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Epilogue
Knix
Harlow's hair swung around her face in wild disarray. I watched with a small smile as Texas—ever the prankster—snuck up behind her as Grayson held her immobile. The way her cheeks flushed and her teeth clenched as she stiffened when Texas let a scoop of snow fall down the back of her clothes brought a chuckle to my lips. Cleo sat on the inside of the window before me, licking her paws as she watched on. When Harlow shrieked in outrage, Cleo meowed and leapt from the sill and dartedaway.
She was so beautiful, our girl. I loved thinking of her like that.Ourgirl.
I looked down at the small box in my hands. For me, it reminded me of the day I had last spoken to Harlow's mom. It was a bittersweet recollection. One filled with the sorrow of knowing I’d never have the opportunity again, but with the soft glow of her acceptance and understanding and her blessing. Thankfully—hopefully—for Harlow, it would bring nothing but good memories. Happy memories. All the memories I wanted to give her for the rest oftime.
“You be good to my daughter,”the woman had said. She’d been as frail as a body could be. Her arms too weak to lift as she let them lie alongside her. Yet still, she’d glared down the group of them, all five men—boys to someone like her—and demanded that ofthem.
Marv and Grayson had stood side by side at the back, Bellamy and Texas as well—all of them just behind Knix as he sat at the older woman’s side. Harlow was devastated. She knew that her mother wouldn’t last much longer, and she knew there was nothing more she could do aboutit.
“I wasn’t always as good to her as I should’ve been,” the woman admitted. “My head wouldn’t let me be. She was too good forme.”
“She’s too good for us too,” Marv said suddenly, drawing the woman’sgaze.
“Then why do you want to marry her?” she asked, eyes narrowing on him. “What could men such as yourselves ever hope to gain from mydaughter?”
“Love,” Bellamyanswered.
“Acceptance,” Graysonagreed.
“Happiness.” Of course Texas would saythat.
“A lifetime together,” I replied as I reached forward and clasped her shriveled hand. Too weak to squeeze back, she turned it over and just let me holdit.
“Will you promise?” she asked, “not to leave her? To love her forever? To keep her with you and look after her? Make sure she eats well and takes care of herself? Will you promise to love her the way I couldn’t for so manyyears?”
Even as my throat swelled with emotion—the same emotion my father had taught me to accept while society had told me to reject it—I nodded and answered. “I promise—we promise—to love Harlow Hampton for the rest of ourlives.”
“Cross my heart and hope to die.” Texas’ whisper echoed around the sullenroom.
I looked back at him sharply, but he seemed to realize his blunder at the same time. "I mean—" hestarted.
Harlow's mom chuckled, cutting him off. "I wouldn't say go that far," she replied. "But I think I can trust you." Then her hand weakly contracted against mine, drawing my attention back around to her now serious face. "Take care of her for me," shesaid.
I couldn't deny her that. "I will," Ipromised.
Grayson stepped forward. "We all will," heconfirmed.
The memory trickled awayas I looked away from the box in my hands to the window. Harlow threw a snowball, launching it at Texas’ head as Bellamy drove Grayson into the snow. Harlow was still healing from the loss of her mother. She likely would be for a long time. If anyone could relate to that, it wasme.
The image in front of me, though, was one of hope. The smile on her face was undimmed by the recollection of what she’d been through lately. That was the weird thing about life—though it took things away, it also gave you more than you could have ever dreamed for. It had givenmemore than I could have ever dreamed for. It had given meher.
A knock on the door interrupted my inner musings. I turned as Marv stepped inside. “You’re watching them?” He said it as a question, but truly it was just anobservation.
I answered anyway with a nod. “Yeah.”
Marv stepped up alongside where I stood at the window. His eyes looked down to the box clutched in myhands.
“Do you think she’ll like it?” he asked, sounding a bitnervous.
I smiled. “We all had a hand in choosing it,” I said, “so even if she doesn’t, it’s not because she doesn’t likeyou.”
"I know that," hesaid.
But still...I got it. It was nerve wracking. We'd all made a decision together as a group—even Grayson, who now fit in with our group far more than I could ever have predicted. Harlow was the woman we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with. She was it. None of us were willing to back down. She didn't seem adverse to the idea, but I wondered if she knew how serious we actuallywere.
