Epilogue

One MonthLater

Mandi snatched her lunch bag from the counter where Tay had placed it and shouted her thanks over her shoulder. Sometimes she came and ate in the Italian restaurant with her new friends, but often she grabbed the lunch her roomie made her and went and sat outside to eat on one of the porch swings.

Today was one of those days.

It was a Sunday, a full four weeks since Mother's Day and since Mandi had confirmed with Master Derek that she wanted to move onto the Ranch.

She wove in and out, making her way between chattering Littles, until she found her favorite swing free. Someone—Mommy Amelia—had placed Beau there, with a jaunty sign that read Reserved for Miss Mandi.

That's what the other Littles called her when she was in librarian mode, Miss Mandi, with a cheeky smile that usually indicated that they saw her more as a big sister or aunty than one of the "proper" Bigs. And that suited Mandi fine. She was perfectly content to be a friendly face, rather than one associated with discipline. Though she had been known to have stern words with some of the Butterflies when they started throwing books around.

But she felt more settled than she'd ever been before.

Sharing a room with Tay had been the most fun. They had similar working hours, and it meant that if Mandi wasn't staying at Mommy Amelia's house, then they got to hang out together after work, have Little time, and chatter away.

They were both the anomalies in the Littles' Wing, having Big jobs that took up most of their week, but Master Derek had allowed them a smidgeon more freedom than he did the other Littles, and they were determined not to take advantage of it and lose privileges.

Tay was a naughty Little though and could often be found sneaking treats out of the kitchens, and Mandi had adjusted to the fact that what appeared to be a mini-freezer permanently full of Chef Guilia's homemade ice cream lived in a corner of their room.

She'd made friends, spent more time than Mandi had ever dared before in Little Space, and had loveliest Mommy-princess dates every week.

She sat on the porch swing, opened her lunchbox, and smiled at the note that Mommy Amelia had managed to smuggle in. Mandi never caught her handing it over to Tay, but there it was every day, folded in increasingly pretty origami patterns in her lunchbox.

Usually they'd spend Sunday together, but Master Derek had recommended that Mandi take some time on her own today, to really think about how she'd adjusted to living on the Ranch full-time.

"It's no small decision, little lady," he'd said. "And I don't want you making the wrong one and regretting it."

"Mandi!" She looked up, and to her surprise saw her cousin running as fast as he could up the very long drive to the main house.

"Ralphie?" What was he doing here?

Ever since she'd started her trial stay, the two of them had called weekly, catching up on what was going on each other's lives, and she'd come to value those phone calls, the only ones she really had from the outside world.

He paused his running to catch his breath and waved wildly at her. Behind him was a very bemused Nate, his fiancé, who was taking his time strolling up the driveway instead of attempting to sprint it.

"How do people make it up here?" asked Ralphie, panting as he dragged himself up the steps of the porch and threw himself onto the swing, next to Mandi. "The drive goes on forever!"

"Usually people get dropped off at the front door," said Mandi.

"Told you so," said Nate, standing the two suitcases he'd been dragging behind him upward.

"And I told you, Daddy, that the walk would do us good."

"And did it?"

Ralphie waved his hand dismissively. "Well, I didn't walk it, did I? I ran it, so it's not the correct kind of data."

Nate huffed out a laugh and smiled at Mandi. "Hey, Mandi, apologies for just turning up. Someone wanted to surprise you."

"The someone was me!" said Ralphie loftily. "'Cause today's the end of your first month, right? I wanted to be here so that you've got someone impartial to talk to." He turned to Nate. "You may take the bags in, Daddy. Mandi and I have much to discuss."

Nate bared his teeth at Mandi's cousin and growled. Ralphie, rather than being intimidated by this, merely grinned and said, "Later, Daddy, later."

His fiancé rolled his eyes, leaned over to kiss him, and then took the suitcases indoors, leaving the two cousins on the swing together.

She hugged him impulsively. "You came!"

"Of course," said Ralphie, looking confused. "Shouldn't I have?"

"No no," said Mandi. "I'm so so pleased to see you, I just didn't expect—" Her voice trailed off, and she hugged him harder.

"We're better than family," said Ralphie. "We're the family that we chose. And that means I'm always going to be in your life. And that I'm going to pop up out of nowhere to surprise you when you've got big things going on."

She nodded. "Thank you."

"Of course," said Ralphie. "Now, the exciting bit. What've you decided?"

Mandi's eyes brimmed with tears, and she smiled shakily. "I'm staying, I think."

"You think?"

"I'm staying." Her voice still sounded shaky though, and Ralphie dropped his chaotic energy by at least half, and looked at her worriedly.

"Talk to me, ‘coz."

"I love it here," she said. "I've made incredible friends—wait til you meet Tay, you'll love them—Mommy Amelia is incredible, my job is great, it's just…"

"Yes?"

"It's a big decision. And what if I regret it later?"

"It's not a cult, Mandi, you can leave at any time. I mean, you can, right?"

