by Aiden Bates
“I’m ready to go, anyway. Everyone else?” Rusty scooped Alec up into his arms and took the hat off little Josh’s head, which at least stopped the crying.
We all nodded, grabbing babies and diaper bags and coats. The kids must’ve sensed that we were about to do something important, because I didn’t hear a single complaint out of any of them as we headed out to our respective cars.
They were right, too. This was important. I could see it in Rusty’s eyes just before he grabbed me by the collar and pulled me in for a kiss—then, we were in his Mustang and off to the cemetery.
Derek, Nick, the kids and I all hung back with the strollers and diaper bags while Ernesto, Kaleb and Rusty gathered around Josh’s grave. Harper hesitated for a moment though, stopping halfway there and doubling back before he reached the tombstone.
“You mind if I take little Joshua?” he asked Nick, looking a little nervous. “Or would that be…”
“Not at all.” Nick gave him a gentle smile. “He should pay his respects to his other Daddy too, I think.”
“His other Daddy?” Derek’s eyebrows shot up to his widow’s peak. “What does that even…”
The endurance of Nick’s smile was disarming, even if it was a little wistful and sad. “We didn’t know how to tell everyone. The Alphas and Daniel were putting the Rasner case together at the time, but…”
Harper’s smile was a little more awkward. He rubbed the back of his neck, then shrugged. “Nick and I managed to track down a security tape of the club night when—”
“When I went koo-koo for birth control puffs,” Nick supplied.
“Something like that.” Harper placed his hand atop little Josh’s head. “Joshua was there that night. The case must’ve been going poorly, because he was, ah… koo-koo for vodka puffs as well that night, catch my drift.”
“So, big Josh is little Josh’s father? His biological one, I mean.” It seemed rude to ask, but I’d spent too much time around politicians in my life. I couldn’t really stomach beating around the bush of any color anymore.
Harper’s grin shifted into something a little warmer as he took little Josh’s hand into his own. “We got a DNA test to make sure after little Josh was born. He’s Joshua’s, alright.”
“Wet’s go! Wet’s go!” little Josh urged, tugging on Harper’s hand.
With a shrug, Harper led him over to Joshua’s grave where Kaleb, Harper and Ernesto were already bowing their heads to pay their respects.
A flask was pulled out. I couldn’t hear their words as the Alphas passed it between them, but I could imagine what was being said.
Three weeks ago, the last conviction in the case had been made. It was all finally over now. They could move on. Josh’s spirit could finally be at ease with the knowledge that the work he’d started, his brothers had finished.
And in the process, he’d brought them all back together again. Kaleb from D.C. Harper from Miami. Rusty from Vegas. Now, they were all back in Fort Greene with their soon-to-be husbands. Nick, Derek and I had all received our engagement rings on Christmas—Josh’s birthday.
Joshua’s family was safe now. He even had a son, living happily with Harper and Nick. I knew Rusty still missed Josh. He talked about him sometimes, especially when it was late or when he remembered the whiskey I kept in the back of the cupboard. After Rusty’s last drunken escapade, he’d announced that he was off vodka for good.
As the flask passed to Rusty, I caught his last words to his brother on the wind.
“We’ll never forget you, Josh.” Rusty took a swig from the flask, then poured out the rest into the grass growing at the base of Josh’s tombstone. “The world would be a better place if you were still in it—but you made it a pretty damn fine one for everything you did.”
I placed a hand on my belly as I took Rusty’s words in. Beneath my palm, there was another little flutter—a tiny kick of agreement that told me he was right.
