Reluctantly, he turned back to Matthew and gave him a tight nod. “Okay.”
FORTY-THREE
DAISY
I wokeup to a door slamming and a clatter of activity. Squeals of my children’s voices interspersed with others.
Excitement in the air, while I felt as if I’d been sucker punched.
My sleep had been chaotic. Tossing and turning in a toil of the confessions that Cash had made last night.
Now, I was uncertain of where we stood.
He’d been so certain that he would be the source of our affliction. That he was nothing more than a servant of pain.
His ghosts so powerful and profound they had become his master.
I mean, okay, it scared me that he basically got off on inflicting violence. But he said these people weren’t innocent.
That gave him a lot of points, right?
Or was I making excuses?
Eva squealed before there was a riot of pounding feet.
What in the world was happening?
Blowing out a sigh, I slipped off the bed, padded to the door, and pulled it open.
A bit in a daze as I tried to process what was happening in the great room.
Charleigh, Emery, Piper, and Raven were standing inside. Raven held a giant garment box and the rest of the women were loaded down with bags. The entire flock of their children minus Baby Luna held hands and ran around in a circle with mine, the six of them overjoyed at seeing each other again.
Their little faces lit up with excitement.
Addy caught sight of me first, and she spun around to where I loitered in the doorway. “Mom! Guess what?! Since you’ve got to go marry our Grumpy Giant, after the wedding, we get to go to Finn’s house to have a big sleepover party with all our new friends! Can you believe it?”
“But that means you’re our family since our uncle Cash is going to be your dad,” Nolan said with an emphatic nod of his head.
My stomach twisted.
Oh no.
Is that what they thought?
Crap, I really hadn’t thought this whole thing through, had I? I thought this whole ceremony thing would be swept under the rug.
Done in the darkness.
A quickie marriage that no one would notice.
“But family is really just who you love most,” Nolan added. “And we already love you, so we got a good thing.”
Was it?
Was what I was doing a good thing?
Teasing my children with the hope of this when it was only fake? Temporary?
