Epilogue
TATE
SIX MONTHS LATER
The backyard looks exactly like it did for the family barbecue my parents hosted months ago. Same string lights, same picnic tables, same smell of Dad’s juicy burgers sizzling on the grill. But everything’s different now.
For starters, I’m not hiding anything. Zane stands next to me, beer in hand, talking hockey with Logan and Cam. Nobody’s pretending we’re just coach and player. Nobody’s walking on eggshells.
“You look happy,” Mom says, appearing at my elbow carrying a plate of appetizers.
“I am happy.”
“Good. You deserve it.” She glances at Zane, who’s laughing at something Logan said. “You both do.”
Mark taps his beer bottle with a fork, getting everyone’s attention. The backyard goes quiet except for the music playing from the speakers Dad set up earlier.
“Alright, everybody. Tessa and I have something to tell you.”
Tessa steps up next to him, grinning like she’s got the world’s best secret.
“We’re engaged,” Mark announces, holding up Tessa’s hand so everyone can see the ring.
The backyard erupts. Mom starts crying immediately. Dad slaps Mark on the back. Ethan jumps around like someone just told him Christmas came early.
I hug my brother, then Tessa, genuinely happy for them. They’re great together. They make sense in a way that looks easy but probably isn’t.
“About time,” I say to Mark.
“Says the guy who took how many years to admit he was gay?”
“Fair point.”
The party goes strong around us. People are drinking, laughing, and now celebrating the love between these two amazing people. It’s nice. Normal. And, I think as I lace my fingers with Zane’s, the kind of thing I never dreamed I’d have.
“Speech!” someone calls out. Probably Cam, who never knows when to shut up.
“Speech! Speech!” The whole backyard takes up the chant.
Mark waves them off, but Tessa pushes him toward the makeshift dance floor Dad built out of milk crates and plywood.
“You’re doing this,” she says to him.
“Fine. But if I embarrass myself, it’s your fault.”
Mark clears his throat, waits for everyone to quiet down.
“Most of you know I’m not good with words. I’m better with my hands, building things, fixing things. But Tessa makes me want to try.”
He looks at her, and I can see why she said yes. The way he looks at her like she’s the best thing that ever happened to him chokes me up.
“Two years ago, I thought I had my life figured out. Good job, decent apartment, family I loved. Then I met this woman who had a terrific kid, a smart mouth, and no patience for my bullshit. And I realized I hadn’t been living at all.”
Happy tears stream down Tessa’s face.
“She taught me that love isn’t just about finding someone you can live with. It’s about finding someone you can’t live without.” Mark’s voice cracks a little. “Someone who makes you want to be better than you are.”
He raises his beer. “To Tessa. For saying yes to a guy who doesn’t deserve her but is going to spend the rest of his life trying to.”
Everyone drinks. Everyone cheers. Zane squeezes my hand and gives me a nudge.
“Your turn,” Tessa calls out, pointing at me. “Speech from the little brother!”
“Absolutely not.”
“Come on, Tate! You’re the one with the words in the family!”
“I don’t do speeches.”
But Zane pushes me toward the stage, and suddenly I’m standing on wobbly milk crates looking at a backyard full of people who love me for exactly who I am.
“I’m not good at this kind of thing, either,” I start.
“You’re fine,” Mom calls out. “Just talk.”
“Okay. Um.” I look between Mark and Tessa. “I’ve watched my brother my whole life. Watched him work harder than anyone I know, watched him take care of everyone around him, watched him put other people first even when it cost him.”
Mark smiles, hugging Tessa close.
“But I’ve never seen him as happy as he’s been since he met Tessa.
And I’ve never seen him as silly and playful as he is with Ethan.
” I look at the kid, who’s grinning up at me.
“You guys aren’t just getting married. You’re becoming a family.
And that’s... ” I stop, swallowing past the growing lump in my throat. “That’s everything.”
I raise my beer. “To Mark and Tessa. For showing the rest of us what it looks like when you get it right.”
