EPILOGUE ONE
Kieran
August
People still complain about how little we gave away at the reunion taping, but I knew from day one I wasn’t going to hand over everything when the stage wasn’t mine.
I already give enough of myself to the internet, but the comments have been constant, and I’ve gotten so many podcast and interview requests.
I figured if people want us to answer questions, we’d start with my audience because they’re the ones who’ve been here the longest. We already handpicked some questions to answer that we keep seeing repeatedly and feel comfortable answering.
“Ready?” Jace asks from beside me, knees brushing mine under the table at my desk. He somehow manages to look too good in the plain T-shirt that shows off his thick arms and wide chest. If anything, I wish he’d wear something less flattering, so I’m not distracted the entire time we’re filming.
I grin at the lens and hit record. “Hi, Sparkles fans. Today’s the day you have been waiting for!
My husband, Jace, is here with me, and we know you’ve got a lot of questions that we’re excited to answer for you.
Some of them are sweet, and some of them are nosy as hell.
” I laugh with a pointed stare at the camera.
“Hi, guys.” Jace beams at the camera. It’s adorable that he’s still excited about the Sparkles stuff. “Alright, let’s get into it,” he prompts beside me with the list we made. “Do you live together?”
“Well, as you can see, I’m still in my same office studio.
But Jace did move in with me. I offered to relocate, finding somewhere between us that we could make our own, but Jace told me there’s no way I could change where I film.
He’s incredibly supportive, and I do love where I am.
He’s helped me add a few new things around the place to make it feel like ours. ”
“So many sarcastic cross-stitched throw pillows,” Jace adds under his breath.
He’s also encouraged me to display some of my art, and when he went on and on about how happy looking at it makes him—how he used to always stop to find my art to admire in the hallway during high school, and he wants to be able to do that again—how could I say no to that?
He’s smiling at me now with so much affection, not trying to speak over me or interject.
He’s been the biggest cheerleader for my work without trying to make it about him.
It’s been so refreshing compared to all the past partners I’ve had who’ve tried to ride the coattails off my success.
I never really thought Jace would be like that, but the confirmation that he hasn’t treated me any differently without cameras constantly being around was still a relief.
“Next question, what’s it like working together now?”
I smirk at Jace as I consider. “Maybe you should answer this one, darling.”
He turns to the camera again, huge smile still in place.
“It’s amazing,” he answers confidently. “I loved the job I had before we got together as a structural iron and steel worker, but it was really physically demanding work with long hours. I enjoyed the overtime when I didn’t have anyone to come home to, but after we got married, that quickly lost its appeal.
” He laughs, turning back to smile adoringly at me.
I wonder if my stomach will ever stop doing flips when he looks at me like that. I hope it never does.
“I tried going part time at first,” he continues. “But I saw how much Kieran and his assistant were juggling, so on my days off I offered to help wherever I could. I don’t really feel like I’m working at all anymore. I tell people I’m a professional husband,” he jokes.
I laugh too. “Come on, you do a ton of work. I honestly can’t remember how we managed before you were here to run all the random errands that pop up, or to basically run my socials.
” I turn to the cameras. “He reminds me when to post and sifts through all the comments, showing me the positive ones, so I can focus on actually creating content and on my product lines.”
“I have a feeling you skipped a lot of meals and literally never stopped working,” he accurately guesses.
I laugh thinking about the blind dating portion of the show and how neither one of us really had hobbies because all we did was work.
Now, we spend so much time together, completely unplugged.
I don’t think I would have trusted anyone else to step in the way that Jace has, but somehow, we ended up with the work-life balance I used to only dream of.
“I love this next one.” Jace smiles. “How do Freddie and Jace get along?”
I can’t help but laugh at that even though I knew it was coming. “Why don’t you take this one too, babe?” I prompt him.
“Well, I’d never been around a cat before, and the first time Kieran introduced us, I had no idea what to do, which I know sounds silly. But now, Freddie and I are best friends. He follows me everywhere and curls up in my lap whenever he can.”
“It is super cute,” I agree.
“Our favorite question is next,” Jace prompts sarcastically. I fucking hate this question. “Can you tell us the details about your past?”
This has been the most asked question since we were so “secretive” during filming on the show.
