17. Epilogue - Izzy

“Oh my god, I hate you so much,” Izzy grumbled as he walked backward up the stairs, trying not to trip over his own feet and end up crushed under Alice’s solid, wooden monster of a dresser. He didn’t know why she insisted on bringing it when there was already one in the loft. Hers was clearly old—the top was covered in faded stickers and the paint was worn off the drawer fronts. But who was he to judge? He’d brought some weird stuff along when he’d moved in with Keegan last week. And no, he wasn’t talking about the stuff in his toy box, although he got a lot of joy from pulling out items that made Keegan’s eye twitch. He just happened to have a fork and a coffee mug he liked.

“No, you don’t,” Keegan shot back, his voice strained as he fought to balance the other end of the dresser. They were doing this backward. Izzy should not be the one on the higher step. “You just don’t want to admit that I have a point.”

Izzy gritted his teeth. Fucker. “It has nothing to do with right or wrong, Henry. It’s the principle.”

Keegan chuckled breathlessly as they hoisted the dresser up the last few steps, then put it down with a thud. “I’m sure that’s all it is.” He grabbed the hem of his tee to wipe the sweat off his face, revealing his toned abs and fuzzy happy trail. Izzy—who often struggled to differentiate between angry and horny when it came to Keegan—wanted to lick him.

“Are you two still fighting with each other?” Alice asked without looking up from sorting through her boxes. “I thought that would stop once you fell in love.”

Keegan coughed around a laugh, and Izzy scowled, reeling in the inappropriate thoughts. “It would have, if this asshole weren’t so goddamn stubborn all the time.”

Keegan’s eyebrows went up. “I’m the stubborn one?”

“What are you even arguing about?” Alice asked, eyeing them dubiously.

Izzy’s skin, already warm from the summer sun, heated further. He kept his eyes on the dresser as he shoved it into place next to the old one. He didn’t want to go there.

“His parents invited us out to dinner,” Keegan explained.

“And you accepted without asking me first,” Izzy snapped back. “They aren’t even your parents. Who does that?”

Keegan shut his eyes and rubbed his temples like Izzy was giving him a headache. “Isaac, it’s your mother’s birthday, and we were already discussing having them over soon. Also, to be clear, I didn’t agree. I told them I thought we were free, but I needed to check with you.”

“It’s the same thing,” Izzy said, throwing up his hands. “Now they know we don’t have plans. They’re not going to take no for an answer. It isn’t in their vocabulary.”

In all fairness, he and Keegan had been talking about visiting with Izzy’s parents. Izzy had discussed it with his therapist as well, and she agreed that if he felt ready, it could be a good baby step toward rebuilding their relationship. Izzy was on the fence. Feeling judged by the people he cared about was still a trigger, and Izzy’s parents, though he loved them, were the judgmental type. His therapist wanted to set aside a whole session to dig into that childhood trauma.

Joy.

Keegan slid his arms around his waist from behind, tugging Izzy into his embrace and squeezing. “Want me to get Riley?” he asked, keeping his voice too low for Alice to hear.

That was when Izzy noticed how jittery he’d become. Ugh. Yes. He did want Riley, but she was up at the house with Milo for company while everyone with thumbs helped Alice move in to Izzy’s old hayloft apartment. Micah, Ryan, and Archer were on their way back with the truck. Nick was at work but promised to bring dinner from the good Chinese place later.

Archer, with a push from Xavier, had exploded onto the New York art scene after visiting the city over the winter. He was in high demand, with offers for gallery shows and visiting artist positions coming in faster than he could turn them down. It had taken some convincing, a lot of encouragement, and, finally, Alice putting her foot down and telling him to stop fucking around and do something for himself for once in his life, but at long last, Archer was moving to New York City to pursue the art career he’d put on hold at nineteen when his sister had needed him.

The timing had been perfect. Izzy had moved in with Keegan, Alice was taking over the loft, and Archer was suddenly free to make decisions for himself for the first time in a long time. He was a complete wreck, but no one was letting him back out when he’d finally taken the leap.

“Here,” Alice said, holding something out to Izzy.

He took it automatically, then stared at the sparkly, neon-pink glob that was oozing wetly between his fingers. “Um…”

“It’s slime,” Alice said, walking back to an open box. “It helps when I need a distraction.”

