Binding Rose: A Dark Mafia Romance(116)

My men all circle around us, tears in their eyes, joyous laughter on their lips, and wide-open smiles on their faces.

A few minutes later, Doctor McNamara lets my in-laws into the room.

Saoirse smiles at me with the motherly pride I’ve been deprived of for most of my life.

“What’s the wee babe’s name?” Niall asks, looking completely besotted as my son grabs hold of his pinkie with his little hand.

“Patrick,” Tiernan chokes out proudly, his own emotions getting the best of him.

“Patrick?” Niall whispers, his eyes beginning to water.

“Yes. I know nothing will replace the son you lost,” I begin to say, “but I hope that maybe you can find it in your heart to love my son just the same.”

“Oh, lass. I’d love him even if you’d given him any other name. He is as much my family as you are, daughter. I’m sorry if I ever made you feel differently.”

My heart swells tenfold, and for a second, I actually consider asking someone to pinch me.

This all seems like a dream.

“It’s real, acushla,” Tiernan whispers in my ear as if he has a direct link to all the thoughts in my head. “All of this is real. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I cry happily. I then turn to Shay and Colin, squeezing their hands in mine, so they can feel my love. “I love you all so much. My life wouldn’t be the same without either one of you in it.”

“We know, petal,” Shay croaks emotionally.

“Aye,” Colin adds, wiping the tears away from his eyes.

I stare at my family and then look at my son, overwhelmed by the love in the room.

“You are so lucky, Patrick. So very blessed. You have a family who would die to protect you as well as love you with all their hearts. I prayed for you, hijo. But God, in his graceful mercy, gave me more than I could ever have dreamed of. He gave me this family. And now it’s yours, too. Welcome to the Kelly clan, peque?o. Tá mo chroí istigh ionat.”





Epilogue





Tiernan



Ten years later



I lie back on the lounge chair on my patio roof and just appreciate the view. Everyone that I care about is here to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with me and my family. The heaters I have spaced out all along the rooftop enable everyone to enjoy themselves without fearing they’ll catch pneumonia. It’s been a harsh winter this year, but the chill has never once infiltrated my home.

All you’ll find living under my roof is warmth, cheerful laughter, and love.

But then again, it’s always like that, no matter the season.

“Da! Da!” Patrick shouts, running towards me with his cousins at his heels. “When are the fireworks going to start?”

A quick glance at my wristwatch tells me the light show I contracted for tonight should start in the next twenty minutes or so. I tell my eldest son as much.

“How about you all grab some hotdogs or burgers while you wait? It won’t be too long now.”

He jumps for joy and races over to where Javier and Shay are shooting the shit, drinking their beers, and tending to the grill.

“He’s grown,” Alejandro muses beside me, drinking a glass of whiskey.

“They all have.” I smile proudly, pulling my eyes off of Patrick in search of his two other brothers.

Like I expected, Conor and Cian have their heads bowed down in front of their iPad, watching some YouTuber play a game I’m sure one of us has already bought for them. My nephews are also glued to the screen beside them, laughing away at whatever idiocy is happening in the video. I then pull away from my boys and scan the perimeter for my little rose. I grin when I catch Roisin on top of Colin’s lap, placing her toy tiara on his head, so he’s appropriately dressed for the tea party she wants to have with him and her dolls and teddy bears.

Ten years ago, I might have told you that the chances of seeing my big, brooding cousin pretend to have tea with inanimate objects while wearing a tiara on his head was as likely as seeing pigs fly over the Charles River. But as the years have passed, stranger and more miraculous things have happened. Enjoying St. Paddy’s Day with a sworn enemy by my side, for one.

Alejandro takes another pull of his drink, looking as relaxed in my home as he would feel in his.

And why wouldn’t he be?

The treaty did much more than guarantee a ceasefire between us and declare peace. It broadened our horizons and entangled all of us in such a way that the outcome of it could only have been one. Where before we saw a foe, now we cherish as kin.

If that isn’t a fucking miracle, then I don’t know what is.

When a sweet melodic laugh rings out in the night, my eyes go right to its source and find my wife laughing at something her beloved brother, Francesco, must have said. Wearing my preferred red, while everyone else wears green, she stands out from the rest.

Like a moth to a flame, my penetrating gaze calls her to me, and in an instant, she excuses herself from her brother and sashays those fucking gorgeous hips of hers my way. When she’s close enough, I grab her wrist and pull her down to lie on top of me. I silence her shriek of surprise with a kiss, and all too soon she melts into my embrace.

“I’ll leave you to it, Kelly. It’s about time I tend to my own flower,” Alejandro states with mirth in his voice as he goes in search of his wife.