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It’s tentative, but Maeve opens her arms, and I step into her embrace. It’s not like hugging my mom, but it’s nice. It gets better a few seconds in as we both relax. I pull back, and Henry offers to shake my hand, then he tugs me in for a back slapping hug. When I step back, I see Chellie’s standing between my parents.
This world we live in. It’s as screwed-up as it gets. I’ve killed more men than I could remember to count. I’m a monster behind closed garage doors. I don’t think twice about committing crimes that support my family and my people. But I’m also a lucky man to have a normal family when we’re together and a woman I love more than life itself. Somehow, maybe that devotion to family is enough to redeem me, and that’s why I have the happy home life that I do.
“Are you ready to go home?”
I reach out for Chellie’s hand, but she shakes her head.
“Your mom and aunts cooked.”
Fuck me.
“Great. I’m starving.”
I’m not getting my soon-to-be bride alone for at least another three hours. Seven courses. That’s what dinner means with guests. Chellie goes onto her toes and kisses me where my jaw meets my neck, just below my ear.
“Don’t worry, Daddy. We’re leaving early to have dessert. I hear we have some peaches and cream and an amazing cannolo at our place.”
“We’ll be right back. I need to ask Chellie something.”
I drag her down the hallway to the half bathroom and push open the door, then lock it behind us.
“You shouldn’t tease,piccolina.”
“I wasn’t, Daddy. I plan to suck the cream from the cannolo.”
I growl and pounce. Ourconversationmakes us miss the first course, but neither of us cares. Being together is more important than anything else.
Epilogue
Chellie
“Liz, can you help me go to the bathroom? I’m like a scene from a rom com. I can’t find the end of my gown to get it up high enough to pee.”
My sister laughs at me as she helps me into the bathroom stall. Even with the gown bustled, it’s hard to maneuver. It’s bad enough Marco is stationed outside the restroom door. I need my sister to help me use the toilet like I’m four again. At least once we get the gown high enough, she backs out of the stall and leaves me alone.
“It really was a beautiful ceremony, Chellie.”
“You’re not upset that you and Laura were my matrons of honor?”
“You keep asking me that, and I’ve told you like twenty-hundred times, no. I’m not upset. I think it’s awesome that she could attend. I worried she wouldn’t be able to.”
Only Laura and Maks attended the ceremony in Lettie and Massi’s backyard. The one where Enzo and his brothers and sister used to play as kids. The one I hope our kids play in. But we’re at one of the nicest hotels in Manhattan for the reception. The women already warned me the ceremony would be private. The reception is a chance for the who’s who of polite society and the underworld to rub elbows. I remember from Laura’s reception. Except Enzo isn’t making the same mistakes as Maks. Enzo’s been damn near perfect.
I flush the toilet, and Liz helps me out of the stall. We brush my dress down, so it settles back into place before I wash my hands. We look at each other in the mirror and grin just like we did as kids. Other than Laura, Liz’s the only one I told about Enzo. I didn’t tell her to keep secrets from Mom and Dad, but she understood why I wasn’t ready to say anything. At least, not until I had to.
Things have been quiet this week. It’s hard to believe it’s actually been less than a week since men shot up my parents’ home. It’s surreal to think that. I saw Finn when he entered the reception, and it’s clear someone beat the shit out of him. I’d guess it was my husband. Enzo says things are resolved, but he caveats it with a for now. I get the sense that the resolution was rather anticlimactic.
I’m fine with that because it means he came home in one piece. But it gives me the sense that this is the calm before the storm. It scares me to imagine what might be coming. But in the immortal words of Scarlet O’Hara, “I’ll think about that tomorrow.”
Liz opens the restroom door, and Marco pushes away from the door. Something flashes in his eyes that I can’t interpret before he offers me his arm.
“Ladies, are we good?”
“Yes. Sorry to keep you waiting.”
I notice him glance at Liz as he offers her his other arm.
“Waiting’s not always so bad. They say good things come from it.”
