Jer smirked, slipping the crescent moons band on the same hand, his thumb brushing across my knuckles. “Whatever you need, Luna. I’m not going anywhere.”
I stared down at both rings on my hand, the sparkle of diamonds and the shimmer of moons stacked together, like two halves of the same vow. My chest tightened, my heart stretching wide enough to fit them both.
Dirks clapped Jer’s shoulder once, then straightened, already scanning the room. “Alright, lovebirds. I’ll go clean up before this place looks like a frat house.”
He winked at me, then disappeared toward the kitchen, leaving Jer and me standing there in the quiet glow of our new forever.
“I’m so sorry. Never, ever again will I hurt you or run away. Never.”
I swallowed hard, covering his hands with mine, forcing him to see me steady, to feel me grounded. “Jer, you don’t haveto keep punishing yourself. You’re here. With me. That’s all I need.”
He shook his head, jaw tight, eyes stormy but vulnerable in a way I rarely saw. “No. I swear, Luna—I swear on my fucking soul—I will fight every single day for us. There will be no more hot and cold between us.”
Behind us, Dirks leaned quietly against the doorway, watching without interrupting, his blue eyes softer than I’d ever seen them. It wasn’t jealousy, it wasn’t doubt—it was pride. Relief. Like he knew this was the moment Jer needed to say out loud, and the moment I needed to finally hear.
“I know you won’t leave again, and I promise—to both of you—I’m done hiding. I’m done carrying this weight like it belongs to me alone. I’m here. With you. Always.”
Dirks stepped closer, the warmth of his hand settling on my shoulder. He didn’t need to say anything. His presence had always been enough, his steady sunshine filling the dark corners I’d once thought would swallow me whole. With him at my side, with Jer’s hands trembling in mine, I felt like I was standing in a life I’d never believed was mine to claim.
For so long, my life had been defined by the secrets I carried. Secrets that silenced me. Secrets that bruised me from the inside out. Secrets that told me love was supposed to hurt, that safety was temporary, that home was something meant for other people but never me. They were chains I thought I’d drag forever, heavy reminders that my story would always be survival and never joy.
But then there was Jeremy. My best friend. My shadow. The boy who didn’t know the worst of what I’d endured but gave me my first taste of what it meant to be seen anyway. He gave me laughter when I was broken. He gave me permission to be safe in my own skin, in my own sexuality, in the parts of myself I thought had been ruined. He was my first family, my first home,and even when fear pulled us apart, some thread always tied us back together.
And then there was Dirks. My sunshine. My anchor. The man who walked into my storm and refused to let me drown in it. Who gave me steadiness when I shook, who handed me joy like it was mine to keep, who stood at my side when the shadows crept in and said, “I’m not moving.” He wasn’t a replacement for what I lost. He was proof that I could be loved twice, and just as fiercely.
Love was never about choosing between halves. It was about finding the people who made me whole, no matter how impossible it looked from the outside.
The world would never understand us. They’d whisper and wonder and judge. But what the world thought didn’t matter. What mattered was the three of us, our secrets stitched together into something unbreakable.
Because secrets didn’t always have to destroy you. Sometimes, if you were lucky enough to find the right people, they became the very thing that saved you.
We were three broken souls who found home in each other. Three people who weren’t afraid to love louder, fiercer, and messier than anyone else dared.
This was my family. My home. My forever.
My secrets once felt like a curse. Buried so deep, they ate me alive. But with them—Jer, Dirks, and the messy, beautiful truth of us—I found the most powerful thing of all: a life I actually wanted to live.
Two men. Shared secrets.
And, fine . . .
Maybe the ball gag, too.
epilogue
jeremy
One Year Later
I still didn’t believe it was real.
Our wedding. Our way. There was no cathedral with stained glass, no stiff chairs lined in pews, no fake smiles because that was what people were supposed to do. We didn’t do “supposed to.”
We got married in the backyard of the house the three of us had bought together. The place we’d built into a home with our own hands—paint still under our fingernails from when we’d fought about whether the kitchen walls should be eggshell or cream. Dirks insisted there was a difference, Luna sided with him, and I called them both wild. The same house where I’d stayed up on the floor with Luna when she had nightmares, and Dirks made pancakes at two a.m. to keep her smiling. The same house where we laughed, fought, fucked, and somehow stitched ourselves into a family.
That’s where we saidforever.
Luna wore a white dress that was short and simple. She looked like trouble and salvation all at once.
