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No kidding.
Which is why I’m a little floored right now.
“I miss Mom just as much as anyone. Seeing you with someone else is going to be weird as fuck,” Knox says while my heart slowly cracks.
“But what I just saw on your face while you were watching her...and I’m your son, so this is awkward.”
“Yeah, so maybe—”
“I think you love that woman.”
What?
I avert my eyes, unable to look at him.
Of all the kids to say this to me, I would never have bet on it being him. Never in a million years.
“No. Son. Knox listen,” I start, but my words fade away to nothing as our eyes meet once more.
I stare at my son while he stands there holding space for me to catch up. Instead, I slump back into my black executive leather seat and curse.
When did my kids get smarter than me?
“It took me ages to figure it out,” Knox says, referring to his wife. “Dad, I watch people date and break up around me and consider myself lucky to have met Payton. Luckier that I didn’t fuck it up and lose her.”
He is.
I watched from the sidelines.
“So perhaps, and fuck, I don’t know, but if you’re lucky enough to be loved by two women in this life, then don’t let her get away.”
All the oxygen leaves my body.
“Jesus, when did you become Oprah?”
“Fuck knows. Probably some osmosis stuff from Payton rubbing off.” Knox rubs his jaw and shoots me a sly grin.
I let out a small laugh.
“Bella will be okay,” Knox adds. “We’ll make sure of it.”
I know they will. She might be their older sister, but the boys love her so intensely I still don’t know how Blake was able to marry her.
I’ve never worried about my little girl—even though she doesn’t have my DNA, only her mother’s—because Atlas, Knox, and Levi have protected her even when they weren’t big enough.
And drove her crazy the entire time.
Now, she has an even more protective husband... whichisexactlywhythey allowed her to marry him.
And when I say “allowed,” I mean it.
I glance at the black screen of the TV and wonder if she is still at the studio.
If you are lucky enough to love two women in this life, then don’t let her get away.
I push back my chair.
My heart rate picks up as an idea begins to percolate.