Wild Side (Rose Hill, #3)(108)
But now I want them both closer. I want to hold them. I want to be all together. And like they just know, both of them walk up the hill toward me. Hand in hand.
“I wanna pick out shapes in the clouds,” Milo declares with pink cheeks and a wide smile.
All I can do is nod and stare back at him, marveling over how much I love him. I think I’d do absolutely anything for this little boy.
Rhys must see the emotion on my face, because he ushers Milo to one side of me before he takes a position on the other. My boys flank me and we watch the sky together, picking out shapes until we all fall into a companionable silence. Their warmth heats me to my marrow. Nothing has ever felt more perfect. I let my eyes flutter shut to soak up the moment, only made sweeter by Milo’s soft voice cutting through the hush of the mountain.
“That one kind of looks like fingers. Hooked together.”
I smile and turn to my side, drawing Milo into me. Slotting him right against my front. He smells a little bit like Erika and feels a lot like home. As does the man who presses closer behind me. Spooning me just like I’m spooning Milo.
When he wraps his arm over us, his pinky links with mine.
And we drift off like that, under a bluebird sky with big puffy clouds floating above us.
Together.
EPILOGUE
Rhys
FOUR YEARS LATER…
THE ROPES SLAP AGAINST MY BACK AS I GO FLYING STRAIGHT at Will, sending him down hard with an outstretched arm. He flies backward in a perfect arc before rolling over on his side, gripping his lower back dramatically.
I try not to smile, but this is my last match. And I’m having a hell of a time.
The crowd has fallen into their usual This is awesome chant that almost always gets pulled out when Wild Side and Million Dollar Bill wrestle. After years of practice, it feels like the two of us could do this with our eyes closed. I refused to have it against anyone other than Will. It’s taken him a long time to come back from my accident. But he’s been one of my longest-standing friends, and he’s a wrestler I respect immensely.
There’s no other way I’d rather go out.
Turning away, I place a foot on the rope and look into the crowd, soaking up the view of green merchandise as far as the eye can see.
It’s been four years since I thought I might never get to stand in the ring and look out over this view again. And now I’m back at Pure Pandemonium for one last match.
It’s the last time I’ll look out over a sea of people this way. The last time I’ll climb the ropes and hear people chanting my name.
And oddly, I’m not sad about it at all. I’m ready.
My eyes drop lower, to the front row of floor seats where my wife sits.
Milo, now seven years old, sits on one side of her waving a sign that reads Wild Side is my dad in the messy scrawl of a small child.
Our daughter, Minka Garrison, is wrapped against her chest with a pair of lime-green earmuffs covering her shock of dark hair.
My in-laws, Lisa and Paul, are here too—decked out in every piece of Wild Side gear that money can buy.
I get lost for a moment, staring at them all. My family. My home. Seeing all these people who’ve cheered me on for so many years, I’m overcome with gratitude.
For this life. For this adventure. For all this love.
I shake my head and let my lips tip up as I gaze out over the culmination of everything I’ve been through.
It took me a long time to get to this place, but I’ve finally made peace with feeling like I deserve all the happiness I have. I’ve worked hard for it, and now I plan to spend the rest of my days enjoying everything I’ve been given.
Tabitha winks at me and gives her chin a nudge in my direction, knocking me out of my stupor.
Poor Will. I almost chuckle. He’s going to kill me for making him play up that back pain for this long.
I wink back at my wife and continue my climb to the top rope. The roar of the crowd’s cheers buzzes across my skin and blocks out any other sounds or thoughts.
Only as I look down over my friend—who is still writhing in “pain”—do I make one final symbolic gesture. Slowly and with intention, I peel my mask back and off my face. The noise in the arena hits a deafening decibel, and I finally grin.
Then I turn and toss the mask toward my girl. She catches it and, without hesitation, pulls it over her face before standing up, clapping in time, and joining the crowd in their cheers.
I laugh, because suddenly, I’m back in that unfinished basement chasing Tabitha around. She’s laughing, wearing my mask and my ring. And it feels just as thrilling. I’m even more obsessed with her now than I was then.
As I take my last leap from the top rope, an entire lifetime of adventures flashes before my eyes.
I’ve been a lot of things in my life. Traveled a lot of places too.
But now I’m not just a wrestler. I’m a dad, I’m a friend, and I’m a husband to Tabitha Garrison, the mega-hot brunette who makes the best carbonara in the world.
And it strikes me that this is my favorite thing I’ve ever been.
READ ON FOR A SNEAK PEEK AT THE NEXT BOOK IN THE ROSE HILL SERIES, WILD CARD
Bash
ONE YEAR AGO…
I’M STUCK IN AN AIRPORT, AND EVERYONE IS ANNOYING ME.