I wasn’t the man I’d been fourteen years ago. Hell, I wasn’t even the man I’d been a year ago.
But standing in this room, holding hands with the woman who’d saved me, watching my brothers build lives I’d never dared imagine for myself …
I was finally becoming the man I was supposed to be.
“What are you thinking about?” Harper murmured.
I tilted my chin down, brushing my lips against her hair. “You.”
“Liar.” She pulled back to look at me, those green eyes bright with amusement. “You were thinking about how you almost cried, holding that baby.”
“I didn’t almost cry.”
“Knox, your jaw was doing that thing.”
“What thing?”
“The thing where you clench it so hard, I’m afraid you’re going to crack a molar.” She rose on her toes and pressed a kiss to my jaw, right where the stubble was thickest. “It’s okay. Your secret’s safe with me.”
“I have a reputation to maintain.”
“Your reputation is that you’re a terrifying ex-con who once made a man wet himself in the prison cafeteria.” She smiled against my skin. “I think you can survive one moment of emotional vulnerability.”
“That story got exaggerated.”
“Did it?”
“No.”
She laughed, and the sound settled into my chest like sunlight.
Across the room, Ellie let out a small cry, and Blake immediately went into full protective mode, checking her diaper, her temperature, her general state of being with the intensity of a surgeon.
“She’s fine,” Tessa said patiently. “Babies cry.”
“Right, but why is she crying?” Blake countered.
“Blake. Sweetheart. Light of my life.” Tessa patted his hand. “She’s expressing herself. It’s healthy.”
“She’s been alive for six hours. What does she have to express?”
“Opinions, apparently. She gets that from you.”
I watched Blake fumble through new fatherhood with equal parts amusement and recognition.
That little girl had no idea what she’d been born into.
Five men who would commit actual felonies for her without hesitation. Okay, fine, I’d learned to seriously hesitate, but still, she had five men who’d walked through fire for each other and would do it again in a heartbeat.
Ellie would never be alone. Never be unprotected. Never wonder if someone had her back.
Because she had us.
Harper squeezed my hand, reading my thoughts the way she always did. “You’re going to be an amazing uncle.”
“I’m going to be a terrifying uncle,” I corrected. “Any boy who comes near her is going to have to get through five background checks and a psychological evaluation.”
“Only five?” Harper smirked.
