Epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
Aiden
“Why does this say Aiden John Gregory?” Jonny asked with something between shock and delight stamping itself on his face as he stared at the piece of paper in his hand.
“Because that’s my name, dickhead,” I said, taking the letter off him and shoving it into the box on the table. I was at the stage of packing where I didn’t give a shit where things went, I just wanted them in a box. I’d sort it all later.
And by later, I meant in six months when I realised I actually needed something.
“John… You picked John as a middle name. Were you ever going to tell me?” Jonny was smiling now, and it was something akin to gleeful delight. Fucking Christ, he was never going to let me live this down.
“I dunno, maybe.”
“You’re such a twat,” he said affectionately, nudging me with his shoulder.
“Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don’t know.”
“I love you, and I’m proud of you. Seriously, Aiden, you’re moving in with your boyfriends, your business is going so well you’re looking at opening up a shop, and you’re just… you’re killing it, okay? I’m so bloody proud of you.”
I swallowed and nodded, looking up at him and trying to ignore the way the corners of my eyes were prickling.
Weirdly, living in the same city had actually helped us to grow closer over the last year.
I’d been convinced it would be the other way around, but maybe it also helped that we were older now, and more willing to put in the work to have a good relationship.
Although there were still some lines I never wanted my brother to cross again. It turned out letting Bailey use the XXL dragon dildo as a living room decoration had been asking for trouble. If I ever heard Devon casually suggesting to Jonny they should get one again, it would be too soon.
And yes, I had tried Googling ways to scrub memories from my brain or bleach my ears.
We still hadn’t removed the dildo though, because it made me chuckle every time I looked at it.
“Thanks, I appreciate that.” I nudged him gently and smiled, pushing away my tears before they could form. “I love you too.”
He grinned. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
I snorted and shook my head as I shoved more random things in the box in front of me. “Dickhead. When are you finally going to ask Devon to marry you? Then you can be his problem. Permanently.”
Jonny’s face flushed and he looked away. “I don’t know. Maybe one day.”
“Then I hope he asks you—either way works for me. Although I’m not sure I can cope with you two being even more sickening.”
“Excuse me? Have you met you? Mr ‘I have to kiss both my boyfriends every time so neither of them feels left out’.”
“That’s not sickening. That’s equality.” I shrugged, because it was obvious to me. I glanced down into the box and wondered if it was worth trying to find other random things to stick into it, or if I should leave it as is and potentially save myself some confusion later.
I grabbed the tape and began to seal it shut—it would be easier to label it Random Important Shit and leave it at that.
“You two doing okay in here?” Devon asked, sticking his head around the door to my tiny living room, which was overflowing with boxes to the point it was hard to move around.
This flat hadn’t been a bad place to live, although I hadn’t really been here much.
Mostly, it had been there to give me an option to retreat to, if and when I needed it, so I didn’t feel trapped.
But I’d loved spending time with Hunter and Bailey too much to spend more than one or two nights a week here.
Half the time after work I’d gone straight to theirs, even when they were at training, letting myself in and having a nap on their sofa or in my bed until they got home.
“Yeah, we’re good,” Jonny said, the gleeful delight returning to his face as he turned to look at his partner. “Did you know Aiden’s middle name is John?”
“Is it?”
“Yes!”
“I love how you assume it’s after you,” I said wryly.
Jonny’s face fell. “Isn’t it? Who else would it be?”
“Of course it is,” I said, reminding myself not to be a dickhead. Especially since my brother had spent several days helping me pack. “It’s… not a big deal. Okay? I’m just grateful for what you’ve done for me.”
Jonny grinned again. It was verging on insufferable, but I begrudgingly supposed I had to let him have this. “It’s a very big deal and I’m telling everyone.”
I sighed and finished sealing up the box, scrawling a label across it with Sharpie. “Here you go. Be useful and take this down to the van.”
“But that’s what the removal men are for. It’s why you hired them,” Jonny said.
“No, we hired them because one of my beloved boyfriends went and fractured his fucking collarbone two weeks ago,” I said.
