Page 24 of His Atonement

I watch for a minute, my heart happy as hell over the room full of gorgeous women and my sweet baby nieces. Allie deserves this so much, more than anyone else ever has, and I could not be more thrilled for her.

"Don't you think she's a little young to start her showgirl training?" All eyes snap my way and I make a show of digging through my pockets. "I might have a few singles somewhere… "

Then all hell breaks loose.

Allie scolds me while she laughs and Lily's dark eyes laser on my face.

Posey and Grace shoot up from the table and rush me.

Casey does too, but a little slower since she's holding a baby and her tit is hanging out.

But what melts my fucking heart is what I hear through all the shrieking.

"Kiki! Kiki! My Kiki!"

Daisy runs to the end of the table, her tiny little toes eating up the space between us and I make it to her just in time for her to throw herself off the edge into my arms.

"Hey, punk.” I squeeze the two and a half year old tight, and bury my nose in her dirty blonde curls. "I missed you."

"My missed yous too, Kiki!" She peppers me with baby kisses for a minute, stops, then smacks a hand on either side of my face, squishes my cheeks to make me pucker. "My missed yous so fucking much,” Daisy says with the most serious look on her face.

My eyes all but pop out before I lose my shit completely.

"Daisy Mae Dragovihk, you watch your mouth!" Allie says as everyone sits back down. "I could just kill whichever of your uncles taught you that."

The tiny little sprite of a woman lifts her hand with a sigh. "That is actually my fault. Daisy might have picked up a few things while she stayed with me and Vok.” She turns her almost glowing blue eyes my way and shoots me a fantastic smile. ”I'm Cora, by the way."

“Frankie." I nod as I plop down next to her. "And if you didn't teach her, girlfriend totally learned it from me."

Posey snorts. "Or me."

"Let's face it ladies, if we don't want our girls to have mouths like ours, then this is so not the house to raise them in.” Casey grins. "We're way worse than our men."

“Truth," Grace says with a firm nod before she pins me with analytical eyes. "You look great, Frank. Fantastic, actually."

"Did you expect anything less?" I put Daisy back on the table. "I mean, really Grace. I know it's been a minute but you didn't expect me to stroll in here looking like shit, did you?"

She giggles, and shakes her head. "That's not what I meant. Yes, you look amazing and beautiful as always but something is… " Grace looks at Posey, and then Cora, which is weird. "Different."

"Well, I'm way higher than usual. Maybe that's it?"

She rolls her eyes as Posey leans toward me. "No. Yes, but no. You look… I dunno, but something is different about you."

"You're sparkly,” Cora says as she leans back in her chair to reveal a gigantic baby bump. "I'm not sure if you're always sparkly, but you are right now and it is fabulous."

“Jesus." I snort. "How pregnant are you?"

Cora grins, and rubs her hands over her belly. "Super pregnant, feel like I've been this way for years, but apparently big men produce big babies."

Casey and Allie both nod and I laugh harder. "And you're so little. My god, you have to be miserable."

"Oh, I am." She giggles. "Miserably happy. Totally helps that Havok and my brother are suckers. If they didn't spoil the hell out of me I'd put up a bigger fight."

Yeah, I like Cora for sure.

And despite how glad I am to be here, a little part of me envies what she has, what all of them have.

I've always been super focused; career driven, goal oriented. I wanted to travel and photograph the world, go on adventures and do all the things I read about in books, but there was still that part of me that thought I'd be settled down by now.