Fourth of July! I had the day off. Jax’s bar wasn’t open yet, so both of us were free. He and his partners had picked a location right in the center of downtown, but the place needed some updating which would take a couple of months.

That night, Liam was holding his legendary Fourth of July party. Jax warned me that I should prepare myself for seeing celebrities. I’d almost gotten used to it, turning my head and spotting some famous actress or another. Naugatuck tended to attract an older crowd, not the twenty-somethings ready to club all night. But I was right smack in the middle of my twenties and had no interest in that myself, so the island suited me just fine.

Even as I settled into domestic tranquility with Jax, I felt younger than ever. My heart felt so light. I could still remember the sadness I’d felt when I’d turned 25, and the promise I’d made myself. In a few months I’d be 26 and it looked like I was well set up to make good on that promise. I had more love in my life than I knew what to do with.

I was even dressing more fun. Goodbye scrubs and sneakers, hello sundresses and heels. It felt fun to play around. Jax made me feel so sexy, and I found myself wearing pinks and polka dots or silly prints that made me smile.

When I’d Skyped with my mom, she’d been shocked. “Is that you, Sky?” she’d asked, pretending to squint and shield herself from all my bright colors.

I didn’t get into all the details, I just told her that I’d left Griller.

“Thank God,” she’d said, and I had to agree. I urged her to come out and visit. She said she might. She’d always had a soft spot for Naugatuck.

I started dancing, too, at Sophie’s studio. She had a hip-hop class that a friend of hers taught. I could not have been worse. I wasn’t being modest, I really did not know what I was doing. Twerking did not come naturally to me. But I was having a blast, every Tuesday night, shaking my booty and laughing with a whole group of women in their twenties, thirties and forties.

At the party tonight Jax was excited for me to meet Chase and Emma. He wanted me to be able to put another piece into the puzzle, getting to know another of his oldest friends. Apparently Chase had been the first of them to go. “The first domino to fall,” I think he’d put it. Then Liam, then Jax had coupled up. What was the world coming to? Before long, Ian would be happily married, too, and then what would any of them do with any residual angst? They’d have to donate it to a charity, maybe one that provided surplus angst to emo bands in need.

But as much as I did look around and feel like I had to pinch myself my life was turning out so rosy, some nights I still woke up frightened, heart pounding with anxiety over some dream about Mike. Every now and then a loud noise would startle me more than it should have, and I’d realize, I was still remembering how he used to smash and crash around. Living with someone explosive and violent had shaken me to the core. I guessed it was some sort of PTSD.

One afternoon last week, on a whim, I’d called up the Cavallo Canyon Retirement Community and asked for Maria.

“It’s Sky,” I told her, “Sky Cabrillo.”

“Sky! How are you? Are you all right? It’s been months!”

“Hi, yes, I’m good.”

“I was so worried, when you just quit and never came back. You didn’t answer the couple times I called you.”

“I’m so sorry. I was in a bad spot. But I wanted to call and let you know—I got away.”

“You got away?” Her voice dropped down lower. “From your husband?”

“I got away from him.” My eyes filled with tears, my hand shaking as I remembered all my fears, that impossibly trapped feeling I’d had for so long. “And I never let you know, but I wanted to thank you. For being my friend. And encouraging me even when I didn’t want to hear it.”

“Oh, honey.” Now I could tell she was crying, too. “Oh, sweetie. You’re safe?”

“I’m safe,” I assured her, really feeling it in my bones.

“I’m so happy for you. Are you still living in Cavallo?”

“No, not even close. So I won’t be around. But I wanted to call and say thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me. But I’m so happy to hear from you. You enjoy your life, Sky, you hear me?”

I promised her I would. Every day, I could feel my confidence growing, my voice getting stronger. Just last Monday, I’d presented Maple with my ideas for the future of the bakery. A business plan, as Jax called it. He’d helped me put it together and listened while I practiced talking about it, but the ideas were all mine. And they were good ones.

“All fresh local ingredients,” I’d told her, knowing how attached she was to her frozen fruits. And we could still freeze our perishable berries, but we should source them from local farms, first. “It’ll cost more, but the people on Naugatuck will pay.” I’d done the math, too, again with Jax’s help, but I understood it well enough. We’d spend more per pie, but charge more, too, making it up in the end.

Maple had pushed back some and said she needed some time to think things through, but ultimately she’d loved my ideas. She’d agreed to apprentice me in the business over the next year. Then, she wanted to sell the whole shop to me. She’d been running it for 25 years and she wanted to retire, but she’d hesitated to do it because she didn’t want to see all her hard work go away. She’d built up an amazing reputation for her baked goods. But it turned out that in me she saw a way to transition instead of end her legacy.

I couldn’t believe my dreams were coming true. I’d always wanted to own and operate my own bakery, and here one was being handed to me. Only Jax was always quick to remind me, it hadn’t just landed on my head.

“You’ve worked hard to create this opportunity,” he told me. It still felt like a gift, but I was more than happy to take it.

I felt more confident with Jax, too. I’d always felt attraction with him, seen how he’d looked at me, but I’d felt so crappy I hadn’t fully believed he wanted me. I’d assumed my feelings for him were stronger than his for me. He’d loomed larger than life; how could simple, wallflower me rock his world?

But as the weeks turned into months together, I believed it more and more. I did rock his world. And it was a lot of fun to do it.

On the morning of July Fourth, Jax was sitting on the couch working something or other out on his laptop. It probably had something to do with the bar, but he was just going to have to finish it another time. I’d already taken off my panties underneath my dress. I straddled his leg, giving him a look that let him know business time was over. Playtime had begun. Happy to call it quits, he set aside his laptop and wrapped his hands around my waist.

