“What is this?” Patty whispered, but her eyes were full of stars.
Julie wiped tears from her cheeks, but she was smiling. “Faerie magick,” she whispered. Then she laughed and pulled Patty toward the trailer.
Or, rather, the space where the trailer had been.
The trailer park was still there, but it was as if it had moved over to make room for the quaint gingerbread cottage that sat at the edge of the forest, the house where Julie and Patty’s car sat in the drive. It was not a fancy house: it was humble, and it needed a little work. But it was a good house, and it had a strong foundation. And there were little outbuildings, too, with a better chicken coop and a pen for goats.
Miles, heart beating faster, grabbed Harry’s hand and dragged him down the street toward his own house.
It looked much the same, but there was something different about it too. It had a workshop, for starters, and there was a new car in the driveway. When he ducked inside, he saw all his own things, but he saw some other things too. He saw more books than he remembered having, and much older books than he remembered having. He also saw a sheaf of legal papers on a table, and a plastic driver’s license with Harry’s picture on it.
Harry picked it up and turned it over in his hands, looking bemused. Then he set it back down and looked at Miles, questioning.
Miles took his hands again. “Harry—will you stay here with me?”
Harry drew Miles’s hands up to his mouth and kissed them, then bent and kissed Miles in answer.
When they went back outside, Terris and Murali were inspecting a house that had cropped up in what had been an empty lot next to Miles’s place. It was very pretty and looked more like it belonged in the Welsh countryside than Minnesota, but it suited the pair of them very well.
“Very nice,” Terris said, sticking his hands into his pockets. “And what will we do for money, love?”
Murali waved an airy hand. “We’ll sell things. Little charms, perhaps. You already have a website, after all.”
Terris rolled his eyes, but he smiled too and kissed Murali on the cheek.
“How long will this last?” Miles asked Murali. He gestured to the houses and back toward the shop. “How long is the illusion good for?”
Murali waggled his eyebrows. “Ah. It’s not a dream this time, Miles. This is real. It will last as long as you believe in it.”
“But—but how?”
“I told you,” Murali said gently, “to listen to your heart. And I warned you that dreams were not truths. All I did, Miles, was to encourage the future that waited for our true hearts to bloom before us. Your kitchen sink still drips, Miles, and will until you fix it. Julie will still be disappointed that not everyone will choose to be a vegan. But you won’t struggle quite as hard to pay your mortgage payment, and she won’t ever kill a chicken again or so much as touch a pound of slaughtered cow. Patty will still worry over the heat bill, but she’ll be doing it so she can buy another antique, either for her showroom or for her home.” He turned to Harry. “Harry will still fall a little bit in love with everyone he sees. But he’ll have you there to draw him out of his fantasy and help him find an outlet for his passions.” He patted Harry on the arm and leaned in close. “Might I suggest a career in fiction?”
Harry looked thoughtful.
But Miles was still having a hard time with this. “But this was magic! This was a spell! How can it be real?”
Terris lifted an eyebrow at Miles. “Oh, darling. Magic is very real.”
“But—” Miles sputtered a little more, then let out a defeated sigh. “I don’t understand.”
Harry took his hand and squeezed it. “This is love, Miles. Our love.” He looked at the houses, at the sky, at the sun, and he smiled. “This is life.”
“Don’t worry,” Terris drawled. “I’m sure that more pain will appear eventually, if that makes you feel any better.”
TERRIS WAS RIGHT. While things were very, very good for a long, long time, they were not perfect. Miles’s repair business expanded into restoration, and soon he had more jobs than he knew what to do with and was forced to hire help. The garage turned into his office, and he used it to fix old chairs and tinker with antique sewing machines and yes, sometimes fix Julie’s food processor. But it was good work, and he was happy with it.
It was sometimes difficult for Harry to settle into the new world, but after a while, he found his footing, and within five years, he evened out. He ran a bookshop and worried about where he was going to send his manuscript and argued with the people in the library book club about what good literature was. In short, he was very happy.
Julie’s bakery business did very well indeed, so much so that she drew business from as far as Minneapolis, and eventually she opened a local organic grocery just so she could more easily order her supplies. But she still struggled with staffing and with delivery. Overall, however, she was very happy too.
