“Like that future we talked about. I had a dream that you told me you loved me, but every time I see your face, it doesn’t feel like something I’ve imagined.”
Decoy’s deep gaze held mine. “It wasn’t a dream. I told you every time you woke up, but you didn’t always hear me.”
“So tell me again.”
That humble grin came back, but the heart in his eyes was unwavering. “Iloveyou, more than I ever thought I was capable of. And I want that future. It just blows my mind sometimes that we can have it.”
“One day it won’t blow your mind.”
“Yeah? Why’s that?”
I kissed him for as long as I could manage without getting dizzy. “Because you’re a forever kind of love, brother. And one day you’ll believe that you’re worth it.”
EPILOGUE - DECOY
Three Months Later
Sometimes summer seemed to pass in a flash. Others, it stretched out, the sunshine clinging on, even when the days grew shorter.
This summer was the long kind, still going strong at the end of September, making weekend road trips too tempting to pass up.
“You should stay another night.” Jekka looped a warm arm through mine. “School matters, but at this age they should be outdoors, soaking up nature before the world gobbles them up.”
Folk’s mum was so like him. Or maybe it was the other way around. Calm. Gentle with her love and affection, butfierce.
And she lived in paradise. It was my third trip to Moondust Farm, and I still couldn’t comprehend how Folk had ever left. “We’d love to stay, but Ivy can’t miss school. Her teacher wouldn’t approve, and I’m trying to keep on their good side after all the drama in her first year.”
Jekka guided me through a gate. Up ahead, Ivy was playing on hay bales with Folk’s dad while Folk looked on with his arms full of Rocco’s boys, Jules and Bo.
They were good kids. Quiet, by Ivy’s standards. Better manners too. And fuck me, they loved their Uncle Folk so much it hurt my heart to watch them together.
It was a sweet pain, though, and as much as Ivy owned my soul, it was Folk I couldn’t take my eyes off as Jekka and I entered the hay field. The pop of his lean biceps as he hoisted Jules onto his shoulders. The way his hair gleamed gold in the setting sun. His mellow grin when he caught me staring.
I kept staring, not giving a fuck. I wasn’t scared of him knowing how I felt about him. How deeply I fucking loved him. If he’d taught me anything, it was that life was too short to hide from the good stuff.
Bo liked to use me as a pillow.
He saw me coming and abandoned Folk to climb up my leg and doze on my shoulder.
Ivy laughed, and it made me love her even more. That proud kind of love that made my chest feel like it might burst. In darker moments, I’d wondered how she’d react to sharing Folk, let alone me, but nurturing these sweet little boys had turned out to be her jam, even if she didn’t have a fucking clue how to explain it to anyone who didn’t know our business.
“Are they my brothers?”
Not quite. Jekka and Folk’s dad, Iggy, were their parents now, and me and Folk, we weren’t married. But that wasn’t the end of our story, and we had the rest of our lives to figure out what to call it.
Later, after a rowdy family dinner that was a world away from anything I’d experienced in my childhood, I put Ivy to bed in the main house, settling her in a cosy nook that opened into the bedroom where the boys slept.
Then she promptly kicked me out in favour of Folk’s sister, and I was okay with that.
DoctorFinch Whitlock’s pretty laugh followed me down the hall and out of the house. But as beautiful as she was—and the legends were true—she had nothing on the man who waited for me outside.
Folk extended his hand, and I took it, letting him steer me away from the house and into the woodland that was clustered around the big farm. This family, man. They literally grew their own forests. I’d already found the tree with Folk’s name carved into it—the one his dad planted the day he was born. But there were others too, for the dozens of kids the Whitlock family had raised and for the angel babies they’d lost before Poet had come along.
I hadn’t met Folk’s brother yet. Rumour had it that he was always around, but he didn’t come in for dinner much, preferring his own company. And it made me think of a different man to the one holding my hand, and something that had been on my mind since the first time Folk had brought us to this magical place. “Saint would love this.”
Folk’s bare feet were silent in the soft earth beneath them, his chuckle low and warm. “That’s what Alexei said.”
“He’s been here?”
