Thank You!
You found it! This is the exclusive bonus content hub for The Mountains Keeper. As a huge thank you for reading, we’ve put together some extra material that you won’t find anywhere else.
EXCLUSIVE BONUS CONTENT
One Year Later – May
SILAS
Silas had survived two tours in Afghanistan.
He was not going to survive his own wedding.
“Stop fidgeting,” Julian said, adjusting Silas’s tie for the third time. “You look perfect.”
“I look ridiculous.” Silas tugged at the collar of his dress shirt. “This tie is trying to kill me.”
“It’s not trying to kill you. It’s trying to make you look handsome for our wedding photos.” Julian stepped back, surveying his work. “And it’s succeeding. You clean up nice, mountain man.”
They stood in what used to be just Silas’s bedroom—now theirs—getting ready for a ceremony that would happen in less than an hour. In their backyard. With twenty people watching.
Silas’s hands were shaking.
“Hey.” Julian caught them, held them steady. “Talk to me. What’s going on?”
“Twenty people,” Silas said. “Staring at me. Watching me say vows. For hours.”
“Forty-five minutes, max. I timed it.” Julian’s thumb stroked across his knuckles. “And they’re not strangers. They’re our people. Mrs. Chen, Sarah, Bobby, the regulars from the bakery. People who love us.”
“What if I freeze up? What if I can’t say the vows?”
“Then I’ll say them for you.” Julian smiled. “Or we’ll just stand there holding hands while the officiant does all the talking. I don’t care, Silas. I just care that at the end of it, you’re my husband.”
Husband. The word still felt impossible. Wonderful and impossible.
“What if—”
Julian kissed him, cutting off the spiral. When he pulled back, his eyes were fierce. “No more what-ifs. We’re doing this. You want to marry me?”
“More than anything.”
“I want to marry you. That’s all that matters.” Julian straightened his tie one more time. “Everything else is just details.”
A knock at the door. Sarah’s voice: “Fifteen minutes, gentlemen! Julian, you’re not supposed to see the groom before the ceremony!”
“We’re both grooms!” Julian called back. “The rules are unclear!”
“Then I’m making an executive decision! Separate now or I’m coming in there!”
Julian laughed, pressed one more kiss to Silas’s mouth. “I’ll see you out there. Try not to run.”
“I won’t run,” Silas promised. “Not from this. Not from you.”
“Good.” Julian headed for the door, paused. “I love you. In case I don’t say it enough.”
“You do.” Silas’s voice was rough. “But I never get tired of hearing it.”
Julian’s smile was brilliant. “I love you, Silas. See you at the altar.”
Then he was gone, and Silas was alone with his reflection and his nerves.
He looked at himself in the mirror. Navy suit that Julian had helped him pick out. Tie the exact color of Julian’s eyes. Hair trimmed. Scars visible—he’d decided against the gaiter for the ceremony.
Julian wanted to see his whole face when they said their vows.
And Silas wanted to give him that.
Another knock. Marcus this time—Silas’s best man, his Army buddy who’d driven up from Seattle for the wedding.
“Ready?” Marcus asked.
“Terrified.”
“Good. Means you care.” Marcus clapped him on the shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get you married.”
JULIAN
Julian stood at the makeshift altar—a simple wooden arch that Silas had built, decorated with wildflowers and fairy lights—and tried not to cry.
The backyard looked magical. Sarah and Mrs. Chen had transformed it with flowers and lights and enough baked goods to feed an army. Twenty chairs faced the arch, filled with people who’d become family over the past year.
The sun was setting over the mountains, painting everything gold.
It was perfect.
Julian’s hands shook as he held his notes—just in case he forgot his vows. As if he could forget the words he’d been rehearsing for months.
Sarah stood beside him as his “best person,” resplendent in a emerald dress. “You okay?” she whispered.
“Nervous. Excited. Terrified I’ll ugly cry through the whole thing.”
“You’re absolutely going to ugly cry. I brought extra tissues.” Sarah squeezed his hand. “I’m happy for you, Julian. You deserve this.”
“Thanks for everything. For being here. For taking over the bakery. For—”
“For being your friend? That’s what friends do.” Sarah smiled. “Now stop thanking me before I start crying too.”
The music started—acoustic guitar, one of their regulars playing.
Everyone stood.
And there was Silas.
Walking toward him with Marcus at his side, looking terrified and determined and so handsome Julian’s breath caught. The scars on his jaw caught the golden light. His eyes—those pale gray eyes—were locked on Julian’s face.
Like Julian was the only person in the world.
When Silas reached the altar, he took Julian’s hands. They were shaking.
“Hi,” Julian whispered.
“Hi.” Silas’s smile was nervous but real. “You look beautiful.”
“So do you.”
The officiant—a kind woman from town who’d gotten ordained specifically for this—began speaking. Julian barely heard her. He was too busy looking at Silas, memorizing this moment.
The man who’d kept six months of muffins was about to become his husband.
“—the couple has prepared their own vows,” the officiant said. “Silas?”
Silas’s hands tightened on Julian’s. He took a shaky breath.
“Julian. I’m not good with words. I’m better with actions. With building things. Fixing things.” He paused. “But you deserve words. So I’m going to try.
“A year ago, I was convinced I didn’t deserve to be happy. That I should spend the rest of my life alone, punishing myself for surviving when others didn’t. Then you crashed your van in a blizzard and changed everything.
“You saw past my scars. Past my silence. Past every reason I gave you to run. And you stayed. You kept coming back. You loved me until I learned to love myself.