Well. She wasn’t wrong. He was definitely distracted. What the fuck? He might be a little grossed out, too. The slime started to stretch toward the floor, and Izzy quickly cupped his other hand beneath it.

Keegan chuckled against his neck, then kissed his shoulder. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry. I didn’t want to upset you. I never want that.”

Izzy fiddled with the cold goo, squishing it so it oozed between his knuckles. “I know you don’t. I’m sorry I took my stress out on you. I know how pushy my parents can be, and you have to be careful about what you say since you sort of work for my dad.”

Keegan took him by the chin and turned his face for a kiss. “My working relationship with your father is something I definitely don’t want you to worry about.” He kissed Izzy again, harder. “Understood?”

Izzy melted. “Yes, sir.”

“If you two are going to be weird, I’m kicking you out. I’m already trying not to think about all the sex that’s gone down in this apartment, thanks to you two, and Micah and Ryan. I need to buy some sage or something.”

Izzy did his best not to laugh. “Sorry, Alice. We’ll be good.”

Izzy took a deep breath, gathered Blackbird’s reins beneath her chin and led her out of the cool barn, into the warm summer sun.

She kept pace next to him, her head low and relaxed, her stride long and loose. She hadn’t so much as flicked an ear when he’d finished grooming her and, instead of taking her out to graze in the big field as usual, grabbed the saddle from outside her stall and tacked her up.

She wasn’t as out of practice with this as Izzy. Emma said that once she’d healed from her injury, she had been ridden regularly. She was sound and healthy. She would never compete at the international level again, but then, neither would Izzy.

He was also fully recovered from the accident. The doctor Keegan had dragged him to after finding out that Izzy had never been officially cleared said he saw no reason why Izzy couldn’t ride again.

Even with that news, it had taken Izzy a solid month to get up the guts to try. He’d spent a lot of time talking with Maggie, who had also recently returned to riding after hip surgery. Micah had helped too, offering to ride Birdie a few times to make sure she would behave for him. Izzy had turned him down. It wasn’t Birdie he was worried about—it was himself and his own hangups. What would happen if he had a panic attack the moment he was in the saddle?

The path to the ring took him past the large field where Violet, Klaus, and Sunny were grazing. Sunny pinned her ears at Izzy when they got close but otherwise didn’t lift her head from the lush green grass. Izzy was taking that as a win. The devil pony still wasn’t a fan of men, but Alice said she was making progress.

All three rescues were fully healed from their traumatic past and had clean bills of health from both Keegan and Mason, the farrier. Keegan had taken to teasing Ryan about his “foster fails” because it had been decided that the three rescue horses weren’t going anywhere, not even Sunny. She was still a little demon, but she was their demon. Meanwhile, Micah had been working with Violet and said she’d be ready for a saddle soon. And Ryan had ridden Klaus, who had more experience than the others, a few times and thought he could be added to their trail ride rotation. A rotation that Izzy was going to be included in as well, just as soon as he got his ass back in the saddle.

Keegan was waiting for Izzy and Birdie just outside the ring. He gave Izzy a lingering once-over that both warmed him and relieved some of his tension. “Like what you see?” he asked, striking a pose in his tight breeches and tall leather boots.

Keegan smiled and leaned in to kiss him. “Always.”

Izzy leered. “If you want, I can put the boots back on when we get home tonight.”

Keegan swallowed, then blew out a breath. “Get in there, brat,” he said, giving Izzy’s ass a smack, followed by a grope. “You better bring the crop too.”

Izzy laughed and pressed a kiss to his mouth, then led Birdie into the ring and over to the mounting block. His muscle memory did the rest, and before he knew it, he was swinging into the saddle. He caught the stirrup on the far side and adjusted the reins.

Oh.

He slid his palm along Birdie’s neck, stroking her silky coat, the last of his tension and all of his worries melting away.

“I was going to ask how you’re feeling,” Keegan said, leaning on the fence, his messy hair blowing in the light breeze off the mountain, Riley lounging at his feet where she could keep an eye on her favorite people. “But I don’t need to. I can see it on your face. You’re home.”

Izzy blinked away his blurry vision and smiled. Yeah. He was.