Page 141 of Thin Lives

“Someone was being demanding about wanting to see you,” Calisto said. “He gets antsy when you’re gone for too long.”

“You couldn’t send him over with someone else? You have a room across the church to stay in.”

Maybe so.

But …

“Maybe someone else was getting antsy, too,” Calisto said quietly.

He was always like that with her now, and with Cross, too. The longer he was away from one or the other, the worse his attitude and restlessness became. He loved them far too much to be away from them. They were his place—his one good, safe, and happy place made just for him.

Emma pursed her painted red lips, leaned forward, and pressed a hard kiss to his mouth. She murmured against his lips, “I love you, but I will see you at the end, Calisto.”

His throat tightened.

She had no one to walk her down the aisle this time.

But she was free to choose, and she was choosing him.

Sometimes, even the bad guys won.

“At the end, Calisto,” Emma repeated. “I will find you there, I promise.”

He kissed her again, lingering for as long as he could.

“At the end, Emmy.”

Calisto

There was something to be said for the way a man raised his family. Because at the end of it all, when a man was driven to his final resting place, there wasn’t very damn much he could take with him. Sure, he could line his casket in gold, and rot inside a silk lined grave. His tombstone could be the biggest in the cemetery, the one people saw first before any other.

But those were just things.

Unimportant, forgettable things.

It had taken Calisto years to learn that it wasn’t what he would take with him when he died, but what he left behind. Those things were the important, poignant moments that would never be forgotten, that would carry his legacy beyond his grave and tombstone, and they would come from him.

Well, a part of him.

“Almost ready?” Emma asked.

Calisto felt her hand on his arm, her fingers squeezing gently. She was there, getting him through the emotional hell this day was.

He never thought it would be this hard.

“Cal?” his wife asked softer.

Calisto glanced up from his wrist as he slid his watch in place and cuffed the links together. He’d been staring at the same spot for minutes, and only now realized it. “No, Emmy, I’m not ready.”

Emma smiled, soft and sweet.

She was always sweet.

Always would be.

Her hand came up and cupped the side of his cheek, patting lightly. “This is a good day, Calisto.”

“I know, bella.”