I can see it. My menu with “Sweetness” in elegant script. Neon above this well-lit space with Theo’s logo. His own bakery. His own, but also part of Summit House. Just like us having the cabin and the Hobbit Hole both to call home.
My restaurant, accessible beyond the waiting list to anyone in Bear Valley. The growing popularity of the few videos we post with Piper and Liam could ensure traffic. Videos that are taking off as this marketablething— something I never would have gotten to on my own. That’s all Theo.
What Theo is proposing will make Summit House even more popular.
“I do like it, Theo, more than anything I could have imagined. It’s genius.”
“I can buy it, Matt.” His voice is low and reverent. “With the money I have from Lucien, it’s enough to start it on my own.”
“You and I, we’ll make a contract to clarify everything between Sweetness and what you do for Summit House. Not just written by Jack. We will get you your own person to protect your interests.”
“I trust you.” Theo slides onto my lap, his small hands on my face. “I don’t need big declarations. I wouldn’t be any good at doing them, either. But this is a huge commitment.” He pauses, and I swear I can hear the swish of his lip ring. His slim chest takes in air like he’s about to run a marathon. “This is me saying I love you.”
My heart leaps, and my hands tighten around him, pulling him closer so I get that powdered donut scent all the way into my lungs. “I love you too, sugar. I promise to honor that.” I seal it with a kiss, leaving him wiggling in my lap when I’m done. “Do you want to get married, Theo?”
Theo smiles, eyes wide. “This,” he gestures to the blueprints and his contracts and logos and plans, “this is a much bigger act of devotion between two people. Lives and a life’s work joined together. But do I want to be Theo Mann? Someday. Someday I will want that very much.”
I rub my nose against his, nudging his face for more kisses. “I would get down on one knee right now and ask you for forever if that’s what you needed. But, like you, this is more meaningful to me. And I enter it with a full heart, and I’m one-hundred percent on-board.”
“Will your family think it’s strange if we don’t get married or engaged immediately? Like Quinn and Jack?”
I dip my head to kiss him, unable to stop. “How about,” I rub the ring finger of his all-important hand, thinking of the vision in my head I can’t shake, “for now, we just tattoo initials right here. T on me and M on you. More permanent than rings, and no marriage ceremony needed. Simply, I’m yours, and you are mine. Someday, when you want to be Theo Mann, I will make that happen. And you want to be Theo Donahue, Frank’s Donahue’s grandson, for the rest of your life, that’s fine with me too.”
Theo looks at the cake and his plans. I thumb at the wetness at the corner of his eyes. “I’m Frank Donahue’s grandson, no matter what. His legacy is going to behere, in this kitchen, not just in my name.”
“Then when you are ready, sweetness, we will talk tuxes and your feelings about Elvis in Vegas. If that’s not for a long while, I’m fine with that.”
Theo tilts his head, his beautiful face open and smiling. “Just know there’s no maybe about this, Matt. The answer is yes, and it won’t ever change.”
Epilogue: Caswell
New Year’s Eve
I Don't Know How to Love Him
Yvonne Elliman
Red and blue lights strobe, casting shadows and cutting angles of light across the whole back section of Black Diamond. I can barely make out anyone within three feet of me.
A smile tugs at my lips. No one can make me out, either.
Out among people like this, I feel free as fuck.In the wild, my friend and PA Nix calls it.Dangerous as hellis my bodyguard Caleb’s term. With a hat low and facial hair I am careful to never let the paparazzi see, even the biggest fan would be hard-pressed to recognize me.
With a few exceptions. Any Mann brother, or Ellen and Rita, would recognize us on sight.
But not in this light.
Freedom.
I ditched both of my tails at the back of the crowd once I heard the familiar sound of Baylor Mann warming up. I can’t help myself. Nix knows why we are here, and she is as inconspicuous as I am.
I have to see him again.
Two years ago, on Valentine’s Day of all things, Baylor Mann decided to perform live again. For the first time since he and I sang together, as far as I know.
I was here, and I watched from a shadowy corner with a dirty cap pulled low so no one recognized me. Well, maybe his brother Quinn. He gave me a curious glance, but with the lighting—similar to tonight—I barely recognized Quinn. If he did recognize me, nothing was said. Not between me and Jack, who I talk with frequently. Matt didn’t say anything last year when we exchanged hugs and hellos during a chance meeting in LA.
Baylor played last New Year’s but I was in Europe, on tour.
