FIVE YEARS LATER
Clara’s warm body is curled against mine, her breathing low and even as she sleeps peacefully. I slipped into bed an hour ago, and she immediately sought me out, like even in sleep, she knew I was there.
I don’t have as many late nights as I used to now that Rayne and I are both in the position of enforcer, but those are the nights I crave to be home with my wife and kids.
Before Clara walked into my life, I never saw myself settling down. In fact, I was positive I’d die before I turned thirty, but life had other plans for me, for both of us. Together we’ve healed, we’ve grown, and we started a family.
A small smile tugs at my lips, and I tug her closer, winding my arms around her until I’m sure she can’t escape my hold. I knew she was pregnant before she did, and where I expected to feel blinding panic at the idea of being someone’s father, I was content for the first time in my life. Because, at last, I was doing something right. I was helping to bring a little being into the world who would be part of me and part of Clara. She was nervous to tell me because the baby wasn’t planned. Her IUD failed a few months after we were married, and she was worried I’d be mad after she made me promise to wait.
But I was fucking elated.
By the time she gathered the courage to tell me, I’d already bought us a house, installed a ridiculous amount of security, and started babyproofing everything I could get my hands on.
When our little girl was born, Willow Anne Hart, I fell in love with Clara all over again, and then when our son, Caleb James Hart, came into the world a year later, our little family was complete.
Somewhere along the way, they pieced me back together again. I don’t shy away from touch anymore. I crave it. Well, only from my three favorite people, but it’s still an improvement.
“You’re thinking awfully loud,” Clara murmurs into her pillow and a smile tips up the corners of my lips.
“Sorry, little fawn, go back to sleep.”
“How’d it go tonight?” She yawns.
“You mean apart from Storm giving me shit for having pink nail polish on?” I scoff. “Do you know anything about that?”
A giggle fills the quiet room. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But she can’t keep the smile out of her voice, and truthfully, I noticed the pink nails the second I woke up from my nap on the couch this afternoon, but the way Willow and Caleb laughed quietly and waited for me to say something, I couldn’t bring myself to take it off before I went out.
Like I said, I’m not the man I was before. I may still kill people for a living and crave blood like I do my next breath, but there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for the people sleeping under this roof, including show up to work with my Mafia boss wearing pink nail polish.
“You wouldn’t happen to be lying to me, would you, little fawn?”
She shakes her head against my chest. “Of course not. That’s one of my rules.”
Before she can take her next breath, I flip her onto her back, gathering her hands in one of mine and pressing them into the mattress. As soon as I settle my weight on top of her, I let out a breath. I didn’t realize I had been holding it the whole time I was out tonight.
Because having Clara in my arms is like coming home. She’s my life, my very reason for living, and she’s given me the life I never thought to dream for when I was a kid.
A man like me doesn’t deserve a happily ever after, but I’m willing to steal it if it means I get to hold this woman in my arms every night for the rest of my life.
