“Dancing on tables will do that to you,” I tell her, trying not to laugh.
It hadn’t been funny at the time watching my mother be carried away from the reception and into an ambulance with Cassie in creamy white at my side, but it was damn funny now and she knew it.
“You know what?” My mother says in a voice that I know means she’s joking. She points a finger at me and she looks as if she wants to smile. “I think I will have that drink, actually.”
She disappears through the door into the library and Cassie bursts into laughter. Willow smiles a gummy grin at her mother, burying her hand in my wife’s pale hair. The hand that was wrapped around my finger goes into her slobber-filled mouth and she lets out a gurgling little laugh.
Warmth spreads through my chest and I feel like the luckiest man in the world.
Cassie sighs, tipping her head back as I stand behind her. The curve of her cheek glows with the morning sun and she looks like an angel, lovely and altogether too beautiful to be real. Her face is the highlight of my dreams and the reason my happiness is so all-consuming.
I know the planes of Cassie’s curves like I know the back of my own hand. I know her different smiles and every single note of her laughter. I know her and she knows me.
“Can you believe that we’re finally here?” she says, watching the sun as it finally brakes over the trees. “I never dreamed I could have this with you, but I’m so glad we’re here now.”
“I love you so much,” I tell her because there are so many things that I want to say but my words fail me, but that seems to cover it pretty well.
Cassie looks like she’s never been more at peace and I’m glad I’m the cause of it. I was happy to renovate the house for her and in the process, I have made my mother happy as well. I know she always imagined grandchildren in the old house, running and playing in the place where I grew up. Now, she has that. Willow will take her first steps in my father’s home, now my home— our home.
“I know you do,” Cassie says as I kiss her temple. She looks back at me. “Magnus, how are we going to explain to our daughter what it is that you do?”
I pause for a moment. I hadn’t really thought it through if I was being honest. We have enough money to make it another hundred years without working another day in our lives. Now that Cassie finally knows what it is she’s a part of, I want her to know that she’s safe with me.
“What do you mean?” I ask her as Willow nods off on her shoulder. I kiss her little head.
“Well,” Cassie says, speaking quietly, though I can hear the humor in her voice. “I don’t think that settling disputes among other criminals, protecting them against each other's cheating, and organizing and overseeing illicit agreements with other families is really going to hold up well on the daddy-daughter day at school.”
“Right,” I answer her, thinking. “No, you’re right about that. It’s no life for our daughter to grow up in. We’re away from it now, at least. We have my father’s estate and I’ve let Renner take over as the head of the family which he’s happy to do in order for us to live a quiet life. But there will be occasions where I might be needed.”
Cassie sighs. “My dad runs the day-to-day affairs with your mom, yes I know, but this is still our life, Magnus.”
“I want her to grow up feeling safe too,” I tell Cassie, running a soft hand over our baby’s head. “I want her to know that she will always be protected.”
“I know you can’t get away from it completely, Magnus,” Cassie says softly. “I know that and I understand it, but I don’t want to live my life looking over my shoulder. I want to be free and happy.”
“So, what are you saying?” I ask her, squeezing my hand around her hip gently. “Should I open a landscaping business and barbecue in white sneakers and cut-off shorts on the weekends?”
“Oh, I love a man in uniform,” Cassie replies with a wink.
I can’t help but burst out in laughter. Willow jerks and Cassie makes a face, but our little girl just falls back into slumber. She’s drooling on her mother’s cashmere sweater, but Cassie doesn’t seem to mind.
“I don’t know if I can get away from it altogether,” I tell Cassie and I know I don’t imagine the flash of disappointment on her pretty face. “I’m still needed. But I will make an effort to distance myself. We can even buy that cottage on the beach you want.”