“Aye,” I tell him. “I know it. But on the other side of that coin, Tiernan? If I claim your sister and make her mine, she’ll have more than a connection to The Clan. She’ll have their protection and guidance. Financial and physical security all the days of her life.”
“And family,” Fiona says softly. “She’ll have family. More than the dysfunctional crew she currently has.”
Tiernan frowns. “Speak for yourself.”
“Lad, you’re most definitely a dysfunctional crew,” I tell him affectionately. He playfully punches me, and I lose my footing, stumbling toward the cliff’s edge. Large rocks loosen and drop downward and rain into the ocean below. Tiernan grabs me by the arm, and though I’m in no real danger of falling, yanks me back to firmer footing.
“Mother of God,” he mutters. “I could’ve killed my sister’s man.”
I shake him off and punch him back. He takes it unflinchingly. Likely thinks he deserves it.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” I tell him. “Gotta try harder than that to kill me. Anyway, welcome to the brotherhood. It’s what we do. Threaten the lives of each other one minute, then save the very lives we threatened the next.”
Fiona shakes her head. “I will literally never understand men.”
Tiernan glares. “Good.”
“Neither will I,” Sheena says, walking toward us with baby Sam on her hip and mam by her side. “But do you have to do this right at the edge of the cliff? Really? As if my heart can take anything else?”
“Honest to goodness,” mam says, shaking her head. “Get back here, will you? Lord but I’m thankful the new house has a fenced-in yard for the likes of you.”
I walk from the edge and take baby Sam in my arms. He jabbers on about something in baby speak. “Really?” I ask him. “You’ve got an opinion, too, hmm?”
Sheena’s eyes shine at me. “He adores you.”
“Good,” I tell her. “Maybe then he’ll sleep for me tonight, after we move everything?”
She grins and kisses my cheek. “Don’t count on it.”
I give her a wink. “That’s fine,” I lean in and whisper in her ear. “Because I already fully planned on keeping you up all night.”
She gives me a coy smile, and my heart warms.
This feels right. Sheena. Her family… our family. I’m still firmly established in the brotherhood, but now I’m moving in a direction that’s all mine. Taking on the responsibility of a family and soon, I’ll take Sheena as my wife.
Mam stays back when the others go ahead and squeezes my hand.
“Your dad would be proud of you, Nolan McCarthy. I’m proud of you,” she says. She kisses my cheek, and we go meet up with the others.
Sheena smiles at me.
“It’s a different world, isn’t it?” I say. “Facing the same things today as we did yesterday, only now we do it together.”
She takes my hand in hers and gives me that beautiful smile that lights up her eyes and makes my heart squeeze. “Aye,” she says. “Together.”EpilogueSheenaI love our new home.
Love it.
It’s nowhere near as elaborate as the McCarthy mansion on the cliffs, but it overlooks the sea, the view of the ocean right outside our living room windows as gorgeous as a painting. There’s a little swing set in the backyard, a little play center, a picnic table, and it’s fenced in for privacy. Nolan took with him a security detail, men that are as faithful as guard dogs. Lachlan occasionally joins them.
The inside of the house is well-lit and well-furnished, simple but modern. The kitchen is airy and spacious with tiled floors and stainless-steel appliances. Honestly, I’ve never had anything like it. Fiona and Tiernan each have their own room, and baby Sam has a little nursery right off our room. It’s peaceful here. Calm. It isn’t perfect. There are growing pains when merging a family, trials and errors and tears and confusion, at times. But we manage to make it work.
Some days, it doesn’t seem real. But it isn’t in the moments of vivid, utter perfection, that I want to pinch myself.
Not when we sit around the enormous table in the McCarthy dining room, joined together as one while the brothers regale us with tales of their childhood. Not when we celebrate together, my brothers and sister feasting on decadent foods and being spoiled for the first times in their lives. The bonds of family are a blessing, but those aren’t the times that feel surreal. I cherish those moments. I hold them in my heart like they’re closely guarded buried treasure, and maybe they are, those sweet moments of perfection that fill my heart.
But no, those aren’t the times I feel this is almost too good to be true. It’s in the trying times I sometimes struggle to accept this. To embrace this. To own it.
When baby Sam wakes in the night with an upset stomach, crying while standing in his crib, fat tears rolling down his chubby cheeks, and Nolan stumbles out of bed in pajama bottoms and a wrinkled t-shirt.