Best Of Both Worlds (Colorado Black Diamonds #4)

Epilogue

NOAH - TWO MONTHS LATER

“ H ow did you two manage to collect this much stuff?” Uncle Knox grumbles, setting another one of the many boxes down in the living room.

“Getting old there, Knoxy?” Uncle Colin asks, dropping a box on the coffee table. “Can’t handle a few boxes?”

“Fuck you. Not all of us rolled in late to help.”

“I wasn’t late!” Colin fires back.

“You weren’t here with the rest of us.”

“Someone had to bring breakfast.”

The two of them delve into an argument that we’ve all heard before.

“Do you think they do this because they don’t know how much they really love each other?” Graham whispers, handing me a beer in our new kitchen.

“Oh, definitely.”

It’s been like this for as long as I can remember. Uncle Knox and Uncle Colin bickering. I can’t help but smile as our families help us move into our new place.

When we told them about moving into a house together—a place of our own—they descended upon us to help us move.

We found a recently renovated older home in a gated community on the outskirts of Nashville. Something quiet. Away from the craziness of downtown.

Breathing room for the two of us to grow together.

With all the furniture having been delivered yesterday, it’s starting to feel like a real home. The large windows face the sprawling backyard, letting in the afternoon sun.

The perfect space for us.

“How many more boxes?” Bode whines, dropping another one onto the kitchen counter.

“Only a few,” Marcus tells him.

Bode points at me, a tired look on his face. “You’re buying drinks the next time we’re out.”

“The least I can do.” I tip my head at him in acknowledgment.

“Could have hired movers,” he mutters under his breath as Nick walks into the kitchen.

“What has you two so happy?” Nick grabs a beer from the fridge before settling onto a barstool at the large, white marble island.

“Can’t we be happy?” I fire back, wrapping an arm around Graham’s waist. The face he gives me has me wanting to kick everyone out and break in our new bedroom.

“It’s nice to see, that’s all.” Nick holds his bottle out for a cheers.

“Speaking of happy. No Bex this week?” I ask.

A dopey grin washes over his face. “Nah. She has a meeting in New York this week.”

“You going to meet up with her there?” Noah asks, leaning across the counter.

“Planning on it. You two planning on doing anything with the rest of your offseason?”

Graham scoffs. “Other than moving in? No.”

“Hey. We have some plans.”

“Like?” Graham sips his beer.

A devious smile crosses my face. One that is a promise of things to come.

“Things I can’t say in mixed company.”

The doorbell rings, signifying the pizza we ordered is here.

“I’ll get that. I don’t want to hear about your sex life.” Nick runs out of the kitchen to the front door.

“Soooo…what I’m hearing is if we start talking about sex, we’ll scare everyone out?” Graham asks, rubbing his hand up and down my back. “Think it’ll work?”

“Fat chance, boys.” Uncle Alex walks into the kitchen with half the pizza boxes while Uncle Carter is behind him. “There is no scaring us off.”

“Damn,” I mutter under my breath. “Then everyone better hurry up and eat.”

“Is that any way to talk to the people who moved you into your house?” Dad claps me on the shoulder.

“If it gets you out of here faster, yes.”

Troy pops open the lid of one of the boxes and grabs a slice. “I’m only in town a few days, and you’re trying to get rid of me? Rude.”

“I don’t feel bad at all,” Graham fires back.

“Well, we’re not even close to being done,” Frankie tells us, worming her way between Graham and me. “We have to make this house a home.”

“It is, Mom,” Graham tells her, groaning.

It’s a feeling I know well. Of mothers smothering us.

We might have a long way to go in settling in, but the fact that this is our own place—together—means everything.

We’re not just roommates anymore. We’re partners. In hockey. In life. In everything.

I never thought that this is where the two of us would end up.

It’s the only place I want to be.

“Oh no. These walls are too white,” Mom reiterates. “We need to get some paint up here. Maybe some pictures.”

“I agree. Maybe gray? Or a navy? We’ll have to see what the light looks like in the afternoon.”

“While you’re planning, maybe put a big ol’ picture of me up in the living room. It’d look great.” Uncle Colin throws an arm around both of our shoulders, sandwiching Frankie in between us.

“Great idea,” Knox tells him. “We can use it as a dartboard.”

“Stop it, you two,” Frankie tells him as Knox flips Colin off.

Dad rolls his eyes at him as he comes into the kitchen. “The house looks good as it is in case they don’t get to it, Ten.”

“I’m just saying it could use a little love.” She ignores Dad as he presses a kiss to her head.

“We’ll be fine, Mom.”

She ignores us, talking with Frankie. “I’ve got some time before the school year starts. I need to make sure everything is all set here before heading home.”

“I agree. Offseason training doesn’t start for a few weeks,” Frankie confirms. “The two of us can knock it out in a week, I think.”

“Or we can hire someone,” Graham tells them, but they wave us off.

“It’s a lost cause. Just let them be,” I tell him, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

Heading to the fridge, I grab a fresh beer for myself and lean back against the counter, taking in this group of people.

