Page 76 of Blissful Devotion

The library.

I click it and find Kat and Oliver both still asleep, unmoving from when I looked not three minutes ago on Nate’s phone.

“It’s not your fault, you know that, right?”

I freeze for a moment before I lock my phone and stuff it back in my pocket. I can’t look at her and think of all she went through, not without feeling physically ill.

“Yeah.” I push to stand before his hand drops to my shoulder, keeping me where I am.

“Do you?” He pushes, and one of the worst parts of our friendship is that it’s nearly impossible to keep things from him; he sees through my shit the same way I see through his. “Because you seem pretty in your head about this still. We got her back. She’s safe, and we're going to keep her and the rest of our family that way, no matter the lengths we have to go to do it.”

Easy to say when he’s not the one who failed her, again. The one who let the worst kind of people sink their claws into her, leaving marks I can’t even begin to understand on her psyche.

Kat is everything good, kind, gentle, and understanding. She’s more than I could ever ask for, more than I’ll ever deserve, even before I fucked up.

She didn’t deserve that; very few people do.

“I know you have this weird ‘I don’t deserve her thing’ going on, but you chose her. You sat at that table and told her you would be here.” My head snaps up, and I find his gaze fixed on me, eyes narrowed and face serious. “She loves you, Vince, whether she realizes it or not. It’s clear in the way she looks at you, and if you walk away now, you will be responsible for breaking her heart.”

Ouch.

Nathan and I have never pulled punches; that’s not the kind of friendship we have. If anything, we're more likely to actually punch each other.

“You know I wouldn’t do that to her.”

“The only acceptable answer,” he says with a nod, his fingers flexing on my shoulder before he releases me, his lips pulling up ever so slightly.

Instead of leaving, I fall back onto the couch again, reaching for my phone. I need something to distract me from the flight, and now I have the perfect thing.

I’m not proud of how long I watch the footage as we make the rest of the trip to pick up Addy.

Desmond comes in with a snack tray a while later, snaps a few pictures of them, then wakes Oliver, who accidentally wakes Kat too. Desmond sits with them, and they eat snacks for a while before Alex joins them again. Something tells me I’m not the only one watching.

The video is clear enough that I can see the blush on her face as Alex feeds Kat a grape, and while I don’t turn the volume on, something tells me it would pick up every sound. Watching them gives me a sense of peace that very few other things ever have. They look happy, like a cute little family…

My family.

Something I’ve never had—never thought I wanted. I enjoyed not having ties; my only weakness was Nate and then his kids, but maybe I’m starting to see the upside.

The rest of the flight passed pretty quickly. Addison is waiting with her grandparents when we arrive, which is nice because it means we get back home to Kat faster, but it also means we have to get right back on the plane.

Yippie.

“Uncle Vinny!” Addison shouts as she runs toward me, her lips pulled up in a huge smile that leaves me no choice but to smile back as I scoop her up into my arms and hold her tight.

Nathan takes a few minutes to talk with his parents, and I take Addison up onto the plane to settle in as she tells me all about her time with her grandparents and all they did.

I’m beyond grateful she had family who could take her and distract her from everything that was happening. From the sound of it, she had an amazing time.

“Is Mommy home?” All of her earlier happiness and bubbly personality is gone, replaced by a frown that pulls at the heartstrings I would have sworn I didn’t have a few months ago.

Actually, I might still claim I don’t, even if I know it’s a lie.

How does she look older? It’s only been a few months, but I swear it feels like so much more as I stand here, holding her gaze while she glares up at me, waiting for my answer.

“Yeah, honey, she is.”

Her mood instantly shifts, her glare melting into excitement and wonder that grips my heart.