Brennan’s eyes lit up. “What are you ordering?”
“Pho.”
He snorted. “You’ll never get Conor to eat that.”
“It’s good,” Seamus protested.
“Hates anything with much flavor,” Brennan said wryly. “I’ll have it though.”
I dipped my chin when he gave me his preferences, and I looked at Declan who shrugged. “I’d prefer a steak.”
“Oh, I can deal with that,” Conor chirped.
Rolling my eyes, I ordered the pho for the three of us, then set up another order with another restaurant that I remembered was popular with the Five Points’ members for the steaks.
The fifty minutes passed swiftly, but the rest of the evening blurred too.
I had to admit, I’d never thought I’d ever be close to Declan’s family, because why would I? I was a gofer’s kid. I never should have mixed with the lofty upper ranks of the Five Points, but they were around my table, eating and drinking, laughing and joking, making my kid one of them.
Seamus lit up around his uncles, and I knew, then and there, that he’d been missing this. Even without knowing what he’d been missing, it was this.
Male company. Family.
It had always been just the two of us against the world. That was changing, morphing, and even though not all of those changes were good, even though there was danger here, even though… even though… even though…
It was all a ‘what-if?’, wasn’t it?
But seeing him laugh, knowing he was with people who instinctively accepted him because he was blood, it filled me with warmth. There was a promise of family here. Sure, his grandparents, on both sides, were a disappointment, but his uncles would more than make up for that.
I’d seen it before, but tonight just reaffirmed it.
Seamus was safe with his uncles, he had a family, he had a wider reaching support system, and I couldn’t be anything other than joyful about that.