“Remember that day last summer when you waited for me after my shift?” I asked. He nodded, his eyes already looking dazed with lust as he watched me grind on him. “Remember how I climbed out of your truck and told you to leave me alone?” I unzipped his jeans, slid down his briefs and wrapped my hand around his cock. “You know what I wanted to do instead?”

He shook his head, looking at me like I was the most fascinating show he’d ever seen. Up on my knees, I brought his shaft to my entrance. “I wanted to do this.” I sank down onto him, taking him in to the hilt as I leaned back, gripping his shoulders.

“Fuck yes.” He grabbed me around the hips, matching my rhythm with his thrusts, both of us grinding against each other exactly the way we’d wanted to last summer. I was through delaying gratification, denying myself pleasure. Spreading my palms against Jax’s huge, muscular chest, I leaned down and licked his neck, bit his earlobe, rolling my hips as we both drove toward climax.

He pulled my top up over my head, then pushed the cups of my bra down so my breasts were exposed. Pinching my nipples, he looked me in the eye. “Show me how you would have cum for me.”

Crying out, I bucked down on him, cumming on his cock with abandon, grinding and moaning as he tweaked my tips. He shot up into me, cumming hot and hard, making me scream all over again at the feel of his release.

Somehow the rest of the morning passed in much the same way, and by the time we actually looked at a clock it was nearly time to go. Scrambling around, dashing into the shower, shoving our feet into shoes, we managed to get ourselves over to Liam’s and Sophie’s around three o’clock. We brought burgers and sausages to grill, beers to drink, and four pies I’d baked for the occasion. Most guests wouldn’t be arriving until around four, but Chase, Liam and Jax wanted some time with just the six of us.

The guys were like colts together, joking around, ribbing each other, brimming with energy over being together again. Emma was so pretty and together she and Chase looked like they could kick my ass into shape.

“How’s the center?” Sophie asked her, and I learned how Emma and Chase had opened a recreation and sports center down in Florida, mostly serving kids and seniors. She was a physical therapist and runner, whereas Chase had won himself a bundle of gold medals swimming in previous Olympics. I must look all soft and squishy in comparison, I realized, but they didn’t make me feel that way. They were open and kind, excited to meet me. But standing next to such perfectly chiseled specimens was a bit intimidating.

“You didn’t tell me they were so fit,” I whispered to Jax as we stepped outside for a moment.

“Are you afraid they’re going to make you do burpees?” he teased, giving me another beer.

“Yes, I am,” I laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Chase asked as he and Emma joined us out on the deck.

“Nothing!” I asserted at the same time as Jax said,

“She’s afraid you’re going to make her do burpees.”

“Jax!” I called out, hitting his arm, but Chase and Emma burst out laughing.

“He might,” Emma joked and Chase wrapped an arm around her, giving her a look. “He’s very intense.”

“Who’s intense?” Liam asked, joining the group, holding Sophie’s hand.

“The Olympian.” Jax tipped his beer bottle over at Chase.

“Chevy!” Liam called out, giving him a high five.

“Chevy Chase,” Jax whispered to me, explaining the nickname. “When we were 12 we watched Caddyshack about a thousand times.”

“Classic movie,” I had to agree.

“I’m so happy to have all of you here!” Liam looked around the circle, the host with the most. “You guys are like brothers to me. I can’t believe you’ve found women to put up with you.” Jax balled up a napkin and threw it at him, hitting him squarely in the shoulder.

“But seriously, here’s a toast.” He raised his beer bottle and we all followed suit. “To all of you!”

“And especially us women who put up with you,” Emma added.

“And to Ian,” Jax added, and the mood sobered instantly. “Wish he were here with us right now.”

“To Ian,” several echoed as we all clinked bottles.

We helped Liam and Sophie set up, with extra chairs and tables and ice buckets all over. It looked like they had enough food and alcohol to satisfy a couple of professional football teams.

“Let me steal you away for a second.” Jax pulled me down a path, climbing down to the sand where the waves pounded along the beach.

“You sure?” I looked back up, feeling a little guilty. They still had a lot to do to get ready.

“I’m sure.” Something in the way he looked at me made me realize he wasn’t just talking about the party.

“Sky, I’m going to give you time. All the time you need.” He looked down into my eyes. “But I want you to know, I’m all in.”

I smiled, sort-of knowing what he was saying but not exactly. “I love you, Jax.”

“I love you too, Sky. And not in the ‘this is great while it lasts kind of way.’ I know this might sound crazy, we’ve only actually been together for only a few months now.”

“But we’ve known each other much longer.” He didn’t have to convince me. I already knew how I felt about him.

“I figure…” He brought his hand up to his head, rubbing it as he paused in thought. I brought my hand up there, too, touching him the way I’d wanted to so many times. He smiled and kissed me. “I figure, I’ll propose to you at Christmas. That’ll give you some time. And you can pick out the ring.”

I laughed with joy, throwing my arms around his neck. “I can already tell you my answer.” We kissed, reveling in having found each other.

“I want to wait to ask you, give you some more time, but I couldn’t wait to tell you I was going to ask you. I know what I want. And it’s you.”

“I’m glad you’re so impatient.” We kissed some more, leaning against the surface of a rock that waves had smoothed over time.

“So are we engaged to be engaged?” Jax smiled, finger under my chin as he gazed down at me as if he couldn’t believe how lucky he was.

“Yes, we are,” I smiled. Remembering our chaperoned walks, all the time we’d spent getting to know each other, I guessed in a way it made sense. “We’re so old fashioned.”

“I don’t think anyone has called me that before.” I could see the tip of a tattoo peeking out of the neck of his T-shirt.

“Well, whatever you are, don’t change a thing.” I reached up and kissed him again, showing him exactly how I felt.