Billionaire Best Friend [Complete]

41. Gracie

Epilogue

It was that time of the month—where the lot of us met up at 24K for dinner. Only this time was going to be a hell of a lot different. Work was the same but my personal life had gone through an entire makeover. Honestly, so had I.

I was a different person, and I felt it every morning when I woke up and looked at myself in the mirror. It helped that nine times out of ten Sutton was there next to me, rubbing lazy circles over my hip bone or pulling me to his chest in a way that made my heart trip up each and every time.

We wasted no time exploring who we were and what we wanted, which was each other. I caved and fell back into that same blissfulness that enveloped me when we were in St. Thomas together, when nothing seemed to really matter outside of the two of us.

As it was, Jason kept his distance. The following day, he texted me to make sure I was okay and to tell me he heard my message loud and clear. I was at Sutton's kitchen counter when my phone buzzed and he came up behind me, wrapped me in his arms, and read the message with me. He peppered a kiss to my temple and said, "You have no fucking idea how happy I am that he's out for your life."

I set the phone down and twisted in his hands, a little grin twisting my lips. "That so?"

His eyes dipped down to his t-shirt I wore. I could've easily borrowed something he had for me in the guest room, but I wanted to smell him on me, not his laundry detergent. "Extremely."

"So you'd be mad if I decided, after all, to get back with him?" I was only teasing. He knew there wasn't anything that would take me back in time and agree to be with Jason again. That ship had sailed the second he brought another woman into the mix. Sutton, if anyone, understood that best.

He told me Taryn tried sneaking her way back into his life and what he told her he'd do if she pushed matters. I finally shared what she said to me on our last day of the retreat.

"I'd burn down his entire fucking world to get you back," was his grumbled reply. "And I'd enjoy every second of it."

I leaned back against the counter and stuck my hands under his shirt. He was molten lava and I was a fourteen-pointed snowflake falling down, down, down from the sky. "How would you do that?" I asked out of curiosity.

His lips remained in a flat line but something filled his eyes. I didn't realize it was uncertainty until he said, "I had Benny look into Jason awhile back. Have an entire breakdown of who he is as a person shoved in the bottom of my desk drawer at work."

"Um...why?"

"Because, Gracie, I would've burned his entire world to ash if you went back with him and he hurt you again."

I wasn't mad. I couldn't help but feel some kind of weird honor. That he'd go to the lengths of fighting for me like that when Jason fled the first chance he got instead of coming to me and talking.

I pressed up on my tippy toes and kissed Sutton hard. He lifted me onto the counter after and ate me for breakfast.

Now, I was running late thanks to an accident a few blocks over that kept me stuck in traffic longer than I anticipated. Sutton sent a car for me after work. A sleek, black SUV driven by his regular guy, who apologized profusely when we pulled up to the curb of the restaurant.

I waved him off and climbed the steps of 24K, figuring everyone else was probably already here. I found our table in the back with the city lights twinkling in the background and everyone I cared about in one place.

No matter how much I let life get to me or allowed my thoughts to run wild, I always had this. I had Sutton and his brothers. Rosie and Cole. They were my family. The people who truly cared about me. Not my mother who came and went as she pleased.