Epilogue

JACKSON

“ It’s a big decision, Jackson,” Harper says while angrily tying his hair up in a messy knot. He lets out an exasperated sigh when I stare blankly at him. “It’s a big deal!”

“Two dogs are not much different than one.”

“Yes, well, Honey is a service dog. She’s literally perfect. A regular old dog might be insane like Whiskey. That dog is always off the rails.”

I hum in disagreement. We’ve had this same argument daily for the past three months. Actually, every day since we put the deposit down for the German shepherd from a breeder a friend recommended. Honey wags her tail where she lies in her dog bed, probably hoping to distract Harper from arguing with me. Sometimes I think she understands us perfectly, but then other times I’m not so sure. She often seems keen to interrupt us right when I’m riling Harper up good for a hard fuck. Once Honey appears, Harper shuts down as if our child has walked into the room. Granted, she basically is our child.

“Are you listening to me?” Harper asks. He slumps down to the ground, tugging on a ratty pair of Converse.

“I’m always listening to you.”

“Ugh,” Harper groans and pretends to gag. “I think Honey peed on the Christmas tree.”

I gasp in shock. “Honey would never.”

“Well, why is the left side turning brown?”

“Harper, my love, my angel, the light of my life. That means the tree is dying. When did you last put water in the tree stand?”

Harper freezes while pulling on his jacket. “Uhm.”

“You said you’d water the tree. We talked about it.”

“About that…”

Laughing, I tug Harper to me by his belt loops, kissing away his frown. When I pull away, his lips are still parted, and his eyes are glazed over. “Not fair how you do that.”

“Stop arguing with me so that we can get in the car and go get our damn dog.”

Harper leans his weight against me for one brief second, before pushing away to head towards the front door. I snap my fingers and Honey follows us out.

It’s a thirty-minute drive into the city. Harper is oddly silent the entire way. His hand rests in mine, thumb skipping over my wrist every couple of minutes.

The breeder has the dog ready in a small crate along with all of the necessities. All I have to do is hand over the final check. With the package secured, we get back in the car to head home. Harper sits in the back seat with Honey, and our new dog on his lap. The moment we got in the car, Harper pulled her out, unable to bear the thought of her trapped in a box.

“You’re so sweet,” Harper murmurs as the puppy happily chews his fingers.

I watch them in the rearview mirror until the red light turns green.

“Yes, Honey, this is your sister. We have to pick out a name though. I think we should stick with food. Oh my God. Pepper!”

“Pepper is an adorable name,” I agree.

“Pepper,” Harper repeats, tone blissfully happy.

Instead of getting off on the exit that takes us home, I get off one exit later, looking for a very particular spot. Harper is either too distracted by Pepper to notice, or he just trusts me to not kill him at this point. Probably a mix of both. When I pull over on the side of the road, Harper turns his confused gaze on me.

“What the fuck, Jack?”

Climbing out of the car, I open his door with a flourish. “Come on.”

Harper looks around in fear but does as I ask. Good boy. He cradles Pepper to his chest, guarding her with his arms. Honey follows after us, clearly more trusting of me than her daddy.

“Wait…” Harper trails off when I drop to my knees. “Oh, fuck.”

“The last time I brought you here was on the back of a motorcycle. I fell in love with you that day. I fall more in love with you with every passing day. You hiss and spit still, but a lot less. Mostly for fun now, I think.” I hold the platinum ring out to him. “Will you marry me and make me the luckiest man on the planet? Be mine forever, Harper, please?”

Harper falls to his knees in the grass in front of me. His kiss is so hard that I topple over, and he lands on top of me with Pepper squished between us. The puppy lets out a little whine, but quiets when Harper pulls away to pet at her head.

“Sorry, puppy.”

I grin up at him. “Can I get an answer maybe?”

Harper rolls his eyes. “You know my answer.”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear it!” I yell through laughter.

“Okay, okay.” Harper tugs me up to sit so he can straddle my lap. “Yes.”

Honey barks with joy when I woop. I gather Harper back into my arms, kissing him as sweetly as I can. His mouth curves against mine in a small smile. A cold breeze washes over us, making Harper snuggle harder against me, our new puppy caught between us. I grab Honey and tug her against my side, holding my entire world in my arms.

“Forever,” I whisper into Harper’s messy hair.

Harper laughs, free and beautiful. “Forever.”

Forever and a day.

The End