Page 46 of Christmas Miracle
EPILOGUE
Brett
It had been a full, incredibly busy year, but if anyone had asked Brett if he regretted the decisions that had brought him here, there would be no doubt in his mind about what his answer would be. No, he didn’t, couldn’t, regret a single moment of his life, even if he sometimes thought that he didn’t remember what it felt like to get enough sleep or to have every moment of his day accounted for.
What with one thing and another, their wedding had been delayed, and delayed again. The baby was demanding, and that was a lot of it, but Brett had also been starting out on his own in the business world for the first time. Without John, he doubted that he ever would have been able to make it.
But he had turned a profit in the first six months, something that he had never even considered the possibility of doing. It wasn’t just John, either, but Sidney, who had sent business his way and finally just taken his offer to come work with him.
Nor was that where it had ended. From what Brett understood, his former boss was pretty upset with him. He had ended up stealing all of her best therapists, but any time he was tempted to feel bad, he let himself think about Alessandro, and what her reaction to that had been. Nor had his experience, as he now knew, been unique. There was a reason that so many people were willing to come over.
Sidney had helped so much, and to Brett’s surprise, he had found himself not only with the man he loved but with a group of friends, which he had never even thought to want. And there was Noelle, of course, who was actually pulling herself up now, able to take a few wobbly steps as she held on to the furniture. She even knew a few words.
She was a smart girl, but what else could he expect, given that her mother, also one of their close friends now, was so staggeringly brilliant?
Brett looked around, and his parents might be gone, same with John’s, but they had a family of their own gathered in the backyard. It had finally been enough, for both him and John. It was time. It was, in point of fact, far past time, with their wedding being delayed into the spring, then into the summer, until they realized that enough was enough.
Christmas was going to be more than just a holiday for them now. It was also the day that their daughter had been born, and now, it was the day that they stood in front of the friends who had become their family, a Justice of the Peace officiating, and pledged themselves to each other for the rest of time.
There would be no big, fancy honeymoon. Brett couldn’t take the time away from work, and neither of them wanted to leave Noelle for very long. It didn’t matter. All that Brett wanted was to be firmly, for all the rest of time, linked to this man that part of him still felt like it was a miracle that he had ever gotten him at all.
“I do,” John replied at the appropriate place, his voice firm and uncompromising, and they had come such a long way, that he could be so sure of himself. It was hard to believe that this was the same man who had been so scared to admit, even to himself, that he was attracted to another man. But John was strong, stronger than he had known, and he had broken free of the ideas of his father and become his own man, sure and unafraid.
“I do,” It was Brett’s turn next, and he was worried that his own voice would be too quiet to hear, but it came out just as sure of itself as John’s did. Rings were exchanged, and the JP told them that they could kiss, and then it was all final. A marriage which was a year in the making, but which, practically speaking, was more like the work of a lifetime.
Their friends cheered as they turned around, hands linked, and were announced for the very first time as a married couple. As Brett walked back down the aisle, he felt like his feet never even touched the ground.
John
The day was finally here, and John had thought that he might just go insane before he got it. But then, all of a sudden, it was done. After so long waiting for it, it was sort of anticlimactic, a few words, a kiss, and then he was married.
Then, the party started.
It was a pretty crazy party, really. Not just a celebration of his marriage, of the relationship that he and Brett had, against all the odds, built, but it was also a birthday party for their daughter, and a Christmas dinner with the people who mattered to them.
John sat back, holding Noelle, feeding her as he absently shoveled food into his mouth as he could, and tried for just a moment to reconcile the changes that had happened in such a short time. Just a year ago, he had been deeply depressed, he had given up on life, and he could see that now.
Now, the smile wouldn’t leave his face, and he looked around at the people who had become his friends, as well as Brett’s. Another part of the life that they had built with each other.
Sidney was there. Sidney had, despite the shaky start to her relationship with them, particularly with Brett, become their strongest ally, although the woman sitting by Sidney’s side might have taken exception to that. Madison and Sidney were chattering away like old friends, as indeed they had been almost from the first moment that they had met.
Their heads, one ebony and one a blonde so light it was almost silver, were bent together, as every so often, one or both of them would look up at John and Brett and beam with benevolent mischief. But no matter how many times he or Brett asked, neither of them would do anything but smile knowingly at them.
It was all very mysterious, but they would talk when it was time. So John just ate, passing Noelle back and forth between himself and Brett, and enjoyed the warm, sweet glow of companionship that he had never thought to have for himself.
“Okay, I think it’s time,” Sidney announced, and Madison grinned and whipped out a plain white envelope from her purse. Sidney put her hand on it, too, and together, the two women passed it over. They didn’t look all that much alike, were pretty much polar opposites, actually, but they had identical smiles on their faces at that moment that made them almost look like twins.
“Merry Christmas,” they chorused, and John, who happened to be the one who had his hands free, reached out to take it.
“What the …?” John asked as he peered inside and then looked suspiciously at the women. “Plane tickets?”
“Yep,” Madison confirmed, still grinning.
“You two are going to spend a weekend in New York,” Sidney informed them. “And Madison and I are going to take care of Noelle. And that’s just the way it is, so don’t try to fight it.”
John caught Brett’s eyes, saw that his new husband looked just about as stunned by this as he was. But he couldn’t deny, now that it had been brought into his mind, that he did want to go. A whole weekend, with just Brett? He could almost feel guilty for how much he wanted that.
“I get the sense that there’s no point in us fighting this,” Brett commented, and Madison nodded, while Sidney smirked cheerfully.
“None whatsoever,” she told him confidently, and John wrapped his arm around Brett, who was holding their baby, and cuddled into him as he gracefully, willingly, bowed to the inevitable.
Life was good. Somehow, against all the odds, everything had worked out. Looking at Noelle, at Brett, at their group of incredible friends, John knew for sure. Brett had once told him that he had always thought it would take a miracle to be with John.
This was not just one Christmas miracle, but several.
THE END
