Epilogue
“Can you believe that it’s been a whole year?
” Tony asked as they all sat at two long sets of tables that had been shoved together.
The Fickle Cup and the Funky Cup had joined together to cater the event, where the lot was closed, and instead of serving food to others, for once the food was being served to them.
“Yes,” both tables answered him in complete unison.
Ren grinned.
It had been a long year, but a great one, anyway.
“Hey, if anyone gets to complain about how much work we did,” Tony said, still grinning like every day of grinding had been worth it, and it had been, “it should be me.”
There was a whole chorus of disagreement.
Gabe was shaking his head, Tate and Ash were laughing and pointing at something Tate’s sister, Rachel, had said.
Ross was grinning at Shaw. Alexis was gesturing wildly to Jackson.
And Ren? Well, he was pressed right up next to Seth, and it turned out that was his favorite place in the world to be.
The last three weeks had been the best ones that Ren could remember.
Because now with no lies, no confusion, and nothing holding them back, Ren was beginning to realize just how great being in a relationship was.
Well, the key was probably that he was in the right relationship. He couldn’t imagine ever having done this with anybody else, but with Seth? It felt real and it felt natural and Ren never wanted it to end.
“Actually,” Lucas said, standing up next to Tony. “I think it should be me.”
“Oh?” Tony said, shooting his boyfriend a smile. “Why is that?”
“Because anything you deal with, well, it rolls down to me,” Lucas said.
There was plenty of response to that, along with lots of laughter and also some pointed comments about how they’d all learned not to visit the storage shed after a particularly trying day.
They’d all gotten an eyeful of Lucas comforting Tony—or Tony comforting himself by comforting Lucas—more than once.
“I guess that’s true,” Tony said, scratching his chin. “What do you propose to do about it?”
Lucas gave him a long, speculative look, and to everyone’s shock—Ren was shocked, and he could see the exact same expression on just about everyone’s faces around them—went down on one knee.
“I propose,” he said, the edge of his voice a little shaky and nervous, “that I want things to roll down to me for the rest of our lives. I don’t care that those things might suck, or they might make our lives harder.
We created this place, and it’s been amazing.
The hardest, and best, year of my life. I want to share this with you, every year forward, not just unofficially, but officially.
The most officially.” Lucas pulled a ring, shining and silver, from his pocket and held it up.
Tony stared at his boyfriend. And then at the ring. And then back at his boyfriend.
They’d been together for years at this point, and Ren knew how solid they were. Solid enough, but also unconventional enough that nobody he knew had actually expected this.
But it made sense, now that Ren thought about it.
Lucas would want things to be official.
He would want to make it real, and tie it in a bow with red tape. His past made everything make more sense.
“You want to get married,” Tony stated. He looked surprised too. Maybe the most surprised.
“I want to marry you,” Lucas said with vehement certainty.
“And I . . . I want to marry you too,” Tony said, and they were kissing, and the table was clapping and catcalling, and it was a great fucking moment.
But Ren had experienced so many of those lately, it was hard to get worked up about this one.
“That was beautiful,” Gabe said with a misty-eyed sigh. “Absolutely fucking beautiful.”
“You’d definitely be the person to think so,” Ren teased. “The King of Feelings loves a good proposal. Who knew? Everyone.”
Sean laughed. “Should I expect half a dozen proposals? Rooms full of roses? Heartfelt speeches?”
“Hey,” Ren said, elbowing Sean, “you knew what you were signing up for.”
“I know,” Sean said, shooting a gooey, sentimental look at Gabe. “And I’d still do it all over again.”
“Aw, we’re adorable, too,” Gabe said, meeting Sean’s goo with some goo of his own. Ren gave them approximately two months after Tony and Lucas tied the knot before they did it themselves. “But, here’s the thing. You can’t call me the King of Feelings anymore.”
“Oh?” Ren raised an eyebrow.
“That implies that I’m the only one who enjoys all this emotion,” Gabe observed. “And”—he paused pointedly, staring right at where Ren was pressed up next to Seth—“we know that’s not true now.”
“How about,” Seth said, his hand reaching over to squeeze Ren’s knee, “we call you the Prince of Feelings?”
Ren considered this.
Feelings, he’d learned, not only weren’t the enemy, they could be very enjoyable.
With the right person.
He turned and looked Seth right in the eye. “Only,” he said firmly, “if it’s a joint title.”
“You good with him pulling you into this?” Gabe asked.
But Seth just nodded. Seriously and solemnly. “Absolutely,” he said. “Lorenzo can pull me into anything he wants.”
Ren grinned, because he’d known it was true, but it was glorious to hear Seth say it.
And much later that night, when they’d found the one dark corner—the one that Lennox was always threatening to light up on the lot, though he never did, because he and Ash enjoyed using it too much—after they’d finished kissing because they hadn’t been able to keep their mouths, or their hands, off each other one second longer, Ren realized something else.
“Someday,” he said, murmuring into Seth’s lips, “someday I’m going to do that to you, too.”
Seth smiled. “Three weeks of being a boyfriend and you’re already ready to propose?”
“Not yet,” Ren said. “I didn’t say now, I said someday. Because I want that. I want you.”
“And you’ll have me,” Seth said, leaning in and pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Today, tomorrow, and every day after.”