Reluctantly You (Our Exception Book 3)

Maggie

My family is here. Every. Single. One of them. The ones that matter, that is. My mom and dad are obviously not in our lives. That come-to-Jesus meeting Max and Matt wanted to have with the two of them hasn’t happened. They’re getting divorced, and at the moment, it doesn’t seem like the right time.

Mitch has still been struggling with this and has been going back and forth about finally reaching out to her. But for the moment, he’s continuing to focus on himself, on healing the broken parts of himself.

He told me this. He fucking told me. My eyes nearly bugged out of my head. I couldn’t believe the words spilling from his mouth.

The therapy is helping. Gideon is helping.

So is the art, and speaking with Basil on an almost daily basis.

I sniffle slightly, feeling almost hormonal. Jesus, what has gotten into me?

Shit, this has—my family, together once more. I never thought I’d want this, I thought I was through with them, but I wasn’t.

I have my brothers back in my life. I have my husband and kids. I’m overflowing with happiness.

And so is Basil. I turn and see him chatting animatedly with Luke and Sem, a potato gun in his hand, the end aimed off into the distant desert. Nothing good can come from this.

Nothing at all.

“Crazy, huh? Us all together?” Mitch says, his shirt slightly stained from paint. Gideon told me he’d been working frantically until all hours of the night to finish a piece for me. The paint was still drying when he brought it to me.

I nearly wept on the spot.

It was a picture of Max and Matt, me and him. Our hands are linked, the Gemini constellation behind us in the night sky. It’s abstract, long lines and a slew of colors, but it’s there. It’s obvious who we are, the love and bond we share almost palpable. You can feel how it was almost broken, but it was brought back through hard work.

“I almost didn’t include myself, but Gideon said I should,” he’d said, feeling slightly overwhelmed by the attention it was getting. But I couldn’t stop staring at it, couldn’t stop the tears falling down my cheeks.

“I’m glad you did,” I replied when I took it from him, my hands starting to shake from emotion. So, Sem took it gingerly from my fingers and hung it on the wall, right in the kitchen where I can see it. Daily.

Fuck, I love that man. He’s been wary, so fucking worried, about my brothers’ intentions, each goddamn time, but with each mended heart, with the way they’re trying, I feel it all working out seamlessly. It’s all coming together. We’re coming together. A family once more.

“Oh shit!” our son, Liam, cries and then we watch as the potato explodes from the gun and flies through the shed window, breaking the glass instantly.

“I didn’t mean to! I saw a bird and it shot the wrong way!” Basil cries, and Luke and Sem slap him on the back, cheering him on. I turn and see Sem’s cousin, Caleb, on his husband, Whit’s lap just as Emery bounds around us, a watermelon in his hand.

“Hey, guys! Guys! Let’s shoot this! It’s huge!”

Luke and Sem start to examine it, and I watch as Emery flaps his hands around, his arms extending outward. “This big!” he shouts, and Sem and Luke clap him on the back before striding into the garage, Basil slinking toward us.

“I think this is going to go very badly,” Basil says and then sighs. “Tell Sem’s mom that I’ll fix the window. I have a guy…”

I arch an eyebrow at him and he blushes. “A guy?”

“Yeah, a friend of a friend. Anyway. He fixes things when I break them.”

“Okay, well, might want to give him a call. If not, no worries. I too, have a guy. We can get it patched up before Momma Del comes home with the kids,” I say.

Basil grins at me and then pulls Mitch into a hug just as Gideon comes out of the house. I watch as Gideon pulls Mitch in for another hug and then a long kiss, one that makes me crave my own husband in very carnal ways.

I glance away, and then turn back toward him when I see Gideon stride toward Whit, a determined look in his eye.

“What’s he up to?” I ask Mitch.

“Some kind of proposition for a co-op between their companies.”

“Huh. How…odd.”

We both watch as Gideon holds out his hand and they shake it, Caleb nuzzling into Whit’s neck and nibbling on his ear while Gideon takes a seat next to them and starts to talk. But I don’t think too much about any of it because Mitch interrupts suddenly.

“He told me he loved me. Loves me,” he amends. “Gideon loves me.”

My mouth opens and then closes. “Really?”

“Yeah, I uh, he said it right when we got here and I didn’t say anything back.”

“Mitch,” I reply with a small laugh. “You don’t need to say it back if you’re not ready.”

“I mean, I do. I want to, but I think I fucked up.”

My eyes meet my brother’s. Such a different man from who he used to be. Open and honest, speaking about his feelings.

God, what a few months can do to a man. It’s amazing.

I can’t imagine who he will be in a few years’ time. Ten?

Jesus.

“If you love him, Mitch, you tell him. Go tell him now if you want.”

He shakes his head and slinks back. “He’s busy.”

“I’m sure he’ll want to hear it.”

He scoffs, running a hand across his jaw. “Yeah, okay. I can do that. Just go up there and say that I love him. That I want to marry him.”

My eyes bug from my head. “Good god, marriage?”

His cheeks flame. “I mean…yeah?”

“Do you mean it?” I ask, my eyes growing wet once more. Fuck, the amount of times I’ve cried this past year is unbelievable.

“Yeah, was thinking maybe Basil could walk me down the aisle…what do you think?”

“I think he’d cry more than you,” I say with an unseemly snort.

“Yeah, probably. He cried the other day over a dead tomato plant.”

“That tracks.”

We’re silent for a moment and then I nudge him. “Go tell that man you love him and want to marry him, and then come back and we can discuss you buying an RV so you can travel with Sem and me and the kids. They adore you, by the way.”

He nearly melts, his demeanor shifting. “Love them too. I can’t believe I’m an uncle.”

“A great one, too. Just look at you and Pants. You’re great with her.”

Just as I say that, Sem and Luke appear with some monstrosity in their hands. Good hell, what is that?

“That looks…dangerous,” Mitch says just as Emery stumbles up beside them, the watermelon in his hands once more.

“This can’t be good,” I murmur and then start to walk off before turning back to my brother, the last one to come back to me. “Go tell him. Go get your man.”

He nods and pulls me in for a gruff hug.

“Thank you. For being who you are and for giving me another chance.”

I sniffle and squeeze him, my face smooshed into his large chest.

“Always. I’ll always be here,” I say as he strides off.

And I will. I’ll always be here for those who choose me, for those who love me.

My eyes move to Matt and Max just now coming out of the house with Coop and Beau, dinner in their hands, before turning toward Sem, Luke, and Emery who are shoving the watermelon into the large, expanded pipe, and then lastly settling on Mitch who is interrupting Gideon’s conversation with Whit to proclaim loudly that he loves him and they’re getting married.

And just as he does, my man places that large watermelon gun over his shoulder and before I can shout that he fucking better not even think about it, it explodes.

Raucous laughter and cheers erupt from everyone, except Whit, who is sighing and shaking his head, his hands still around Caleb. I watch as watermelon rains down on the desert earth before us and wonder how the fuck this is my life.

Gods, I love my fucking life.