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CHAPTER EIGHT

shaw

Taking a sip of coffee, I walked out onto the porch and stopped. It was a nice view. Plenty of trees mixed in with the two other houses in the distance. A clear sky. Kids laughing and playing, enjoying their freedom. But it lacked the one sight I wanted most.

Vi.

Frowning, I glanced around the front yard. She’d said she was going out when she’d come downstairs earlier. But I assumed that only meant outside, not actually leaving. Luca was inside playing a video game with a few of the kids in the common room, and Jagger had been in the kitchen helping his dad and our girls make cookies. I didn’t need either of them to keep me company when all I wanted was a little Vi time.

If I’d thought for a second she was going to be leaving, I wouldn’t have let her out of the bedroom without me. Walking down the steps, I went over to where Aidan and Ciaran were climbing the rock wall on the play set. “Where’s your mom?”

Aidan pointed toward the house next door. It was dramatically smaller than the one we stayed in when we visited Creswell Springs. More like a cottage compared to the hotel-sized structure behind us. “She said she had to talk to Sammy.”

I paused with my mug halfway to my lips, my body tensing. Why the fuck had she gone to talk to Samara? That girl made me twitchy. And it had nothing to do with the fact that Samara was beautiful, with her dark hair and perfect skin. It definitely didn’t have anything to do with how Samara watched Vi. I’d noticed that she watched everyone closely. It was weird. Fuck, she was weird. But when those blue eyes of hers fell on my Violet? Every damn time, I got hit with a surge of possessiveness that made me irrational.

But it wasn’t just because of that.

Samara was all bubbly to everyone, but there was a fire deep in her eyes that spoke of a banked rage that had yet to be unleashed. If it were ever set free and Vi got burned, I’d have to take up a life of crime because I would kill that girl.

“Thanks, buddy. You two behave. Remember the rules. We want to stay as close to the ground as possible. No jumping off roofs,” I cautioned, blowing them a kiss before I turned to walk down the driveway toward the cottage. Just to be safe, I glanced back at them a few times, not fully trusting either baby Thornton.

When Ciaran had broken his arm the first time, Violet had been inconsolable until he was sedated and the bone was set. That was three breaks and five emergency room visits for stitches ago. She didn’t have complete freak-outs like that now, desensitized to the trauma of having a wild child unleashed upon the world.

That boy gave me more gray hair than any of our other kids combined.

Before I reached the front door of the cottage, it swung open. Violet stepped outside, Samara behind her. It took restraint not to grab Vi and push her behind me. I wasn’t crazy for thinking that this woman with those blue eyes that saw everything was dangerous. Even if Jagger laughed whenever I mentioned it to him, convinced I was only being territorial.

Which was also true.

Samara saw everything, and by that, I meant everything . She knew who Vi belonged to. Me. And outside of Jagger and Luca, I didn’t share well. That meant anything. Not her precious laughter or her soft touches, and most definitely not her valuable time. It was all mine, which I graciously bestowed on a few select people outside of the family we had created together.

Samara wasn’t one of those people.

“Hey,” Vi greeted, slipping one arm around my waist.

I dropped a kiss on her lips, not giving a single fuck who saw. We hadn’t been hiding our relationship, but we hadn’t flaunted it either. Everyone in our family knew. It wasn’t a secret that we kept from our kids or parents. We simply didn’t want the paparazzi vultures to harass us. Of course, that hadn’t stopped the press from making assumptions—like the time some idiot speculated that I was madly in love with my bestie’s husband and was going to leave Jagger and our kids for NFL money.

As if I needed that shit and hadn’t built a billion-dollar career all on my own. And there was the time a photographer had snapped a picture of Jags smiling down at Vi and posted it with some random headline that had been so ridiculous I’d laughed at it and promptly forgotten about the article.

I kept the picture after my mother-in-law was done suing the motherfucker, though. It was on a canvas in my library at the house in Santa Monica. I loved how it had captured the true depth of Jagger’s love for our Violet. That stupid paparazzi hadn’t realized the pure gold he’d found with that one picture. I would have given him triple what his tabloid bosses had paid him for it if he’d simply offered it to me first. Instead, he’d been left bankrupt with no one willing to risk Emmie Armstrong’s wrath if they dared to hire him to so much as mow their lawn.

And I still got the full copyright to that beautiful photo.

“Hi,” I murmured, slowly lifting my head.

Vi’s smile filled all the places inside me that felt bare when she wasn’t close. I tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, letting my thumb trace over her bottom lip. “I missed you.”

“Did you?” she teased, stepping closer.

“You know I did, baby. I was thinking we could cuddle on the couch and watch a movie together. I need some quality Vi time.” I sneered at Samara. “You’re not invited.”

The other woman laughed. “I like you, Shaw. You make it so much easier to get through the day, knowing you’re here to protect such a precious soul like Violet’s. Plus, there is the added bonus that I only have the very random thought of stabbing you in the face for wanting Elias. Which I’m able to laugh off, because you obviously have no interest in my daddy. I like that about you so, so much. It is normally much harder to fight that impulse, but you and Vi are such a breath of fresh air that I don’t have to worry nearly as much about needing to hide a body.”

Danger!

“Sammy!” a familiar voice called. Tucking Vi closer, I looked over her head to see Hayat walking with Abi. “Are you being nice to my aunts?”

Still smiling, Vi waved at them. “Don’t worry. She’s been taking great care of me. Thanks again for all the help. I wouldn’t have been able to get any of this done on my own.”

“I feel like I owe you one after the last catastrophic visit,” Hayat said, regret flashing over that beautiful face, her wild curls seeming to have a mind of their own as they appeared to float around her with each step she took. “But I’m glad we could help out.”

