Page 97 of Scout

I’m still working. Just… differently now. No more late-night mystery dates or back-to-back bookings. No more pretending it doesn’t wear on me. I still escort sometimes, but with hard boundaries and even harder honesty. And I started writing. Like,reallywriting.

Turns out, people want to read a memoir calledFox Tails: Confessions of a Retired Companion Turned Reluctant Mr. Mom.

Go figure.

I’ve got an agent now. An actual agent. She says I’m “raw” and “unfiltered” and “incredibly marketable.” I think that’s code for “emotionally constipated gay disaster with a heart of gold,” but I’ll take it.

We have dinner together most nights. All of us. Sometimes it’s takeout, sometimes it’s half-burned chicken and three different side dishes because we forgot to plan. Xavier always brings dessert. Kendrix always does the dishes. Juniper roasts us all like it’s her full-time job. And when the sun sets, and the balcony light kicks on, and I’m surrounded by people whosee me—not just the version I sold—I feel… okay.

More than okay.

Happy.

And tonight, as we’re eating pizza off a cardboard box and laughing about how Kendrix accidentally packed the toilet paper in the bottom of a bin labeled “holiday decor,” Juniper gets real quiet. Her eyes go soft in that way they do when she’s about to ask something big.

“Hey,” she says, “can I ask you guys something kind of important?”

We all stop.

“I wanna stay a Hastings,” she says carefully. “I wanna keep being Scout’s little sister. But… would it be okay if you two adopted me too?”

Silence. One breath. Two.

Xavier drops his slice. Kendrix covers his mouth like he’s trying not to fall apart. I just stare at her, becausedamn, this kid doesn’t miss.

“You mean legally?” Xavier asks, voice thick.

“Yeah,” she says. “You alreadyfeellike dads. I just wanna make it real. You don’t have to change anything. Just… put it on paper.”

Xavier blinks fast, then asks gently, “Why not Scout? He’s your blood. Your legal guardian.”

Juniper shrugs, but her voice is steady. “Because he’s my big brother. That’s who he’s always been. And yeah, I thought about it. But I don’t want that to change. I don’t want him to be ‘Dad,’ even if… even if that’s what it kind of is sometimes.”

She glances at me, and I feel her words land somewhere deep in my chest.

“I want a dad on paper. Or maybe two,” she says. “And you two? You’re always there. Same as him. And I want you toalwaysbe. So I want it to be you.”

Xavier glances over at me, and Kendrix does too.

“You okay with this, Scout?” Xavier asks, quiet but serious.

I smile, already feeling my eyes sting. “Who do you think she asked if it was okay before she officially asked you two?”

Juniper shrugs like it’s obvious. “Had to get big brother’s approval first.”

Kendrix wipes his eyes. “You wantus? You sure?”

She grins. “I mean, I’ve already seen you both cry during that Pixar movie, so yeah. I’m sure.”

They both lose it. Full tears. Ugly ones. I wrap her in a hug, bury my face in her blonde locks, and whisper, “You sure know how to wreck a moment, kid.”

She squeezes tighter. “You love it.”

I do.

I really do.

And when I look up, across the room, at Xavier and Kendrix and the life we’ve built in six messy, beautiful months, I feel it settle in my chest for the first time.

This is it.

I’m not a placeholder.

I’m not a job.

I’m theirs. They’re mine. And we’re hers.

A real family.

God help us all.