Every time the gates to the estate used to open, the memory of findingPatri’scrumpled body lying there flickered to life, but Rory had commissioned a side entrance so that those gates could be sealed shut.
For an eternity.
I’d only learned that when we’d arrived and had to use a different entrance.
Just like Patricia had foreseen…
That Sight of hers came through more often than Kitty’d like to admit.
“We have. I didn’t think we’d find people who’d get each of us so perfectly. I mean, Luc was dead-set on Jen from the start like the weirdo he is?—”
“Hey! I resent that when you’re as bad as I am!”
“—and I knew you had Hunter, but you were so goddamn stubborn that I thought you’d let him loose out of sheer idiocy,soru, but… I’m as proud of you as you are of me.”
A soft laugh escaped her. “Doesn’t matter which road we took so long as we made it to our destination.”
I didn’t point out that her route had taken her a hell of a lot longer than mine. Mostly, I was grateful she’d stopped doing a great ostrich impression and had let Hunter in.
I had a nephew and niece now because of that.
And she was pregnant again.
As was Jen.
More family. More Valentinis.
The future of our line was assured for another generation, even if Luc still didn’t have a son, and for the first time in decades, that didn’t matter to me.
What counted wasn’t the lineage or the lore, but the love.
It was love that had saved my sanity.
That made me want to live and not coast.
Love that had stopped Rory from turning into more of a stone than she had a rep for.
And that had prevented Luciu from losing himself entirely to vengeance.
Jen, Hunter, and Kitty—they’d saved us more than we would ever be worthy of…
Hands slipped around my waist as Kitty embraced me from behind.
“My wife needs me,” I intoned imperiously. “I’ll speak to you later.”
With their knowing laughter ringing in my ears, I ended the call, then turned in Kitty’s embrace.
“Good nap?”
She pressed her forehead into my pec. “Yeah. Until Chance kicked me in the back and Adamo had a bad dream.”
“You shouldn’t have stayed up so late last night.”
At my chiding, she wrinkled her nose. “Millie, George, Lara, and my godkids were leaving. What did you expect me to do? Be in bed by eight?”
I smirked at her ‘bah.’ “That sounded Sicilian.”
“I think you’ll find it sounded Irish.”