When I got traded to Nashville, this was the very last place I thought I would end up. I thought I would be on an island of one playing out the last few years of my career before moving back to Denver.

To the only home I’ve ever known.

Now? Now this ranch house on the outskirts of Nashville is the only one I can imagine. Moving in with Graham? It was so far off my radar, I would have laughed if you told me.

But it’s the only place I want to be. Here, in our home with the family the two of us have amassed. Our real family and our found families through hockey.

“Hey.” Graham walks over, wrapping his arms around me. He slots perfectly against me—like he was made for me and me alone. “You okay?”

“Perfect. Couldn’t be any better.”

Graham presses a warm kiss to my lips, and I hate that the noise of the kitchen rings heavy in my ears. Now I really wish that everyone was gone.

Because I want to have my way with this man in every room of our home.

“It can wait.” Graham pulls back, whispering in my ear.

“Think you can read my mind?” I quirk a brow at him, draping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him close.

“Yes.” He nods. “I know exactly what you’re thinking. Trust me, I want it too.”

“We should probably eat if we’re going to have any energy to finish unpacking today.”

“Ugh. You’re right.” Graham drops his head into my neck before spinning around to face the crowd that’s gathered around the island.

Paper plates are filled with greasy triangles of pizza as the conversation starts to filter into my brain.

“And to think, if I had a kid, he could’ve ended up with Graham,” Colin tells Dad.

“What in the world are you talking about?” Knox sighs.

“I’m just saying. If Peyton and I had kids, Graham would’ve been lucky to end up with them.”

“No way. Not on my watch,” Graham interjects.

Colin throws up his hands. “It was hypothetical.”

“I’ll take on your kid.”

“Again, hypothetical.” Colin glances toward Knox. “Tell him.”

“Oh no. You got yourself into this mess. You can get out of it.”

“Is it always like this?” Marcus asks. As the new guy, he hasn’t been around all of us together to know what they’re like.

Before I can answer, Mom is interrupting their conversation. “I swear, the older you all get, the more like teenagers you act.”

“Is this what we have to look forward to?” Nick asks.

Carter shakes his head at my best friend and his only son. “No. You’re too mature for these guys, even at your age.”

“Hey!” Knox and Colin shout at the same time.

“What? He’s telling the truth,” Alex tells them.

And just like that, the rest of them dive into another argument about who is the most mature of them in the room.

Even if I want to kick them out, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

By the time everyone leaves, heading back to their respective places, Graham and I are collapsing onto our bed.

“I’m too tired to move.”

“Every bone in my body hurts. Worse than playing hockey,” Graham bemoans. “We should have hired somebody.”

“I don’t want strangers in our house.”

“I like the sound of that.” Graham turns his head to me.

“What?”

“Our house.”

Smiling at him, I press my lips to his. Savoring the taste of him. That the two of us are here together in this moment.

“Think it’s time to christen this place?”

I slide my hand under the waistband of his shorts, feeling the muscles of his ass grow taut.

“I love you, Noah, but I am too tired.”

That has me popping up onto my elbow and looking down at the man with his eyes closed. “Really? Not even a quick blow job?”

Graham quirks one eye open before closing it. “Think you could even get it up, old man?”

I slap his ass. “The one I’m worried about is you here. I’m perfectly fine.”

Graham rolls over onto his back, resting one arm behind his head.

The only thing in our room is our bed and a nightstand. All of the boxes that go in here will be dealt with tomorrow. Our main concern was unpacking the rest of the house.

The two of us can take care of in here.

“You know we’ll have the rest of our lives to do whatever we want here, right?”

I groan, snuggling into his warm side. “So sue me; I want to have a fun night on the very first night in our own house with my boyfriend.”

Turning on his side, Graham pins me with a stare that tells me I’m going to like whatever he says next. “How about hand jobs? That’s about all I can muster the energy for. Then tomorrow?—”

“Tomorrow what?”

I’m already moving in closer, tracing kisses along his unshaven jaw. Letting the bristles rub against my soft lips as I tug his earlobe between my teeth.

Graham cups my growing erection through my shorts.

“Tomorrow I will let you fuck me in every room of this house. Sound good?”

I give him a cocky grin before taking my time kissing him. Getting lost in the taste of him. The feel of him.

“So what you’re saying is it’s the best of both worlds?”

“Yeah. Best of both worlds.”

“Then I’ll say yes to anything you ever want. As long as it’s you and me.”

Graham’s answering kiss is all I’ll ever need.

Moving to Nashville from Denver gave me everything I was looking for in life when I thought it would be the end of everything.

Denver and Nashville.

Hockey and Graham.

It really is the best of both worlds.

THE END

Want more bi-awakening? Then check out Merry in Moose Falls !

Want a bonus scene with Noah and Graham? Grab it now !

And make sure to preorder the Nashville Knights ! Book one, Game Misconduct , is coming February 28, 2025.