Dom eyed me for a moment. “And what are you intending now?” he asked.
I laughed heartily. “Really? The what are your intentions? speech?” I asked.
Dom shrugged. “He’s my son,” he said simply.
I nodded. “I intend to spend the rest of my life with him,” I said simply.
Dom came around the table, his expression unreadable. I stood as he neared me. He held out his hand to shake mine and when I took it, he said, “Welcome to the family. Family dinners are Saturday nights and we rotate holidays and birthdays so you’ll need to get on the schedule once you get a place together. And I’ll expect you to play the host because my kid’s going to be busy with medical school.”
I chuckled until I realized the man wasn’t joking. “Uh, yeah, sure,” I murmured as I wondered why I felt so hot all of a sudden.
“Oh, and I’d like you guys to stop by for dinner tonight. My husband would like to meet you. Hope you like kids because our daughter is having a sleepover tonight and Tanner – that’s Eli’s little brother – has a day camp recital tomorrow that he’s going to be singing in so he’ll want to do a dress rehearsal for us,” Dom said as he walked towards the conference room door. “Actually, I’ll talk to Logan about getting you and Eli tickets for the recital,” he said with a smile as he opened the door.
I wasn’t surprised to see Eli standing worriedly at the door. His gaze flicked to me before going back to Dom. “He’ll do,” Dom murmured before he pulled Eli into his arms for a bear hug. “I love you, my boy,” Dom whispered and I saw Eli nod against his chest.
“I love you too.”
Dom dropped a kiss on his head and left the room. Eli twisted his fingers together as he walked towards me.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
I nodded and then I pulled him into my arms and kissed him. “It’s perfect,” I whispered before kissing him again. “It’s fucking perfect.”
Epilogue
Mav
“Shit, we’re going to be late,” I murmured as I slapped Eli on the ass and said, “Get a move on.”
“Please tell me you’re not actually afraid of Dom,” he said with a laugh as he lagged behind me on the narrow trail.
“Of course not,” I said. “It’s just common courtesy to be on time.”
“Family dinners never start on time,” Eli said.
“Well, we can be late to the next one, not this one.”
“Because it’s your first one,” Eli suggested.
“Why the hell didn’t they just cancel it since Brennan won’t be there, which means Zane and Connor won’t either?” I grumbled. I felt Eli snag my hand to pull me to a stop.
“Look at you learning everyone’s names.”
“What? I’m good with names and faces.”
“So it had nothing to do with Matty quizzing you with the flashcards Seth made for you?” Eli asked, a broad grin on his face.
“Damn kid,” I muttered. “He swore he wouldn’t tell.”
“I think it’s cute that you asked a five-year-old to help you with your homework.”
“Fuck you,” I growled. Eli chuckled and pulled me down for a kiss.
“He may or may not have given me a certain doll to help you with your nervousness. I put it in your saddlebag.”
I smiled at that and resumed the short walk back to my Harley which was parked near the end of the trail. I hadn’t yet had the honor of borrowing the coveted Spiderman doll. Apparently, I couldn’t even hide how nervous I was at the prospect of meeting Eli’s entire family from the little boy who still refused to let me win at Tic Tac Toe. I’d also been more than a little in awe of Matty who’d somehow managed to memorize all the different people from the flashcards Seth had created since the kid wasn’t old enough to read all the names. “Just wait till he has to face all those people when he gets out of the hospital in a week,” I grumbled, though I knew Matty would do just fine with Eli’s family.
Matty’s third round of chemo had come to an end and while he still needed to wait for his white blood cell count to normalize, he was already happily talking to Eli about all the animals the Barretti family members had. If everything went as planned, Hawke, Tate, Seth and Ronan would be bringing Matty to the very next Barretti family dinner. I hadn’t expected Ronan to accept the invite when Eli had extended it, but he hadn’t hesitated for even a second when Eli had brought it up. The idea of my badass, assassin family members meeting what I knew would one day be my massive family of in-laws was daunting to say the least. With my luck, Hawke who had more kills on his list than several of us combined, would end up sitting next to the straight-laced Captain Declan Barretti.