Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Yeah, she’ll be better than all right.
I may not be like Katherine, but I’d come a long fucking way from the daughter of religious zealots, from the wife of an abusive drunken mobster who couldn’t make a buck to save his life.
As I watched Kat take her vows and listened to those carefully spoken words, I let go of the hate I’d held onto for too many fucking years to count.
Instead of resenting Colm, I was grateful that he’d given me the escape I desperately needed from the life my parents had in store for me. I was even more grateful that because of Colm, I met Cillian, the man who taught me just how strong and capable I was.
Cillian told me I was smart and worthy. And the craziest fucking part of all? I believed him. That belief is what got me here.
As I shed all the hate in my heart for my dead husband, I sent up a word of gratitude because, though Colm and I hadn’t loved each other the way I thought we could, he’d given me the greatest loves of my life. Jasper, my legacy. Kat, a better version of myself. Virgil, the tough guy and family protector. Calvin, the genius who hated me now, but we would fix it. I was sure of that now.
Colm wasn’t much in the way of a husband or a father. Still, somehow that man had given me everything I needed to become the woman who sat here today, watching her only daughter give her love so freely to another. He was a right bastard but meeting him had given me four beautiful children and the business that built me.
I couldn’t hate him anymore, and I’d stopped regretting that we’d ever met. I’d loved Colm in the only way I knew how and in his own way, he loved me too.
“Until today, Kat and Terry have lived as separate individuals with their own hopes and dreams. From this moment forward, you become a unit. A team. A partnership. Every decision and choice you make will be made together.” He smiled one final time before he officially pronounced them husband and wife. “You may now seal your union with a kiss. Friends and family, I present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Manning.”
And just like that, my baby girl had become a wife.
Kat was a wife. Calvin was a father. Virgil was a husband.
And I, had I somehow become someone’s girlfriend? I got to my feet along with all the other guests to cheer on the newlyweds, and my gaze landed on Thomas, who stared at me like I was the greatest fucking thing in the world. Ah, Thomas. I was too old, too fucking jaded to think about true love and romance, but I could admit that he was everything I needed in a man.
A protector.
An excellent lover.
A friend.
An advisor.
He was my confidante, the one I turned to when I needed advice, when I needed help or just a good fuck.
Those were the things that mattered most, as far as I was concerned. It meant more than a bouquet of flowers, more than sweetly whispered words of love. It was just more.
I smiled, and Thomas smiled back before he brought my hand to his lips and brushed a gentle kiss on my palm. “You look beautiful today, Sadie Rose.”
And yeah, it didn’t hurt that when Thomas looked at me, he saw the woman I wanted to be, but he treated me like the woman I was. He didn’t try to change me. He knew me, warts and all, and loved me anyway.
“Thank you, Thomas. You look handsome, as always.”
Kat and Terry practically ran up the aisle to enjoy a few moments alone before the photographer spent an hour taking advantage of all the incredible scenery on the property.
“Congratulations,” Thomas whispered in my ear. “Another one bites the dust.”
I laughed. “Or another added to the family?”
Thomas laughed, the sound deep and rich in my ear. “Terry’s always been family. Now, it’s just legal.”
I turned to face him, and I felt the telltale speeding up of my heart. I knew that whatever else I felt for Thomas, I felt love.
“I could say the same about you.”
“You could, but I don’t want to be your family, Sadie. I want to be yours. It’s only fair since you’re mine.”
His smile came dark and a little dangerous, which was sexy as hell. “I know you, Sadie. I know you, and I love you, and I would never presume to change you. But I do want you to be mine. Only mine.”
Thomas took my hand and turned it over, dropping a gorgeous Claddagh ring with an emerald heart surrounded by diamonds into my palm.
My hand shook as I realized what he’d given me, then I handed it back to him.