The timing is unfortunate. It has everyone spread thin. There is already a skeleton crew rotating shifts in the resort so more employees can enjoy the carnival. Axel and Ryker usually work around the clock during the Underground Independence Festival for the same reason. And temps are assigned to staff the public areas. We also have extra security devoted to my family and the guards following us.
But nothing would keep these men from celebrating Rena becoming a mom. Even Bernard hopped in Maddox’s Cadillac Escalade with us, forsaking the employee nonsense to celebrate with a young woman he views as a surrogate granddaughter.
We arrive in a caravan of vehicles, but manage to park and rush inside as a group.
Rena is bright-eyed, cradling her teeny son, and thrilled to have a party for her first hour postpartum. It’s the polar opposite of how I’d be, and yet I’m utterly fascinated. Ty is glowing, in awe of his wife and infants, his baby girl nestled in his arms. The three other couples that comprise their family are doting, munching on Skittles and Doritos and bantering about movies.
They respectfully make room for the Noire brothers the moment we arrive.
I snatch a sleeping Remy from Mercy and snuggle up on the couch with him while she says her congrats and hellos. She and Ryker wanted him to meet his cousins, and he sleeps like a log, so they decided to drag him out of bed. I could lay him down somewhere, but I enjoy cuddling him, and he provides a welcome shield for me to quietly drink in the scene from afar.
Axel kisses Rena’s forehead, and I swear as he steals that baby boy from her, a few tears break free. He’s usually so composed that the simple act is disarming.
And when Maddox taunts him with the monikerGrandpa Axe, he doesn’t appear to be disturbed by the title. He looks honored, like he might dissolve into a gooey puddle on the floor. It has Rena weeping through giggles and repeating the new honorific.
As I scan the rest of them, I find all the men are somewhat emotional.
Jax claims a seat on Rena’s bed. Maddox praises the babies’ names—Lyric and Lennon—for being music-related. Cash hovers near Ty, in awe of his niece’s grip on his finger until Ryker swipes the tiny princess for himself. All of them are glossy-eyed and various degrees of choked up.
Mercy plops down beside me with a sniff, and I turn to find her crying too.
“It took a lot for them to get here. I wasn’t around much right after they lost their parents, but I know Axel and Rykerwere terrified they’d mess up raising the four kids. So, this …” She glances back at the men crowded around Rena, laughing and joking and gushing over the newborns. “It probably feels like they’ve got another piece of their mom. They can be a lot, but there’s nothing more important to them than the people in this room.”
Every encounter with them has me reevaluating my previous notions regarding family, like Maddox told me I would.
“That’s clear.” An anvil of overwhelm compresses my lungs, my throat instantly raw and sticky. “I’m afraid Maddox is going to do something reckless.”
“Reckless or dangerous?” she asks, and for the first time, based on that distinction, she seems very much a Noire.
“I’m not sure yet.”
“Well, danger is part of this world. You know that.” She smooths her hand over my thigh, waiting on me to elaborate. She never pushes me, but I suspect she knows more about what’s going on than she lets on.
“He made a love confession or declaration, and I can’t help but think he wouldn’t have if—”
“That’s not true.” Despite her efforts to remain neutral, she can’t hide the buoyancy in her query. “Did you say it back?”
I shake my head. “I didn’t want to under duress. It’s all so screwed up right now. We need time. I want to show him how I feel, not simply parrot the sentiment.”
“I understand that. And it’s okay that you move at a slower pace with feelings, but that’s not how”—she pauses, perusing all the Noires—“any of them are. Everything this family does drips with intensity, so Maddox moving fast with you makes sense. Once they make a decision, really make it, they stop at nothing. But that extends to everything. He’ll do whatever it takes to protect you. They all will.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of. It’s like there’s a sixth sense, sending me a warn—” I stop abruptly when the three women who are part of Ty and Rena’s crew join us.
I’ve met Ivy and Celeste before, but the third woman is new to me.
She sits on the couch with us, a nursing cape covering all but some wiggly toes. “I’m Leigh, and this little guy is George.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Tessa. I’m … with—”
“Maddox,” Ivy finishes with a grin when I trip over what to call myself. “He can’t take his eyes off you.”
I glance at Maddox and find him rocking one of the babies, but his fiery gaze is indeed searing into me. I’m hit with a sudden longing for a future with him—kids and home-cooked meals and dancing in the kitchen. He’d be an amazing dad.
“From what Rena tells us, he never could,” Celeste adds with all the flair and sophistication of an old Hollywood actress. “I hope you made him work for it.”
We all laugh, but Mercy is the one to boast.
“It wasn’t nineteen years in the making,” she begins, referring to the two decades that Ryker pined for her, “but Tessa certainly brought him to his knees. And most would have thought it couldn’t be done.”
