My Best Friends Brother

Epilogue One

EPILOGUE ONE – FIVE YEARS AFTER PANCAKES – MILO'S P.O.V.

I swear to God, this damn dog gets underneath my feet again! I love him, I really do, but there are definitely days when I feel like I could put his golden little ass on a spit and fucking roast him for the family barbecue.

Of course I know why he's waiting, I can't ever cook bacon without him sitting right next to me looking up at me with those full chocolate eyes.

"Did your father teach you that?" Liam chuckles at me from his place on the couch. It's nice to hear, he hasn't done it too much lately. Teenagers.

Being sixteen isn't easy on anybody but when you're as shy as he is, it's just that much fucking harder. We support him in every way we can to boost his confidence but this is just who he is. I thank fuck everyday that Heather sticks at his side like a personal attack dog at school, ready to kill without a moments notice, I don't know where he'd be without her.

Blue seems to be the only person he'll really talk to in this house at the moment, I'm pretty sure that's because the dog has the memory span of a fucking fish and couldn't actually tell us anything even if he wanted too. I think I know what's going on with my little man, so does Josh, but we'll let him come to us when he's ready.

You can't push these things.

At least I know that he has Heather to confide in too. Those two... Well, they're a whole other story. Hell, they're a whole other series!

I finally relent, picking up the bacon from the pan and offering it to this ridiculously happy, giant fluffy creature. He's very lucky that Liam loved him from day one because I'm not sure he would have survived the puppy years without that, he had a habit of eating my basketball shoes... usually five minutes before a fucking game. The thing takes the bacon greedily, not even bothering to lick my hand to say thank you before running back off to his favourite and diving onto the couch next to my little man.

I'd say he's not so little anymore but the boy still doesn't even reach my shoulders. He's got those sad eyes again today, he's overthinking. He always gets this way after he hears about his fucking birth mother.

The bitch was in the news again this week. Usually we manage to keep it from him but you can't stop him Googling or the kids in school taunting him. We haven't had any contact from her thank fuck but she can't keep herself out of trouble. Hannah told us the first three times she was arrested for prostitution but we told her not to bother anymore, it's clear that she's picked her life. Apparently last week she tried to get some man to sign his life savings over to her on his death bed and was attacked by the guys bodybuilder daughter. Now she's finally as ugly on the outside as she always was on the inside.

Karma's a bitch.

Still, it doesn't make it easy for Liam sometimes. I know he's happy with us, I've never seen a kid shine brighter than the day me and Josh picked him up and asked if he wanted us all to live together, he sobbed in my arms for hours just telling me how much he loved me.

So much has happened since then, so much has changed and will continue to change, but that won't. He is my eternal little man.

I flip the last batch of pancakes, plating up the ones from earlier and placing them on the side, Blue lifting his head just enough from Liam's chest for him to slip out and come over to take them.