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I stuck my tongue out at him. “I didn’t do this. He did it.”
“If you weren’t so goddamn loveable Julia Mayhew would have happily done whatever her husband wanted and went on being a very wealthy woman. Everyone who crosses your path can’t help but fall for you.”
“That’s not true and you know it. Some people hate me. Henry, for one. He claims that I stole you guys from him. Angie hates me. Camden, my ex, he definitely hates me. I don’t even think it’s fair that he hates me because he hates me for something you guys did.” I poked Joe in the stomach and rolled my eyes. “I don’t know why you couldn’t leave him alone. He meant nothing.”
“He started calling you again. I just wanted to make sure he knew where we stood. On his neck if he ever contacted you again.” He shrugged. “I barely even tried to mess with him. All I did was send his new girlfriend photos of him cheating on her. She wasn’t invested yet so I don’t feel bad for saving her from that asshole.”
The judge started speaking on Joe’s computer and I leaned in. The jury was back from their deliberations. The charges David Mayhew hadn’t been able to wiggle his way out of were immense. Money laundering, tax evasion, wire fraud, and more. His trial was the first of many on the way to Jules getting her life back.
Jules, not Julia. To me, Julia was the woman who’d married the wrong man and got sucked into a lot of bad things. Jules was the woman who hadn’t been able to leave me out to dry when it came down to it. My feelings towards her were complicated but so much time had passed that I’d forgiven her. I wanted to thank her in person for helping the guys but that wasn’t going to happen until David Mayhew went to jail and testified against the bad men behind him.
“Yes! Guilty!” Collin pumped the air and stretched over Joe’s desk to kiss me. “Fuck that guy!”
On the screen I watched as David sat with his head hanging low. I almost felt bad for him until I remembered the way he’d hit Jules. He wasn’t going to face charges for abusing his wife so I hoped the judge threw the book at him for everything else he did wrong. Jules deserved some sort of justice.
Joe turned off the computer and sighed. “Thank fuck for that.”
Jud stood up from his stool and stretched. “I’ve got to meet Stella’s mom and pick up Milo. I don’t want to get caught up in the holiday traffic so I’m going to leave a little early.”
I stood up and tried to contain my happiness. “Can I come with you?”
“I was hoping you would.”
I kissed Joe and then Collin before telling them goodbye and leaving with Jud. He made sure I was bundled up before leading me out to his SUV. The drivers had the holidays off, as did all the rest of the Carrington staff. There was no more working through the holidays, not unless they wanted a very crabby pregnant woman on their hands.
“I’m so excited to see Milo. I know it’s only been two weeks but I’ve missed him so much.” I watched the landscape as Jud drove, admiring the snow-covered trees and Christmas lights I’d talked the guys into hanging up. For the second year in a row, the Carrington Estate was adorned with crappily hung lights and blow up decorations that looked like trash when they deflated during the day.
“It’s always hard. When Stella gets back and we have to split custody in a real way, it’s going to suck.” Jud reached over and took my hand. “He’s going to freak out when he sees you. You weren’t really showing when he left and now…”
“Watch it.” I laughed and squeezed his hand. “I want to tell my parents so badly but I don’t want them to cancel the rest of their cruise and I know they would.”
“They’ll be home in another month. We’ll have a big celebration then.” Jud ran his finger over my stomach and smiled. “Want to help me with the nursery?”
I gasped. “Really?”
“Yeah. I found some paint that’s safe for you to be around and I want your touch on whatever I end up painting.”
“I love you so much, Judson. I would love to help you paint.” A campy Christmas song came on the radio and I turned it up, much to Jud’s displeasure. “Sing with me!”
He fought me at first but by the time we pulled into Stella’s mother’s house, he was singing along, very poorly, to everything that came on. I’d found out the hard way our first Christmas together that the Carrington men were not Christmas people. They barely knew any of my favorite Christmas songs, didn’t put up a tree, and had never bothered to power up the magic of Santa with the kids. I made sure they’re Grinch days were behind them.
“There he is.” Jud got out of the car before me and ran to where Milo was standing with his grandma under the carport. He picked him up and swung him around with the biggest smile on his face.
I was slower getting out and by the time I had both feet on the driveway, Jud was there, helping me and making sure I didn’t fall. I’d met Stella’s mom a dozen times already so it felt natural to go to her and hug her. “Merry Christmas, Shirley. How are you and Tim?”
“We’re good! And look at you! You’re glowing!”
“Ada! Your belly!” Milo threw himself into my legs and hugged me tight with his face pressed against his little brother or sister. “You got big, Ada.”
Jud snorted and I swatted his arm. He squatted in front of Milo and palmed my belly. “The baby’s growing. They’ll be here before we know it.”
I shook my head at Shirley. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to my belly being grabbed like a basketball.”
She grinned. “Nope. It never gets less strange, especially when people you don’t know do it.”
We talked for a bit more before Jud tapped the tip of my nose and stated that I was getting too cold. We said our goodbyes and then drove back home with Milo giving us a run down of everything he’d done with his grandparents. He was so excited about Santa coming that he couldn’t stop asking questions about him. Jud never sounded like he was tired of answering the same question over and over again. He was always happy to talk with Milo, no matter how repetitive it was.
A commercial came on the radio for a new project Carlos Cortez was working on as Senator and I turned it off. As happy as I was that he’d won, after living through his campaign drama and celebrating his winandattending multiple galas because of him since the win, I was tired of the man. He was great, but if he wasn’t singing “Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer”, I wasn’t interested.
