Epilogue
EPILOGUE
B racken turned another page of the book he wasn’t really reading, shifting back on his cushions to get more comfortable.
Tanner was putting Fern down for her afternoon nap.
Six months in and she was already napping regularly and napping well.
She had been almost from the very beginning, once she’d gotten that voracious appetite of hers under control.
Tanner had said the baby would be a good sleeper, and now she was.
Of course.
As if him believing it had been enough to make it so.
He’d been very smug about the whole thing.
Parenting was still hard work in other ways.
The constant feedings in the beginning had been hard on Bracken.
And though Fern was a very happy little baby, she still had her bouts of fussiness, the periods where she was inconsolable and it was anyone’s guess whether it was gas or her teeth coming in or anything in between.
But Tanner was tireless and unflappable.
He never lost his cool or his temper, not even a little bit.
And even though Fern was the sweetest and cutest and most beautiful baby that had ever existed (Tanner’s mother agreed with Bracken there), Bracken would have been a wreck without him.
It pissed him off, actually.
He was contemplating this very ire when Tanner returned to their bedroom.
Bracken tossed his book on the bed, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Tell me— What would I have done if you hadn’t taken me in? I couldn’t do it by myself. I just couldn’t.”
Not at all fazed by the direction of Bracken’s thoughts, Tanner climbed onto the bed next to him, lying on his side and propping his head on his hand.
“You could, actually.”
“I couldn’t,” Bracken argued.
“It would be so hard .”
“Of course it would be hard. No one’s meant to do it on their own. People only manage because they’re resilient.”
“But if you hadn’t taken me in, I would have been alone. It would have been terrible.” Bracken glared at Tanner, thinking of exactly how terrible it would have been, especially in those early days, when Fern had needed feeding sometimes hourly and sleep had been so scarce.
Tanner’s lips curled in amusement.
“Are you pissed at me right now because of a hypothetical version of me turning you away?”
“Yes.”
“Of course you are.” Tanner laughed, sitting up against the headboard and wrapping an arm around Bracken’s shoulders.
“I’m sorry for what the other me did. It was very wrong of him.”
“It was,” Bracken grumbled, leaning into Tanner’s steady warmth.
“How should we punish him, this hypothetical version of me?”
“He’d be alone for the rest of his life,” Bracken answered immediately.
“No sex with anyone else.”
“Of course,” Tanner agreed.
“Involuntary celibacy, check.”
“His bar would go out of business because everyone would see what a terrible jerk he was.”
“Broke and destitute, double check.”
“He’d think about me every day,” Bracken added, getting into it now.
“Wishing he’d done otherwise.”
“Miserable and pining, triple check.”
Bracken considered what else might be fitting.
But all he could think about was little Fern without her papa.
And Bracken without…
Well, who else would he want, if not Tanner?
Bracken licked at his lips, thinking it over.
“But maybe—maybe I’d return, after Fern was born. Show him what he was missing.”
Tanner hummed, resting his cheek on Bracken’s head.
“He’d be so sorry, wouldn’t he?”
“Yes,” Bracken agreed.
“And I’d—I’d make him take us in.”
Tanner pressed a kiss to his hair.
“Of course you would.”
“But I wouldn’t forgive him,” Bracken said quickly.
He couldn’t have hypothetical him being a complete pushover, could he?
“Not right away. He certainly wouldn’t be allowed to touch me.”
Tanner made a vague, sympathetic noise.
“He’d be miserable.”
“He would,” Bracken confirmed righteously.
“And I’d—I’d pleasure myself every night with the door open, just to taunt him.”
Bracken squirmed in place, something hot swirling in his lower belly at the thought of it.
He could feel slick leaking, and he grabbed Tanner’s free hand, guiding it under his waistband.
Tanner very wisely began caressing and stroking Bracken’s cock, coaxing it to full hardness.
“What else would you do, baby?” Tanner asked, his voice husky with lust now.
“I’d—I’d walk around scantily clad every morning, and I’d look so beautiful, and he’d be so—” Bracken moaned as Tanner thumbed at the head of his cock.
“So horny and so sad.”
“Mm,” Tanner agreed.
“He would be. He’d be itching to touch you.”
“Yes,” Bracken panted.
“Now take off your pants.”
And this nonhypothetical version of Tanner was the best one because he immediately stripped down, allowing Bracken to climb onto his lap and sink down onto his thick cock.
Bracken moaned at the stretch, and Tanner hushed him gently.
“Sh, sweetheart. The baby’s sleeping. You have to be quieter than that.”
“Make me.”
So Tanner kissed him, capturing Bracken’s moans in his mouth, rocking up in time with each roll of Bracken’s hips.
“You’re so gorgeous like this, sweetheart,” Tanner whispered, pressing hot kisses to Bracken’s neck and chest and shoulders.
“I’m so lucky to have you.”
Yes.
Yes, he was.
And Bracken was lucky too.
He knew that much, no matter how he acted some days.
“I love you, nonhypothetical Tanner.”
It had taken Bracken until after Fern was born to say it back.
He’d been exhausted and sweaty and shaking with relief to be done with it, and Tanner had been there, holding a wet washcloth to Bracken’s head, murmuring sweet nothings to him and the baby both, just as he had when Fern had still been inside Bracken’s belly.
What else had Bracken been supposed to do, other than tell the horrid man he loved him?
It was still vaguely mortifying to say out loud, but it was getting easier each time.
Especially at times like this, when—after finishing in each other’s arms—Tanner was petting his broad hands down Bracken’s back, whispering, “I love you, too, my prickly fae.”
And Bracken let all other possible realities go.
The ones where he’d never gotten pregnant, or the ones where he had but hadn’t mustered the bravery to come back, or the ones where he’d raised the baby on his own in the fae realm.
None of them mattered because none of them were this reality, the one where Bracken had his baby and his human and the life he’d been too scared to ever admit he wanted.
It was a good thing Tanner had been brave enough for the both of them.
Bracken would tell him so.
One day.
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