Epilogue
One Year Later
Brandon was standing with his hands in his pocket, surveying the landscape of his resort. Cedar Key, and this resort had always been home. Even though he had spent as much time and put in as much detail with all his other hotels and resorts, this one was still his most special one; because it was the first one he built from the ground up and it was also where he met Jo. His wife and mother of his son. Nothing else ever came close to the feeling he got every time he stood at that spot, and looked around.
It was summer again and the resort was bursting at the seams with visitors. His private beach was dotted with people, and when he looked over, people were cannonballing into the swimming pool. Something he knew Jo wouldn’t appreciate. Even though she was only 26 years old, she was wiser than her age.
Brandon walked across the expanse of manicured lawns and some splashes of water from the fountain damped the back of his polo shirt. Not that he cared. These days, it felt like he was walking on clouds and nothing could affect him. Meeting Jo and the birth of their son had changed everything. His priorities had shifted, nothing could bring him down.
He caught sight of Jo now. She had neatly laid out a beach towel on the sand, close enough to the waters, but far enough for it to be safe for Jasper, their son. He was sleeping in his pram next to her, while Jo was reading a book.
He admired his wife from a distance. She was in a canary yellow bikini, her breasts bigger now ever since their son was born. Her body had become more curvaceous as well, and Brandon could feel his cock hardening in his pants. It was like every time he looked at her, he couldn’t help himself. She was irresistible to him; and if he had thought that he couldn’t want her any more, the birth of Jasper had changed all that. Now he wanted her more.
Jo had tanned a little now, her pale skin had a darker hue and Brandon knew that it had something to do with the amount of time she spent in the sun these days. All through her pregnancy, she had travelled with Brandon, hopping from one beach resort to the next…and now that Jasper was only two months old, they had decided to remain in Cedar Key for a while, until he was big enough to start traveling with his parents too.
Brandon walked towards Jo now, and she must have caught sight of him from the corner of her eyes, because she put her book down on her lap and smiled lovingly at him.
“How’s work going?” she asked, when he was close enough to her. Before he said anything, he knelt down beside her on the side and kissed her lips.
“Have I told you how much I love you?” he asked and stroked her flaming red hair. Jolie bit down on her lip and smiled.
“Every day,” she replied and they kissed again. When he stood up, her gaze travelled to the tent that was forming in his pants and she smiled again.
“Have you been staring at me again from a distance?” she asked and Brandon’s gaze drifted to her full luscious breasts; he couldn’t help himself.
“Do I do it that often?” he asked and Jo laughed.
“Every day,” she said and Brandon walked over to the pram, where Jasper was peacefully asleep. Ravaging his wife’s body would have to wait until later. He still had an entire day’s worth of work to get through, and it wasn’t even midday yet. He should have kept her in bed that morning a little longer when he had the chance, he thought.
He stared into the pram, at his son’s angelic face as he slept. Jasper had the smallest hands, the smallest nose and Brandon was glad that he also had his mother’s features. They shared the same blue eyes and the button nose. Only his hair was like his father’s, thick and dark. No child had ever looked more beautiful before.
“He’s a cutie, isn’t he?” Brandon heard Jo’s voice behind him and he turned around to find her sitting up now. She was admiring the moment that father and son were sharing.
“I love this little man,” Brandon said, touching his son’s cheek lightly before straightening up. He couldn’t afford a longer break than this. Having Jo and Jasper here with him was a distraction, and he was still getting used to it. Although, it was a necessary distraction and it kept him happy. There was no way that he could spend an entire day without them there, somewhere close-by.
“I should be getting back to work, baby,” he said, stroking Jo’s hair and she blew him a kiss.
“Okay, but don’t work too hard,” she said.
“Same goes to you!” he said, tipping his head towards Jo’s laptop that was lying open beside her. She’d been working non-stop on an article for Dot that Margaret had recently assigned to her. Jo had decided to go back to work after Jasper was born, but only remotely. She had told him that she was done with her other life, that she never wanted to go back to being the “office-bitch” again.
“I’m relaxing, look!” she held up her book for him and Brandon smiled. They kissed and then he began to walk away, already beginning to miss them both. He knew he should have been counting his blessings for everything beautiful in his life, but he couldn’t help but want to think of retiring. He wanted to finally enjoy his life’s hard work, and enjoy it with Jo.
“Hey!” he heard her voice and whipped around to find her beaming at him.
