Chaz nodded but still lifted the meat tenderizer, his weight shifting on a loose floorboard.
“Frankie!” Reese barked, making everyone jump and successfully grabbing Frankie’s full attention. “I understand that you’re upset, but she would never do anything without your express consent. We all know that.”
Frankie looked confused and alarmed. His gaze swung between Reese and David before he leaned to the side to look for Mati hidden behind them.
The gun wavered off Reese and David shoved him in the opposite direction with all his might.
“Now!”
There was a sickening thunk and Frankie dropped like a stone.
By some miracle, the gun didn’t go off. David kicked it away from Frankie and under a table while everyone started talking at once. Hands pulled at him until the three of them were in a clutch in the middle of the living room with Frankie at their feet.
“Someone call the police and tell them we need an ambulance,” Chaz said, still hovering over Frankie with his impromptu weapon. When no one moved, he glared at Stephen and barked, “Do it!”
Stephen ran toward the kitchen.
David dragged Mati and Reese toward the front hall. “Can I speak to you two in the dining room for a minute?” As soon as they were alone, he shook Reese. “Why did you do that? I’m supposed to protect you.”
Reese touched his fingertips to David’s face. “I did it because I love you. I love you both. I couldn’t let anything happen to you.”
“But…” David stammered, his heart filled with a joy so huge it left him speechless.
“I love you, too,” Mati added. “In case you missed that earlier.”
“I didn’t miss it. But I live in Boston,” David croaked, some part of his stubborn brain unable to believe any of this was possible. His heart, however, was all in.
“Turns out that doesn’t prevent people from falling in love with you,” Reese said.
David knew that all too well. He gathered them closer, pressing his face to Reese’s shoulder and clinching his arm tight around Mati. “I love you, too. Both of you. What are we going to do?”
“We’re hiring, if that helps?” Mikey called from the living room.
Mati grinned.
David definitely had a favorite Viveiros brother, even if he was nosey as all hell.
“I’m American,” he called back.
“I can help get you a work permit,” Chaz volunteered. He paused. “That is, if I’m still an attorney.”
Reese leaned back to shout into the living room. “We’ll see about that.” He faced David again. “You could marry me. That would help.”
David froze. “What?”
Mati laughed. “Oh my god, Reese, that is the worst proposal ever. Also, maybe he should marry me.”
David was distantly aware of the absolute silence in the living room.
“I’ll do a better job of it later, when I ask you both properly,” Reese promised. “But legally speaking, I think he should marry me.”
“Why?” Mati challenged, bright laughter in her eyes.
David swallowed, trying to wet his dust-dry mouth. “Uh, guys, maybe we should discuss this somewhere more private…”
Reese waved his hand as if it were obvious. “I need to marry one of you to see that my property and estate goes to you, then on to our children, and since you’re already a Canadian citizen, it makes sense.”
“Children?” David said, his knees going weak.
“Children?” Mati’s mother echoed in the next room.
Mati nodded. “That’s a good point.”
“Who’s having children?” David asked, heart pounding.
“That will be me,” Mati said, patting David’s chest. “Don’t argue. You won’t win that one.”
Reese laughed.
“Okay,” David agreed.
Reese held him tighter. “Mati and I can work anywhere. Here. Boston. The middle of the Atlantic. If you need to be in Boston, we’ll be in Boston. If you want to keep working for Chance, we’ll find a way to be in Boston a lot.”
“I don’t want that,” David said, finally admitting the truth after far too long.
Mati cocked her head. “Us in Boston?”
“No! I want that. I do. But I don’t want to work for Chance anymore. He’s family and I love him, but the work…”
Reese kissed David’s cheek and Mati squeezed his hand.
They knew.
“You don’t have to,” Reese said. “You can start a new career. You can go into produce, apparently. Or you can sit and eat bonbons forever. Or,” Reese added more slowly, “you can be home with the children, if that’s what you want.”
“As long as you’re with us,” Mati agreed.
David’s head spun. “I don’t like bonbons.”
Reese and Mati laughed. “Noted,” Reese said.
“I do like the idea of being a stay-at-home dad,” David confessed. “Very, very much.”
“Well, that settles it,” Reese said. “Mati’s having the children, you’ll take care of them, and I’m eating the bonbons.”
Mati’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think that’s how it’s going to work…”
“I’ll take care of all of you,” David vowed. “Not just the children.”
The children. David could hardly believe the words had come out of his mouth.
Reese and Mati smiled.
“Of course you will,” Mati agreed, resting her hand over his heart.
Reese kissed his cheek. “And we’ll take care of you.”
Epilogue
“Is your boyfriend ever going to give me my baby back?”
Reese grinned. “Fiancé.”
Callum rolled his eyes so hard it had to hurt, pausing only long enough to cheer when Alexei practically stood on his head to stop the puck.
Reese was normally more attentive when he made it to Moncton to see an Ice Cats game in person, but he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes off David, who sat a few seats down the row in the cozy management suite, chatting with Rupert and holding Eleanor.
She looked tiny against his chest, sleeping contentedly.
Having spent more than one night snoozing while draped across David, Reese knew how comfortable that could be. He didn’t blame his brilliant little niece at all.
