Page 86 of Chasing You

Kash lost the rest of the plot as the judge carried on with his speech. He was pretty sure the man talked about love and quoted some Bible verse he vaguely remembered hearing about as a kid, then asked them to hold hands, everyone laughing because he and Adele hadn’t let each other go for more than a minute that day.

They recited their vows—simple and sweet. He didn’t say until death did they part, and for some reason, Kash was unreasonably thrilled about that. He wasn’t sure what he believed about what came after, but deep down, he knew Adele was his forever in the literal sense.

They were two halves of one soul.

“Now, the rings,” the judge said.

Adele turned to Rex, who stepped up to present them with a flourish. ‘Thank you,’ he signed. ‘Perfect.’

Rex made a happy noise and rushed back to his dad, jumping into his arms between him and Renato. For a moment, Kash allowed himself to look at the sea of people surrounding them. Most of them were partnered up and in love. All of them were family, even if he hadn’t quite let himself get to know them as well as he would have liked.

But that was going to change.

They were his now too.

Bowen winked at him. ‘Ready?’ he mouthed.

He was pretty sure Bowen had been waiting for this day as long as he had been.

His fingers shook when he took the ring from Adele’s palm and slid it on his finger, and his tongue fumbled over the words, but he got them out. His heart beat almost too loud to hear Adele repeat them back to him, but the nextthing he knew, there was a weight on his ring finger, and he curled his hand around it.

“And now, Mr. Foy has something to add.” Instead of pronouncing them husbands, the judge didn’t. He looked over to where Bowen and Gage were standing and then said, “Gage, if you would join us, please.”

Gage stepped forward, looking nervous as hell. Kash’s heart sped up faster. “Me?”

“You,” Kash said. He cleared his throat when his words felt too tight on the back of his tongue. “I know you’re too old for me to adopt, but I’d like to be more than just your dad’s husband. If you’ll have me.”

“Um…” Gage said. He blinked and looked at Adele, who seemed as shocked as him. For a moment, Kash panicked like maybe he’d done the wrong thing, and then Gage took a breath. “Um…can I cuss?” A few people laughed, but most of them were sniffling.

Adele rolled his eyes, which were openly leaking down his cheeks. “I suppose. You’re eighteen now.”

Gage grinned and looked back at Kash. “Hell yeah.Dad.”

Kash cracked in half as he pulled Gage close and whispered in his ear, “I’ve always loved you as much as I could ever love a child I raised. Nothing is changing. And I mean that in a good way.”

“Great. NowI’mcrying. You suck,” Gage whispered back. He wrenched away and hurried over to Lucas, who was waiting to hug him.

Adele tugged Kash in by the front of his shirt. “Sneaky,” he said thickly.

“I hope that was okay.”

Adele let him go and cradled his face. “It was perfect.But we have one more part to get through.” He turned to the judge and made a go-ahead gesture.

The judge looked a little misty. “By the power vested in me by this county…”

“Here we go,” Adele whispered. “You ready?”

“Born ready,” Kash murmured back.

“I now pronounce you husbands. You may kiss to seal your union.”

Adele’s lips met his, and for the first time, Kash understood when all the romance novels said time stopped. Because it did. It was this moment between them.

Forever.

And ever. But not the end. Not yet. Not for a long, long time.

epilogue

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