Epilogue

EPILOGUE

JASON, ONE YEAR LATER

Mik's hands tighten in mine, hazel eyes swimming with emotion. The officiant is talking—probably saying something poignant about the long journey that led us here, but all my attention is on the man in front of me. This man that walked into my life randomly at fifteen years old and flipped my world upside down.

Sometimes I think about what our lives would have been like if we'd admitted what we'd both been feeling way back then. We've talked about it so much over the last year, about how confused and yet sure Mik was, and about how I was terrified of being a stereotypical gay boy in love with his best friend. We valued our friendship and each other's comfort and feelings more than our own. If we'd just let go of our fears, we could have spent the last twenty-five years making each other happy.

Life had other plans, and we've made up for it over the past year. After retiring from the Wales Rugby League, I took some time off to decide what I wanted to do next. Thankfully, two decades of playing professional sports and cultivating endorsement deals allowed me to focus on the only thing that matters. Mik and I have been nomads, alternating between the condo we share with Jase during the summers, and traveling the world.

At first, Mik didn't feel comfortable for me paying his way through life, so he did some freelance writing for various sports and travel magazines. Along the way, the blog he wrote to document our adventures grew rather popular, and we became internet famous. More than half our travel is comped these days, and our map of places we've gotten to visit is full of pins and memories. We do everything together to make up for missed time, and never miss an opportunity to say how much we mean to each other.

Life is…perfect. More so because of the man standing in front of me, repeating the vows we wrote together.

I am yours and you are mine.

The way it was always supposed to be.

For however long we have left this time,

I promise to give you all of me.

I repeat the same vows when it's my turn, returning Mik's grin when a roll of thunder rumbles through the sky and the first drops of rain threaten. The small crowd of people around us open their umbrellas, and I don't miss my mom and Janel grumbling about our ridiculous excuse for a wedding. They're mortified that we're getting married outside, in the middle of a muddy field, wearing shorts, cleats, and tuxedo t-shirts that Mik and I found hilarious.

My parents still aren't happy about the way things turned out, but they've learned to accept it. A couple of days before Mik and I left for London last year, Janel went with us to sit down with our parents. The look on my mother's face when Janel told her she was divorcing Mik was painful, but she'd actually fainted when it was my turn, and I told her that Mik and I were running away together. After making sure my mother was okay, my father stormed out. It took him until our next visit to the states to even talk to me. They're still not big fans of Mik, but seeing as he's not going anywhere, they've begrudgingly accepted that he's always going to be part of the family. It helps that we're semi-famous in the states now, so they can brag to their wannabe high society friends to detract from the scandal we caused.

The sky opens up just as the officiant declares us husband and husband, and we seal our love with a kiss so passionate, my shorts can't hide the reaction. Okay, so maybe the shorts were a bad idea. Although, there's nothing hotter than seeing Mik's thick, tattooed thighs and tight ass in a pair of shorts short enough that his half-hard dick is in danger of escaping. I pull him closer to me, both to hide our obvious arousal, and to feel them pressed together.

Our guests cough and then shuffle towards the parking lot as the rain starts to come down harder. There's an afterparty at our favorite sports bar, but I have a feeling it'll be a while before we make it. There's an SUV with tinted windows waiting for us in the parking lot. But first, I'm going to make out with my husband until our lips are blue and one or both of us comes in our shorts. This is a full circle moment that I plan to take full advantage of.

MIK, THREE YEARS LATER

Caps fly into the air and the crowd cheers. Jason puts his fingers to his mouth and whistles loudly, pumping his fists into the air and annoying the hell out of his parents. Janel reaches a hand back from the row in front of me and grasps my hand, her proud, teary gaze meeting mine for a moment before the tiny human in her other arm demands attention. I blow out my cheeks and make a funny face at little Janie. She giggles, reaching her chubby hands towards me. Janel rolls her eyes and hands her off before bending down to retrieve a tiny shoe that fell off her other little one's foot. After securing the tiny loafer on baby Jamie's foot, she kisses his chubby cheek and then makes heart eyes at the man holding him.

Janel met Jeffery Harding at a networking event for local business owners about a month before Jason and I got married. He attended the wedding with her and joined in with the Reinier family's overall disapproval of our overly casual nuptials. He's a total square, owns a chain of luxury car dealerships, and loves wearing three-piece suits every day of the week. He's perfect for Janel and fits in with her family right down to the J-name. He hates my guts, and I absolutely love him because he makes Janel happy. Plus, I'm rather fond of my twin nibblings, and they love their uncles Mickey and Jay, much to his dismay.

Jason and I are still sort of outcasts in the family, but everyone has mostly come around. It helps that everyone is so much happier now. And since we've settled into a permanent home locally, they get the pleasure of seeing mine and Jason's happy faces at weekly dinners and family events. Tattoos and casual attire and all, they're learning to accept me. Although every time Jason adds a new piece of art to his body, I do get more side-eye than usual and Jason's dad mumbles that he ‘always knew you were going to be trouble,' under his breath.

"We did it," I tell Janel after we find Jase outside the arena and take more pictures than is probably necessary.

She gives me another teary smile and allows me to pull her into a side hug. Our boy is a college graduate and headed to an internship with a software development company before starting graduate school next fall. I'm trying to convince him to take a little time off over the summer to visit Argentina with me. Their rugby team is training for the Olympics, and I was invited to write an article about them for an LGBTQ+ sports magazine that I often contribute to .