Luca’s niece grabbed Samara’s hand and tugged her toward Abi, discreetly putting herself between the raven-haired woman and us. Hayat was protective of Abi and Samara, but there were times I wondered if she was actually protecting everyone else from Samara. “Well, this has been enough entertainment for me today. I’m already exhausted. We’re going for ice cream. Don’t worry. Jessa is going with us.”

Vi’s laugh was weak, her eyes drifting toward where we could hear the faint shouts of the boys still playing. I caught sight of Ciaran and Aidan, and I was thankful when I saw they were chasing each other instead of on the rock wall. “That’s a definite relief. I’m going to go make sure my boys remember to stay on the ground, and then I’m taking my loves for a drive.”

Hayat’s eyes softened. “I really am happy we could help, Vi. Uncle Luca is going to love it. They all are.”

“We’re about to find out. Enjoy your ice cream.” Waving to the three of them again, Vi steered me back toward the big house.

“What was that about?” I asked when we were alone on our walk.

She gave me an impish grin. “A surprise. As soon as we make sure Aidan and Ciaran are not getting into mischief, I’ll show you.”

Her excitement was so infectious, I couldn’t help but catch it. Stopping, I gave her another kiss, this one deeper, hungrier. She was so beautiful. So full of life. She didn’t realize how much I needed her. How she had saved the pieces of me that would have died a long time ago without her. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Shaw. Now, come on. The husbands are going to want to see this too.”

An hour later, Vi directed Luca to park the SUV in a field just outside of Creswell Springs. We’d had a hard time for miles, making it up the narrow dirt road. If we hadn’t had four-wheel drive, we wouldn’t have made it halfway, but Vi had said everything was fine. Just a little farther. The clearing was massive, big enough for at least six football stadiums.

Jagger bobbed his brows up and down at her from the passenger seat. “Is the surprise getting to fuck you two in the back seat while parked deep in the forest?”

“That’s part two,” Vi told him with a laugh.

“Babe, you’re killing me. Come on. Spill. I want to know what the surprise is.” I looked around the area. “But first, tell me there are no bears out there. You are not getting out of this car if there is even a small chance of a bear eating you.”

“No bears that I know of. But once construction starts, I’m sure that won’t be a problem.” She leaned back against the door, beaming at all three of us. “I bought this. All of it. Thousands of acres, limited access. To and from. It’s all for us. Our family. There are so many of us, we need a lot of room and—even more importantly—privacy.”

My heart gave a squeeze, tears burning my eyes. “Really?” I whispered. “You mean that?”

“It’s why I was with Samara earlier. She’s designing our house. And there will be a separate building that will have a recording studio. My dad can come up here to produce some of his music. That means Jagger won’t have to travel so much. And then, over there?” She pointed at a spot over my shoulder, but I didn’t turn to look. All I could see was Vi as the tears poured down my face.

“Over there is where the athletic building will be. Samara made that suggestion because it will be easier to get certain architectural structures she wants to implement. Like a bomb shelter. I wasn’t sure why she wanted to do that, but she insisted, and I figured since she is the professional, okay. There is plenty of space for a football field and everything that Luca will need for the program he wants to start for underprivileged boys. We will have a separate track and a field for a few other sports too, so we can be inclusive to underprivileged girls as well. That is, if the girls don’t want to play football. What do you think about swimming? We could have an Olympic-sized pool housed over there. But I’m also thinking gymnastics. Mia and I have been talking, and she has a friend who knows a coach who will be able to get us started in that direction.”

She pulled out her phone and turned it to show the guys a few pictures. “I know some of this might not make it seem as if we will have the privacy we want, but I promise you our home will be completely cut off from the rest of the property. And security will be tight at the dorms, so no one can accidentally stray over to our personal little haven. Our house is only for us—and guests when we want them. Each of our seven babies will get their own room, and we will have two primary bedrooms for our own personal use as married couples. But our room, the one for the four of us, that is an entire wing of its own.”

Her excitement was so bubbly, I had goose bumps on my entire body. I couldn’t even hear what she said anymore. But I’d tucked away the bomb shelter thing for later.

For now, I needed to get control over myself because I was ugly-crying. Tears and snot were not how I wanted to remember this pivotal moment.

Home.

Not just one I’d built with Jagger and our babies. But truly home. With Luca and his Thornton terrors and Love Bug. Home.

With Vi.

The guys kept nodding, their eyes sparkling with excitement too. A few tears leaked down their faces. But it was all because of her. Vi held each of us in thrall. She was our glue. To one another. To this world. Without her, I didn’t think any of us would be here. Who knew what might have happened to us without her?

What I did know was that I was thankful. Violet had made this amazing life possible. She was my past, present, and future. My blessing. My grace. My love.

Just as much as Jagger was.

Jags and Vi were a part of me. They owned my fucking soul. And then fate had given me a third love, sneaking Luca into my heart without my permission. I hadn’t even attempted to fight it when I’d first begun to fall for him. It was inevitable.

And now, I would get to keep living this incredible life with the three of them in our home.

Vi was animatedly detailing something about our house— our house , fuck!—when I lost it completely. Grabbing her face in both hands, I dived in for a kiss, needing to feel her so I knew this was real and not some dream that would never come true.

Tears still spilling down my face, I broke the kiss, pressing my forehead to hers. “Thank you, baby. For loving me. Us. Thank you. I can’t wait for all those incredible things you have put into play for us. But I need a minute, okay? Just one minute. To stop and breathe and be grateful. Is that okay?”

She wrapped her arms around me, tucking her head beneath my chin where she belonged. “Yeah, babe. That’s definitely okay.”

Home.

Finally.