Epilogue
Isat on the porch of the clubhouse. It was a nice evening, the kind of calm before the storm. We all knew what was coming. We all knew that this was going to be the bloodiest, most violent, most vicious battle that any of us would ever encounter.
But for a small moment, it was calm and tranquil.
Justine was back in Albuquerque, working a late shift as a surgeon. We’d shared kiss emojis just before she had gone in, and at the risk of sounding corny, it made me feel warm when I saw that emoji pop up. It was bizarre to think that fifteen months would stand between our first and second meeting, but in those fifteen months, something had festered just deep enough within us to make it happen.
It felt unlike anything that any of the other guys had experienced. I really didn’t know how to describe it. I couldn’t even begin to guess at the odds of it.
But there it was. It had happened. And now, by some damn miracle, over the span of just about a year and a half, what had started out as a bunch of dudes who never imagined themselves being in relationships either again or at all was now down to just one holdout.
Perhaps not unexpectedly, the sole holdout was the oldest and most experienced of us all. Maybe he knew something we didn’t. Maybe he knew just how difficult relationships were.
Or maybe, just maybe, Mason had some even darker parts of himself that he needed to take care of.
And as if on cue, I heard his bike pull up and cut off. He got off the bike, nodded to me, and walked over.
“What’s good?”
“Not much,” Mason said. “You seem awfully calm.”
I shrugged.
“I’ll take the moments when I can,” I said. “And besides, it helps to be in love.”
Mason snorted and chuckled.
“You mean lust,” he said. “Easy to fall in lust early. Harder to say you fall in love so soon.”
I shook my head.
“I don’t know, man. I agree with you for the most part, and I thought that was true of Brock, Steele, Garrett, and Connor, but now that I’m experiencing it? It feels real.”
Mason took out a cigarette, lit it, and took a puff.
“Believe it or not, I fucking hope so for all of your sakes,” he said. “I like seeing my friends happy. But I’d be lying if I said I thought you had any hope.”
“Well, that’s reassuring,” I said with a chuckle. “You should have some hope. After all, Garrett is your brother-in-law.”
“Don’t,” Mason said, which I responded to with even harder laughter. “Until they actually get married, don’t you ever fucking say he’s my brother-in-law. He’ll ask for shots; I’ll just drink straight from the bottle.”
“Yeah, well, people can change.”
Mason snorted. There was something about his reaction that suggested there was more to it than just the surface-level reaction.
“What?”
“You want to hear the craziest thing?”
I nodded.
“I had one of the prospects tell me they saw someone out in public recently that I never thought would show up again.”
I was genuinely confused about who he was referring to.
“Rachel Reid.”
“Shit, really?”
