It’s been a few months since the whole Josh thing and since then, Nate has been working his ass off. He completed work on the Lamborghini Miura and absolutely killed it. The car looked incredible and when he handed the keys back to the owner, he couldn’t have been happier. He was chuffed, to say the least. He then gave Nate another two high-class projects and had his brother-in-law give him a third.
John appears on the stairs, dressed to the nines in his fancy suit which I’m sure cost him a bomb and walks straight into Trish’s arms. They’ve only been dating for about eight months now, but they’re perfect together. I’ve never seen Trish so happy. They’re so perfect together that John even proposed last week, and naturally, Trish couldn’t resist saying yes. Everyday has been a celebration. Hell, even Nate admitted how happy he was for his mom.
With everybody now ready for the biggest night in Nate’s career so far, we file out the door and drop down into the limo that John had arranged for us, despite Nate suggesting it was unnecessary.
We drive down to the car show as Trish gets overly excited and starts pouring glasses of champagne, not caring about waiting for the auction, just wanting to celebrate Nate’s massive achievements.
I can’t help but look around the massive limo. Jesse and Kaylah are doing great. Trish and John are loved up. And then there’s me and Nate, and every day with him just keeps getting better. I’ve never been so happy. These people here in this long ass car, these are my people. One day I will marry Nate Ryder and this is going to be my family.
Nate has been my rock since day one. He has loved and celebrated me in more ways than I could have ever imagined. We’ve had ups and downs. Moments where we wanted to wring each other’s neck, but that’s love and all it’s done is drawn us closer.
Over the past few months, Nate has done everything in his power to stick to his promise. He made sure Josh Henderson was put away. He went down heavily for drug possession and distribution. He went down for kidnapping. He also went down for his hand in putting me in that room. Not to mention, all those guys paid for what they did to me. They paid more for what they did to those other girls.
I reached out to those girls. All of which had never come forward with the fear of being laughed off and not believed. I mean, they were drugged just as I was. How could they have identified who was in that room? But Josh had it all on tape. Taking everyone, including himself down.
We get to the car show and the driver pulls up at the front entrance where someone in a penguin suit opens the door for us, taking all the girls’ hands to help us out of the car. There’re press as we walk the red carpet into the massive function hall, taking photos of who’s attending and who’s wearing what.
Lucky for me, Nate steps in beside me, blocking my ass from any of the cameras, and where he can’t, he’s sure to place his hand right there, never skipping a chance to give it a good squeeze.
We walk into the massive room and the first thing I notice is the huge stage up the front. A car will be driven from one side, stopped in the middle for the auction, and then driven off the other side once it’s done. It’s huge.
Never in my entire life did I think I would be attending such a high-class event like this. I mean, just looking around at the people in the room, it’s clear we don’t belong. These people are McBillionaire’s. My trust fund has nothing on these people.
As we walk deeper into the room, I laugh at the way Trish discreetly steps in beside Jesse, threatening to castrate him if he makes any inappropriate fart jokes throughout the night. He crosses his heart and promises to be on his best behavior, but the sparkle in his eyes tell me he’s lying.
Nate’s face brightens as he spots a few familiar faces and hurries off to welcome them. I can’t help but watch him as he pulls the guys in for quick hugs and claps them on the back. His three employees. Without which he wouldn’t have been able to finish the Jaguar in time for this show.
He took each of them on board as though he was bringing in a new family member. Well, one of them sort of is family. Ryan, Maxen’s cousin who was in the car accident and is now living life in a wheelchair.
He can’t help in the typical way, but he’s great on the computer and even better with a fine paint-brush. Turns out the kid has an eye for detail and a steady hand. He has a love for cars just as Nate does and considers himself a bit of an artist. So much so, that all the graffiti you see around Haven Falls was mostly put there by this guy. He’s assured us he’s stopped, but we could never be too sure. He has a reckless side, just like my boys do.