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CONOR

SEVEN YEARS LATER

“You look gorgeous,” Camille declared, sniffling as she finished touching up Kat’s makeup.

“You do,” Aoife agreed as she stopped doing this twisting thing with her hair that put it in a better braid than I’d ever been able to achieve.

I didn’t want to stare in the mirror.

If I did, I’d see my little girl.

All.

Grown.

Up.

When the fuck had that happened?

How had seven years spun by like the blink of a goddamn eye?

How was this her debutante ball? How was it that I’d had to teach her to dance the cotillion?

I scratched my jaw from the sidelines, watching as her aunts got her ready for the big event while Star and I sat together, seeing our little girl become a woman before our very eyes.

“I knew Camille would get the makeup right.”

Star had to referee over which of her sisters-in-law would ‘do’ Kat’s face for the big day. She’d offered to get a professional in, but that had caused more of an argument.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know how she’d picked the winner. As each of my brothers’ wives aside from Savannah had given birth to boys, I figured they’d clashed over this moment because Third, our nickname for baby Aidan, wasn’t going to be ready for this occasion for another thirteen years.

“I’m not looking,” I grumbled. “If I don’t look then she’s still ten.”

Star snorted as she pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Think about your ma having to care for all the grandkids tonight. That should make you laugh.”

“She thought it was bad having six sons. Ten grandkids.” I whistled under my breath. “Thank God Paddy’s with her. It’ll stop her from pulling out her hair.”

“You just have to love how, out of all of them, Third’s the worst.”

I shuddered. “The terrible twos were nothing in comparison to the terrifying threes.”

She nodded. “How did she even get on the kitchen counter yesterday?”

“Probably bribed one of the boys into lifting her up,” I said with a grimace. “It’s a good thing you saw her trying to grab the handle of that knife.”

“You need eyes in the back of your head with Daniels’ kids. You think she’s bad, you should have been around for Aspen and Paris. Jesus Christ, it’s no wonder Dagger went prematurely gray.”

“Two of them,” I breathed, eyes widening with horror. “At once.”

“Exactly.”

“Daddy, what do you think?”

My heart stopped at that title.

It always did.

But especially at a moment like this, when she was nervous and excited at the same time.

‘Daddy’ had come after a year of us being a family. It had morphed into ‘Dad’ when she was a teenager. That we’d reverted to Daddy broke my heart even more.

It wasn’t right that she was growing up.

God, all my kids were going to do this to me, weren’t they?

I turned to stare at her and tried to brace myself for the fallout, but there was no bracing big enough for this.

“You look beautiful, Katty,” I choked out, using the nickname so that I didn’t totally crumple into a ball of misery and joy.

She giggled. “Katty? Really?”

“Really,” I teased, helping Star off my lap so that I could stride over to our daughter and tug her into a hug. In her ear, I whispered, “You’re going to be the belle of the ball.”

“Don’t tell Lyra that. She’ll be jealous when it’s her turn next year. You know she’s all about being Belle.”

I chuckled. “You know what I mean.” I squeezed her. “You okay?”

“Nervous, but happy.”

“That’s all right then. I schooled Seamus myself. He’ll be here soon with your corsage, and he’s got it down pat on how to present you so you can trust him to know what to do if you get nervous and forget.” Or I’d beat the shit out of him. “So just relax and have fun, okay?”

“I will.”

As I pulled away, I reached into my pocket and retrieved a box. She beamed a grin at me. “Thank you, Daddy.”

“You don’t know what’s in it yet,” I pointed out.

She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. You picked it so I know it’s given with love.”

That had me blowing out a breath.

Somehow, the precocious kid who knocked shit over without trying had become a thoughtful, intelligent, kind young woman, capable of breaking her father with a few words.

Silently, I handed her the box and as usual, Star’s timing was perfect because she slipped her arm around my waist.

“From both of us,” I croaked.

Star smiled up at me, her hand finding mine before she knotted our fingers together. “Love you,” she whispered.

“Love you too,” I mouthed.

“Oh, they’re beautiful,” Kat cried, unaware of the exchange.

I smiled at her as I cupped her cheek and pressed a kiss to the other one. “Just like you.” I gave a squeeze to Star’s fingers. “Ready?”

She bit her lip and handed Kat another jewelry box. “This was my mom’s, baby. We found it amid her things. I want you to have it.”

Kat’s eyes were wide, tears rimming her lashes as she opened the box to reveal a large diamond pendant that was surrounded by tiny sapphires.

There’d been many such pieces in Galena’s room at the Uvala Lapad palace, many trinkets that we’d brought back to the States once Star inherited Anton’s vast wealth, but out of them all, this was the one she’d earmarked for Kat from the beginning.

As I fastened the chain around her neck, I pressed a kiss to her temple. “Now, I have to see to something. I want your second dance, do you hear me?”

She nodded as she fumbled to put on the diamond earrings.

Star shot me a questioning look but I ignored it as I headed toward the door. She grabbed me at the last minute and tugged on the back of my tuxedo jacket.

“What ‘something’ do you have to see to?” she inquired.

I blinked at her. “I’m just going to threaten Seamus within an inch of his life not to let any boy around her longer than fifteen seconds.”

A smile danced on her lips. “I think he likes her.”

“I know he does,” I said grimly. “That’s why I know he’s the best man for the job.”

“We want him to be president. He can’t go around beating up boys for flirting with our daughter.”

I sniffed. “Who says he can’t?”