jameson today, but I think they’re better matched for you.”
My mom places the gift just beside Sienna’s right hand and while Liam holds it still, Sienna lifts the top.
He gasps, her eyes snapping to my mom’s. “I don’t...”
“You can, dear. They will match beautifully.” She nods, and I hold back moisture from my gaze as I look from the pearl earrings to my mom.
“Thank you so much,” Sienna nearly cries.
I mouth the same to my mother and she smiles.
Her and my stepdad say their goodbyes and soon, everyone else is nearly passing out at their tables from a night of no sleep.
We thank the restaurant and pile into the limos once more.
Beretta lays out across the seat, his head in Arsen’s lap, hand in his man’s hair, and turns to us. “I love you guys.”
“Right back at you, man.” Ransom tosses a small pillow at him, but Arsen knocks it away with a grin, dropping back against the seat.
“Tonight at ten?” Beretta asks with a yawn.
Arsen looks from me to Ransom and nods, so we nod right back.
Tonight at ten.
Every single one of us falls asleep on the drive home.
It’s after midnight, just twenty-four hours after our wedding, by the time we’re pulling onto a dirt road in a little town called Hilmar.
From what we saw on the way in, there’s not much here outside of a store or two and what looks to be a school of some sort, which should make this a whole lot simpler than the last time we did something like this.
Like before, Arsen and Beretta grab the gas cans and I flick on the torch while Ransom rounds the small shack looking home to kill the power. This time though, it’s Arsen who draws a line of gasoline from the door to the edge of the yard and he who tosses the torch to send the baby up in flames.
But this time we don’t run.
We wait until the front door flies open so we can witness the fear as it lights up the man of the hour’s face, the moment he realizes he’s trapped inside.
His hair, while shining a light silver near his ears, is the same mahogany blonde as the silent man at my right. He seems just as tall as him too, and I’d bet they share the rich navy color eyes as well, not that I care to look into this man’s.
Not after what he did to Arsen and Arsen’s mother.
It’s clear the moment he recognizes his son as his face goes ghostly white, and the flames around him grow larger.
The coward before us turns to run.
We don’t know if the asshole ever made it out the back or not, but we know for certain he didn’t escape through the front.
With our heads held high, we slide into the black convertible that started it all.
Flames light up the sky behind us and Ransom slips his hand in mine, pulling it to his lips as I smile at the night around us.
This right here, this is the life I was meant for.
Cali and Jules were right all along, these three are a little crazy.
But they’re my kind of crazy, and I wouldn’t have them any other way.
I look to my husband who already stares down at me and I know what he’s thinking as he knows my thoughts mirror his own.
It’s Ransom and me forever.
It’s Arsen and Beretta always.
It’s us evermore.
No matter what.
I had it wrong before.
To hide the heart isn’t to salvage the soul, it’s to protect it until the person it belongs to comes to claim it as their own and claim it, he did.
Without permission.
Without pause.
And without mercy.
He took what he knew to be his, and I followed suit.
With a smile, I kiss the man I married, and he kisses me right back.
(Keep reading for a BONUS SCENE and free first chapter!)
Man, oh man!!
Let me get a little sappy, okay?!
I lived and breathed for this story for months. I never truly know what or why I am writing something until I get into it, and once I understood the voices in this particular novel, I knew it could only be done one way. No fear. No holding back.
This book is about a girl who dared to look left when the world told her to look right. It’s about courage and confidence and finding oneself however the hell one needs to do so. And I wrote this book for THAT reason, because we all deserve to find who we are.
To be who we wish.
Wo do whatever we want.
To live without shame or fear.
That’s what I wanted to give you.
That’s what I hope FOR you.
And I hope you loved Jameson and Ransom’s story as much as I enjoyed telling it.
READ A BONUS SCENE HERE
(or keep reading for a free first chapter!)
If you loved Badly Behaved, you will LOVE Boys of Brayshaw High!
Check it out:
Walk away.
Move your feet, exit this piece of shit cafeteria, and go get high. Chill out.
Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.
I keep walking, and I’m almost free and clear, almost through the door and away from the trouble I surely don’t need but can’t seem to escape.
But of course, nothing in my life is simple and just before my left foot joins my right, the final step through the open door, the bitch decides she’s not done and runs her mouth. Again.
“Maybe if she wasn’t such a slut her whore mom wouldn’t have kicked her out for sleeping with her new man.”
The laughter echoes, growing louder until it wraps around my throat like my mother’s hands when in a fit, choking me until I lose focus.
I stop where I stand.
My eyes haze, rage winning over the calm bravado I attempted to force myself into.
“Trailer trash, bitch.”
More laughs.
And there it is, the push.
Why do they always push?
Before anyone can stop me, not that there’s anyone who would give a shit, I snatch the closest tray off the nearest table and in one swift move, one hard, full swing, smash it across the side of her face.
The cheap red plastic breaks against her head and screams ring around me.
Blood pours from the big mouthed bitch’s forehead and she shrieks, her horrified gaze flying to mine. I wait until our stares connect, then quickly kick her chair sideways. Panic grows in her eyes as she crashes to the floor.
There’s no time to escape, not that I have anywhere to go.
People scream, but no one dares to step closer to me. The lunch lady calls for help and everyone rushes to the side of the asshole on the floor because she’s ‘the victim.’ Sure, I got physical first, but she started it. What did she expect?
If you can’t take it, don’t dish it.
And, yeah, the spat wasn’t a lie, my mother is a whore. The dirtiest of dirty. Straight trailer trash at its finest, I’ll admit it all day.
But she doesn’t get to say it.
And I sure as shit couldn’t let her get away with disrespecting me the way she did, publicly.