More cheering, more drinking. I hop down from the stage, and Zane’s waiting for me.
“Good speech.”
I roll my eyes. “Please. It was terrible.”
“It was perfect.”
The party moves inside as it gets darker. People spread through the house, and I stand in the kitchen with Logan and Cam.
“You know, the league needs more guys like you,” Logan says.
“Guys like me?”
“Guys who are willing to be honest about who they are. You coming out made a difference. More players are talking about it now. With so many of us out, it makes others feel more comfortable opening up.”
“It wasn’t about making a statement.”
“The best statements never are,” Cam says. “They’re just about being real.”
We talk for a little while longer and then Cam and Logan leave. I wander outside and find Mark sitting at one of the picnic tables.
I sit down next to him. “Great surprise.”
“It was, wasn’t it?” He grins. “Wasn’t easy to keep it a secret from Mom, that’s for sure. And thanks for the speech. It meant a lot to both of us.”
“You’re welcome.”
“And thanks for bringing Zane. He fits, you know? With the family.”
“Yeah, he does.”
“You thinking about making it official?”
“Official how?”
“You know how. Ring, ceremony, the whole thing.”
“Maybe someday.”
“When you’re ready, we’ll throw you a party just like this one.”
“Deal.”
I hug my brother, congratulate him one more time, and walk around to the front of the house where Zane waits by his truck.
“How do you feel?” he asks as we drive away from my parents’ house.
“Good. Different, but good.”
“Different how?”
“Like I’m watching everyone else’s life move forward while I’m still figuring out what I want mine to look like.”
“What do you want it to look like?”
“I want what Mark and Tessa have. The honesty, the acceptance, the... ” I search for the word. “The certainty.”
“Certainty about what?”
“About this. About us. About the fact that we’re not going anywhere.”
Zane pulls into the parking garage of our new condo complex and turns off the engine. We sit in the dark for a moment, silent.
“Are you going somewhere?” he finally asks.
“No.”
“Do you think I am?”
“No.”
“Then we have certainty.”
“Do we?”
“We have survived FBI investigations, criminal syndicates, hospital stays, and your mother asking when we’re going to give her grandchildren. If that’s not certainty, I don’t know what is.”
I laugh, because he’s right. We’ve been through hell and back, and we’re still here. Still choosing each other every day.
“My mother really did ask about grandchildren?”
“Last week. Apparently, she wanted to make it clear that she’s ready for them and that you’d be a great father.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her we’re still figuring out what our life looks like. But if kids are part of it someday, we’ll let her know.” He chuckles. “I think she was looking for something more concrete.”
“And what do you think? About kids?”
“I think I want whatever you want. Kids, no kids, a house in the suburbs, an apartment in the city. As long as we’re together, I don’t care what it looks like.”
We get out of the truck, walk toward our front door.
“Zane?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
He unlocks the door, and we go inside. Into our home. Finally, after years of not knowing what that word meant, I know now.
Home is wherever Zane is. Home is this house we share, this life we’re building, this future we’re figuring out one day at a time.
Home is not having to hide anymore.
In the kitchen, Zane pours two glasses of water and holds one out to me.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks.
“Mark’s speech. About finding someone you can’t live without.”
“And?”
“And I was thinking that’s what I found with you. Someone I can’t live without. Someone who makes me want to be better than I am.”
“You don’t need to be better than you are.”
“Maybe not. But you make me want to try.”
He sets down his water glass, moves closer. “For the record, you make me want to try too. To try to be the kind of man who’s worth loving. To try to build something that lasts.”
He kisses me then, soft and demanding at the same time, and I think about how different this is from that first night in Vegas. How much we’ve both changed, how much we’ve both grown, how much we’ve both learned about what it means to love someone enough to risk everything.
Outside, I can hear the sound of traffic, the distant noise of a city that never sleeps. But inside, it’s quiet. Peaceful. Safe.
We made it. Through the lies and the fear and the impossible choices and the near-death experiences. We made it to the other side.
And that’s everything.