Epilogue
“We have to hurry,” Spencer says, gasping as his fingers grip my hair.
I’d laugh if I wasn’t so turned on because he says that but shows no signs of actually trying to get me to hurry up.
Thank. Fuck.
I don’t want to rush this, even if we have people waiting on us. It’s going to be a long day, and I want to spend a moment with my fiancé—for the last few moments he’s actually my fiancé and not my husband.
I grin around the mouthful of his cock, and he looks down at me with confusion. “Why are you smiling?”
I slurp my way over his cock, letting it pop out of my mouth and using my hand to continue to stroke him as he leans back against the door of our bedroom.
I smile when I see the daffodil tattoo on my left ring finger.
Spencer has a matching one. We got them last week—both of them on our ring fingers.
We’ll both have wedding rings, but the daffodils—they’re for us.
They’ll never leave our bodies—never be lost. They represent hope and rebuilding.
Overcoming all the bullshit we’ve been through and being truly happy.
And that’s exactly what we are. Our wedding will be in the backyard behind our house—the place that used to be just his but is now ours.
And I have to say—Levi did nail the flower recommendation. Of course, we had him also put them into the flower arrangements he created for the wedding.
We only invited a few guests, and I’m sure they’re fine for now. They can wait. “You’re going to be my husband,” I say as I gaze up at him.
He’s wearing his crisp, white shirt and a bow tie—I was careful not to wrinkle it when I kissed him and pulled him into our bedroom, but God, do I want him fully naked now.
“Don’t even think about it.” He must be able to read my mind, and I chuckle. His pants and underwear are down at his ankles, his shiny dress shoes still on, and I’m fully dressed for our wedding. He looks debauched as fuck and sexy as all hell as he leans back against the wall, his hand in my hair.
I don’t think he noticed his fingers are likely making my hair stick out all over the place, but I couldn’t give a fuck. I’m finally getting everything I ever wanted today.
The man of my dreams is becoming my husband.
“Kade, I’m close,” he pants. And I take him back into my mouth, teasing and sucking as I use my other hand to cup his balls, rolling them in my hand while I lick along the swollen vein running along his shaft.
“Fuck. There,” he gasps, spilling down my throat. I milk every last drop from him, licking him clean and then standing up as he grabs his briefs and pants, pulling them back up. He kisses me hard on the mouth while he gets himself situated.
I allow the minute to explore his sweet mouth, my own body seeking relief, but I don’t give in. When he reaches for my pants, I swat him away. “After.” I lean in next to his ear. “The next time I come, it’s going to be deep inside my husband.”
He shivers against me, his lips puffy and swollen from my kiss. “You’re going to go through the ceremony with a boner?”
I laugh. “Well, maybe we should stop kissing so I can work on settling that down real quick.”
He shakes his head at me, but I see the look of admiration and love on his face. “You’re ridiculous.”
“You’re the one who’s going to marry me,” I tease as I step back from him and hand him his tuxedo jacket.
He slips it on and then walks closer to me. “You’re damn right I am.”
I kiss him again, and just as it’s about to get a little too heated, there’s a loud bang on the door. “Okay, teacher, if you’re done defiling my baby brother, it would be great if you could come out now. It’s time.” Tori.
I laugh. “You sure you want to marry into this crazy-ass family?”
“I can’t wait another minute,” he says, kissing me quickly and then rushing out the door.
Tori stands there, looking awfully pleased, but she crosses her arms and tries to look annoyed. “Really?”
I shrug. “My future husband is hot.”
She laughs again, turning quickly serious, though, as she walks in to straighten my tie. “I’m so happy for you, Kade.”
“Thank you.” And I mean thank you for so many things over the years.
Normally, I wouldn’t say that. I’d just assume she knows, but if I’ve learned anything from my experience with Spencer—it’s that you can’t assume anything in life.
“Thank you for always being there, Tori. When no one else was, you were.”
She looks a little uncomfortable, and I get it. We don’t really show a ton of emotions in our family. It’s not our thing. “You’re my brother.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t your son. You didn’t have to take care of me. And you for sure didn’t need to take care of Bowen.”
She smiles at that and then sniffs, wiping at her wet eyes. “You guys were there for me too. Gave me the purpose I needed.”
“Still, thank you,” I say and hug her. “I’m happy you’re finally getting the life you deserve to have. But I’m also glad you’re still here for the big moments.”