“I love you!” she called out and when he turned back around, he was laughing again.
***
Jolie was asleep, she had dozed off at some point in the sun and now the sound of her phone ringing woke her up. She sat up with a jerk and quickly checked on Jasper in his pram, before fumbling in her bag for her cellphone.
It could have been someone from the office calling about the article she’d been working on. When she answered, and heard her mom’s voice, her heart sank to her stomach. They hadn’t spoken for a year, since the morning after the party.
“Jolie!” she snarled in the phone, and she could tell that her mom had been drinking. She looked at her wristwatch, it was the middle of the day.
“Mom,” Jolie said, realizing that she should have paid more attention to the number and picked up on the fact that it was a Boston number.
“I don’t need to ask how you are, do I?” her mom snarled some more, and Jolie knew that she knew. How? How could she have known?
“How are you, mom?” she said instead and her mother’s cackling laugh filled her ear.
“How am I? How could you even think of asking me that!” she snapped.
“Because I genuinely want to know. We haven’t spoken in a while,” Jolie replied and her mother laughed some more.
“Yeah, we haven’t spoken since the time you stole my husband. I should have known something was going on. How could I have been so bloody blind?” her mother’s voice was dripping with rage, and Jolie felt suddenly sad. Was her mom entitled to her rage? Perhaps she was, especially for being kept in the dark about it.
“How did you find out, mom?” she asked and she could almost imagine her rolling her eyes.
“I read it in a gossip magazine, something like the one you worked for. Billionaire hotelier Brandon Calloway, photographed with new wife, Jolie Parker and their newborn son. You have a child with him? Is that what you lured him with? Your womb?” Her mom was yelling now, and her words stung Jolie like pinpricks on her skin. She looked over at Jasper nervously, an irrational fear gripped her that he could hear and understand and she wanted to shield her son from it.
“I didn’t lure him, mom, and the pregnancy wasn’t planned,” she tried reasoning with her mother, keeping her voice down because there were guests around her.
“What do you call it then? He left me for my daughter! Because he wanted a younger, more fertile body. That is all you are to him!” she yelled some more and Jolie pressed her eyes close. She should have better prepared herself for a conversation like this.
“We met before we knew how we were related to each other. I met him at one of his resorts and there was an instant…” she tried to explain and her mom continued screaming, not waiting to listen to what Jolie had to say.
“I should have known what he was up to behind my back. Where did you do it? In his study? In his bedroom? In my bedroom?” she continued and Jolie let out a deep sigh.
“Look, mom, I’m sorry that you’re upset and I know you have every right to be. But you were married to him for four months. You knew him for four months!” it was Jolie’s turn to yell now, even though she was trying her best to control her rage.
“No amount of apology is going to make this okay!” she continued and Jolie nodded her head knowingly.
“Right. What’s going to make it okay, then?” she asked, in a calmer voice. She had figured out what this phone call was about.
“I want more money. I want the lifestyle that he provided for me when we were married, when my slut daughter came in and swooped it away from me,” her mom snapped and Jolie clenched her jaws.
“You can forget about it. Get a lawyer if you want to fight this out with him,” she said and before her mom could say anything more, she had ended the call and switched off her phone. She decided that she would get a different number if she had to, but she wasn’t going back to that vicious circle again—of sympathizing for the woman who hadn’t even bothered to ask about her grandson.
Jolie got up and picked Jasper up from his pram and carried him towards the resort. She was desperate to see Brandon again. She couldn’t shake off the bitter feeling that her mother’s words had encased her in. She strode through the sand and across the lawns, with Jasper in her arms, till she finally saw him. Brandon was standing at the top of the steps, across the swimming pool. He was in the middle of some kind of team meeting, surrounded by a dozen of his uniformed employees.
She watched him, just like she knew he liked to watch her. He looked powerful and strong, his dark hair shining in the sun, his beard looking more grey than when they first met. His shoulders and arms were muscular, and his polo shirt stretched the fabric. He was standing with his hands on his narrow waist. His brows were crossed as he remained deep in conversation with his employees.
She knew the way women looked at him, and it didn’t surprise her. They all saw what she saw too, a strong reliable handsome man who could take care of his woman the way a man should.
He looked in her direction suddenly and their eyes met across the pool. He smiled and Jolie felt her knees buckle from the weight of the love she felt for him.
Nothing anybody said, nothing her mother said could ever change that. She was in love with the man of her dreams, and he was in love with her.