In Hunter’s defence, it hadn’t been his fault.
One mistake in the scrum coupled with a sodden, slippery pitch that more closely resembled a swimming pool, and his collarbone had been the unfortunate victim.
He’d been pretty good about it—despite his obvious pain and discomfort—and Bailey and I had spent the past few weeks spoiling him rotten and waiting on him hand and foot.
Hunter had clearly struggled with not being able to do much, especially since it was his right collarbone and he was right-handed, and sitting around at home wasn’t helping. So I’d ended up taking him to work with me and teaching him how to pack cookies, which he could do sat down with one hand.
It had been a good way to keep him busy and spend some time together, although I did feel bad for Bailey. My plan for the new year was to make sure I had some alone time with him as well. Unless he managed to get injured before then.
Considering how often the pair of them came home with bumps, bruises, and broken bones, it was pretty much a toss-up.
“I heard my name,” Hunter said, appearing in the doorway behind Devon, his arm still in a sling.
He had to wear it for another week, and in the last few days he’d started whining about how annoying it was.
Bailey had been sweet enough to distract him with kisses and blow jobs while I’d reminded Hunter to say thank you every time.
He’d have to wait another few weeks to get railed, and I couldn’t wait to completely wring him out on my cock.
“Not really, but the fact you answer to beloved boyfriend says a lot,” Devon said, shooting him an amused smile.
Hunter had eventually had a conversation with him about sex, but since I hadn’t been present and I hadn’t asked for details, I didn’t know what they’d talked about.
He and Devon had definitely gotten closer, and I was glad Hunter had someone to talk to if he ever needed advice.
“Duh, it means I’m loved,” Hunter said.
“You are,” I said, walking over to him and standing on my tiptoes to kiss him quickly before the flat became overrun with removal men. “Are the guys here yet?”
“Yeah, they’re just on their break.”
“Any problems getting shit out your flat?”
“No, although we found three random odd socks, that black T-shirt I was sure I’d lost, two balls of yarn, and one-twenty in loose change.”
“Jesus, how long had that been kicking around? None of us carry cash.”
“No idea. Bailey thinks the universe accumulates it under your furniture when you’ve lived somewhere for a certain length of time,” Hunter said.
He glanced over his shoulder, like he was trying to be sneaky, then added under his breath, “By the way, we put all our fun stuff in a separate suitcase. Then nobody will stumble across anything accidentally. We put the living room one in there too.”
“Good thinking. Bailey can make it the first thing we put out when we start unpacking.”
“Don’t joke, you know he’ll do it.”
“True, but it’ll make it feel like home.
” I stole another quick kiss, ignoring the fact Jonny and Devon were watching us.
We’d debated me moving into Hunter and Bailey’s flat, but it had felt like the perfect opportunity for us to find a place together that suited all our needs.
The house we’d found was in a small village on the outskirts of Lincoln, with large bedrooms, a spacious living room with floor-to-ceiling windows, and plenty of privacy.
It was a purchase rather than a rental, and one that Hunter and Bailey were sharing between them.
I’d been against it at first, but they’d insisted because buying gave us so many more options.
We’d had to have a lot of long talks about it, and I’d also leant on Bacon and Jonny, both of whom had understood my worries but helped mitigate them.
The whole thing still felt very weird, but then again I’d never really planned to move in with anyone. The last year and a half had changed a lot of my expectations for my life, and sometimes they still threw me for a loop. They were all changes for the better, though, and I’d never been happier.
“Is there a reason you’re all stood around up here?” Bailey asked, opening the front door of the flat and sticking his head inside. “It’s like trying to herd a gaggle of chickens.”
I laughed and slipped past Hunter, walking up to Bailey and making chicken noises. He snorted. “Sorry, I was shoving the last few things in a box. Then Jonny distracted me.”
“Hey! I just found out you named yourself after me! That’s not a distraction,” Jonny said from the living room.
“See? He’s terrible. I can’t get anything done.”