All the interviews we did, separately and together, we didn’t give much about how we knew each other before, and I still don’t plan to.
All the audience has is that one kitchen conversation, where Jace admitted he’d been closeted “back then” and hadn’t supported me—and that’s how we plan to keep it.
“As we’ve said in the past on the show, we knew each other growing up.
We went to high school together and we weren’t friends.
Reconnecting after all these years was great for us, it gave us each a chance to grow as individuals and understand what we really need, which is a healthy, supportive relationship.
There’s not much more to tell other than that,” I say, completely comfortable with that half truth.
We go through a few more questions, but we keep everything truly personal close to our chests because this is still our life and we want some things to stay between us. Some people definitely want to know every little detail, but they’re not getting it from us.
As expected, there were some rumors from people from our hometown that started circling, but nothing major.
The big thing that happened, though, was David reached out to Jace on social media.
He apologized for getting between us back then and asked if we could all ever “catch up.” The real shocker was when he thanked Jace for being his own sexual awakening and said he wanted to introduce us to his partner.
Jace told me he hasn’t spoken to David since high school, and that he had no idea he was ever into him in that way.
I fully believe him. But Jace needs more time to decide if he wants to reopen that door.
That’s kind of the theme of our life now.
We choose what we let in. We choose what we share.
We choose what gets our energy and what doesn’t.
People online might still speculate, and people from back home might still try to stir things up, but we’re good.
Better than good. We’ve got our work, our home, Freddie, and each other.
That’s more than enough. It’s exactly what I dreamed I would find when I signed up for Love Without Labels, but somehow even better than I’d hoped.
As soon as we stop filming, Jace turns to me.
“There’s one more question,” Jace says, and I assume he’s about to ask me to fuck him. “I heard you and Liv speculating about that fan account that used to help run your fan page but stopped posting. Do you know what happened to them?”
I scrunch my brows in confusion, but my mind goes immediately to JJ.
“What about it?” I ask, cautiously.
Jace smirks, but he’s also blushing. “It wasn’t some random fan.”
I wait quietly for him to keep going.
“It was me.”
My jaw literally drops. I don’t even know what to do with that information at first. Jace—my husband, the person I used to think was too cool to ever watch my old videos—was running the biggest Kieran Delaney fan page on the internet?
“I probably should’ve told you before, but…” He shrugs as though he’s trying to downplay this, but I can see the nerves in his eyes. “I didn’t want you to think I was a stalker.”
“You’re telling me you’re the JJ? The one who was always first to comment on my posts and defend me against all the negative ones? Who had ‘New York’ in his bio but never once showed up to an event?”
“Yeah…”
“Oh my god. Olivia and I used to sit around trying to figure you out. We had so many guesses. Entire elaborate theories. I can’t believe it was you the whole time!”
“Are you mad?”
“No, of course not.” I laugh. “I’m shocked and impressed.
And honestly grateful. You kept me going some days.
There were a lot of times when the negative comments would get to me or a post wouldn’t do as well as I’d expected.
When I felt like no one cared anymore, and when I wanted to quit, you’d come on my feed with a well-timed post about how great I was or something, and I’d feel like what I was doing did matter.
You gave me the inspiration I’d need to keep going. ”
Jace grins. “I just wanted to help the world see you the way I did. Even when I couldn’t be there in person.”
For a second, I forget how to breathe. Jace was secretly the reason I made it through some of my hardest years, the reason I never stopped believing people cared what I had to say.
“You were my number-one fan before you were my number-one everything,” I whisper.
He shrugs casually like he didn’t just hand me the most romantic plot twist ever. “Guess I’ve always been playing the long game. There’s one more thing, actually.”
“What’s that?” I ask curiously.
“I actually signed up for the show hoping to get over you. Seeing all your videos and being your biggest fan made it impossible for me to move on, but it doesn’t seem like that was ever in the cards for us.”
I move to straddle him, practically jumping into his arms as I kiss him with everything I have.
Because this man? This man who has been so many things to me, my bully, my crush, my first real heartbreak, apparently my biggest fan, my fake boyfriend, my real husband, the love of my life.
He’s so much more than any one of them.
He’s everything.
And I’m so fucking happy that he’s my forever.