by Laney Kay
She frowned at him. “Yeah, well let’s see how it goes.”
Epilogue
One year later.
It turns out, it all went just fine.
Lola took a deep breath and looked around to make sure everything was ready. The newspaper and TV folks were there. Check. Daisy, Sara, Bella, Mo, and their spouses were there. Check. Her brother Bryan and his wife, her parents, Daisy’s parents, Jake’s parents, Mikey and his husband, and a bunch of her and Jake’s buddies and co-workers were all there. Check, check.
Now, where the hell was Jake? At that moment, she felt him come up behind her and kiss her neck as he wrapped his arms around her. “Sorry, sugar, I was talking to a friend of Daisy’s about setting up a few TV feature stories for you over the next few months. He’s all over it, and said he’d give you a call next week to set it up.”
She smiled at him and she finally started to relax. It had all actually come together.
Last year, once Lola was sure no one was trying to kill her and her law practice was completely shut down, she decided to set up her own charity, but she had no idea about what she actually wanted to accomplish. Then one day, Bella introduced her to Melanie and Lena, two young single mothers who were cousins and were trying to find a way to support themselves and their kids while they attended college and then nursing school, and the “Choose Your Future Foundation” was born.
It was actually Jake who came up with the basic idea. Lola and Jake were sitting side by side on the sofa watching an old movie and eating a sandwich for dinner, and Lola was discussing how these young mothers were trying to go to school and work, but the cost of child care for their children was so expensive, they couldn’t figure out a way to make the situation manageable. Through a mouthful of Cheetos, Jake commented that it was a shame that they couldn’t find a way to match up a couple of women with different schedules so one could watch the kids while the other was in class, and vice versa.
It was a Eureka moment. Lola squealed, and jumped on Jake and threw her arms around him and started planting kisses all over his face. Sandwiches flew everywhere, Cheetos fell onto her white sofa, and Jake, being Jake, used the opportunity to grab her ass and kiss her senseless.
Finally, she sat up straddling him, her hair a mess, her shirt askew, her nipples were pointing right at him, and her lips were swollen from his kisses. She smiled down at him. “Jake, you’re a freaking genius. That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
Jake tried to remember what he’d said, but he was still focused on their too-short makeout session and her distracting nipples. “What did I say?”
Lola grinned at him. “Okay, you know I offered Melanie and Lena scholarships so that they could afford child care and living costs while they went to school?” Jake nodded. “Well, Bella and I were talking about how so many of these young women drop out because they because they don’t have money and a reliable support system. A lot of them are from poor backgrounds, a lot of them don’t have family members they can depend on for help, and they aren’t used to functioning in a normal home environment. Most of them have never had attentive parents, they’ve never had chores, they don’t know how to handle money, they’ve never had anyone in the family who helped them with schoolwork, and mostly, they’ve never had people who’ve expected anything of them.”
Jake was nodding as she continued. “What if we set up a kind of dorm environment where each woman and her kids have a separate apartment of their own and they all take turns watching each others’ kids while they study and go to school? Everyone would chip in to make meals, they would help each other and each others’ kids with schoolwork, they would make schedules for chores like making all the kids’ lunches, that kind of thing? We would also provide classes on parenting, health, family planning, and financial management, so by the time these ladies graduate and get a job, they would know how to run their own household and would know how to manage money.”
She was so excited by the thought that Jake couldn’t stop smiling at her enthusiasm. “Would they have to pay anything for their rent and expenses?”
Lola thought about it and nodded. “Yes. They’d have to pay something, because that’s the only way you learn how to budget. But we’d make sure that the scholarship included a generous stipend for monthly living expenses to make sure they won’t be too stressed. And depending on how many kids they each have, they’ll have to contribute a certain amount of time for babysitting and other chores.”
She sat still for a moment, brain racing. Finally, she leaned down, wrapped her arms around Jake, and kissed him. He hugged her back. She pulled back until she could see his eyes. “Thank you, Jake. That’s all a great idea. Even better, it’s a great combination of two of my favorite things…real estate and helping people who are trying to help themselves. This is so much better than practicing law!” She gave him another quick peck on the lips and jumped up and ran off to find her phone. “I’m going to call Bella and see what she thinks.”