She nodded. "I can, I just don't want to rush into selling my duplex, there's not enough room for all my things in my room here…"

"You can rent the duplex out, and if there's stuff you need to put in storage, there's space at Stuffie Hospital. I got you. I don't want you not to do this because you're afraid it might go wrong. Anything can go wrong, but this time, you're not on your own. You have me and Nate, you have Mommy Amelia and Master Derek, you have Tay and Sadie and all the other friends you've made here. None of that has to disappear if you end up changing your mind."

Mandi nodded, and hugged Beau to her, leaning back to let the porch swing rock gently. That had been the thing she'd been dwelling on the last few days, the finality of it all if she sold her duplex. Right now it was there, a cushion if she fell, but if it was taken away from her…

"But doesn't it seem like I don't think this will work out if I don't sell the duplex?"

Ralphie looked confused. "Not really, it just seems like a smart business investment, in case you—or you and Mommy Amelia—decide to buy a place yourselves, further down the line. It can sit there, paying its own mortgage, and all you have to do is collect rent. I'll even be your general handyman for the place if you like."

"How about I do the handyman work," interjected Nate as he rejoined them. "I'm rather sure she'd like the work to be done both quickly and efficiently."

"Well!" Ralphie drew himself up to his full height. "I must say. The slander."

Mandi laughed, "That sounds lovely; thank you, guys."

"You're welcome."

"What's all this then?" asked a warm voice behind them. Mandi swiveled on the swing to see her Mommy striding toward them.

"Mommy!" she called, "It's my cousin Ralphie, and his fiancé Nate! They've come to visit."

"Hi there," said Mommy Amelia, extending her hand for Nate and then Ralphie to shake. "I'm ever so grateful to you both for persuading her to come visit; and I won't be sad to say that we've stolen her away somewhat."

"That's okay," said Ralphie. "She's delectable, I understand why you'd want her to stay."

Mandi shook her head and laughed.

"And she'll be even more delectable in a bridesmaid's dress—you will be a groomsmaid at our wedding, won't you?" Ralphie took both her hands in his and pleaded.

"A groomsmaid? Me?"

"Please! You won't even have to do any of the organizing, I'm already making one of my other groomsmaids do all the boring bits. I…" Ralphie's voice trailed off. "You're the family I've chosen for myself, and we both know that the rest of our relatives—I'm not even sure if my sister will agree to come. But we talk, and kinda gossip—though I do more gossiping than you do—and you give good advice and you're sweet, and you'll look divine in green velvet, with all that red hair. Please?"

"Of course I will," she said, and hugged him. "I would love that."

"And you'll come too, Amelia?" asked Nate.

Ralphie spun around. "Oh shit, yes, you too!"

The head librarian laughed. "I'd love to, thank you."

With that settled, Nate dragged Ralphie off to their room, to try and calm him down, he said; though Mandi couldn't even comprehend such a scenario.

Mommy Amelia came and sat on the swing next to her, slipping her arm around Mandi's shoulder. "I bet this was the perfect thinking spot before that."

"It still is," she said, and kissed her Mommy on the cheek.

"And?"

"And I'm staying." She didn't elaborate and could feel Amelia's eyes watching her. "Okay, look. I love you, and I love life here on the Ranch, but I don't want to sell my duplex just yet. I think I'm going to rent it out, pay off some more of the mortgage, and then when maybe we want to move in together, I can sell it and use that as a down payment somewhere."

Mommy Amelia stopped the swing from rocking with her foot. "You don't like my place?"

Mandi felt that rising panic and squashed it down. Nope. This wasn't a scary conversation, she didn't need to panic. "I love your place, but if we're going to move in together, then I'd like to be on the deed. I know you've been talking to Master Derek about buying it, and that's a brilliant plan, but I want the option of being a part of that."

Her Mommy nodded, and Mandi allowed the tension in her body to dissipate slowly. "I just need a safety net. Not forever, but for now."

"My darling," said Mommy Amelia, leaning in to kiss her, "You get to have whatever you need to be safe. There's no rush here. I'm not going anywhere."

"And neither am I," said Mandi, and kissed her back.

That afternoon, Mandi got called down to Master Derek's office, and she almost skipped in, considering how different her life was now from what it had been a mere month previous.

"Hi, Master Derek," she said, and clambered onto one of the large armchairs and made herself comfy.

He looked bemused and a little proud at her confidence. "Well, isn't this a nice change from the first time we met?"

Mandi smiled. She felt like she couldn't be further from the terrified woman who'd sobbed on the couch before. It wasn't that she was fixed, trauma didn't work like that, but she was working on herself and had tools and a support network that had simply not been there before. "Yeah, who could have guessed that we'd be having this conversation back then?"

"So."

"So."

"Have you made up your mind?"

"I have," she said. "I'd like to stay. I'm going to keep my old duplex for now and rent it out so I can keep paying the mortgage."

"Have you thought about where you'd like to live?"

She nodded decisively. "Yes, Tay and I spoke about it and we'd like to keep on as we are for now. They're a great roomie, and we understand each other."

"And Miss Grayson?"

