Page 25 of Forever Ink

“Of course, it does. You love the man. He’s become your world and you will always worry for him. But remember, you have friends and family who care for him too, it’s not your load to bear alone.”

I gave a curt nod, not sure what to say. Doc was right.

Rhys was my world now, and I’d do anything to keep my boy safe.

Chapter 12

RHYS

The attic wasn’t like the one in Thumper Downs, filled with dust and spiders. It had a big window at one end letting in light, old rugs covered the whitewashed floor, and everything was in organised rows, boxes written on in neat handwriting.

“This is super tidy,” I remarked. Seeing a box labelled Simon’s toys, I crouched down and pulled back one of the flaps to peer inside. The toys were all wrapped up neatly and on top was a teddy bear not much bigger than Mr Ted. He was sealed up in a plastic ziplock bag.

“Yeah, dad’s always been a bit of a neat freak and once Mum passed, he came up here and organised the whole lot.” Mouse looked over at me and smiled. “You found Sy’s toybox. Take what you want, I’m sure he won’t mind.”

I looked at the teddy bear in the ziplock bag and smiled. I pulled out the bear. He smelt a little musty but other than that he looked perfect, with bright red fur that had hardly faded and green glass eyes. “Do you think Simon would let me adopt this guy into my stuffie family?”

“Yeah, it’s you. Of course he’ll let you have him.” Mouse reached out and took the bear, looking at it. “Simon’s ten years older than me, so when I was born this ted was already in storage. I can’t even remember if he had a name or not.” Mouse handed the bear back to me, smiling. “Here. I reckon he’d love you having him.”

I sat Simon’s teddy to one side and helped Mouse look for the boxes with the Christmas decorations. The first one I found had carefully wrapped baubles and also an angel and cute candy cane ornaments. I carried the box over to the door leading to the landing and left it there ready for us to take down. Christmas Eve was tomorrow night and the tiny nervous butterflies that had taken residence in my belly were starting to tap– dance. I still didn’t have an actual plan of how I was going to do it. All I had managed to decide was that I was going to propose to Simon, but my brain kept throwing up roadblocks each time I thought about it. What if it was too soon? What if Simon said no? What if? Crap, I was thinking myself into circles. I stared down at the box I’d moved and caught Mouse looking over at me with a concerned frown out of the corner of my eye.

“What?”

“Okay, spill it.” Mitch pushed a box towards me with neatly written words on top saying Christmas lights.

“Spill what?” I avoided Mouse’s gaze, instead moving the box towards the small set of stairs that led down to the first floor.

“You’ve been antsy all week, and it’s not just the stuff with the bitch-faced shrew that has gotten you worked up.”

I brushed my hair out of my face. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

Mouse shoved another box toward, me snorting loudly “You’re a terrible liar. You’ve had that look all week like you snuck sweeties after bedtime. No keeping secrets, dude. Well, unless it’s something about…” He waggled his eyebrows. “Then I really don’t want to know what you and Sy get up to.”

I chewed my lip as I wrestled with telling him what I had planned to do. It would be nice to have someone other than Grandad to sound out my plan on.

I sat down on one of the dusty rugs and pointed to a spot next to me for Mouse to sit. “If I tell you something, you have to keep it quiet. You can’t tell anyone, not even Callum.” I narrowed my eyes and watched Mouse’s face.

He scratched his hair and more of his dark curls fell out of his messy bun. “I don’t know why you guys think I tell Callum everything. It’s not like we’re teenagers swapping tales when we get home.”

I fixed him with a reproachful look. “This is important.”

“Okay fine. Not a word, even under sufferance of death. Now give with the deets.”

I let out a loud breath, trying to gather my thoughts. “You know what Simon means to me. He’s my best friend, my boyfriend and my daddy.” I blushed at the last thing, but it wasn’t like Mouse didn’t know that detail. He was one of the first people who’d helped me understand what being a little really meant. Still, it felt strange saying it out loud—not bad, just different. I was proud that Simon was my daddy, and it was an important part of my life. I was done with hiding what was fundamentally part of me.

Mouse nodded, giving me a slight smile. “You pretty much hang the moon in Simon’s eyes. He’s never been this happy with anyone.” Mouse gave me a sad half-smile. “I’ll admit I’m a little envious of how happy you both are, to be honest. You guys had to fight for your happy ending, and I’m glad he pulled his head out of his arse long enough to see what you mean to him.”

Laughing, I nodded. “Me too. But the thing is, I want to do something, and I’m not sure if I am rushing it. We’ve not been together for six months yet.” I groaned, burying my face in my hands.

Mouse sat patiently waiting for me to finish having my mini breakdown. I slumped back against the box behind me. “I was going to ask Simon to marry me on Christmas Eve.”

Mouse’s eyes went comically wide and then a huge grin split his face. “Rhys, fuck, mate, that is brilliant.”

“You really think so? It’s not too soon?”

“There have never been two people as perfectly made for each other as you and Sy. It’s kind of disgusting how cute the pair of you are together.” Mouse said.

“Thanks, I think.” I rested my arms on my knees and leaned forward. “So you don’t think it’s too fast?”

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