David threaded one finger through a golden curl and pulled the silk straight until it bounced back against her head.
Reese’s heart clutched in his chest.
“Jesus Christ, if it were possible for you to ovulate, that’s exactly what you’d be doing,” Callum muttered.
Mati burst into laughter.
Reese couldn’t even deny it, though he huffed sulkily. “Like either of you are any better.” He smirked at Callum. “Rupert tells me you almost walked into traffic when a pre-school class trooped by the other day.”
Rather than answer to that, Callum leaned forward and shouted, “Come on, guys! Move your legs!”
“And you,” Reese added, tapping Mati on the nose. “You were the one that told Mike and Alexei to add at least two more bedrooms to our apartment. I assume that’s not because you’re planning to invite your brothers to stay.”
Mati made a face. “God, no. I see enough of them already.” She scanned the crowd below.
Reese followed her gaze and found the Viveiros brothers in their seats, cheering and clapping. “At least they’re having a good time?”
“Thank you again for giving them the tickets. It’s better than they deserve,” Mati muttered.
Reese shrugged. “We’ll find a location for the new Viveiros Produce facility soon, I’m sure. I didn’t completely disagree with their objections to the two properties we looked at today.”
“Me either. What I object to is Stephen speaking to David as if he’s suffered a significant brain injury, and not making eye contact with you at all.”
Reese slipped his fingers over hers on her leg. “But Mike was fine all day. And your mom sent cinnamon rolls.”
<
br /> All good signs of the progress they’d made over the past two months.
“In any case,” Reese continued, “we’ll find a location and have Chaz come handle the details.”
Rupert turned at the mention of their attorney. “I cannot believe you’re still employing that jerk after everything that happened.”
“We made a deal. And it’s working out quite well,” Reese said with a shrug.
“What he means,” Mati explained, “is that Reese, and Viveiros Produce, have drastically reduced their legal expenses while Chaz makes up for helping my asshole ex stalk me.”
“He broke into your house!” Rupert exclaimed.
“And he’s paying for that, too. And the property his father stole. But unlike Frankie, who will land in prison where he belongs, Chaz never tried to hurt anyone. He specifically intended for that not to happen. And he supports his sister and nephew. We discussed it, and even David agreed he isn’t a danger to us or society. Mostly he’s a danger to himself, but David enjoys keeping a close eye on him, so I’m not worried about that.”
“You mean David likes seeing how close he can get Chaz to peeing his pants,” Mati said.
Reese laughed. “That, too.”
Mati wandered to the bar and buffet at the back of the suite, leaving Reese to bicker with Callum and Rupert, and David to indulge in time with Eleanor. They were both happy as larks, with hockey to watch besides.
Mati, however, was restless.
It was weird to have her brothers in the building. She’d loved Reese’s family even before the past few months, when they’d done everything short of adopting her and David to make it clear they were now family, too. She was grateful, sometimes overwhelmingly so, for their love. But it didn’t stop her from wishing it could work this way with her family, too.
Poking at what was left of the lasagna David had made, she startled when an arm curled around her shoulders. She expected it to be Reese, maybe even David, but it was Hodges smiling down at her.
“What’s on your mind, Matilda?”
She leaned against him. “My family sucks.”
Hodges pulled her into a proper hug. She sighed, ready to hear whatever he would say to make her feel better.
“They do suck.”
Mati snorted. She should have known better.
Hodges rubbed her back. “What did they do now?”
“It doesn’t matter. I know that. I know who they are and how they think. Why do I care?”
“Because you love them.”
“But why?” Mati asked, because sometimes—hell, often—she didn’t know. “Why can’t my brother accept that Reese and David love me and want me to be happy? Why isn’t that enough? And my father…” She shuddered remembering the anger in his gaze when she’d caught him watching them.
The one bright spot, aside from Mikey’s surprising acceptance, was that her mother was trying. She’d taken to inviting them over for cinnamon rolls and coffee when the rest of the family was out. That meant the world to Mati.
She hadn’t been to Sunday dinner since her family had learned about Reese and David. Her mother always asked, but it was clear, thanks to her father, the invitation was for her alone.
“Your father should be ashamed of himself,” Hodges said, trying to sound reasonable, though he was clearly furious. “I’d be proud to call you my daughter. Look what you’ve done for them. For him. He should be in awe of the amazing kid he helped make.”
Mati closed her eyes and held Hodges tighter. “Thanks.”
Hodges pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“You’re the father I always wished I had,” Mati said quietly, her voice rough with emotion.
Hodges hand froze on her back. “Oh. That’s…” His voice shook. “Same, okay? I’m so proud of you. And I love you like my own.”
Mati smiled against the rough fabric of Hodges’ Ice Cats ERDO jersey.
He’d said just the thing to make her feel better after all.
David kept one eye on Mati and Hodges while listening to Rupert tell him about the time Reese decided the best way to woo the young woman he loved was to stand outside her window with a boom box over his head playing a Peter Gabriel song.
David gaped at Rupert. “No, he didn’t.”
