Page 49 of A Stable Daddy

When I met him, I had lost confidence in myself. He helped me rediscover it and has given me the happily ever after I thought was out of reach. No matter what happens from here, I hope I can be the husband, Daddy and Dom he deserves. I know I can’t ever replace Maddy, and I don’t want to. I just want Ryan to be happy and I think, together, we will be.

Forever.

Epilogue – Ryan

“Well, don’t you look hot as hell,” Sez declares as she looks me up and down.

I snort a laugh and go back to fiddling with my bowtie in the mirror.Why didn’t I go with a normal neck tie?“Aren’t you supposed to say I’m handsome?”

“You’resofar beyond handsome, boss-man,” she tells me, striding over and batting my hands away from my neck. The same neck Daddy choked until I came in my damn pants last night.

Apparently, he wanted to keep to the tradition of not having sex the night before the wedding, but choking me to orgasm was somehow not sex? I didn’t follow his logic, to be honest. Not that I was complaining at the time. I needed the session last night and he knew it. I guess he was feeling the pre-wedding jitters, too.

Sarah fiddles with my bow, tilting her head left and right as she perfects it. “There. All done.” She turns me to face the mirror again and smiles at my reflection. “Hot as hell,” she repeats. “Your cowboy Daddy isn’t going to know what hit him.”

I don’t even react to her teasing anymore. She’s become my best friend outside of Oscar, and she’s just as accepting of my kinks as the kids and the guys on this station. But it doesn’t stop her from giving me shit about it.

“He’s going to look even hotter,” I tell her with certainty.

I’ve never seen my soon-to-be husband in a suit. Not even in the lead up to our wedding. We went shopping separately, with Jim and Rob accompanying Oscar while Sarah came with me, leaving the clinic in Arthur’s (the junior vet I eventually hired) hands for the day.

“You’re both going to set the marquee on fire,” she declares. “Should’ve gone for a less flammable setup.”

“You’re hilarious,” I deadpan.

“Have youseenyourselves when you’re together?” Sarah makes a show of fanning herself. “I’m telling you, set up an Only Fans. You’ll be millionaires within weeks, and you’ll get your man all to yourself — no sharing him with that hobby farm just outside Denham anymore.”

“We’re not making porn for your entertainment,” I repeat a sentence I never thought I’d have to say, but which I have actually said more times than I can count over the course of the last eighteen months. “And helikesworking at the farmstay place.” Even if they’re a lot more conservative than Wombat Run is. But it’s a day job, he still gets to be out on a farm doing what he loves, and he always comes home to me. “He likes it a lot more than he’d enjoy having sex in front of a camera.”

Although…

“I can leave,” Trev says as he walks into the cabin and interrupts the naughty places my thoughts were about to travel. Even though he throws his thumb over his shoulder and turns to leave, I don’t miss the double take he gives Sarah.

Neither does she.

“Well,hello,” she practically purrs, immediately losing interest in me for my son.

I’m immediately assaulted by visions of having her as my daughter-in-law, and I can’t say I’m mad about it. But then I give myself a mental shake because Trev hasn’t even said hi to the woman yet and I’ve just got marriage on the brain.

Because I’m getting married in, like, fifteen minutes.

My throat goes dry.

The last time I did this, I was closer to Oscar’s age, and I would do it all over again without changing a thing…but the pain of losing Maddy still lingers on the periphery of my heart and soul, and the thought of me repeating history and causing that pain to Oscar still terrifies me.

But, like he said, with or without a ceremony, we’re together until the end. The reality of life is that one of us will probably die before the other (unless there’s some sort of horrible accident which takes us both out at the same time, but I don’t want to imagine that). Life is unpredictable, and losses are inevitable. But love and the happiness we can share together far outweighs the sadness of whatever ending we have to face. In fact, it would be sadder not to love and enjoy a fulfilling life together.

God, these are depressing thoughts to be having on my wedding day.

“Dad would one hundred percent support this,” Trev says as he comes to embrace me, and I lose the battle against my tears because, combined with the thoughts I’ve just been having, I needed to hear someone else say that. Not just someone, but Trev or Mak. My kids.Maddy’skids. “I know,” Trev rubs my back. “It’s bitter-sweet. I get it. But Oscar loves you. He worships you. Dad would want that for you. Not a life of loneliness because you’re scared to get hurt by loss again.”

“Get out of my head,” I complain, hugging him even tighter.

“…and into my pants,” I hear Sarah mutter under her breath, and it’s so unexpected (and simultaneouslynot) that I burst into loud laughter.

Trev looks a little shell-shocked. I pat him on the shoulder, squeezing to impart my appreciation and love, and then I shrug. “Good luck with her, by the way.”

I’d feel guiltier about foisting my oftentimes inappropriate friend off on my son if I didn’t think he could hold his own with her, or that she wouldn’t reel herself in if she thought for one second he was actually uncomfortable.

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