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“No? Who sneaked into whose room to use my perfume?”
“You weren’t using it,” she pointed out.
“She’s not wrong,” Conor said easily from his position in the hallway where he was leaning against the wall, watching us.
“I’ve got two people ganging up on me now,” I grumbled as Katina released a giggle then let go of me and hurtled into Conor too. He released a choked breath as she… Well, somehow, she kicked him in the process of hugging him and maybe elbowed him in the gut all at the same time.
My kid, for someone so coordinated in gymnastics class, could orchestrate a calamity while walking in a straight line.
“You did it! You brought her back to me! Thank you!” Her cry of joy, of thanks, made tears prick my eyes.
Goddammit, D was right.
Hewasmaking me mushy.
Conor, still looking winded from the multiple blows, returned her embrace. “You don’t have to thank me, Kat. My job is to always bring her home.”
I clenched my jaw at those words.
Did he have to keep saying stuff that hurt but in a wonderful way?
Pressing a hand to my chest where an ache was forming, I watched my kid and, God, mymantogether.
It was too perfect.
So innocent.
Except it was nothing I expected and everything I’d never dared dream of having for myself. Forourselves.
Throat thick with emotion, I wandered forward, moving behind Kat and sandwiching her in a soft hug, needing to be a part of this small circle.
My family.
Not just pack.
Family.
I breathed into the notion, pressed my face into Conor’s throat which prompted him to settle his hand between my shoulders to hold me closer, and accepted the rightness of this moment.
That rightness filtered through me, spreading through my veins, overtaking everything with the promise of hope—something I never dared allow myself to have.
“You okay, my love?”
Startled, I tilted my head back to look at him. “Yeah, I’m…” There was only one word for it. “…perfect.”
And I was.
Nothing was resolved, everything was in the air, and tomorrow was not guaranteed, but at that moment, I really, trulywasperfect.
He beamed a smile at me that was as earnest as it was genuine and I cupped his chin, knowing he could see the stars in my eyes and was unafraid to reveal them to him when he deserved each one.
“Star!”
Kat gained my attention by accidentally standing on my toe. “What, kiddo?”
“Who’s he?”
I blinked down at her. “Who’s who?”