Bailey laughed. “I’ll tell the guys they’re fine to come up and grab everything. Should be all moved in by mid-afternoon.”
“Perfect. Me and Hunter’ll stop by a supermarket on the way over and get stuff for dinner.” I gave him a quick kiss, because it was impossible not to, and raised an eyebrow at him. “Did you smoke?”
“No. But some of the guys were. I thought about it, with the stress, but decided against it.”
“Good.” I kissed him again. A little reward for him not giving in to his self-confessed worst habit.
I stepped back and clapped my hands, hyping myself up for the chaos that was about to unfold. “Right, let’s get this shit done!”
Hopefully, this would be the last time I moved for a while. I was kind of sick of it now.
But I would move a hundred more times if it meant I got to end up with Hunter and Bailey.
Much later, the three of us were sprawled out across the sofa in our new living room, boxes stacked around us as we watched the new series of Gladiators on my laptop while eating pasta off paper plates.
I was having to hotspot my laptop off my phone because our internet wasn’t being connected for another few days, which was annoying but we’d live.
There were no curtains at any of the downstairs windows, and half of the overhead lights were missing shades.
We only had one bed made up, so I’d be sharing with my men for tonight at least, and I had no idea where the towels were.
But at least we’d remembered to pack some clothes and toiletries in an overnight bag, just in case.
The whole house felt like a mess, and I was glad I’d planned to take a few days off to get everything sorted and build some of the new furniture we had arriving, including a super-king-sized bed frame and mattress for Hunter and Bailey’s room, so we no longer had to squish.
Ryan, Rory, and Harper, Matty’s partner, were coming over while everyone was at training to help me start organising things, and I was so glad I’d accepted their offer.
The three of them had been so welcoming over the last year, as had the rest of the team’s wives, girlfriends, and partners, and it really felt like I had a community here.
We even had a monthly spouses and partners “book club” night, which was mostly an excuse to chat shit, drink, and eat cookies. It was always hilarious, and we’d even done a few nights out together, including drag bingo and karaoke—which I was fucking awesome at.
The Court had become one of my favourite places to go to, and not simply because the drag artists there had turned into some of my best regular customers.
“Holy shit, we did it,” Bailey said as he put his plate on the floor and scrubbed his face, laughing with disbelief. “I’d forgotten how fucking stressful moving is.”
“It’s the fucking worst,” Hunter agreed. “But at least we’re here now.”
“We are. And we’re not doing it again for a while,” I said, biting back a yawn. The December darkness outside made it feel so much later than it was. I had a feeling we’d all be falling asleep before long.
“Definitely not. This is us now,” Bailey said, gesturing at the messy room around us, exhausted delight spreading across his face.
“Our house, I like that,” Hunter said, putting his own plate down and nodding as he looked around.
“Me too.” I put my hands on either of their thighs. There were so many things I wanted to say, but it was hard to find the words to sum up how I felt. It was too big, too overwhelming, and too beautiful. I looked up at them and smiled. “I love you both so much.”
“I love you both too,” Bailey said, kissing us softly.
“Mmm, love you too.” Hunter yawned and rubbed his shoulder. It seemed to be bothering him more than he’d let on, and I had a feeling he’d tried to do too much today, despite our instructions not to.
“We should go to bed,” Bailey said. “Except it’s… fuck me, it’s only half-seven.”
“So? We had a long day. We can always take my laptop upstairs and watch something in bed,” I said.
“Fuck it, let’s do that. Hunter’s already falling asleep anyway.”
“No, I’m not,” Hunter said, his eyes already closed.
I smiled and squeezed both of their legs. It had been nearly two years since I’d first seen them across the dance floor at The Court, and I’d forever be grateful to myself for strolling over to them and demanding their attention.
Now we owned a fucking house and were planning a whole fucking future together. It was everything I’d never allowed myself to dream of having. Yet here I was, getting my own happily ever after with two men I adored, and who felt the same in return.
Turned out that fucking rugby players had been the best damn decision I ever made.
The End