Page 160 of Reluctantly You

“You’re welcome, Mitchell. You, my love, are worth it.”

“Am I?”

“You are.”

He stares at me a moment, confusion in those depths, and I can’t help but think how much I love him.

I need to tell him. Need to secure this thing between us.

I want to do more than just have him.

I want to marry this man.

Epilogue

Maggie

My family is here. Every. Single. One of them. The ones that matter, that is. My mom and dad are obviously not in our lives. That come-to-Jesus meeting Max and Matt wanted to have with the two of them hasn’t happened. They’re getting divorced, and at the moment, it doesn’t seem like the right time.

Mitch has still been struggling with this and has been going back and forth about finally reaching out to her. But for the moment, he’s continuing to focus on himself, on healing the broken parts of himself.

He told me this. He fucking told me. My eyes nearly bugged out of my head. I couldn’t believe the words spilling from his mouth.

The therapy is helping. Gideon is helping.

So is the art, and speaking with Basil on an almost daily basis.

I sniffle slightly, feeling almost hormonal. Jesus, what has gotten into me?

Shit, this has—my family, together once more. I never thought I’d want this, I thought I was through with them, but I wasn’t.

I have my brothers back in my life. I have my husband and kids. I’m overflowing with happiness.

And so is Basil. I turn and see him chatting animatedly with Luke and Sem, a potato gun in his hand, the end aimed off into the distant desert. Nothing good can come from this.

Nothing at all.

“Crazy, huh? Us all together?” Mitch says, his shirt slightly stained from paint. Gideon told me he’d been working frantically until all hours of the night to finish a piece for me. The paint was still drying when he brought it to me.

I nearly wept on the spot.

It was a picture of Max and Matt, me and him. Our hands are linked, the Gemini constellation behind us in the night sky. It’s abstract, long lines and a slew of colors, but it’s there. It’s obvious who we are, the love and bond we share almost palpable. You can feel how it was almost broken, but it was brought back through hard work.

“I almost didn’t include myself, but Gideon said I should,” he’d said, feeling slightly overwhelmed by the attention it was getting. But I couldn’t stop staring at it, couldn’t stop the tears falling down my cheeks.

“I’m glad you did,” I replied when I took it from him, my hands starting to shake from emotion. So, Sem took it gingerly from my fingers and hung it on the wall, right in the kitchen where I can see it. Daily.

Fuck, I love that man. He’s been wary, so fucking worried, about my brothers’ intentions, each goddamn time, but with each mended heart, with the way they’re trying, I feel it all working out seamlessly. It’s all coming together. We’re coming together. A family once more.

“Oh shit!” our son, Liam, cries and then we watch as the potato explodes from the gun and flies through the shed window, breaking the glass instantly.

“I didn’t mean to! I saw a bird and it shot the wrong way!” Basil cries, and Luke and Sem slap him on the back, cheering him on. I turn and see Sem’s cousin, Caleb, on his husband, Whit’s lap just as Emery bounds around us, a watermelon in his hand.

“Hey, guys! Guys! Let’s shoot this! It’s huge!”

Luke and Sem start to examine it, and I watch as Emery flaps his hands around, his arms extending outward. “This big!” he shouts, and Sem and Luke clap him on the back before striding into the garage, Basil slinking toward us.

“I think this is going to go very badly,” Basil says and then sighs. “Tell Sem’s mom that I’ll fix the window. I have a guy…”

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