Bella thought it was a great idea. So that’s how it started. Lola started looking for a building she could buy to turn into apartments, and Bella set up fundraising events all over town. Bella, Lola, and Lola’s family all contributed a big chunk of money from their individual foundations to fund multiple scholarships and to help renovate the building. Luke donated his time to do the renovations, and all their friends helped at fundraising events and with publicity. By the time it was all said and done, they had a nice building that would house the first twenty women and their families and enough money to fund scholarships for school and living expenses. Bella established committees to ensure that annual fundraisers would continue to fund the scholarships, and Lola set it up so that she personally covered all administrative costs so one hundred percent of the funds raised went directly to the charity.
Today was the official ribbon cutting for the building. After today, Lola’s job would be to choose new scholarship recipients and monitor the program, and Lisa, her former assistant and paralegal, would be the executive director and she had an assistant to take care of daily administrative details. Mikey would administer the Foundation’s funds, plus handle all of the bookkeeping and financial matters. Lola, Jake, Bella, Lola’s brother Bryan, Kent, and Josh, Jake’s college roommate, were Board members, and the rest of their friends volunteered at fundraisers and events.
She bounded up the steps and started with her introduction and her long list of thank yous. An hour later, the building was officially open and the moving company that Lola partially owned was moving the women and their children into their new homes.
Now that the Foundation was actually up and running and the building was open, Lola finally felt like she could relax. That evening, after the event was finally over and the scholarship recipients and their families were all settled in their new homes, Lola, Jake, and their friends and family were sitting around her pool at her condo. Lola had called a caterer to handle the dinner, but Daisy had insisted on preparing dessert, and Mo, Sara, and Bella had come over early to help her set up. They had finished eating and Daisy was refilling her coffee and cupcake bar, when Lola sat up from where she’d been relaxing against Jake on one of the lounge chairs.
“Hey everyone. I just wanted to thank all y’all for everything. I’m so lucky to have all of you in my life, and if it wasn’t for you, I never would’ve been able to make this happen. So, even though I don’t say it enough. Thank you and I love all of you.” She was appalled when she actually felt herself tear up, so Jake jumped in to try to deflect the attention away from her.
“Hey guys, I’ve got something to say, too.” He sat up straight and pulled Lola back against his chest so she had time to get herself together. “Okay, y’all know that Lola and I have been together for the past year, we live together, sometimes here, sometimes at the lake, and I really appreciate getting to know all y’all and all of us becoming so close.” He laughed. “Who knew Georgia and Alabama folks could all get along so well? Y’all know it’s all b
ecause of me being so damn good with my smoker.” When their friends all started shouting comments, he laughed.
He kissed Lola on the top of her head and stood up, motioning for her to scoot back against the chair so he could sit by her side. He then sat down and grabbed her hands in his and stared in her face. “So, anyway, I’m really happy y’all are here for this. Lola, I love you, and I want us to be together always. I know you’re not a big marriage girl, so here’s what I propose.” He let go of her left hand to dig in his back pocket and he held up a ring and showed it to her. “Lola, will you marry me someday?” He grinned and slid the ring on her finger. “You can pick a date if, and when, you want, and if you decide that marriage is not your thing, will you be engaged to me for the rest of our lives?” He leaned forward and planted a sweet kiss on her speechless mouth and continued. “I don’t need the paper. I don’t need an official marriage license. I just need you.” He stopped and winked at her. “So what do you say?”
Lola was stunned. She looked at him and then looked at the ring he’d slid on her finger. It was obviously made by a talented artist and was a unique, beautiful, thin band with irregular diamonds inset in white gold. Her mind was racing, mainly because this was so unexpected, but she already knew what her answer would be. She looked around at her friends and family, all of whom were smiling happily at her and Jake, and all of whom were waiting for her answer. She shrugged, and winked at Jake. “Sure, Jake. Why not?”
Jake started laughing and so did she. He stood up and hauled her up beside him, wrapped his arms around her, bent her over backwards and kissed her thoroughly. When he finally stood her back up, her hair was a mess, her face was flushed, and she couldn’t stop laughing. He shook his head at her. “So ‘sure’ to which part?”
She rolled her eyes like her answer should have been obvious. “Sure, I may as well marry you. Duh.” He was grinning at her and she said, “Pick a date with a judge at the courthouse and I’ll be there. Or if you want to go away for a weekend, I’ll do that. Whatever you want to do is fine, but nothing big or fancy.”
Daisy held up her hand. “Can I come?”
Everyone else raised their hands and her brother asked politely, “And the rest of us?”