She hugs me back, and I hear her sniff again. “I always will be. Now, let’s go get you married. Whatever you two were doing in here put us behind schedule. Horny morons.”
I laugh and then give her one more squeeze before I release her. Then we walk out of the bedroom to the backyard.
She kisses my cheek before heading to her seat. I asked her to walk me down the aisle to Spencer, where Janelle walked with him and now stands next to him for the ceremony. But Tori insisted Elijah do the honors with me.
Bowen is already standing up front to act as my best man. And I realize that as usual, my sister was right.
I greet Elijah, who’s wearing a cute tuxedo and a little black bow tie, just as he requested. He looks so adorably grown up for his now seven years. “Finally,” he grumbles.
“Sorry, kiddo.” I kneel down to look at him as music starts to play. I see that our guests have turned to look at my son and me. “Are you ready for this?”
He nods his head and has the brightest smile on his face. “I’m ready.” He looks up to where Spencer stands with the officiant and Janelle and then grins widely. “We’re going to be a family.”
“We are,” I say and hug his body to mine.
Before I proposed to Spencer, I talked to Elijah about this—about making him a permanent part of our family—and his eyes lit up the exact same way as they just did.
There was never any doubt from my son, and that gave me the courage to ask the love of my life to marry me—not that we actually have to have a marriage license for that to happen.
I knew he was mine from the day I saw him again— even if I didn’t understand it. Hell, maybe I knew it long before that.
I squeeze Elijah to me again before standing and taking his hand, letting him lead me to Spencer. The few people we invited stand, and all attention is on us. But mine is split between Spencer and my son.
When we reach the end of the aisle, Spencer is the first to greet Elijah with a great big hug and a thank you before I hug him too, and he moves to sit with Tori. Then my hands are in Spencer’s as I face him.
In his eyes, I see all the strength I’ve admired about him since we were kids, but I also see that pure unbridled joy.
“Kade, I was infatuated with you from the beginning. Obviously—I suppose I thought you were pretty cute.” That gets a snicker from the guests, and he winks at me. “But there was also something else that really drew me to you. I was a sad, lonely kid, looking for someone who would rescue me.”
My heart squeezes with guilt, and I want to apologize again for fucking everything up, but he doesn’t let me wallow in that. I know he knows exactly what my thoughts are, and he squeezes my hands to get my attention, his finger stroking over my tattoo—the daffodil.
“What you gave me was so much more. You gave me strength. You gave me the courage to go on and become the man I was supposed to be without even having to say a word.” I want to argue, but I remain silent.
“I didn’t need a hero or someone to come along and save me.
I had that in myself.” He smiles. “But then you came back into my life, and you rescued me anyway. You saw something in me I never even realized was there. You thought I was the brave one.”
“You are,” I say, and he looks like he wants to kiss me. The feeling is mutual—wedding guest and officiant be damned, but we both manage to restrain ourselves.
“You’re the bravest, kindest man I’ve ever met, Kade Mitchell, and I’m so honored to be able to call you my husband, my lover, and my friend. And I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”
A tears slides down his cheek, and I release one of his hands to wipe it away before I allow him to place the wedding ring on my finger and take his hand in mine again.
“Phew.” I let out a shaky breath, trying to remember my vows. “Tough one to follow.”
“You’ve got this.” He smiles.
“You think I’m brave, but you are the epitome of brave.
I knew, even way back then, you were something special.
Someone to keep an eye on, but I never thought you needed me.
It was the opposite.” It’s his turn to wipe a tear from my cheek when I look over at my son—watching us with joy and awe—and then turn back to look at him.
“The world isn’t perfect. It’s far from it.
It’s scary, but with you”—I smile and hold onto him a little tighter—“with you, I know that no matter how ugly it gets, you’ll be there by my side.
” He nods, tears filling his eyes. “In you, I’ve found the partner to walk through this life with.
And if it needs to be—we’ll burn it down together, baby.
” I swallow hard as I watch tears of happiness fall down his face. “And then we’ll build it back up.”
He nods, and even before we’re told, I press my lips to his, overwhelmed by the need to kiss him. It’s brief and soft, but it’s electric. “I love you,” he whispers.
“I love you,” I say and then slip the ring onto his finger before we’re officially declared married.
We kiss again, our lips fused together as we take in the first minute of marriage and then walk down the aisle, hand in hand.
The way it’ll be until one of us takes our last breath.
And I can’t wait to make every single memory with him going forward, never again being apart.