Page 177 of Caution to the Wind

“Never seen ya like this,” Bat said on a growly rumble of laughter as he slapped a hand over my shoulder and squeezed.

“Scared shitless?”

“Nah, you’re not scared at all,” he countered. “You just seem fuckin’…alive. Like Mei was the electric current you needed to start breathin’ again.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, rubbin’ at the echo of an ache in my chest I’d felt for near on a decade. “Eight years is a long time not to breathe, brother. Take it from me. You find happiness, grab it with both hands, and never fuckin’ let go.”

“Even when it tries to buck you off?” he joked.

“Especially then.”

We stared at each other for a moment before I clapped a hand on his shoulder so we were a closed circuit.

“Wouldn’t be here without you,” I murmured, tippin’ forward to butt my forehead against his. “Wouldn’t wanna be here without you, either.”

Bat squeezed my shoulder hard. “Right back atcha, brother. Love ya.”

“Love ya,” I agreed, swallowin’ the thickness in my throat as I separated from him.

“Aw,” Cleo cooed from behind us, walkin’ up the aisle in a long-sleeved pink dress the colour of fresh cherry blossoms. “I do adore a bromance.”

Bat laughed, but I couldn’t find it in me to try.

“You look like an angel,” I told her, tryin’ not to choke up for the second time in less than two minutes. Fuck, old age and happiness were makin’ me soft.

I opened my arms for her and closed them when she walked right into my embrace and snuggled close. My lids fell shut automatically as I held my daughter against my chest, restin’ my chin against the top of her silky pink hair. It’d grown out to her shoulders in the past few months, and we’d celebrated her dyin’ it pink with a full-on party at the cabin to reveal the “new” version of Cleopatra Axelsen. She smelled the same she always did, that perfume I bought her every year for Christmas, and she felt good in my arms, more substantial than she had in months. She was gettin’ better, slowly, so fuckin’ slowly, but it was a sure thing now Mei was back in our lives.

Even if I didn’t love Rocky with every single breath I took, I’d be forever grateful, forever and gratefully in her debt for helpin’ bring Cleo back to herself, back to me.

“I’m so happy the two best people I know finally got their heads out of their butts and realized they were meant to be,” Cleo teased as she pulled away enough to smile up into my face.

I knocked a fist gently to the bottom of her chin. “Wiseass.”

She laughed, that beautiful, chime-like music I was hearin’ more and more these days. “If you wanted an officiant who would gloss over the hard stuff, you should’ve hired a priest.”

I snorted. “Like a priest would agree to marry Mei and me.”

We laughed together, but I dragged my knuckles over her cheek. “No one better to marry us than the woman we love better than anyone else.”

Tears glossed her eyes instantly. “Dad, donotmake me cry before the ceremony starts.”

“Yeah, cut it out,” Bea called out as Priest helped her down the aisle to her seat, their baby boy Azrael’s brilliant red hair shinin’ in the sun. “I worked hard on her makeup.”

I looked out over the garden as it filled up with all our loved ones with my daughter tucked into the crook of my arm and my best friend by my side, the same man who’d been beside me through so much of my life, and I felt overwhelmed with gratitude.

How did a guy born to a violent asshole, a guy who’d killed people at home and abroad, who’d done so many bad things and made so many fuckin’ mistakes deserve to marry the love of his life?

I thought about a line from one of Mei’s Off-White Knight novels, “A knight is just a person who always tries to be better and do their best, even if they don’t always succeed. The goodness of a soul should be determined by the attempts it makes to do right just as much as for its successes.”

I’d tried my entire life to be better than the man who raised me and then better than my past selves. For Mei, that meant I was some kinda hero. To me, it felt like I’d been failin’ my whole life. But standin’ there with dozens of loved ones smilin’ at me, happy for me, a daughter I’d fought for and raised and loved who thought I was the shit at my side, I thought I might’ve known what Mei was talkin’ about.

Sometimes, tryin’ to be good was more than good enough.

And I’d spend the rest of my life tryin’ to be the best for Rocky ’cause fuck me, my girl deserved only the very fuckin’ best.

Lion took up a seat to the side of our cherry blossom-strewn archway with his blue guitar in his hands, plugged into speakers hidden around the yard and started playing “Bitter Sweet Symphony.” He and Harleigh Rose had married each other the day after I’d dug Mei outta the ground, keepin’ the flowers in water in their house, the whole Entrance chapter movin’ out to set up everythin’ for the ceremony again that next day. Lila and Nova’d tied the knot a few months ago too, and now, thank fuck, it was our turn.

Cleo tugged me down and raised up on her toes to kiss my cheek, her eyes shinin’ bright. “Good luck, Dad.”