Page 34 of The Last Love Story (Baker Girls #3)

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

JUSTIN

Darren Corval can eat shit and die.

I practically scrubbed my skin raw in the shower with how angry I am.

Not because he said shit about me. What the fuck ever.

I lived through the New York modeling scene.

If I couldn’t handle guys like him, I never would’ve survived.

But he said shit about Jade, and that makes the psychotic, I-want-to-put-him-in-a-shallow-grave side of me come out.

Don’t go after my wife.

I’ve already been in contact with my cousin Stacy about what we need for a defamation lawsuit, just in case.

We aren’t there yet, and I doubt anything will come of this before it goes softly into the night. It’s such a load of trash and the people who feed off that are trolls.

I meant what I said to Jade. It’ll blow over and be okay. I’m determined to distract her as much as possible until she’s a little calmer, and then we can figure out what we want to post .

I run my hand through my wet hair, spiking it up a little, then open the door to the bedroom.

“Baby, I hope you’re wearing a short little dress, because?—”

I cut off when I find the room empty.

“Jade?”

I wander out to the living room and kitchen, but she isn’t there, either.

What the hell?

Spinning on my heel, I run down to the office, my heart ticking up when she’s not there. As I turn to leave the room, my eye catches the window and her car isn’t in the driveway.

Pulling my phone from my pocket, I run out to the living room and call her.

Voicemail.

My stomach burns.

Where would she be? Why did she leave?

Breathe.

When my phone rings, I almost drop it, but I right myself, only to see it’s not her calling, but her dad.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Justin. I saw that post on social media this morning. How are you? How’s Jade? She wasn’t answering her phone when I called.”

Sighing, I drop onto the couch. “She’s not answering for me either. I showed her the post this morning, and we talked. I went to take a shower—now she’s gone. I don’t know where she is. I’m guessing not with you.”

He hums. “No. She’s not. If I had to guess, she’s panicking. Losing what she’s worked so hard for is her greatest fear. And when she feels like she’s in trouble, she wants to fight back, prove herself. If I had to guess where she went, I’d say Trish’s or Zoey’s.”

“Probably Zoey’s,” I grit out.

But why? Why did she leave me? We’re supposed to be a team. Figure it out together .

“She’s still getting used to having you to rely on, son. Don’t stress too much. Find her and talk to her.”

“Papa Jackson, can you read minds?”

He laughs. “No. But I know my daughter. And I know the way you care for her—and it’s been obvious from day one that you’ve wanted to make this last. Which is how I know you will.”

I let out a weak laugh and run my hand over my face. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Call if you need anything.”

“I will. Bye.”

He hangs up, and I lean back against the couch.

I hate that she ran from me, but it’s only been two months. There’s still a lot to learn about each other. There’s still trust to build. That’s okay.

I stare down at my phone, then unlock the screen and open my notes app, so I can type out a post. I need to do this before I go find my wife.

It takes me a half hour and lots of backspacing before I have something I’m happy with.

I open one of my social media apps and the first thing I do is upload photos.

A whole slideshow of them. All sweet little moments of Jade and me.

A selfie from after her surgery, then a bunch of selfies of us from the last few weeks, then a photo Hallie sent me of Jade and I kissing at the Metros game, and for the last picture I put the kiss from our wedding.

A moment so raw and real it’s impossible to deny our love.

Then I add the text.

I usually don’t comment on hearsay and gossip, but this morning my wife was ruthlessly attacked, and I won’t sit by and allow it.

A predatory man was behind those words. And I say predatory because despite his delusional claims that my wife was all over him, their only point of contact was when he sexually assaulted her by grabbing her ass.

I witnessed her horror at being touched without consent, but I wasn’t the only one.

Several patrons in the bar and the bartender witnessed this.

The bartender saw even more than I did. There is a reason that person has been removed from events and it wasn’t a smear campaign.

Talking about him is the last thing I want to do on this or any day.

I’d much rather tell you about my wife. And yes, I know I call her “my wife” too much. She rolls her eyes about it. But I’m not going to stop because I’m acutely aware of how lucky I am.

Our story has been a whirlwind. I slipped into her DMs to gush about one of her books, only to fall head over heels for her during our daily conversations.

Our all day conversations. Getting married in Las Vegas was fast, but it was not done on a whim.

Her father wouldn’t have been there if that was the case.

The truth is, I’ve known in my soul from the moment we started speaking that Jade Jackson and her beautiful heart were meant to be mine.

I’m honored to be the one to protect her and her heart, though I wish I didn’t have to.

She is kind, talented, brilliant, and funny.

She’s a bright light, and I’m damn lucky that she saw even a shred of those things in me. With her, I’m finally home.

Jade never posted about us because she didn’t want to draw too much attention. She didn’t want to feel she was using me. But I can’t and won’t stop shouting about how much I adore my wife, and how lucky I am that we found each other.

The pictures I’ve posted speak for themselves. She can write a love story. I can narrate one. But we can’t fake love, and we’d never want to.

I read it over one last time, then post it.

Now it’s time to go find my wife.

Papa Jackson gave me Zoey’s address, and I’m unsurprised when I pull in the driveway and find Jade’s car here. Since Zoey is single and Trish lives with her very overprotective fiancé, who is also Zoey’s friend, I assumed that wasn’t where she’d end up.

Zoey’s house is a beautiful log-cabin home. It’s something I might’ve imagined for myself one day, but now home is that upstairs apartment and the back porch that looks out on the park. I’d love to turn it back into a single-family one day if we ever have kids, but right now, it’s all we need.

It’s home.

It’s where Jade should be.

I knock loudly on Zoey’s door, and when it swings open, she and Trish are standing in front of me.

“Where is my wife?”

