Epilogue
Kyle
Five years later
It’s already dark when we park by Logan’s family home, and I hope the ice cream I’m carrying hasn’t melted too much. Still, I find a second to kiss Logan before we leave the vehicle. I can’t believe he’s even more handsome than when I first met him
Our love story was crazy. Movie-worthy. And the best thing about it is that it’s still developing.
“I don’t know if I could handle her antics if she wasn’t my sister,” Logan says with a groan, grabbing the groceries.
“You know you would,” I say just as the front door opens, and Ann steps onto the porch with hands folded on her big round belly.
“You’re not gonna deny a pregnant woman her ice cream,” she says.
Jekyll runs out to greet us with a happy bark, but he’s more interested in smelling the bag I’m carrying.
Logan laughs and shakes his head. “On it! It’s here, no need to cause a panic.” He makes a show of running into the house to offer her the ice cream that bit faster. It needs to be a specific brand of mint chocolate chip, but luckily we found it right before the store closed.
“Ann, please, let them get inside!” Logan’s mom yells, which makes her daughter roll her eyes as she retreats into the house.
“We have everything you wanted. Even Mr. Ashen’s favorite lager,” I say loudly, which earns me a grunt of appreciation from the living room.
It’s game night, and Logan’s dad has run out of his number-one drink, so we got it for him while at the store. After all, his parents are letting us stay here and have refused any offers of rent.
By the time I place the bags on the kitchen table, Ann is already digging into the ice cream, and lets out a groan the moment the first spoonful reaches her mouth.
It took Logan’s parents a while to adjust to the news of him marrying me years ago, but they’re now closer to me than my own family, who also came around to some degree. Though we never actually go to stay at my mom’s. At this point, I’ve made my peace with it.
“So did you agree on a name yet?” Mrs. Ashen asks excitedly.
“Shouldn’t Ann choose?” Logan’s dad yells, but from the sound of shuffling furniture, he’s coming our way. There must be a commercial break.
Ann rolls her eyes. “It’s not my baby, Dad.”
He shakes his head as he walks in, but smiles when I hand him the lager. “How is it not your baby if it’s in your belly?”
Mrs. Ashen strokes my head as if I were her son. “She might be the birth mother, but she’s only carrying it for them. It’s not that complicated,” she says even though it took her a while to get used to the idea of surrogacy.
Mr. Ashen sighs but casually opens the lager. “It’s still odd that my daughter is having a child with her brother’s husband.” When our dog whimpers, he scoots down and strokes his head. Jekyll is one family member Logan’s dad never has a problem with.
I count to three, but Logan is the first to speak. “Oh, come on, Dad. I already told you it was all done very technically.” With a syringe. “And it’s perfect since this way the kid will share both our DNA.”
“Dad is just protective,” Ann says with her mouth full. “But I don’t know if I’m gonna have my own kid, and I guess it’s an experience I want to have sometime in my life.”
Mr. Ashen shakes his head. “This is all getting too complicated for my liking.”
“So you two plan on staying here for how long after the birth?” Logan’s mom asks, cheerfully changing the topic. God bless her.
I lean against my husband and stroke his back as I look her way. “It depends on her health, but I want to start working at the clinic before veterinary school.”
I’ve just finished my undergrad studies, and since the two of us have recently bought a house, it seemed like the perfect time to enlarge our family. Our home is modest, but ours.
Logan has set up his weekend horse trekking business, and since he has a trusted assistant, we were able to come to Texas for the last stretch of Ann’s pregnancy.
His day job at the stables is office-based, so he can work remotely for now, and while I’m technically unemployed, the stable owner has promised I can start working as a horse riding instructor as soon as I’m ready.
Veterinary school will have to wait at least a year, as I’ll be staying at home with our daughter after we take her with us to Indiana.
It’s scary, but I also can’t wait, because Logan will be the best dad and co-parent. I don’t have a single doubt about that.
He’s proven to be the best husband after all.
I entwine our fingers as we all chat around the kitchen table, and despite this being my life for the past five years, I still have moments when my happiness feels like a dream.
After a lifetime of trying to suppress who I am, I became an out and proud gay man, who’s married, about to have a child, and who is on his way to fulfilling his ambitions too.
Doing my postgrad would be easier without a child, but if Ann finds a partner of her own, she might no longer be as easy going about being our surrogate.
This really is the perfect time, and I’m grateful for everything the man standing beside me has brought into my life. Five years from our wedding, he’s still fulfilling the promise he made to me every day.
We still go horse riding together, surprise each other with the little things, and as promised, I still cook a mean steak at least once a week. The new adventure starting with Baby Ella’s birth will only make our love more complete. I’ll have a family I always dreamed of.
And I can’t wait to see Jekyll as Ella’s big brother.
Just as I think that, our dog makes a rapid spin and stares at the other side of the kitchen, toward Ann, who freezes with ice cream in her mouth.
I don’t know what’s up at first, but she stares down, swallowing her ice cream. “My waters broke.”
Logan and I look at each other, hit by the realization that we’re having a baby. Tonight.
Mrs. Ashen goes red and runs to Ann’s side. “Logan! Car!”
Logan hesitates but gives me a quick kiss before running off to the corridor. “On it!”
The End