F is for Finn (Men of ALPHAbet Mountain)

With everything packed, I locked my door and left, not looking back and not wanting to. Whatever was going to happen next, I wanted to face it head-on. The next time I walked into my apartment, with any luck, there would be a moving van outside, and I would be getting the place ready for a new tenant.

The fact was Wendy’s place was considerably bigger than mine. She had a cabin, with extra room to grow and space in the mountain. I had an apartment. Not something suitable for Olly to be in, much less a brand new baby. My place was perfect for who I had been before Wendy. But now, things had changed.

I got to her place—our place, as she insisted I refer to it—and put my things in the bedroom. There wasn’t a lot of time to waste. There were things to do, and it was already almost the evening. I grinned as I placed the bags on the bed.

“Why are you sitting them there?” she asked, slipping a dress over her head and letting it fall into place. It was a cute sundress, something she rarely wore, at least in the times I had seen her.

“Because,” I said. “If they are on the bed, then I will have motivation to empty them so we can get in bed together later. If I set them off to the side, I might forget about them. And they will stay packed.”

“Oh, so you want to make sure you unpack so you feel like you live here?” she asked, sidling up to me and wrapping her arms around my neck.

“I do,” I said, taking her waist in my arms and pulling her tight into me. “Is that alright?”

She grinned, biting her bottom lip for just a second in a way that made my cock ache for her.

“I think I can deal,” she said. “You might have to make it up to me later, though.”

“Deal,” I said.

“Mommy! Misser Finn!” Olly called as he ran into the room. Wendy’s head fell into my shoulder, and I chuckled.

“What is it, buddy?” I asked.

“It time a go?” he asked. “I wanna play water!”

“Yes, bud,” I said. “I think it’s time.”

“Alright,” Wendy said, straightening herself up again. “Let’s go.”

She reached up and placed a kiss on my lips and smiled. I grinned, following her out of the room and into the living room where Olly had placed a pile of toys that he deemed necessary to take with him. Among them was a superhero toy I’d bought him a couple of weeks prior.

Moving in with Wendy was going to be a shift in every aspect of my life, but I was ready for it. Getting used to a life with Olly would be something I looked forward to, and the new baby would only make everything perfect. First, however, there were traditions to attend to, things Wendy had done with Olly since they moved there.

Saturday park picnic by the lake was the biggest one. I looked forward to lots of those in the future. With Wendy, Olly, and the new baby.

EPILOGUE

FINN - EIGHT MONTHS LATER

“Put that down! You shouldn’t be carrying things like that!”

Wendy turned around and looked at me with an irritated expression in her eyes. It was a look I was getting very accustomed to, but I really wouldn’t have it any other way. The only reason I had the chance to get that used to seeing her irritated at me was all the time we got to spend together, and I would take every one of her withering looks and deep sighs in exchange for that.

“It’s seriously a box of pillows,” she said. “I don’t even know why they are in a box. They could have been put in a bag. Or just carried by themselves.”

“Put it down,” I insisted.

“Box of pillows, Finn. Weighs less than your child does right now.”

“And since we don’t want to meet that child quite yet, you need to put it down,” I said.

I came behind her with the two boxes of books stacked in my arms and gently nudged her to get her to put the box she was carrying down. It looked huge and cumbersome in her arms, but when she put it down, I could see that it was, in fact, labeled “pillows.” I shared her confusion on that front. The only thing I could think was that Deana must have gotten ahold of them.

She had been a bit on the eager side when it came to helping pack up everything in the cabin Wendy had been renting and where we spent nearly our first year together. Wendy’s best friend came into the move like a storm armed with a black permanent marker, rolls of tape, and an organizational plan only she really understood.

But we appreciated all the help. Even if she did seem out of touch with reality some of the time. What mattered was everything in that cabin got packed up and was now stuffed into the back of a moving truck and the beds of a couple of pickups driven by our friends. I’d had some drawn-out, messy moves in my day, and I didn’t want this one to be like that for Wendy. She didn’t need the stress. I just wanted her to be able to relax and for the process to go smoothly for her.