Page 110 of Never Too Late

He kneels down directly in front of me, not touching me. He knows when he can’t, and he respects my boundaries. “And that’s the beauty of it, Dax. We’ve closed one door behind us and now it’s time for us to open another.”

I take in a deep breath before carrying on. “But, most of all, I think I feel frustrated. I think I’m frustrated with myself for not pushing for this years ago. I’m frustrated I didn’t speak up. I’m frustrated for fearing what a doctor might or might not tell me. I’m frustrated because I allowed myself to struggle. I allowed myself to feel broken. I didn’t fight –”

“But you did. You’ve always known you were different, and you embraced it, even when you didn’t think you did. You’re an amazing brother, an amazing friend. You have your dream job. You know so much about different things. Music and flowers. you’re so smart. And I love you with my whole heart.” When he sees I’ve calmed down and my breathing has gone back to normal, he places his hands on my knees. “We promised each other we’d be the stars, right? We’d come back together. We’d search the universe for one another. And that’s exactly what we did. We just did it in our own special way. Stars need nuclear fusion to shine, right? This journey is our own nuclear fusion. We just did things in a different way. The Jae and Dax way.”

I take in a deep breath. Because he’s right.

He’s been right all along.

He’s never once left my side, even when I tried to push him away.

He still came back to me after getting shot.

He understands me in ways no one else does.

I look up to him, his alluring eyes, the sun reflecting from his dark-hued skin. His curls now fall onto his face. He continues to take my breath away.

My home.

“But what if I do something wrong? What if I push you away, again?” My eyes fill with tears.

Don’t cry, Dax. Don’t cry.

Too late.

I let the tears fall.

He holds out his hand, gently pressing his thumb to my face as he starts to wipe the tears away. “If that happens, I’ll still be here. And we can start over, again.”

“But what if next time, it’s too late?” I catch my hand with his own. Placing mine over the top. Leaning into his touch.

“Do you know how long stars live for, my pretty boy? Billions of years. That’s still too short a time for me to love you. If I must prove that to you every day for the rest of my life, challenge accepted. That doesn’t faze me. Sometimes people do things they don’t understand, you tried to push me away, and look, I came straight back. I’ll always come straight back. Now can we please get in the car, beautiful? Because I’m hungry. And I feel a takeout calling my name.”

I snicker at him, still staring into his eyes, as I feel the tightness in my chest finally easing.

“And Dax?”

“Yeah?”

“For you, it’s never too late. I promise. Because this,” he points between the two of us, “this is just the beginning.”

The end.

Chapter fifty-seven

Dax

Epilogue

One year later

“Happy birthday to Dax, Happy birthday to you,” Tyler sings on the stage in front of the few he and Jae had invited. I smiled walking in when I was greeted by my close friends including Bernie, Cee, Jackie, Isaac, Bee, and our goddaughter, Adoria.

Then I pulled both Jae and Tyler into the back room and screamed.

Not long after Ty started helping out at the bar, he managed to convince Novah and her sister Jazz to allow him to have weekly open mic nights at the bar. He’s never been one who’s been shy around other people, so he got on the stage right away. And it turned out, everyone else loved his voice too. He’s become popular. Each night is a complete sell out, people wait outside hoping by chance they’ll be able to fit inside. He’s finally become the rockstar he joked he’d become, and I couldn’t be happier for him if I tried.

He’s finally making himself happy.

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