She turns her head to kiss me. “Our baby girl is married.” Her eyes fill with tears.
“I thought you were on board with all this,” I remind her. It was hard walking our little girl down the aisle, but I was also proud.
I thought they were still too young to get married. They're both still in college and already live together off campus. I didn’t think it would hurt to wait a few years, but Rae pointed out that it was only about which day. The two of them had been destined to be married since they were kids.
Bastian has always hovered around Emma, even as young children. Long before he knew what he was experiencing, I understood it. I could see the way he looked at Emma. On one hand, I wanted to punch the fucker in the face, but on the other, I know he will be good to her. I couldn’t have picked a better husband for my only daughter. Vincent and JJ have done a fine job raising him.
“I am. She’s just our only girl.” She gives me a watery smile.
I’d freaked the hell out when the doctor told us we were having a daughter. I wasn’t sure how to be a father, let alone a girl dad. All those fears went out the window when the doctor put my little sunflower into my arms. She grew up to look just like her mother but with my eyes. Two years later, we had our twin boys.
That pregnancy almost killed me. It wasn’t shocking that Rae got pregnant with twins since they run in her blood, but that she was able to carry two of my boys inside her tiny, curvy body. She had to go on bed rest around month five.
As much as I loved seeing Rae pregnant, I wasn’t sure I could handle it again. I also can’t tell her no. That’s how we got our youngest son five years after the twins. She’s given me four beautiful children. I still don’t know what I did in this life to deserve her, but she is and always will be all mine.
We both watch as more people join in on the dance floor. We’ve already cut the cake and done the father-daughter dance. Now the party is in full swing. Travis pulls his wife onto the dance floor. I think Rae was just as happy to see her own brother grow into a man as she was to watch our children do the same.
I could never find the perfect house for Rae, so we ended up building not far from Vincent’s home. I’d made sure I bought land all around us. I had a feeling Travis would be joining us at some point. He did. He’d settled down and married his wife about five years after Rae and I got married.
She is an executive for the Stone Brothers, who had a lot of freight coming in and out of one of Vincent’s ports. They met, and it was like something really switched on inside of him. He’d already been on a straight path, but when she came along, she put purpose in his life.
It’s always interesting to see events enter your life that cause chaos and you think are for the worst, but when things end up shaking out, you see what paths have now fallen all around you. Each one leads to another, whether it is bad or wonderful. They all set you in a direction.
I’m thankful for all the ups and downs. Including the hell my father put me through. It taught me what I didn’t want to be. It drove me in the direction of Raegan. It’s led me here to this very moment. With my wife in my lap while our children laugh and dance.
“You want to sneak away?” Rae whispers into my ear. I grunt my response. My erection has been digging into her ass since I pulled her into my lap. “Give me a head start.”
“Two minutes,” I tell her. She brushes her mouth against mine. “See you soon, husband of mine.” She rises to her feet. I watch her make her way across the yard. She pauses to speak to JJ for a moment. They kiss each other on the cheek before Raegan goes up the stone stairs of the patio and into our house.
I stand the second she disappears from my sight. Fuck two minutes. I quickly follow after her. Vincent gives me a knowing smirk as I pass him. I head straight up the stairs toward our bedroom. I pause when I push the doors open to the master suite to see my wife standing there, her dress pooled around her feet. She had nothing on under that fucking dress?
“Sunshine.”
“I know.” She licks her lips. I turn, pushing the doors closed and flipping the lock.