Zoey looks at Trish. “Why does this keep happening to me? Different house, but same thing. Growly guy storming my front door looking for his girl.”

Trish stifles a laugh.

I don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, and I really don’t care.

“Jade?”

Zoey swings the door all the way open, and I walk in, finding Jade standing in the kitchen.

“Hi.”

“We need to talk.”

“There’s a nice back deck,” Trish says.

Jade sighs and nods, leading me out the back door and across the expansive deck. There’s a wide staircase, and she sits down on the top stair, looking dejected.

I take a spot a few feet from her and look over at her .

“Why did you leave?”

Her eyes find mine. “I panicked. I read what he said again and started reading through the comments. All the awful things people said. How they would never support you again. I don’t want your career to be ruined because you’re stuck with me.”

I move closer and grab her arm. “Why would you ever think I’m stuck with you? Do you not understand how much you’ve given me?”

She sniffs and shakes her head, looking down. “I know you wanted a home. You wanted someone to love. But did you actually want me ?”

Holy fuck. It did not for one goddamn second occur to me that she’d think that.

I rest my palm on her cheek and turn her so she’s facing me again. “ You are the person I love. You are my home. Not an apartment or a town. You. Always you. Only you. My home is where your heart is.”

She sniffs again, tears trickling down her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I should’ve… trusted you. I let those comments get into my head.”

“What comments?”

“People saying I didn’t deserve you and we’d never end up together or you must be cheating on me because fat girls don’t end up with thin, fit guys.”

“Fuck that. Fuck all those people and their ridiculous, shameful standards. I’ve never looked at someone and thought they were ugly based on their physical appearance.

What makes people ugly is their soul. The way they treat people.

How they view the world. The love in their heart.

And you are beautiful in every way.” I gesture to my body.

“Someday, these abs and—if my father is any indication—about half my hair will be gone. Are you going to love me less?”

She grabs my arm, looking horrified. “Of course not.”

The words hang there for a second, and a smile overtakes me. “You just admitted you love me.”

She laughs and brushes her thumb over my cheek. “I did. I love you. And you’re crazy if you don’t know you’ve had my heart this whole time.”

“And you are crazy to ever think I’m stuck with you. I chose you. I’ll always choose you. I’ll never stop.”

“I’m sorry I left.”

“I understand. We’re still figuring this marriage thing out. It’s almost like we need to know each other for more than two months. But if there’s one thing I want you to be certain of, it’s that I’m your safe place, and if you feel like running, the only place you need to run is to me.”

She rests her head on my shoulder. “What about everything else?”

“Like I said, I truly think it’ll be okay. But I’ve already talked to my cousin Stacy about a defamation lawsuit if we need to go there. For now, there’s this.”

I pull out my phone and open it to the post, the comment section of which has filled up with love and support for us.

She takes it from me and reads through what I wrote, then goes up and scrolls through the pictures, tears spilling down her cheeks as she does.

Then her hand is on my neck and she’s staring into my eyes. “I love you.”

“I love you too, darlin’.”

Her lips land on mine, and everything else fades away. I’m home. In our love, in her, I will always be home.

Jade’s naked body is wrapped around mine as we lie in bed, ignoring the world.

Since that sniveling piece of shit’s post yesterday, his world has unraveled.

Not only have Jade and I been bolstered with tons of love and support, multiple female authors, influencers, and some fans have stood up and told their stories about Darren Corval.

The best thing to see was the bolstering from men in the community who saw some of his predatory behavior and defended women, then spoke up too.

Women raising their voices is essential, but men backing them up shows other men that the kind of bullshit Corval tried to get away with will not be tolerated.

He ended up deleting his post about Jade and me.

Stacy was pissed and sent a little cease and desist order his way. It’s almost like he knew he was wrong.

I don’t know what he thought would happen, but at this point, I don’t care.

He’s taken up enough of my brain space.

All I care about right now is this.

I graze my fingers over Jade’s back, and she sighs happily.

“How would you feel about doing the voice of Jason for the Marianos series?”

My eyebrow quirks up. “Jason, huh?”

“I know you haven’t really gotten to see his storyline yet, but he and Evvie have quite the story. And he needs someone with your warmth to voice him.”

I stare at her for a long moment. “Would you be willing to voice Evvie?”

She’s right, I haven’t gotten to see much of their story yet because the book eight cliffhanger ended with a tease of it.

I might’ve gotten a little hyped just reading it.

I mean, he’s her ex’s cousin, her childhood best friend, and she’s going to be his nanny.

I can’t wait for book nine. And damn straight if I’m narrating Jason, I want her narrating Evvie.

She sucks in a breath. “If we both really feel I’m ready, then yes. But I’ve decided I want to do the series multi-cast. Which means I’d have to be ready soonish. I reached out to some narrators last night.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I had to stop thinking and just do it. Plus, I’d connected with a few after everything yesterday, so it seemed natural to start the conversation.”

“This is going to be amazing.”

“I hope so. Also… I know I kept you busy yesterday afternoon. And last night. And this morning… but you really should check your email.”

She gives me a mischievous grin that has me reaching for my phone.

“The first two fairytale books?”

“I’m ready to start pursuing something with them. And who better to read them first than my husband?”

I toss my phone aside and wrap her in my arms. “Say that again.”

“My husband.”

“Mm, wifey. You have no idea what those words do to me.”

“Make you fall a little more in love with me?”

I brush my nose against hers. “Every second of every day. I love you.”

“Love you too. Hubby.”

That’s it. This is my heaven. Nothing like I could’ve imagined, yet it’s everything I want and need. It’s more .

Getting married in Vegas after knowing someone for less than a month wasn’t part of the plan. Wasn’t the love story I saw for myself. But sometimes fate gives you the love story you need. Now I’m ready to build a beautiful life with Jade as husband and wife.