I needed to sort out our future…soon.
“Sure, what’s up?” I asked, swigging the final mouthful of my own beer—just one to celebrate—and catching the ever watchful, always loving eye of my wife.
Della had been Mrs Wild for twenty-four hours, and I couldn’t stop looking at her or my ring on her finger.
She gave me a smile from where she sat with Cassie and Nina on the floor doing a puzzle. Pieces were scattered everywhere with Nina giving directions to her mother and aunt.
Cassie looked up, grinned at me, then glanced at her father and nodded secretly.
What the—
I didn’t like that.
I didn’t like secrets.
My hackles rose.
“Come into the kitchen.” John tipped his white head toward the scuffed, well-used table and chairs. “Bring Della. This concerns her, too.”
Whenever we had conversations at that table, things happened.
Big things.
Life-changing things.
I wanted to groan. What had he done now, the meddling ass? I still had his Cherry River contract tucked in the dresser in our room. I’d read the fine print, and sure enough, he’d given full insurance to all my health-related incidents.
I’d made a mental note to call the lawyer who had my Will and Testament and ask him how much John would stand to lose by covering me. I’d heard horror stories of some drugs costing thousands per week, sometimes tens of thousands.
I didn’t want to die, but I wouldn’t put anyone into destitution to save my life, either.
John was worth a lot with his land. If he were to sell, he’d be a millionaire without a doubt. But all that equity was tied into his legacy, and I never wanted to be the reason he’d be forced to sell.
Della cast me a look, climbing to her feet.
“Go on,” Cassie whispered. “You’ll want to hear this.”
My eyes skipped over the Wilson children and grandchildren before Della clutched my hand and tugged me toward where John had sat down. The entire vibe of the place had changed. Everyone was in on this, whatever it was.
I narrowed my eyes warily. “What’s going on?”
“Sit.” John pointed at the chairs beside him, waiting until Della and I obeyed.
We sat, and my tension wound even more. “Okay, we’re sitting. Now what?”
He smirked. “Always so suspicious.”
“Always justified around you.”
He chuckled, his large paws linking on the table top. “One of these days, you’re going to learn to relax, Ren. Mark my words.”
Phrases like that were double-edged swords. ‘One of these days’ implied a timeline that stretched into infinity. We both knew I didn’t have infinity—not that anyone did. We all died…eventually.
But just because I’d had incredible news that I wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while, it didn’t stop the bitter-sweetness that it would be sooner than I liked.
“One of these days, you’ll stop surprising me with your harebrained ideas.” I smiled. “I mean, who gives a fifteen-year-old kid a place to stay and makes him family? Who hires a lawyer for a supposed kidnapper—”
“Yeah, okay. I’m a saint. I get the point.”
Della laughed, making my heart wing as I reclined in my chair.
I chuckled under my breath. “Yeah, a saint who interferes.”
He held up his hand. “Guilty.”
“Once Ren has stopped giving you a hard time, John…what is it you wanted to talk to us about?” Della asked quietly, blonde hair scooped over her shoulder. Her ribbon around her throat today.
The same throat I’d squeezed from behind and pushed down while I took her.
Tearing my gaze away, I cleared my mind from inappropriate thoughts.
John grinned. “First, I want to say a very happy marriage to you two. It was an absolute honour to give you away, Della.”
Della’s cheeks pinked with affection. “The honour was mine, Uncle John.”
My skin prickled with warning as John looked at me. “It’s tradition, don’t you think, that the father—or at least, pretend father of the bride, gives a gift on their wedding day?”
“John…” I warned. “What did you do?”
“What?” He blinked innocently.
He wasn’t innocent.
Smiling, he raised his voice. “Cassie, darlin’? I forgot the file. Do you mind?”
“Not at all.” Cassie leapt to her feet, earning a screech from Nina for disrupting the puzzle, then practically skipped into the kitchen where she placed a blue folder in front of her dad, kissed his white hair, then winked at me.
My nervousness blew into all-out alert. “What exactly is going on?”
“You’ll see.” Cassie blew Della a kiss, then went to sit with her daughter.
“John?” My eyebrow rose as the big man opened the file and smoothed out the papers with a hairy hand.
“Hold your horses, Ren. Give me a moment to find the right words.”
“What words?”
“The words to tell you what I did and make you somehow accept it, without getting all high and mighty.”
“Oh, for God’s sake.” I crossed my arms. “If this gift is more than just a bottle of wine then I’m not accepting it.”