Page 126 of Fall of a Kingdom

“Spaghetti and meatballs,” I said.

“And garlic bread?” Noah prodded. “Please?”

I grinned. “And garlic bread. Maybe a salad.”

“Vegetables, gross,” Hawk muttered.

“Do you want to be tall like your Da?” I asked him.

“Aye.”

“Then you’ll eat a salad.”

Flynn was still larger than life to the boys. To them, their father was a superhero, a legend. They looked up to him, wanted to be him.

It tugged on my heartstrings because one day, they’d see Flynn not just as their father, but as a man. A man who made mistakes. A man who took risks. A man who made choices that shaped their world.

God, I need a drink.

Angus pulled into the multi car garage and then parked next to the Shelby Cobra. Flynn and I had plans to the take the red speedster with a white racing stripe for a drive up the Scottish coastline, but we hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

Soon.

“Do you want me to get Piper?” Julie asked.

I nodded. “Yes, thank you.” I waited for Angus to get out and then I turned to Julie and said, “After the children are in bed tonight, I need to speak to the three of you.”

“Are we in trouble?” Bella asked.

I smiled and shook my head. “Not at all.”

Chapter43

BARRETT

“I knowyou told us not to do the dishes,” Suze said. “But you really don’t want spaghetti sauce to sit.”

Bella wiped her hands on a dishrag and then folded it into a neat square before setting it on the counter. “It went quickly with the three of us.”

“Thanks,” I said, my appreciation genuine.

Dinner had been boisterous, and I’d almost forgotten, for just a couple of moments, that I wasn’t dying.

But now the children were in bed, tucked in for the night and I couldn’t use them as a form of distraction. The rain had picked up again and the wind howled like a morose woman that had lost her true love.

“Let’s go to the den,” I said.

The three young women followed me, and when we got to the den, I signaled for them to go in first. I closed the sliding doors behind me so in the off chance one of the boys ventured downstairs, they wouldn’t be able to overhear what we were discussing.

I went to the liquor cart. “What would you three like to drink?”

Julie cleared her throat. “We don’t drink when we work, per your rule.”

“This is an extenuating circumstance,” I said. “So, what will you have to drink?”

“Glass of red for me,” Bella ventured to say.

“Yeah, I’ll have the same,” Suze stated.