Mandi melted, the way she did whenever anyone mentioned Mommy Amelia. "We're going to keep dating, with me spending the night at her house regularly. There's no rush to move in together straight away, and actually I think it'll be good for me to foster some independence." She smiled. "It's funny; so many of us Littles come here, looking to build a relationship where they don't have to make decisions anymore, whereas I think I actually still need that autonomy sometimes. That way when I do as I'm told, I know I'm doing it because I've chosen to, and not because I've fallen back into bad habits."

"It sounds like you've been doing a lot of growing, this last month." Master Derek sounded impressed. "I'm really proud of you, you know. It can't have been easy, forcing yourself out of your comfort zone."

"And yet it brought me to this moment, where I've never been more comfortable. I can't take all the credit though," she added. "Cat Denten is an incredible psychologist and getting to keep on working with her is definitely a big factor in me staying. You look after your own, and that makes Rawhide Ranch special."

"I couldn't have put it better myself," said Master Derek. "Now, the last thing I wanted to ask about was a problem we're having in one of the kitchens. Chef Guilia has been complaining about ice cream going missing; I know that you're in and out of there regularly, with Tay. Do you know anything about it?"

Mandi chose her words carefully. "I've not been involved in the liberation of any ice cream," she answered, her words deliberately not directly answering the question. She wasn't going to get Tay into trouble, although she rather thought that Tay was looking forward to getting caught. "Maybe there's a mouse who's fond of dairy on the loose?"

That might have been pushing it a tad too far. Master Derek raised an eyebrow and Mandi squirmed in her seat.

"Perhaps. I don't suppose you could ask Tay to come and see me? In case they could shed some light on the matter?"

Mandi nodded and made her escape.

But outside the door to the office, she found a veritable crowd of people waiting for her: Mommy Amelia, Tay, Sadie, Chef Guilia, Miss Price, Nanny J, and even Ralphie and Nate.

"Well?" asked Sadie, clearly too impatient to wait another second. "What did he say?"

"I can stay," she said, and Mandi was almost swept off her feet with all the hugs and excitement and well-wishes. Over Sadie and Tay's heads, she caught Ralphie's eye. Her cousin nodded, clearly satisfied with the outcome.

"Right," said Mommy Amelia, "I'm stealing my girl off for the rest of the day; I've had to share her with everyone else all morning."

Mandi laughed at the complaints, but followed Mommy Amelia when the other woman took her hand and led her out the front door and down the main steps to where a golf cart was waiting.

"Are we off to your place?" Mandi asked, but instead of turning right and heading toward Rawhide Ridge, they turned left, toward the Big House.

Mommy Amelia parked before they got there though, and took Mandi by the hand, and started heading across the grass toward a large lake.

"I've never been here before," said Mandi, looking out across the expanse of water.

"It's one of my favorite places to come in the summer," said her Mommy. "Come on."

There was a little row boat tied up to the dock, a picnic basket nestled up in the bow. Mommy Amelia jumped in, and then handed Mandi in carefully.

"You sit there, princess, and I'll row."

"Okay," Mandi said happily, and took her seat without complaint. There were multiple canoes tied up, but no one else was anywhere to be seen. "Can anyone come here?"

"Well, Littles need permission, obviously, but it's available for swimming and all sorts. I asked Master Derek if we could have it to ourselves this afternoon."

She rowed across the lake with strong strokes, her jacket discarded, and her sleeves rolled up. Mandi took the opportunity to watch her, reveling in the forearms on display, and chuckled happily to herself.

Late afternoon, and it was cool in the shady spot on the bank that Mommy Amelia tied the boat to. She didn't let Mandi do anything, laying out the picnic blanket and then extra cushions and blankets, so that Mandi could snuggle up. Beau had a cushion all his own to sit on.

The picnic basket itself was stuffed full of all kinds of goodies. Small pastries, a salad, and a whole array of different fruits including strawberries—Mandi's favorite.

"This is incredible, Mommy," she said. "What's all this for?"

"I just wanted to show you," said Mommy Amelia, "how excited I am that you're staying. We'd have made it work either way, but I can't wait to explore the Ranch with you. To show you my favorite spots—just like this one—and for us to make new memories. Seeing you blossom this last month, watching you make new friends and come into your own has been beautiful." She leaned forward and tucked Mandi's hair behind her ear. "I'm never going to take you for granted, babygirl. I never expected to find you, and now that I have, I'm going to cherish every moment we spend together."

Mandi looked up at the leafy canopy above them and closed her eyes, breathing in the quiet around them. "I'm home," she said. Opening her eyes, she pressed a kiss to her Mommy's cheek. "Home and safe with you. I love you, Mommy."

"I love you too, babygirl," said Mommy Amelia. "Now and always."

You are Invited to Ralphie and Nate's Wedding!

It's Ralphie Underwood"s wedding day to Nate Pace, but when a storm ruins their wedding venue, it's Stuffie Hospital to the rescue!

Visit Stuffie Hospital, a fluffy and steamy romance series, where toys get a new lease of life and queer Littles get their very own happy ever afters!