“Oh, yes, he did.” Rupert rubbed his hands together, clearly relishing David’s horror and awe. “And, of course, it didn’t work out like it did in the movie. No, it did not. Because Elizabeth’s window was one of fifty on that side of the dorm. By the time the second verse started, he was taking fire.”
“Rupert, what are you talking about?” Reese asked with growing alarm from down the row.
Christian, who had been sitting in the corner, madly typing on his phone, perked up. “What’s a boom box?”
Callum laughed. David cringed.
Reese leaped to his feet. “No! You cannot tell that story!”
“I’ll show you a picture,” Rupert promised Christian. “I’ll even play you the song!”
“Rupert! Stop talking.”
“It was amazing. I wish we’d had cell phones with cameras like we do now. To have video of the hailstorm of toilet paper, shoes, pens, and anything else not nailed down in those dorm rooms raining down on him. Half of it had been lit on fire.”
Reese squawked loudly enough to be heard over David’s laughter and the roar of the crowd when the Ice Cats scored.
Everyone except David leaped to their feet, diverted by the action on ice. Oliver stood on his seat to scream like a banshee for Mike, who had assisted on the goal. The five-year-old was the only one in the box suite who’d been paying proper attention to the game.
David would have yelled, too, but had a hand pressed gently over Eleanor’s ear instead.
She was obviously used to sleeping through just about anything, since none of this bothered her in the slightest. Her little bow lips and long eyelashes didn’t so much as twitch. David watched her, smiling, and yearned to have this all the time.
Mati’s hand curled over his shoulder and he pressed a kiss to it. She slipped between the seats to sit on David’s lap, careful not to bump Eleanor. She threaded her finger through one of the bright gold curls, a habit David couldn’t seem to break either.
“Did you hear Reese once tried to do the Say Anything trick to woo a girl?” David asked.
“No.”
Rupert lit up again. Before he could speak, though, Reese was climbing over him.
“You are the worst,” Reese said, wrestling Rupert out of his chair.
Rupert cackled. “Revenge is sweet, my friend.”
Reese took his own by forcing his ass into Rupert’s seat.
“Fine, I’ll go snuggle with my husband,” Rupert announced. It would have made for a dramatic exit had it required him to do more than shuffle three feet to his left and sit on Callum’s lap.
“This is a nice change of fortunes,” Callum murmured, wrapping his arms around Rupert’s waist.
David looked away as Callum dragged Rupert closer, tucking his husband’s ass snuggly against him. David couldn’t blame him. Hell, no one who’d ever seen that ass blamed him.
Christian rolled his eyes and went back to his phone.
Reese ran a hand down Eleanor’s back. “Would it be weird if I told you how hot you are when you’re holding a baby?”
“A little.”
Mati grinned. “It’s pretty blistering hot, though. I’m not sure how I’ll control myself when it’s our baby.”
David’s heart skipped a beat. They’d agreed they weren’t in a rush, but when he held Eleanor, or assembled Legos with Oliver, or watched Christian practice his figure skating and saw the incredible pride shining from his fathers’ faces, it made David want to start a family immediately.
But then he’d get these two alone in their room at night, and agreed it would be better if they waited a little longer. Not that he worried midnight feedings and diaper changes were going to put a dent in the fire that burned between th
em.
Nothing seemed able to do that. Not even his nightmares.
He still woke up, but with every passing week, it got better. Reese liked to joke that he and Mati were the cure, but he didn’t believe that any more than David did. The cure was patience, time, therapy, and letting go of the notion that he was supposed to be anything other than what made him truly, deeply happy.
Theirs.
He didn’t miss his gun, or either of his previous jobs. He missed Chance, but he and Kieran were coming up to visit during the playoffs in a couple weeks. And would come again for the wedding.
The wedding. David looked down at the interlocking platinum bands around his finger. The second proposal hadn’t been any more conventional than the first. He’d been in the kitchen at dawn, the sun just coming through the trees and dappling the bright white tile with sparkling points of light. He’d thought he’d slipped out of bed without waking them, but they found him within minutes, Reese’s hair standing on end and sheet creases still lining Mati’s cheek. David’s hands had been dusted with flour from his second attempt at making Mrs. Viveiros’s cinnamon rolls when Mati and Reese had each fallen to one knee and threaded his fingers with theirs.
He’d said yes. A thousand times yes. Then thanked them thoroughly enough that the cinnamon rolls had never been made that day, and Hodges was still threatening to use the kitchen table as kindling as a means of decontamination.
Reese ran a hand through David’s hair. “What are you thinking about that has you smiling like that?”
David had learned to accept he was a giant sap when it came to these two. Hell, he’d learned to embrace it. “You.”
Reese kissed his cheek and stayed pressed along David’s side. Mati put her hand over David’s on Eleanor’s back.
Yeah, they were pretty gross, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
He looked around and found Oliver ignoring everyone in favor of the game, Rupert and Callum grinning at them, and Christian muttering, “Great. They’re as disgusting as my dads.”
David knew a compliment when he heard one.
He glanced over his shoulder to find Hodges watching them with a big, affectionate smile on his face—until he caught David looking, then he gagged himself with a finger and went back to his seat.
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