Page 65 of Jalen & Colby

“What about me?” I ask.

Jalen looks between me and Colby. “Will you marry us, too?”

I laugh and hug them to me. “Not yet, sweetheart.”

Jalen pulls back and looks astonished. Colby bites his lip.

“Notyet,”I repeat. “It’s very soon. Plus, call me a dinosaur, but I always dreamed of being the one to propose to the man I loved. If I’m lucky enough to havetwomen I love, then that requires double the proposal.”

“You love us?” Colby asks sweetly.

I laugh again at how he’s proved my point. That bit needed to come first in my mind.

“I love youso much,”I assure them both, kissing them one after the other. “And someday I’m sure I’ll want to marry you as much as the law will let us. But for now, all I care about is keeping our little firecracker firmly by our side. So let’s have a wedding.”

Jalen holds his finger up at me. “Just a little one,” he says sternly. “We’ll have a proper one for all three of us, okay?”

I grab his hand and kiss the tip of that finger. “Okay, little firecracker.”

He grins before turning back to Colby and shaking his head. “It literally never occurred to me that marriage would fix the visa issue. I can’t believeyouproposed! That’s got to be one of the most unbelievable and incredible things that’s ever happened in my life!”

Colby nibbles his lip and looks between us. “You make me brave,” he says shyly. “And…honestly, it seemed like the most obvious solution to me.”

We all laugh and hug tightly together as the fireworks finally fade. The new year is here. And with it comes a world of possibilities.

I can’t wait.

Epilogue

COLBY – TWO YEARS LATER

I look around the beach,and my heart is full. There’s nothing like Christmas on the beach, after all.

Especially if both my partners’ families are all there with us. Plus our friends. Even our dog, Buckets, is there.

I take a deep breath and look back at my Daddy and my Jay Jay. “Yes,” I say with more confidence than I’ve ever had in my life. “I do.”

The officiant beams at the three of us as we all hold hands. “Jalen Garcia. Your union with Colby Wilson is recognized by law. But today, we are here to witness the two of you also joining with Andreas Lau. Do you promise to love both these men, to cherish them in sickness and in health, for as long as you all shall live?”

“Honey, youknowI do,” Jalen says, laughing as he carefully flicks a tear away from his perfectly made-up face. As usual, waterworks aren’t enough to budge a lash or any glitter, especially not on such an important day.

We’re all wearing white for the ceremony. Andreas has a beautiful suit, I’m a little more casual in slacks and a flowing shirt, and of course Jalen is wearing a sparkly dress. It’s a simple halter neck that he’s accessorized with a flower crown and a bouquet of white roses.

My beautiful best friend. My handsome Daddy. I feel like my love for them is as big as the ocean itself.

“And finally,” the officiant continues. “Do you, Andreas Lau, take Jalen Garcia and Colby Wilson to be your partners in life? To love and to hold, to cherish in sickness and in health, till death do you part?”

Andreas lets out a breath, his eyes shimmering with tears. “I do,” he says, squeezing our hands tightly.

After the Christmas when we met, we didn’t waste much time. Despite Andreas wanting to hold off proposing, he moved us into his apartment before January was done. Jalen and I had a small ceremony to make our marriage legal, but I’ll be honest that didn’t make things feel all that different. I was still on such a high from the fact that we’d started dating each other as well as Andreas, that little bit of paper was really just a formality.

A formality that kept Jalen in the country, though. And that meant everything.

I allowed myself to be bullied by both my partners into not going back to a retail job that crushed my soul. For a while, I got a part-time job at the Royal Botanic Garden next to the Opera House. I just did simple things like raking leaves and watering plants. But I enjoyed doing physical labor out in the fresh air. It gave me time to breathe.

And to write.

At first, I just dipped my toe back into fanfiction. I was amazed to realized that a lot of my Jurassic Galaxy followers still had alerts set up for me, and they were thrilled when I became active again. That gave me the courage to start writing original stories. Silly, sci-fi gay love stories, but they brought me so much joy.

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