Lola laughed. “Sure. All y’all can come. But that’s it. And again, nothing big or fancy.”
Jake was elated. He couldn’t believe it had been so easy. “Don’t worry about it, Lola. I’ll take care of all of it.”
And two weeks later, he did.
On a beautiful Saturday out by the lake, Jake and Lola exchanged vows in front of a relaxed group of Georgia and Alabama people, friends and family. Everyone was barefoot or in flipflops, Jake was in a pair of board shorts and a Tshirt, and Lola had on shorts, a Tshirt, and a short veil held on with a tiara. Lola had asked one of her judge friends to officiate, and afterwards, they cooked out so Jake could show off with his smoker, they played cornhole and volleyball, and rode in the boat.
By the time the sun finally set on that wonderful day, everyone was tired, but happy. Jake and some of the guys had made a bonfire, and all of them were sitting around the fire on lawn chairs and blankets. Lola had insisted she was still hungry and wanted to make s’mores, so Jake had been trying to toast marshmallows without setting himself on fire with the wild flames. Harrison finally lit a fire in the fire pit to keep Jake’s eyebrows intact and his ass out of the emergency room, and Jake was sitting next to Lola trying to keep an eye on her marshmallows. In the meantime, she’d already set about fifteen of them on fire and was eating the charred outsides and getting melted marshmallows all over her fingers.
When she realized that Jake was watching her, she made a show of licking and sucking the gooey remnants off her fingers, making slurping noises and “mmm…” sounds in her throat. She turned to Jake and moaned a little and whispered in his ear. “I’d rather be using my tongue to get sticky stuff off you, sugar. When is everyone leaving? After all, it is our wedding night.”
Jake closed his eyes. He abruptly stood up, snatched Lola out of her chair and threw her over his shoulder and started toward the house. He waved to everyone over his shoulder, yelling, “Good night, everybody. Y’all stay. Y’all go. Y’all let yourself out. Y’all do whatever the hell you want to do, I don’t care, but I’m taking my wife to bed.”
Lola laughed helplessly as she braced her hands on her husband’s hips and lifted her body up enough to wave and thank everyone for coming.
Luke never slowed down. He marched straight through the house to their bedroom, where he tossed her on the bed. He stripped off his shirt and dropped his pants, all the while staring at Lola with a slight smile. He then bent over her and stripped her just as efficiently, leaving nothing on but her wedding band and her tiara with the veil. She smiled at him and held open her arms. He climbed on the bed and climbed on top of her, careful to keep some of his weight on his arms so he didn’t squash her. They kissed tenderly and Jake pulled back and smiled at her. “Hello, my hot wife.”
She grinned at him and wiggled her legs from under him so she could wrap her legs around his hips. “Hey, my hot husband.”
He groaned when she grabbed his ass and pulled him against her as she writhed against his body. “Lawd, sugar, you know you are going to be the death of me.”
She laughed as she kissed his neck and he pulled back enough so that he could slide inside her. They both moaned at the feeling and as she bit his earlobe, she pointed out, “But what a way to go.”
Before you go…
Laney Kay writes all kinds of stuff, both fiction and non-fiction. She’s a good Southern girl, a huge Georgia Bulldog fan, and a lover of dogs, coffee, and books. (She’s also a Taurus. She and her husband live in Georgia.
I love hearing from readers! You can email me here.
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Acknowledgments
Thanks to Kendal Delaine Hall and Rita Perez for your wonderful editing. Your attention to detail balances out my unfortunate habit of writing like I speak!
Thanks to my dental peeps who gave me a chance to try something new!
Thanks to my friends and family, who are all hilarious and allow me to shamelessly steal their words for my dialogue. And especially to Hillary who always answers my call when I need help with a word, a title, or to discuss why any given situation is batshit crazy.
And most of all, to my husband, who totally supports me (as a sugar daddy at the moment!) no matter what kind of dumbass idea I come up with.
I love all y’all!
Also by Laney Kay
Crystal Ball
Sloppy Seconds
Coping with Caregiving: It ain’t for sissies
Copyright © 2019 by Laney Kay
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This book is a work of fiction and all names, characters, locations, incidents, and events are products of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, things, places or events is entirely coincidental.
Publisher: Porkchop Publications, LLC
Editing: Kendal Delaine Hall, Rita Perez
Cover designer: Fantasia Frog Designs
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