Page 104 of Just a Footnote

Aiden winks. “I know.”

Aiden lets himself get pulled into the throng of other people celebrating. He watches on with pride as Liam lifts the cup over his head to celebrate his very deserved win. When he looks towards the edge of the ice, he finds Archer, Miles, Matty, Skye, and Ollie watching on with delighted looks on their faces. He assumes it’s for Liam, but he hopes maybe some of the delight is for him. After all, he’s come such a far way. Most of the pride tonight should be for Liam, but he’ll accept a little for himself too.

EPILOGUE

Liam never breaks a promise. A few weeks after the Stanley Cup win, when everything starts to settle down, Liam surprises Aiden with a week long vacation to the Caribbean. Just them, salt water air, and an empty beach bungalow. He’s come so far since last year. The idea of a vacation with his boyfriend would’ve sent him into hysterics a few years ago. Now, well, he’s starting to get used to this whole boyfriend thing.

Returning to therapy hasn’t hurt either. One day Aiden had returned from his internship to his and Archer’s apartment to find a business card sitting on the island. The name and number of some guide withLicensed Clinical Social Workerscrawled beneath it. Therapy isn’t a new thing for Aiden. In his teens he’d gone, mandated by the state, and he’d liked it back then. He likes it sometimes now too. Sometimes he doesn’t.

The guy he sees is named Mike and he’s at least double Aiden’s age. He listens when Aiden doesn’t want to talk, listens when he does talk. The guy doesn’t have a cruel bone in his body and he pushes back on a lot of Aiden’s irrational thoughts. Having a sounding board is kind of nice.A gift that Mike gave to him was the official diagnosis of CPTSD. Aiden is a littleembarrassed to be a medical professional yet not be able to recognize his own mental health was suffering for years. But now that he knows, that he has a therapist, things are a little easier to understand when his thoughts get all jumbled up.

A lawyer took care of the situation with his mom without much involvement from him. He sat down at the desk in his apartment, wrote a victim impact statement, and let Archer read it over. They looked at each other then, that twin bond sizzling between them like a ley line. Archer nodded and sent it off to the attorney. A few weeks later their mother returned to jail for violating the stalking injunction against her. In a few years they might have to repeat the process again, but at least for now all is settled.

All that to say…he’s moving forward. Slowly. And this vacation is just more proof of how far he’s come, but he still knows he has a way to go.

Shadows from the palm trees outside the French doors of the bedroom cast long lines along a sleeping Liam’s back. Unable to help himself, because now he can freely touch, he runs his fingers up Liam’s toned back. His body had broken down by the end of the season. That muscle that Aiden loves so much had been worn away after endless games, not enough time to refuel. The summer muscle will slowly return before the next season though. Aiden loves Liam’s body in all ways, tight with lean muscle, burgeoning with muscles that pop when Liam flexes, it doesn’t matter because Aiden loves Liam, not the body.

He loves him.

He presses a kiss to the skin closest to his mouth, which happens to be the swell of Liam’s bicep. The man can really sleep through almost anything. Not surprising considering they’d arrived the night prior and fucked each other’s brains out, not falling asleep until the early hours of the morning.

The sun outside the window tells Aiden it’s probably closeto noon now. A whole day spread out in front of them. Normally Aiden would be itching to get going, get moving because it’s hard for him to stay still. But Liam has changed him in that way too. Resting is becoming a thing for him now. Enjoying the times that he can just lay in bed with Liam, just be, just exist.

Liam coughs in his sleep, distracting Aiden from his thoughts. He rolls his head to the side, blinks his eyes open, immediately closing them against the light. “It’s so bright.”

“I think it’s afternoon.”

Liam groans. “Coffee.”

Aiden snorts. He presses another kiss to the side of Liam’s face before climbing out of the bed buck naked. A groan echoes behind him and he smirks. Liam might still be half asleep but he’ll never miss watching Aiden walk away naked. He busies himself in the kitchen for a few moments, fumbling with the coffee machine. It takes him a few tries, but finally he figures it out. He returns to the bedroom with two steaming mugs of coffee.

A fully awake Liam greets him. That familiar feeling of rightness tugs at his heart. Emotion must show on his face because Liam reaches out a hand, beckoning Aiden back on the bed with him. He hands one of the mugs to Liam before carefully sitting between Liam’s legs, settling his back to the warm expanse of Liam’s chest.

Liam takes a sip of the coffee, letting out a pleased sigh. One of Liam’s arms sneaks around him to hold him closer, thumb rubbing at the crease of Aiden’s hip and thigh. It’s nice. He wants this every morning for forever. For always.

“You’re thinking very loudly this morning,” Liam points out, voice still sleep soft.

Aiden turns his head to look up at Liam. “Just thinking about you.”

Liam hums in that knowing way of his. “I’m glad we did this.”

“We should do this every summer.”

Liam’s arm tightens around him and he presses a kiss to the corner of Aiden’s jaw. His lips drag a little against Aiden’s barely there blond beard after a few days of not shaving. They spend the morning – afternoon – returning to wakefulness in each other’s arms, sipping at their coffees.

After a while, once Liam is fully awake, they tug on their swimsuits and head out to the deserted beach. Aqua waves greet Aiden. The air smells divine, like salt, sun, and jasmine that grows on the banks beside the house. Liam lays out a large blanket on the sand along with sunscreen, a book he’s been reading, and a few bottles of energy drinks.

“Sunscreen.” Liam points at the bottle with a glare. “You don’t want to be burnt.”

Aiden smirks at him. “Apply it to me then.”

Liam stares at him for a few moments. No doubt weighing if it’s worth it. Sex on the beach sounds glorious for the mood but sand between Aiden’s asscheeks less so. Liam applies the sunscreen to his entire body with painstaking precision. His tongue even peeks out as he works. Aiden relaxes back against the blanket, staring up at the sky dotted with clouds. He promptly falls asleep.

Sometime later he blinks back awake. The sun isn’t that much farther in the sky so he can’t have been asleep for long. Warm sun rays dance across his cheeks, warming him even more, despite spending the past however long sound asleep on the beach. Hopefully, the sunscreen Liam applied to him earlier is still working. Applying aloe to his sunburnt skin for the next few days of their vacation sounds just shy of misery. A loud splash out in the ocean breaks his train of thought.

He lifts up on his elbows, raising one hand up to block thesun from his vision. Like some type of god, Liam climbs out of the water in slow motion. Droplets of water drip down his body in a cascade. Aiden licks his lips as his eyes travel up Liam’s torso to land on his mischievous, knowing gaze. Dropping down beside Aiden on the towel, he shakes his head, dousing Aiden in drops of almost too cold salt water.

“Seriously?” Aiden asks, attempting to sound irritated.

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