Page 58 of Chance's Choice
Epilogue – Chance
With the symbolic sword of Damocles no longer hanging over our heads, I’m happier in life and love than I can ever recall being. I really do seem to have it all now: great friends, a boy I adore (whose bonus pup side I could never live without now that I have it) and, most surprisingly, my mother’s unwavering support and affection.
In the weeks following my visit to my parents’ house, Mom and I spoke at least every three days, until it got to the point where Kade demanded I just invite her over for dinner one night. The emotional look on his face when she wrapped him in a huge hug, tearfully telling him that she’d missed him almost as much as she’d missed me, is now forever imprinted in my brain.
We don’t talk about my father, not even with Mom. It’s like we’ve unanimously decided that he doesn’t bear thinking about. He’s in the past, everything worked out, and life is perfect.
We hang out with our friends a lot more, too. Together and separately. So, it doesn’t surprise me when Kade organizes to host a get-together at my house for the first time. It’s been roughly six months since I (well, okay, since my Mom) sorted shit out with my Dad, and Kade and I have started talking about leasing out his apartment so he can officially move in. We’re both aware that he spends more time here than there nowadays, but neither of us has been in a rush.
I like that about our relationship: we’re easy going together, with zero expectations than to just love and support each other. Still, I do get a little revved up when I think of him calling my house ‘home’.
“Where’s the puppy?” Ash demands as he and Charlie barrel into the backyard where we’re all set up. Winter is on its way out slowly, but there’s more entertaining space out here than inside, so I’ve borrowed Ted’s patio heaters and we’re all rugged up in our jackets and thick jeans. Even the Littles are wearing warmer Little clothes.
“Little lamb,” Charlie sighs and shakes his head fondly, “we’ve been over this…”
“I just wanna play,” Ash pouts from underneath his mountain of curls and bats wide, wet eyes at his daddy. I have to smother a snort at how easily that melts Charlie.
“Sorry, Ash,” I decide to swoop in and rescue Charlie from having to be the bearer of bad news, “Kade’s not in pup space right now. But Josh and Matt are coloring if you want to join in?” I gesture to the second table we’ve set up specifically for Little play. On it there is a wide array of crayons, markers and stamps, and a bunch of coloring sheets and blank artist’s notebooks. As promised, Josh and Matt are sitting shoulder-to-shoulder at the table, their heads bowed together as they draw and color. Josh’s tongue is peeking out from the side of his mouth while he concentrates, and it’s really quite adorable.
Mollified, Ash bounces over to his brother-in-law and their friend, and Charlie and I watch as the three of them whisper excitedly among themselves.
“Should I be concerned that they’re conspiring together?” I ask Charlie, and he laughs.
“The worst they’re gonna do is draw penises,” he shrugs, then smirks. “I had the last masterpiece displayed on the fridge for a month. Until Mom came over and gave me a lecture on propriety.” He rolls his eyes. “Like anyone invited into my house is gonna care, right?”
“Except her,” I offer.
“Except her,” he concedes, a little ruefully.
We chat a bit longer about how his family’s doing, how The Center is going, and light gossip about some of his staff as the rest of the group arrive in stages. Katie and Cherie are in the kitchen with Kade, and Ted and Zephyr are quite happy to sit at the ‘adult’ table to pick up a conversation with London and Emmett, where Spencer and Tony join us soon after.
It’s not until the food has all been brought out and we’re all about to dive in that I realize the vibe is weird.Energized. It’s not a bad feeling, but it’s like everyone’s anxious for something to happen.
This is also the moment that Kade clears his throat and stands up from his seat down the table, sandwiched between Josh and Tony. “So, uh, thank you all for coming today,” he says smoothly, and I’m thoroughly weirded out by how formal it feels. Like the beginning of a speech. But we’re just hosting a casual dinner with our friends, so why the hell would he be making a speech?
I watch as my boyfriend pushes his chair back and starts slowly walking towards me. “Everyone knows our whole story by now,” he says, wearing a smile that I can’t quite interpret. He looks nervous, but excited. A little wry, but also fond. “And nobody was surprised when I told them I wanted to take you off the market for good.”
Wait…what?
I inhale sharply as Kade stops beside my seat and then drops to one knee.
Seriously…what?
I gape at him, then glance up at our friends around the table, then back down at Kade. My mouth won’t work. Words won’t formulate.
“I know we haven’t even been dating for a year yet,” Kade tells me, reaching for my hand. His elegant, pale fingers wrap around my chunky, stout ones. “But, Chance, I’ve known you for practically my whole life. I’ve been in love with you for more than half of it.” He gives my hand a squeeze and then produces a ring box without ever letting me go. With his free hand, he pops it open and extends it towards me. I see the platinum band, smooth and flawless, but I can’t focus on it. Instead, my eyes are drawn back to his. “Will you marry me, Chance? Be my Daddy forever?”
There’s a collective hush over the gathering, and my mind is somehow frozen and simultaneously whirring at a thousand miles a minute. Of course my feisty, go-getter of a boyfriend is asking me to marry him, even though I’m the daddy and he’s the boy-slash-pup. This is such a Kade move, taking the lead and putting the ball firmly in my court, and I can’t help but fall even deeper in love with him for it.
“Of course, baby,” I tell him, plucking the ring box from his hand and placing it on the table in front of me. “Yes.” Then I’m grabbing him and pulling him up and into my lap, kissing him to the soundtrack of cheers and wolf-whistles from our friends.
Even though Charlie proposed to Ash pretty much just like this only a handful of years ago, it’s perfect for Kade and me. We were reunited because of Charlie’s Little Community Center, and I know that my friends’ -ourfriends’- support and counsel through those early days helped to cement the foundations of our relationship. So it makes sense to include them in this moment, for them to cheer us on towards the new chapter of our lives.
I can only hope that my friends feel even half as happy in their relationships as I do right now. They deserve every bit of happiness, too.
And, as Kade slides the engagement ring onto my finger, I can’t wait for us to make it official. To be Daddy and Boy-slash-Pup forever. To be husbands forever.
When I was eighteen, I never allowed myself to dream that it might be possible. Hell, not even a year ago, I sat across from Charlie and confessed much the same thing. Back then, I didn’t feel like I fit in. I wasn’t a Hot Daddy like the others, and I didn’t see a happily ever after on the cards for myself.
But now I have Kade who makes me feel like maybe I really am a Hot Daddy, and I can see my happily ever after spread out in front of me. It’s happening. It’s really happening, and now the future looks bright.
The End.
