Max walks up and takes the baby from Talon’s arms, transferring him without the baby even stirring. “I can take Fiona.”
“Gabe can do it on his way home.”
We’re hardly on his way home. “Daria and I can take a cab.”
Talon turns to me and raises an eyebrow. “Gabe will take them home.”
The Next Don
Max
They’re all against me. Every single one of them is plotting for my woman to date my cousin.
This isn’t right.
I want to shout at them that Fiona’s mine. That they need to get on board with the two of us being together for the rest of our lives. Well, more like the five of us.
My family could go from two to five in just a few weeks. I lean my head back against the couch and stare up at the ceiling.
“There you are.” My father walks into the library. “Everyone is finally gone.”
Before I got to have a real conversation with Fiona.
Dad walks into the room towards the little bar cart in the corner and stops. “What’s wrong with you? Are you worrying about Everett?”
He’s some of the worry. “We need to get that chip out of him or a name…a location, something to help us find these guys to take them out.”
“Everett needs to learn to trust us first. Really trust us. He only just found Maddox’s group. Now, all of a sudden, he’s brought into a family that he can’t even start to understand.” Dad continues towards the cart. “Want another?”
I didn’t notice that I finished my drink. “Nah. I’m good, thanks.” We let an unknown boy move into our house. Howmuch more can we show him that we trust him, and that he can trust us? “I’m not big on patience right now.”
“With you on that. Your mother had a sister who she never got to know. It makes me angry and sad.”
And slightly murderous, I’d bet. “Life stinks sometimes.”
Dad nods and sits down next to me on the couch. “We just protect our family the best we can through all the world throws at us.”
What happens when the best isn’t good enough?
“Then you stand up and fight some more. That’s all we can do.”
Did Dad read my mind, or did I say that out loud? Either one is possible.
“Fiona and her sister are good people.”
Yeah, I know. Well, I don’t know much about Daria, but Fiona’s sister has to be a wonderful person. “She’s great with Hope and all the other kids on Willow Street.” One of the best parts of my day is watching her with the kids. Her endless patience and kindness might be what attracts me to her the most.
“That baby…” Dad shakes his head.
“I don’t know how she can give him back.”
“Maybe she thinks she has to.”
Huh?
“Fiona doesn’t have a family. It’s just her and her sister. She might want that baby to have everything she didn’t get a chance to have. By not adopting him, she’s giving him a chance at a family.”
A family.
