hey guys...

i am SO SORRY it took me so long to get this chapter up. my life has been extremely hectic, and school has been a bitch. but, here it is. i'm sorry to say that this is the last chapter to this story... but wait... what is that my brain is telling me? i'm writing another one? OH YEA! that's right! i'm a writing a sequel to the sequel :-) i feel like this one's a little rushed near the end, but i was getting amazing ideas for the third installment of the story, and i needed to start writing that before i forgot it and i can't write another story if i don't have the one before it done.

so here it is. the ninth and final chapter of A Rose By Any Other Name.

don't forget to review :-D

"Where the FUCK is Stacy?" Maureen jumped a little, surprised by the screaming the second she opened the door.

"Alexa, Alexa, calm down; everything's gonna be alright," Maureen said calmly as she stepped back from the door to where I could see her again. I heard the door shut as Alexa walked into the room.

"Hey Alexa," I said while buttoning my shirt. I picked up Rose and place her on my shoulder as I stood up and walked over to where Maureen was standing. "What's wrong?"

"WHAT'S WRONG? Stacy decided to just bail on me at the last minute so that she could go visit her sister! That BITCH!"

"Alexa! Calm down! Stacy's sister just had a baby; she didn't really have a choice, ok?" I stopped for a minute so I could put Rose down in her bed. "I called Sharayah this morning, and she's going to be here tonight so we can alter Stacy's dress to fit her.

"Ugh." She paused for a minute. "Ok. Fine. Whatever." And with that she left the room.

"So…" Maureen said as she walked over to me and slid her hands in the back pockets of my jeans. "Now that she's gone, what do you want to do?" She looked at me and wiggled her eyebrows.

"Let me think about that for a minute," I said as the corners of my lips formed themselves into a grin. "What do you want to do?"

She slid her hands out of my pockets and placed them on my lower back, pulling me up against her. I could feel her warm breath on my lips as she looked into my eyes.

"I guess I'll have to show you."

She pressed her lips against mine and began to walk me backwards. I sat down on the edge of the bed and she sat in my lap, straddling me before bringing her hands up to my shoulders.

She broke apart from the kiss and looked into my eyes. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. It was still so hard for me to believe that we were still together; I never would have guessed we'd be able to stand each other this long.

"I love you," I said as she slid off of my lap.

"I love you more," she said, bending down to get something out of her suitcase. "Jo, do you know where I put my purple jacket?"

"Uh, no. You can just borrow mine because we need to get going now, actually. We're supposed to meet Sharayah at noon, and it's already 11:40." I picked up my jacket off the bed and tossed it to her as I got up to get Rose. After I got her situated in her snuggly I headed towards the door, slapping Maureen's ass on the way.

"Hey!"

"What? You know you liked it." I turned around and flashed her a mischievious grin. "I'm going to head down to the restaurant and wait for Shar; don't take too long."

I made my way into the hallway and down the stairs. Sharayah walked into the inn right as I made it to the bottom.

"Hey!" she said as she walked up to me and enveloped Rose and I in a hug. As she stepped back from the hug she looked around. "Where's Maureen?"

"Oh, she's still upstairs getting ready. You know how she has to look perfect for everything." As I folded my arms across my chest I heard Maureen close the door to our room and walk down the hallway.

"Sharayah!" she squealed as she bolted down the stairs past me to get to Sharayah. They used to be best friends back when Maureen's family lived in Colorado, and they hadn't seen each other since Kelly was a baby.

"Oh my god Maureen! I haven't seen you in ages! How are you? Where are the girls! I'm anxious to see the twins!"

"The girls are out on a walk, we figured it would be easier to catch up without them here."

"That sounds like a good idea," she said. As we walked into the dining room Sharayah came over to me and cupped her hand around Rose's head. "And who's this little cutie pie?"

"That's Roxana Rose Johnson-Jefferson," Maureen said with a huge smile on her. "We call her Rose, though." As she took her hand off of her head, Rose looked up at Sharayah with her big brown eyes.

"That's such a pretty name. She's so adorable; she looks so looks so different from the pictures you've sent me of her sisters, she has your pointy nose and Joanne's dark skin."

About an hour later we were taking a walk around town when we ran into Rory and the girls.

"Mommy!" Grace squealed as she ran to us and jumped into Maureen's arms. "Hi Momma," she said as she looked over at me, a big smile on her face.

"Hi Gracie. Hi Maddie, hi Isabelle," I said while bending down to their level to look at them. "And you must Rory." I stood up and stuck my hand out, only to pull it back when I realized that she was holding a sleeping Kelly with both of her hands. I noticed that she had shoulder length brown hair and piercing blue eyes, just like her mother. "I'm Joanne."

"Hi, Joanne! I hate to have to run off so fast, but I really need to get home and clean before my grandparents come over." She handed Kelly over to me and began to walk away. "It was nice meeting you, I had a lot of fun watching your girls! Hopefully I'll see you around soon!" she said before turning around and running off.

"Hey Mo, we gotta get going; the rehearsal dinner's in a few hours." And with that we turned around and headed back to the inn.

please review!!! i'm going to try and get the third part up today, and i'll put all the chapters i've written so far up today if i get lots of reviews!!!