Page 23 of Tempted By Shadow

“I’m aware.”

“And I’m...” I struggle for the right word. “I’m the guy who was sneaking into your apartment. Who lied to him for weeks. Who?—”

“Who took a knife for me.” Naomi steps closer, her hand coming up to rest on my chest. “Who earned his patch. Who my brother respects, even if he’d rather chew glass than admit it.” She rises on her toes and kisses me softly. “You’re family now. That’s what tonight is about.”

Family. The word still feels strange in my mouth. Foreign.

But I follow her up the steps anyway.

Demi answers the door with a warm smile and a hug for Naomi.

King is in the kitchen, pulling something from the oven. He looks up when we walk in, clocks me for a second — the instinctive assessment of a president. Then something shifts, and he just nods.

“Grab a seat. Food’s almost ready.”

Dinner is good. Demi made lasagna from her grandmother’s recipe, and the conversation flows easier than I expected. Naomi and Demi talk about the coffee shop, about Gracie’s baby. King and I talk about club business — a run next month, some property the club’s looking at.

Normal. Almost scarily normal.

Then King sets down his fork.

“Before we finish up, I want to say something.”

The table goes quiet. I feel Naomi tense beside me.

“About my sister,” King says, looking at Naomi. “And about you.” His gaze shifts to me.

Here it comes. I brace myself.

“Naomi, you scared the shit out of me when you left.” His voice is gruff, but there’s something raw underneath. “You ran off with some loser, and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. I spent two years waiting for a phone call telling me you were dead in a ditch somewhere.”

“King—” Naomi starts.

“Let me finish.” He holds up a hand. “You came home. That took guts. And you came home different — stronger. I’m proud of you.”

Naomi’s eyes are shining.

King turns to me, and I stop breathing.

“You lied to me. Snuck around behind my back.” His eyes are hard. “You also took a knife protecting my sister. Fought three men when you could have run. Bled all over her floor keeping her safe.” He pauses. “And you make her happy. I can see it.”

I don’t know what to say. So I don’t say anything.

“But If you ever hurt her,” King says, his voice dropping, “I will make you wish you’d never?—”

Under the table, Demi’s foot connects with his shin. Hard.

“Ow! What the?—”

“Wrap it up,” Demi says sweetly. “With the nice part.”

King glares at his wife, then sighs. When he looks back at me, something in his expression has softened.

“Welcome to the family,” he says. “Don’t make me regret it.”

I feel Naomi’s hand find mine under the table. Feel her squeeze tight.

“I won’t,” I tell him. And I mean it.

Later, after dessert, after Demi and Naomi have disappeared into the kitchen laughing about something I’ll never understand, I look around the table at the remains of the meal. The empty wine glasses. The scattered crumbs. The candles burning low.

I think about the kid I was. The prospect I became. The man I’m still learning to be.

I never had a family. Never had anyone who stuck around when things got hard.

Now I have a brother who threatened me and welcomed me in the same breath. A sister-in-law who kicks him under the table when he gets too intense. A woman who chose me when she didn’t have to.

A place at the table.

A family.