“You taught me that surviving isn’t a sin. That I’m allowed to be happy. That I deserve—” His voice cracked. “That I deserve to be loved.
“I promise to choose you every day. To let you in even when I’m scared. To build a life with you that honors both where we’ve been and where we’re going. To eat your muffins fresh instead of saving them.”
Laughter rippled through the guests.
“I promise to be brave for you. For us. To keep trying even when it’s hard. Because you’re worth it. This is worth it.”
Silas’s eyes were bright with tears. “I love you, Julian. Thank you for not giving up on me.”
Julian was definitely ugly crying now.
“Your turn,” the officiant said gently.
Julian wiped his eyes, smiled through tears. “Silas. I used to think happiness was something you performed. That if you smiled hard enough, eventually it would become real. I was wrong.
“Real happiness is this. You. Us. Waking up next to someone who sees you—really sees you—and loves you anyway.
“You think I saved you, but you saved me first. You made me believe I was worth more than my usefulness. That someone could want me for who I am, not what I provide. That I could stop performing and just be.
“I promise to keep showing up. To fight for us even when you’re scared. To remind you every single day that you’re worth loving. To make you muffins until we’re old and gray and you’re sick of them.”
“Never,” Silas murmured, making Julian laugh.
“I promise to be your home. Your safe place. Your person. For better or worse, in sickness and health, through nightmares and hard days and everything else life throws at us.
“I choose you, Silas. Every day. Forever. For always.”
They were both crying now. So was half the audience.
“The rings?” the officiant asked.
Marcus and Sarah stepped forward with the bands—the same wooden and silver rings Silas had made, now blessed and ready.
Julian slid Silas’s ring on with shaking hands. “With this ring, I thee wed.”
Silas did the same, voice rough. “With this ring, I thee wed.”
“Then by the power vested in me,” the officiant said, beaming, “I now pronounce you married. You may kiss your husband.”
Silas pulled Julian close and kissed him.
Not gentle. Not tentative. Sure and claiming and full of promise.
Their guests erupted in applause.
When they broke apart, both were smiling through tears.
“Husband,” Julian said wonderingly.
“Husband,” Silas agreed. “Mine.”
“Yours,” Julian confirmed. “Always.”
SILAS
The reception was loud and chaotic and everything Silas usually avoided.
He loved it.
Because Julian’s hand was in his, anchoring him. Because everyone’s smiles were genuine. Because this was their wedding, their celebration, their family.
Mrs. Chen’s toast involved the words “I knew it from the start” at least five times. Bobby’s was awkward but sweet. Marcus told an embarrassing story about Silas in basic training that made Julian laugh until he couldn’t breathe.
But Sarah’s toast was the one that made Silas cry again.
“I’ve known Julian for five years,” she said, raising her glass. “And in all that time, I never saw him truly happy. Not until Silas. Not until he found someone who saw past the sunshine to the real person underneath.
“And Silas—I’ll be honest, you scared me at first. The whole mountain hermit thing was intense. But then I saw how you looked at Julian. Like he was the sun. Like he was everything.
“You two broke each other’s walls down. Taught each other how to be loved. Built something beautiful together—not just the bakery, but a life. A real one.
“So here’s to Julian and Silas. To six months of muffins that led to forever. To mountain men and sunshine boys. To love that refuses to quit.
“To Sugar Pine and Sawdust. To you.”
“To us,” Julian echoed, clinking his glass against Silas’s.
“To us,” Silas agreed.
They cut the cake—a six-tier masterpiece that Julian and Sarah had made together, each layer a different muffin flavor. They danced, Silas stumbling through a waltz he’d practiced for weeks. They laughed and cried and celebrated with people who loved them.
And when the sun set completely and the fairy lights glowed like stars, Silas pulled Julian close.
“Thank you,” he said.
“For what?”
“For this. For not letting me run. For loving me until I learned how.”
“Always,” Julian said. “I’ll always love you.”
“I know.” Silas smiled. “I’m starting to believe it.”
“Good.” Julian kissed him soft and sweet. “Because it’s true. You’re stuck with me now. For better or worse. Till death do us part.”
“Till death do us part,” Silas repeated.
And for the first time in his life, he looked forward to every single day that promise contained.
They left the reception around midnight, sneaking away to their cabin while the party continued.
In their bedroom, Julian carefully removed his tie. Silas helped with the buttons.
“We’re married,” Julian said, still sounding awed.
“We are.” Silas pulled him close. “How does it feel?”
“Perfect. Terrifying. Right.” Julian smiled up at him. “Like coming home.”
“Yeah.” Silas kissed him. “Exactly like that.”
They made love slowly, reverently. Husband and husband. Partners and best friends. Two broken people who’d found each other and decided to be whole together.
Afterward, they lay tangled together, windows open to the mountain air.
“I’m happy,” Silas said into the darkness. “I’m so happy it scares me.”
“Don’t be scared.” Julian’s fingers traced patterns on his chest. “Be happy. You deserve it.”
“I’m starting to believe that.”
“Good.” Julian pressed a kiss over his heart. “Because I’m going to spend the rest of our lives proving it to you.”
“The rest of our lives,” Silas repeated wonderingly. “I like the sound of that.”
“Me too.”
Outside, the mountain was quiet. Inside, everything was warm and safe and home.
Two broken people, made whole by love.
Choosing each other.
Every single day.
Forever.
Thank You! We Hope You Enjoyed!
If you enjoyed this bonus please explore our other titles you are sure to find something else you will love!