Thrive: A Friends-to-Lovers Standalone Romance (Stonewood Billionaire Brothers Series)
Thrive: Epilogue

Lesson of the Day: You’re part of the family now. We got you.

Mikka

“You’re getting nominated.” The grey-haired man shook Jay’s hand enthusiastically after the world premiere of his movie. I’d been his date for the night, and Lela ambled along close to us for post-screening photos.

The words from that man solidified what I already knew. Jay would have his pick of movie roles from now on. He’d made it, and he’d done it during one of the most difficult times in his career.

I squeezed his arm as we walked away. “You’re not just getting nominated, you’re going to win.”

Jay laughed and wrapped me up close to him. “Leave it to you to not settle for just being nominated.”

I glanced up at him and took in the man of the night. His black tux was tailored to accentuate his shape, and his hair was parted like he was a 50s icon. His smile was as charming as a 50s movie star’s too. “You should be proud, Jay.”

“I’m proud I have you on my arm. Everything else is fluff.”

I nodded because we’d found a good balance of eliminating a lot of the fluff from our lives in the past few months. Jay reacquainted himself with Hollywood, and we found out what it was like to struggle through constant temptation. He came home a few nights so frustrated, we decided that networking at parties wasn’t worth it for us.

I struggled with trusting him too, trusting that we could make it after all I’d been through.

Relationships were work and we’d just started ours. We kept our ground rules: we were broken, but we were honest.

It helped to remind ourselves of that.

His brothers and their wives met us after we mingled with a few other important executives. Bob even came over with tears in his eyes.

Jay announced to them, “We’re going to King Chang’s. You all are free to join us or you can go have a few drinks, but I promised Mikka’s mom we would stop by after all this.”

Free to join us? “Jay, I don’t think anyone wants to come to—”

“Oh, thank GOD!” shouted Vick, Jett’s wife. “I’ve been dying to get to that porn shop!” She literally jumped as she said the words, and I giggled. I was replaceing that Vick could be the life of any party and look like a blonde model, all while screaming about porn.

Jett rolled his eyes at his wife. “Pix, if you announce to the world you’re going to the porn shop, they’ll all end up following us there.”

“Oh, the more, the merrier. Imagine the fun we could have…” She wiggled her eyebrows up and down.

Jay laughed hysterically at her joke, but Jett grumbled under his breath, “You only have fun with me, woman.”

Brey smoothed a hand over her growing belly and leaned her head on Jay’s shoulder. “I’m going with you guys.” She looked at me for reassurance. “If that’s okay, Mikka?”

“Of course.” I could never say no to her now. We’d grown so close over the last few months. She’d become a friend I never knew I needed but had always wanted. I called her for everything, and even though Jay and I were in LA, renting an apartment, I hoped one day we would live closer to them.

We all piled into an SUV and arrived at King Chang’s. Vick ran around the store in her silver couture dress, touching every dildo she could replace and asking Jett which he’d prefer.

Jett was a hard nut to crack; he barely smiled at all. But he followed her to every corner of that store and responded to every ridiculous question she asked him. When they got to the last row, I saw him push her against the shelving and kiss her like he was starved for her.

Jax and Aubrey took a seat in some of the new furniture my mother had purchased after the incident with Dougie. He rubbed circles on her thigh and whispered to her like they were the only ones there. I swear, in their world, they were the only ones there.

Jay had his arm around my waist as he spoke with my mother who was, of course, rearranging a bigger Yue Lao that sat on her glass countertop. “The new and improved Yue Lao looks good there, Ms. Chang.”

“Of course it does.” She harrumphed. “I wouldn’t have gotten it otherwise.”

Jay smiled and carried on with her. “Are you ordering Wren’s for us tonight?”

“What for?” my mom asked, a look of confusion on her face. “His egg rolls are terrible, and Mikka found her soulmate. It’s not him, thank you, Yue Lao.”

“Yes, thank you, Yue Lao,” Jay murmured into my ear.

“Who is Yue Lao?” Vick asked as she bounced over, pulling Jett by his hand to sit by Brey and Jax.

“Oh, I’m so glad you asked,” my mother said. “No one ever asks about Yue Lao anymore.”

“Mom, please don’t tell the story again,” I groaned as I put my face in my hands.

My mother obviously launched into the story about how Yue Lao was the man on the moon who tied soul mates together with a red string. She had a twist now, though. Now, Yue Lao was so annoyed with Dougie that he knocked him out cold the night he’d attacked me.

Everyone listened intently. Jay sat next to me, completely tense the whole time. I knew he hated the story almost as much as me but for very different reasons.

The man still wanted his turn with my ex, and the justice system wasn’t going to allow that for a long time.

My mom smiled at her audience. “Yue Lao is making sure Dougie doesn’t have a soulmate. He got an extra 10 years behind bars for laundering money. It just came out.”

That was new information not even I had heard. “I’m sorry, what? But how? Dougie didn’t have any…”

“Oh, Mikka, hush. You know the mob is taking care of us. Right, boys?”

My mother glanced around and made eye contact with every Stonewood brother in the room.

All of them smiled the same smile I’d seen a million times before. It was the one they gave when they were being ruthless, when they didn’t really care to smile at all.

“Jay?” I turned to him.

“Don’t worry, Wrecking Ball. Lesson of the day: You’re part of the family now. We got you.”