EPILOGUE
Four years was a long time, especially for someone as young as Taylor, but in most ways it had passed faster than he would have believed possible. But then, it had been a very busy four years for him and Dane, with classes two-thirds of the year and the summers off to see the country.
And Taylor had seen the country. A few times, they had even been able to bring Danica with them, such as when they’d gone to the Grand Canyon. It baffled Taylor to think that once he hadn’t even been outside of Washington State, because now he had seen more than he once would have even thought possible.
And now here they were, looking at each other, both with their Bachelor degrees clutched firmly in their hands. Somehow, against all the odds, they had both made it, although Taylor had had many times in the past four years when he had been sure that he never would. He knew that Dane was the same.
They gazed into each other’s eyes and then suddenly laughed, and at the same time, they flung themselves into each other’s arms. Their lips met, and Dane tasted of all of the surprise, all of the joy, that Taylor was feeling himself. It was completely unbelievable, at that moment, that back when they had first been starting off, Taylor had thought that he and Dane were far too different ever to work.
As they embraced, Taylor felt Dane’s arms around him joined by others. He opened his eyes and looked into his mother’s eyes, which were pretty much glowing with her obvious pride. Pride that he knew that he, and Dane, had put there. She was just as pleased with Dane as she was with Taylor, and that pleased Taylor a great deal.
Just a little bit away, Danica stood, having just been hugging them too but she had pulled away the moment that she had known that Taylor had opened his eyes. She was a mature young lady, very aware that in a little over a year, she would be a fully-fledged teenager. She seemed like she wanted to get a head start, and was already far too cool to be seen hugging people in public.
The years had been good to her, and in a very real way, Danica could be as much of a pain in the ass as she wanted. The people who loved her were very aware that they could have lost her completely, and besides, Taylor had been a teenager, too. He knew that her obnoxious phase wasn’t going to last forever.
When she looked at him, her face was defiant, but her eyes were shining. She, too, was proud of the two of them, and she let Taylor see it.
He had to admit that it meant everything to him that she cared. She even shot him a secret little smile, and Taylor felt like he had just won the lottery. His little sister was a very special person, and her good opinion mattered to him a great deal.
He was distracted enough that, when he turned back, he found that he didn’t understand the brief look that was exchanged between his mother and Dane. Had he imagined it? He didn’t have a lot of time to think about it, because soon enough, Dane was giving him a sweet, but brief, kiss on the lips and then pulling away.
“Where are you going, babe?” Taylor asked, but Dane didn’t have a chance to answer. Taylor’s mother wrapped her arm around his shoulders and gave him a small, but fiercely triumphant little one-armed hug, pulling him close against herself.
“Do you have any job leads yet, Taylor?” His mother deftly pulled her son’s attention back to herself, without more than the slightest flicker of her gaze toward Dane. Or again, was that something that was just Taylor’s imagination? “You must pretty much have your pick of places. Doesn’t everywhere need nurses?”
Taylor smiled and let his mother take his attention. He had some pretty good news about that, which he had been waiting to tell her until after the graduation, but now seemed like the right time.
“I actually got an offer from a hospice just outside of Seattle,” he admitted and watched with pleasure as his mother’s eyes grew wide and incredulous before the joy started to dawn in her eyes. “It’s got full benefits, and I’ll get to help people.”
For a while, he had struggled to figure out what to do with his life. But when he thought about the time in his life that meant the most to him, nursing Danica through her illness had been right at the top of his list. From there, it had been an easy decision to make.
“I’m so proud of you,” she repeated, and Taylor couldn’t help but grin. She could say it as much as she wanted, he never got sick of hearing it. He had worked hard to get to where he was, and to be honest, he was proud of himself, too.
Dane came back and joined in the celebration. In the face of Taylor’s announcement, and Dane’s, that he was going back to get his Master's, Taylor lost track for the moment of that mysterious look that had passed between his mother and Dane. There was too much else going on, and honestly, he forgot it for several weeks. If he hadn’t, maybe he would have noticed the weird stuff going on around him, but as it was, when it happened, it was a complete surprise to him.
It was Danica’s idea to wait for the fair to come back into town, and Dane could even see how it was a good one. What better place would there be to start on the next phase of their life than to go back to where it had all started? But if Dane hadn’t called his former boss, who was still, despite all of his grumblings, running the traveling carnival, and found out that they would be passing through Snoqualmie early in the year this year, he doubted that he would have had the patience to wait.
But here it was, a gorgeous July day, and Danica was squirming around like crazy. To this point, Taylor had remained oblivious, but he was shooting Danica, calm, too-cool-for-school Danica some pretty suspicious looks. She had been hiding it pretty well, Dane thought, but there were limits.
Every year, Dane and Taylor and Danica had made it a point to go to the fair together. Did Taylor notice that this year, for the first time, Rebecca was coming, too? There was a strange look on Taylor’s face, and Dane just had to hope that somehow his big surprise wasn’t going to be ruined.
