Page 96 of Colt
“Nothing.” I pushed off the doorframe. “You need help?”
“We’ve got it.” Indira waved me off. “Go do something useful.”
Late in the afternoon, the brothers started clearing out. Dutch squeezed my shoulder on the way past without saying anything. Indira hugged Lilac for a long time at the door. Betty disappeared into her room off the hallway, her reading lamp already on.
I found Lilac in the backyard as the sun dropped low. The boys were chasing each other across the grass—Knox shrieking, Luca trying to be dignified about it and failing. She was watching them with her arms crossed loosely, her face easy in a way it hadn’t always been.
I came up behind her and pulled her back against me. She leaned in without hesitation.
“You okay?” I said.
“Better than okay.” She covered my hands with hers. “I keep waiting for it to feel strange. It doesn’t.”
I pressed my mouth to her temple. Felt her exhale, slow and full.
Knox was flat on his back in the grass now, staring at the sky, one arm flung out dramatically. Luca sat cross-legged a few feet away.
I’d had a lot of years to think about what I’d lost. About the shape of the life I’d been supposed to have. But I’d never quite been able to picture it—too far away, too full of grief.
This was it. Right here.
Chapter 38
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— Colt —
The clubhouse had been transformed. Fairy lights strung across the ceiling. Flowers on every table—daisies, because they were her favorite. The brothers in their cleanest jeans, on their best behavior.
I stood at the front of the room, Dutch beside me, trying not to fidget. I’d faced down Death’s Head without breaking a sweat, but waiting for Lilac to walk through those doors had my heart pounding.
“Breathe, brother.” Dutch’s voice was amused. “She already said yes.”
“I know. I just—” I shook my head. “I never thought I’d get this. A second wedding. A second chance.”
“Well, you got it. So try not to pass out before she gets here.”
The doors opened.
The boys came in together, side by side—Luca carrying a small pillow with Lilac’s cut and the leather bracelet, walking with the exaggerated seriousness of a six-year-old who’d been given an important job; Knox scattering flower petals from a basket with more enthusiasm than precision.
And then—Lilac.
She was radiant. The white dress floated around her as she walked, her dark hair loose over her shoulders, catching the light from the fairy lights above. Her smile was bright enough to light up the whole damn room, but I could see the nervousnessunderneath—the slight tremor in her hands, the way she was breathing a little too fast. Betty walked beside her, proud as any mother of the bride, guiding her toward me.
I swear I forgot how to breathe.
“Hi.” She stopped in front of me.
“Hi.” My voice came out rough. I reached out without thinking, taking her trembling hands in mine to steady them. Her skin was cold. “You look—”
“If you say ‘good enough to eat,’ I’m walking out.”
I laughed, the tension breaking. “I was going to say beautiful. But now that you mention it…”
Dutch cleared his throat. “If you two are done, we’ve got a ceremony to conduct.”
Right. The ceremony.