Patty’s antique business boomed. She always seemed to have pieces that had a story, and they were always good stories. People came from hundreds of miles away to buy from Patty because it wasn’t long before the word got out that her antiques were the best. That brought her headaches too, because rival dealers would come to spy on her and try to get to key pieces before she did, but Miles knew Patty secretly loved the competition.
Murali and Terris did sell things: they ran a magic shop that did much better than Katie’s ever had, and they filled orders from all over the world. Who did the actual shipping, Miles didn’t know, because the two men spent most of their time in their garden, a garden which usually bloomed well past the frost and began blooming well before it should. In the dead of winter, they lingered in Julie’s greenhouse, nursing tender buds to bloom, whispering together, and more often than not, making love.
Happy. Everyone was very, very happy.
Sometimes at night Miles would lie beside Harry and look at him in wonder, touching him, running his fingers along his lover’s beard, his shoulders, and his chest. Sometimes he wondered how long it could possibly last, this love, this wonder, and this peace. Oh, Terris and Patty’s fights kept things interesting, and sometimes Julie and Murali argued for weeks over a point of philosophy. And Katie hardly came over now, because somehow the beauty of the living dream Murali had created was too much for her to handle. Not everything was perfect.
But it was closer than Miles had ever dreamed.
As he lay there in the moonlight, though, sometimes he would think of the life that he had lost, of the dreams that had died to lead him to the road that had taken him here.
Life, by its definition, must contain some pain. But as Miles watched, Harry woke and smiled sleepily at him, and Miles saw what came on the other side of pain.
Love.
The love swelled within him as Harry took him into his arms. Life wasn’t about what he deserved. It wasn’t even about what he was given. It was, Miles knew, as he took Harry into his body, about what he made.
As the moon rose across the sky, as the faeries danced through the forest, as dreams went up from the hearts of men like prayers, Miles gave himself to pleasure in his lover’s arms, then lay awake, his mind spinning not visions of fantasy but of all that he could make of his life.
About the Author
Author of over thirty novels, Midwest-native Heidi Cullinan writes positive-outcome romances for LGBT characters struggling against insurmountable odds because she believes there’s no such thing as too much happy ever after. Heidi is a two-time RITA® finalist and her books have been recommended by Library Journal, USA Today, RT Magazine, and Publisher’s Weekly. When Heidi isn’t writing, she enjoys cooking, reading novels and manga, playing with her cats, and watching too much anime. Find out more at heidicullinan.com.
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THE COPPER POINT MEDICAL SERIES
Where love is just a heartbeat away
The Doctor’s Secret
The Doctor’s Date
The Doctor’s Orders
THE ROOSEVELT SERIES
Carry the Ocean
Shelter the Sea
More titles in this series coming soon
LOVE LESSONS SERIES
Love Lessons
Frozen Heart
Fever Pitch
Lonely Hearts
Short Stay
Rebel Heart (coming soon)
THE DANCING SERIES
Dance With Me
Enjoy the Dance
Burn the Floor (coming soon)
MINNESOTA CHRISTMAS SERIES
Let It Snow
Sleigh Ride
Winter Wonderland
Santa Baby
THE CHRISTMAS TOWN SERIES
The Christmas Fling
More adventures in Logan, Minnesota coming soon
CLOCKWORK LOVE SERIES
Clockwork Heart
Clockwork Pirate (coming soon)
Clockwork Princess (coming soon)
SPECIAL DELIVERY SERIES
Special Delivery
Hooch and Cake
Double Blind
The Twelve Days of Randy
Tough Love
TUCKER SPRINGS SERIES
Second Hand (written with Marie Sexton)
Dirty Laundry
More titles in this series by other authors
SINGLE TITLES
Antisocial
A Private Gentleman
Nowhere Ranch (available in Italian)
Family Man (written with Marie Sexton)
The Devil Will Do
Hero
Miles and the Magic Flute
NONFICTION
Your A Game: Winning Promo for Genre Fiction (written with Damon Suede)
Many titles are also available in audio and more are in production. Check the listings wherever you purchase audiobooks to see which titles are available.
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