Epilogue
“Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”― Maya Angelou
Eighteen months later
Cooper
Silas paced the great room, making a loop around the kitchen island. He paused every so often to signal to Marly, our newest rescue pup, to sit, lie down, stay, then quickly rewarded her with a treat before resuming his trek.
“Yeah, yeah. I know. You’re amazing, Ger. I appreciate you. But I’m not moving to New York for the job. Either I commute or I’m out.” Silas plucked the coffee cup from my hand and mouthed, Thank you.
I kissed his temple and leaned on the counter, my gaze wandering from Max, the yellow Lab sleeping on the hearth, to my watch.
The kids would be home soon. I almost motioned to Silas to be mindful of the time, but I didn’t want to interrupt negotiations.
There was a big sportscasting contract on the line—and the first offer that had interested him since he’d retired for good last year.
So, yeah…Silas had come out. Publicly.
At the end of a game, but at the beginning of regular season.
It was a big deal that had caused some big waves in his sport, and truthfully throughout the world, thanks to his ex’s relationship with an international celebrity.
That kiss had rocked our worlds and changed our lives forever… and ultimately for the better.
Sure, we could have done without the seemingly never-ending scrutiny of the press, but I supposed we’d known we’d end up on the Internet within minutes of that fateful kiss and that there’d be a price to pay in the form of paparazzi and online stalkers.
For months afterward, fans and reporters had followed Silas between his condo, the stadium, and even to Wood Hollow, where Reg had been forced to barricade Red Oak Lane and the kids’ school from prying assholes who’d aimed long-range cameras at us for the sake of social media content.
Like it or not, Silas became the face of Boston. And Wood Hollow. Especially when the team made it to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, they lost the game, but getting to the championships in his final season in the pros was a perfect ending to a long career.
Once Silas had confirmed that he was retiring for good, the spotlight faded a bit. We had Alli and Liam to thank for that. They’d gotten engaged a year ago and were set to get married this summer in Italy. They were bigger news, and their lives were infinitely more glamorous than ours. Fine by us.
But yes, Silas and the kids and I would be at their wedding. It was a good time for a getaway for us. The past year and a half had been…a lot.
Mill Depot had successfully opened its doors in three locations, but getting the first store up and running had been the most stressful.
I’d juggled a lot of balls in the air being a full-time single parent, balancing work life with being in a long-distance relationship, and constantly worrying about protecting the kids from nosy outsiders and hoping Silas was staying sane too. It had been exhausting.
But we’d made it through the stormiest parts and now…life was blissfully ordinary again.
We were just a couple of guys who lived together in a quiet town in Vermont and shared child-rearing duties with my ex-wife and her husband, who’d recently relocated to Pinecrest. Oh…
and we were dog dads to two rescue Labs—one who was adorable but incredibly lazy and the other who had more energy than three dogs put together.
A trip to our local animal rescue was the first item on Silas’s agenda after he’d officially moved in with me.
“Sorry, babe. I promised the kids. Don’t worry. I’ll help take care of the puppy too,” he’d assured me.
“Puppy? Wait up. Puppies are too much work. Let’s not—”
“Relax, Dad. I’m here now. We got this.”
Max was a three-year-old sweetheart, and Ivy and Chase were head over heels for him. Max adjusted well, but Silas worried his low energy was a sign of doggy depression and soon began a campaign to convince me that Max needed a brother or sister.
Yeah, I’d folded like a cheap suit. Two dogs was nothing. I would have given Silas the moon on a platter if I could. I’d give him my world.
I sipped my coffee and eyed my handsome man as he tossed his cell onto the island. “Everything okay?”
Silas grinned. “I think so. Ger says the contract will be ironed out by next week. Monday nights and occasional weekend gigs during the season. I’ll be home for carpooling, dog-walking duties, coaching flag football games, and to fuck your brains out almost every night during the week.
I told him I wouldn’t settle for anything less. ”
I set my mug aside and yanked at the elastic on Silas’s workout shorts. “You added a sex clause?”
“Of course. Sex is important, Coop,” he singsonged, sliding his palm along my crotch.
“I agree.” I kissed a path from his ear to his jawline. “But…we’ll have to wait. Ivy and Chase will be here any second now.”
“Cool. How do you want to tell them? Put it on a cake or make a sign or…maybe attach a note to Marly’s collar and—Marly! Down, girl.”
I huffed a laugh. “I don’t know. Maybe we just…say it.”
“Okay. Let’s practice first.” Silas cleared his throat. “I asked your dad to marry me and he said—”
“What?” Ivy burst into the great room, Chase at her heels. “Oh. My. God!”
“You did? You’re getting married?” Chase gasped.
Silas widened his eyes, then shrugged. “I don’t know. Are we?”
All eyes turned to me. My heart swelled, and emotion clogged my airwaves. These three were my world. My beautiful children and the man who’d stumbled into my life in the middle of a snowstorm and stayed.
“What was the question?” I teased.
Silas didn’t miss a beat. He took my hand and dropped to his knees, much to the delight of my kids. “Will you marry me, Cooper?”
“Yes. A thousand times, yes.”
I pulled him to his feet and hugged him tight, and opened an arm inviting Ivy and Chase to join us. Soon two dogs were barking at our heels. Total mayhem.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, too. So much.”
And I planned on loving this guy for the rest of my life.
Thank you for reading Silas and Cooper’s story!