It probably would be, though. Taylor was too smart. He might have already figured it out, in which case, why hadn’t he said anything? It was nerve-wracking, and Dane suddenly didn’t understand how people had been doing this for thousands of years.
At least it was almost over. Soon, Dane would know, either way. Whatever Taylor said, at least Dane could say that he had tried. And the thing was, even after more than four years together, he still wasn’t sure what to expect when he asked Taylor the question that he had wanted to ask him for years.
It had never been the right time. They had both been in the middle of school, and what sort of life could Dane offer for Taylor in that situation? But Taylor, at least, was out now, and Dane had a bright future ahead of him, too.
Besides, he was going to go insane if he didn’t get the ring that he had been carrying for far too long now onto Taylor’s fingers, if only Taylor would somehow say yes.
“Let’s go on the Ferris wheel,” Dane offered, hoping that his voice didn’t shake as much as he feared that it did. Damn it, he was a big, tough, strong man, so why was he so terrified of asking this one simple question? It was ridiculous.
Taylor was giving him this look, and Dane didn’t quite know how to identify it, even after so many years together. But the younger man slowly nodded, and they got into the short lineup together, with Danica bouncing on the balls of her feet but, for once, not demanding to go on the ride, too. Rebecca’s eyes were wide, but she shot him a little thumbs up and a smile for good luck.
Dane had thought about this for years, the right words to say. He had never quite managed to think up a speech, although Danica had scornfully told him just to say the words and let Taylor decide. Her way had seemed the easiest, at the time, but now, as the ride swung up into the air, as he looked across at Taylor, who was still looking at him with a solemn look on his face, he realized that he had no idea where to start.
Finally, he just opened his mouth, and let whatever wanted to come out, come out.
“Taylor, we get along pretty good, don’t you think?” he started, and at the same time, Taylor was speaking his mind, too.
“Dane, are you trying to break up with me?”
Oh, shit. Was that what Taylor thought? Dane shook his head frantically. He should have known that Taylor would have figured out something was going on, but he had come to the wrong conclusion completely.
“No,” he protested. They were swinging at the very top of the ride, and it was time. Dane dug into his pocket and pulled out the box that he had been safeguarding for a long time. “I’m trying to ask you to marry me.”
Taylor’s eyes went wide, and then darted down to the box, which Dane opened so that Taylor could see the ring sparkling inside, a very masculine, but still pretty, gold band with diamonds inset subtly through it. Dane had thought about which ring he wanted to offer for a long time, and this was the first one that had seemed perfect to him. It was the first one that he had been able to see Taylor wearing.
“You’re serious?” Taylor asked, and Dane couldn’t help but smirk a little bit. Taylor sounded so plaintive, and surely, if he intended just to reject this offer completely, he would be less worried about whether Dane was joking or not.
“Yeah,” Dane admitted. “I’ve been waiting until we were out of school. Your mom and Danica both approve. So,” Dane took a deep breath and forged on. “Will you marry me, Taylor? I love you. I want you to be mine for the rest of our lives.”
Taylor was smiling now, and those remarkable eyes of his were shimmering in a way that Dane knew was echoed in his own eyes. Well, if there was ever an appropriate day to cry, the day that he proposed to Taylor was a good one, and if he wasn’t very much mistaken, Taylor was going to say yes.
Taylor offered his hand, blinking rapidly, and Dane slid the band onto Taylor’s finger, where it gleamed mellowly, just like it belonged there. Dane had somehow known that it would be the perfect ring.
“No,” Taylor whispered, and Dane thought, for a moment, that he had been stabbed right in the stomach. Nothing could feel like this, but it was just for a moment before Taylor continued. “Not for the rest of our lives. For much, much longer. I want forever.”
The wheel started to turn again, and Dane grinned and waved at Rebecca and Danica as they swung past them. The faintest hint of Danica’s voice came to him over the whooshing of air in his ears.
“Did you do it yet?”
And then they were past them, heading back up to the apex of the wheel, and Dane pulled Taylor into his arms and kissed him. It was a complicated kiss, a kiss of promise, of passion, of pledging themselves to each other and it was just like Taylor said. It was forever, which was exactly perfect for Dane.
“Forever,” he promised, and the next time that the ride brought them past Danica and Rebecca, he dimly heard the sound of their cheers. But he was honestly too busy kissing Taylor, the man he loved, his fiancé and soon to be his husband, to pay much attention to anything else.
When the kiss ended, they both looked at each other, fingers linked as the air blew their hair around their faces. This wasn’t where Dane had ever thought he would be. Settled down? Engaged? No one who had known him ever since he’d left home ever would have considered it even an option, not other than Rebecca and Danica, who had believed in him.
And it was the same for Taylor, Dane knew that without having to be told. This whole thing had been nothing more, to either of them, than a one night stand, a fun, crazy time.
Looking into Taylor’s brilliant blue eyes, eyes the color of the autumn sky, and holding his small hands, Dane found that he couldn’t regret it. And he would never, he vowed to himself right then and there, give Taylor any reason to regret it, either.