Page 63 of Speed

The Railers had two more home games—one against a strong Boston team, another against a relentless Carolina squad. The Railers lost to Boston, but took down Carolina, and while Noah didn’t score in either, he was everywhere on the ice. He was disrupting plays, controlling the tempo, and playing the kind of game that made the pundits happy. I was so damn proud. I couldn’t love him more.

And soon, he would be coming home.

I was waitingin the pool house, pacing, restless. Stan and Erik fussed. Logan fussed.

“I’m okay,” I said, exasperated. “I can do this on my own. You can all go.”

A car pulled up outside. His dads went out to greet him. Logan pulled me in for a tight hug.

“You’re gonna be okay,” he said.

I smiled. “Of course I will be.”

“Love you, little brother,” Logan murmured.

“I love you too,” I replied. Then, he was gone, and suddenly, I was alone and waiting—waiting too long!

Then, the door opened, and he was there—curls wild, eyes bright, my sexy, incredible man.

We met in the middle, arms locking, bodies pressing together. We hugged and hugged, and when that wasn’t enough, we kissed, whispering our hellos, our I-love-yous… our everything.

He was home. And that was all that mattered.

Epilogue

NOAH

One year later

“Where doyou keep the paper plates?”

I nudged Margo aside with my hip, and my sister nudged back. Our playful rivalry turned into a hip-checking battle, which she knew I would win, yet the woman refused to back down. From anything. She was strong—case in point, she’d fought for trans rights since her teenage years and never backed down from the bigots who sought to erase her existence. I loved that she was here on vacation, and we fell seamlessly back into our familiar teasing routine in an instant.

I’d missed her since she’d moved to Japan–still healing from her top surgery–to take a job at an anime studio where she’d met Botan. She was now stupidly happy, totally in love, and trying to pull some illegal moves by looping her arm around my neck.

“Two minutes for trying to slap a totally bogus front headlock takedown,” I shouted, slipped from her grip, and tossed a rye bun from the tray of bread, meats, and cheeses at her head.

She swatted it aside, laughing maniacally. “You’re lucky I’m in such a good mood or else you’d be kissing that new tile you and King Boo just had installed.”

King Boo. Only Margo would pin Brody Vance with the name of a character fromMario Kart.

“Yeah, yeah, big talk from a cartoonist,” I teased. A Hawaiian roll came rocketing at me. I didn’t duck in time. Margo hooted at the direct hit between the eyes. At her high-pitched shout, our two beagles, Tracy and Link, started braying in the backyard. We both snorted in amusement. Brody peeked through the kitchen window, his dark eyes bright and clear. The only lingering signs of his fight with the aneurysm and the craniotomy were a bit of blurry vision on occasion and a scar on his scalp where no hair would grow. He grew his hair longer and had it styled to cover the area. “Hey, baby!”

“The show is about to start. Do you two need help carrying out the food, or refereeing the wrestling match?” He smiled through the screen as the dogs ran in circles barking. The rescue twins loved to bark. It was a good thing our new house was situated on some big acreage in a nice neighborhood in Mechanicsburg. We loved our new place. A brand-new Devonshire Artisan house sitting on four acres. Four bedrooms, five baths, and a game room. A pool was slated for installation in two months. We’d miss peak swimming season, as it was already late July, but we’d enjoy the hell out of the in-ground pool next summer.

The dogs adored the grounds, but we had to install an invisible fence, as beagles, we quickly learned, put their noses to the ground and off they went no matter how loudly you called them back. And someday, our kids will love it. Our house, not the invisible fence. The schools here were good, the neighbors down the road were very accepting of us, and my drive to the rink for games was about ten miles.

“Coming, tell Pops and Dad to chill. Tell Botan to get them some fresh beers from the cooler,” Margo told Brody. He nodded, then disappeared.

“You’re pretty bossy with my boyfriend,” I commented as we pulled dishes of deviled eggs, salads, and a dish of mouthwatering yaki onigiri that Botan had made for his dish to pass. I’d eaten just a few of the fried rice balls because diabetic, but they were to die for.

“Like you haven’t been telling Botan what to do for the past two weeks,” she countered with a flip of her long, dark hair.

Okay, yeah, that was legit. Botan, Brody, and I had hit it off well, and he’d been helping us with some gardening work. Gardening work meaning playing golf while my sister spent time with our dads. She and my eldest sister didn’t get to see them much, so she was spending every moment she could with them before flying back to Japan next week.

“I wish Eva could have made it for the concert,” Margo said wistfully as we hoisted platters of food from the counters.

“Yeah, me too, but she’s far too pregnant to fly,” I replied while heading into the backyard through the screen door in the laundry room. The dogs bounded over, keen noses picking up the aroma of food before we were even out the door properly.

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