Roberto sipped at the whisky, regret filling his gaze. “Falcon reminds me much of my grandfather,” he sighed. “He and his brother desperately loved your grandmother, but were forced to marry different women. They each suffered the loss. My grandfather told me once that there was no pain so great as seeing my grandmother’s loss when the other half of them was gone. She cried often, he said. Even when his brother could slip away to join them, it was always with the knowledge that he would return to his own home, his own wife.”
“Yet you didn’t seem to feel that need,” Raeg pointed out. He’d always wondered about that.
“Not true.” Sitting back in his seat, his father grinned back at him. “It was only different. When I met Maria and Selena, their relationship was already firmly grounded. They were, and still are, deeply in love. They love me as well though, just as deeply. From the moment we first met, that attraction between the three of us was instant, enduring. I would trade it for nothing else, Raeg. Those women, and our children, are my reason for existing. And should you and Falcon have children, then my grandchildren will become part of that reason, and just as treasured to me.”
“I should have tried to fix this…” Raeg began.
“No, I should have fixed it once I realized the impression you took from that night.” His father leaned forward again, staring back at him somberly. “I am your father, you were a young man. But, we are both stubborn.” He grinned ruefully. “I thought you should know I would never harm someone who loved you in return. You thought I meant to keep you from loving to ensure you were never betrayed again. I was the adult though, the father. It was my place to fix this.”
Raeg finished his drink rather than speaking. The hell if he knew what to say at this point.
“You were always the one who had to think things to death before agreeing with anything,” his father snorted, a little too amused to suit him. “I remember the first time I saw you with that young woman you’ve claimed. She was in your face giving you a what-for, shaking her finger at you, her face flushed with what appeared to be anger. But in both of you I saw the future of what you would have. You, that young woman, and your brother. Falcon was watching the two of you with that look he gets when I know the two of you are going to agree deeply on something. And it was young Summer you were subconsciously agreeing to.”
Raeg remembered the fight. Damn, she’d pissed him off that day, he thought, almost grinning.
“Forgive me,” Roberto asked softly then. “At least pretend to so your mother will finally forgive me,” he sighed. “She cries for you often and when she does, if we had a doghouse, she and Maria would push me into it.”
They would too, Raeg thought, remembering his mother’s temper. She was small, looked like an ice queen most of the time, but she had a temper three times her size.
Like Summer, he thought. A woman strong enough to stand up to those she loved.
“Family,” Raeg said then, nodding as he lifted his glass to his father. “To family.”
“To family.” As their glasses met, Raeg felt that last, dark fear that had resided within him ease away.
Family.
Somehow, Summer had shown him the way where the rules of family were concerned. Disagreements would come and go, as would hurt feelings and angry words. But family, they were like his love for the woman who stole his brother’s heart, they were forever.
The door into the house opened and Summer stepped out, Falcon following close behind her.
“The guest room is made up for ya’ll, Roberto,” she told his father as Falcon closed the doors behind them before leaning against the side of the house, just watching as Summer walked to Raeg.
He pulled her to his lap, settled her against him, and kissed the top of her head gently.
“Breakfast is early now,” she told his father. “And Momma and Daddy will expect ya’ll there.”
“Expect us, she couldn’t keep us away,” Roberto chuckled, rising to his feet. “No one does breakfast like Leasa does.” His gaze settled on Summer for a moment before he nodded slowly and stared back at Raeg, then Falcon. “It’s good to be here,” he said then. “It’s damned good.”
He turned and walked to the door, his hand settling on Falcon’s shoulder briefly before he went into the house, the door once again closing, leaving the three of them cocooned in the fog as dawn began to edge over the horizon.
Moving into the small enclosed alcove of the porch, Falcon settled into the sofa next to him, accepting part of Summer’s weight as she leaned against him.
“We’re home,” Falcon said softly, a grin tugging at his lips. “We’re finally home.”
They were home.
Right there, held by the woman they loved, her smile bright for both of them, her heart embracing them equally. That was home.
“We’re all finally home,” Summer promised them, her voice soft and resonating with a future filled with dreams they’d never imagined could come true. “Wherever we are together, we’re home.”