"Yeah, we did it," Janel says happily, before pulling her sleeping toddler from my arms and kissing my cheek. "See you in a bit? Don't forget, you're supposed to bring the wine. And make sure you stop for–"

"Extra ice," I finish for her. "We've got it."

"Where's Jason?"

"Schmoozing his new boss," I say, pointing to where Jason is standing over with the dean. Jase is with them, no doubt talking about the next rugby season.

"Okay, well, we'll see you all back at the house."

I wave them off and make my way towards my husband and son. I have to shake off the flashes of the little boy I sometimes still see when I look at the man Jase has grown into. And I can't stare too long at his uncle, because he still does things to my insides that cause inappropriate physical reactions.

"There he is," Jason says before reintroducing me to the dean. I blink away my wayward thoughts and focus on the smaller, balding man.

The dean shakes my hand enthusiastically, and I roll my lips to keep from chuckling. The dean is a huge sports fan and is maybe a little too excited about having a former professional celebrity player as the new head coach of the university's rugby program.

"You must be quite proud of this young man," the dean says, reaching up to thump Jase on one of his wide shoulders. "We're so thankful we get another couple of years with him. I think I smell another championship." He claps and excuses himself to mingle with more of the staff, students, and parents that are still milling about.

"We better head out," I tell Jason before looking pointedly at Jase. "If you're late to your own party, your mom will kill me. "

"Nah, you survived this long," Jase jokes. "I'll meet you there. My truck is in the parking lot."

"We'll be a few minutes. We have to stop at home to get the wine out of the fridge, then stop for ice on the way."

"Alright, see you there!" Jase runs off, stopping to chit chat with a few buddies on his way out.

"Looks like the guest of honor might be a little late. We might have some time to kill after all," Jason says, stepping up behind me and putting his mouth near my ear. "We should grab the ice first, make sure it's cold enough."

My cock twitches in my pants as I turn my head to feel him nuzzle against my neck.

"What do you say, baby?" The vibration of his voice sends a shiver down my spine.

I give him a clipped nod and start walking towards the parking lot, not wasting any time. We need to get out of here right now before my cock busts through my pants and the school's new coach gets caught bending me over behind a bush.

We're predictably late to the party.

Jeffery gives me one of his signature disapproving looks when we walk past him into their massive kitchen. The bags of ice that Jason carried through the house are melting rapidly and dripping all over the floors. I'm holding a box full of wine bottles in front of me to hide my situation. We're snickering about it when Janel breezes in from putting the little ones down for a nap.

She stops in front of us, one hand firmly on her hip, eyes making an attempt to escape into the back of her head with the force of her eye roll. "Really, Mik? "

"What?" I ask incredulously, my voice raspy from how hard Jason took my throat in the car after I teased him with a piece of ice for too long.

"You two couldn't be a little more obvious, could you?" Her stern, pointed gaze drags up and down each of us with a mix of judgement and reluctant amusement.

Jason and I very purposefully don't make eye contact. Jason shrugs and tries to hold back a grin, but fails.

"You're incorrigible," Janel huffs at her brother. She snaps a towel at us both, shooing us upstairs to make ourselves decent before we join the party outside.

The moment we escape into one of the upstairs bathrooms, we burst out laughing.

"We should have known we wouldn't be able to escape to clean up before anyone saw us," Jason says through his laughter. He doesn't look too out of the ordinary, outside of his cheeks being more flushed than usual and sweat rings starting to soak through his button-down shirt.

I, however, look wrecked. My long hair is tied back in a messy bun, emphasis on messy where Jason's hands did a number on it. My lips and eyes are red and puffy from the face fucking I took just before coming in here. Worst of it all, though, is the very obvious wet spot darkening the front of my jeans.

Jason pulls a washcloth and hair dryer out of the cabinet, gesturing for me to hand him the offending garment.

"This is your fault, you know," I tell him, unzipping my pants.

Jason's gaze traces over the ink on my exposed biceps and down to where my jeans are open and sitting low on my hips, showing off the tangle of pubic hair that Jason likes me to keep untamed. I'd already removed my underwear to attempt to mitigate the worst of the damage after we figured it was too late for us to go home and change again. Especially considering that we'd already been home and rutted against each other like animals until our suits were ruined and we were already running behind.

Quirking his lips, he takes a step towards me. "You're right. It's all my fault. I shouldn't have fucked your mouth so good you came all over yourself." His tone is mocking, but the low timbre of his voice makes my skin erupt with goosebumps.

He dips a finger between my skin and the jeans, inching them down. My cock twitches, and I marvel at how I've gotten off twice in less than an hour and I still want more. I'll never get enough of this man.

Jason kisses me softly and murmurs against my lips. "How about I make it all better and clean up the mess I made?"

My eyes roll back as the larger-than-life man that I've been in love with since I was fifteen years old lowers to his knees. His sky-blue eyes stay locked on mine, looking up at me as he sucks my rapidly filling cock into his mouth.

He shows me no mercy, sucking me so hard and fast that our entire lives flash before my eyes. The day I met him, the years we spent holding back from each other, the short time I had him before losing him. The day he came back, and the inevitable magnetic pull to each other. Almost losing him again. And finally, the resolve to do what was right for us . To claim what already belonged to us from the beginning, if only we'd opened our eyes.

He is mine and I am his. Forever.