Page 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

Piper

It’s been a week and I haven’t seen or heard from Marc. I spend most of my time at the general store with Paxton. I feel so bad that everyone is still here. Especially the ones with families back in Lake Renegade. I keep expecting to see Marc somewhere, but I don’t.

This weekend is Rhett and Emiko’s wedding.

We were planning to do a girl's night out since Giovanna, Isabella and Artemis are here. But Enea and Giacomo said no to that. So now we’re going to stay in and have a girl’s night here.

We’re also waiting until Friday, since all the women will be here from Lake Renegade.

It feels like our little town is going to be overrun with family.

Some of them will be staying at Emiko’s rental and the rest will be here.

I have a feeling it’s going to be pretty loud.

“How are you doing?” Giovanna asks as she sits next to me.

“I’m okay. I hate that I keep looking over my shoulder.”

“Yeah, I understand that. It’ll fade away in time.”

“And I feel so bad that all of you are here, away from your spouses and kids.”

“It’s really okay. My mam is taking care of my babies. And my husband is on a week of away games. So I wouldn’t be seeing him anyway.”

I always forget that Giovanna’s married to Declan O’Reilly. He’s the assistant captain of the Chicago Redhawks hockey team. And her brother is their starting goalie. I can’t wait to meet them both.

“I need to apologize in advance if I fangirl over your husband and brother. They’re two of my favorite players and I can’t believe they’ll be here tomorrow.” I chuckle.

“Oh it’s okay, I totally get it. They’ll both love that you love the team, and the game. We finally got our son ice skates and Declan is in heaven taking him on the ice.”

“Your babies are so stinking cute. Is Rowan liking the ice?”

“He giggles and crawls on the ice more than he stands on it.” She laughs.

“How old is he? And you have two babies, right?”

“I do. Rowan is two and Lorcán is six months old.”

“I can’t wait to meet them. I love kids.”

“They’ll be here tomorrow with my mam. I told her I’d come back and help her on the plane. But she insisted she’d be okay.” She laughs. “And now Declan will be helping her, so I don’t feel as bad.”

“See, I was already excited to be Emiko’s maid of honor. But now I’m even more excited because of everyone that’s coming.”

“Our family is a riot, wait till you see everyone together.”

“I love that you all embrace each other as family. I’ve always wanted a big family. I’m an only child, but my parents are really great.”

“I love that. Having great parents makes life so much better. Some of the family didn’t have the best childhoods. But I think we help them make up for it now.”

“That’s awesome. Before I moved here, I was pretty content. But being here now, with Emiko and all of you…I’m so much happier. And I really missed Emi, I regret not being around when she was with Seth. And knowing what she went through makes me so sad.”

“I’m sure she understands, you didn’t have a choice when you left.”

“No. But I could’ve come back after we turned eighteen. Except I was so wrapped up in my own bullshit.”

All the other women come over and join us. I’ve never had so many women that lifted each other up. And not one of them act like they don’t want to be here.

“Has Gia shown you her babies? It’s really not fair how cute they are.” Isabella smiles.

“She did, and I have to agree. I can’t wait to meet them. Your sister has babies too?” I ask.

“Yeah, Luciana has Grayson. He’s almost two and she’s having her second baby in four months.”

“So many babies in the family. Do you have kids too?” I ask Artemis.

“Kostas and I had our first last year. Orion is nine months old.”

I love listening to them talk about their families and the new families they’re starting. I look over at Paxton and he’s smiling at me. Can you fall in love with someone this fast?

Paxton

I can’t help but watch Piper, the smile on her face is making me smile. She seems to be enjoying spending time with the women in our family. Wait till all the mamas come tomorrow, things are going to get really busy.

“I’m having the club make sure that security is up for the wedding. I’m a little worried because of the amount of people we’ll have here. But luckily we’re used to this, so it should be okay.”

“I’m worried that Marc will slip in and we won’t notice,” I say.

“Well, since they’re getting married in a church, we can monitor who goes in and out. But the reception is a little trickier. We’ll be posting guys at the doors. But be on alert,” Giacomo says to us.

I hate that my brother’s big day is going to have some issues. That asshole Marc better be gone.

Unknown: You should keep a closer watch on Piper if you don’t want anything bad to happen to her

What the fuck. I show the text to the guys.

“This asshole reminds me of when we helped Ciarán’s wife, Emilia. She started getting texts from an unknown number and it turned out to be the shitbags twin. Not that the shitbag wasn’t a shitbag. But it wasn’t him that was stalking her,” Celestino says.

The guys nod.

“Tell me it all turned out okay, that Ciarán and Emilia are happy and safe,” I say to them.

“They are and you’ll meet them tomorrow. I told you before, there’s been a lot of turmoil in our family. But we’ve all come through it just fine. And stronger as a family,” Enea tells me.

“I just want Rhett and Emiko’s day to be perfect.”

“It’s going to be as perfect as we can make it. And if Marc shows up? We’ll deal with him too.”

If there’s one thing I know for sure is that our new family isn’t just talk. They’ll back us up as much as they can. All I know is that I need Piper to be safe. And I’ll do anything to make that happen.

“Should I answer whoever this is that’s texting me?” I ask.

“No. Let me see if I can trace the number,” Sebastiano says. “If this is Marc, let’s hope he’s stupid enough to leave a trail for us to follow.”

“We can hope, and after today, I think he’s either really good at faking it or he really is crazy.”

My brothers and I fill everyone in on what happened last week with Marc.

“It sounds like maybe the officer that was helping you convinced him to leave?” Giacomo asks.

“I hope so, but Marc was pretty adamant that the restraining order was fake. Jared said he made sure to fully explain what could happen to him if he comes near Piper again. Which is why I keep saying I hope he’s gone.”

“I suppose he could be hiding somewhere. We’ll take a look around town tomorrow while everyone is arriving. Will it be okay to use some of your cars while you’re at the store?” Enea asks.

“Definitely. And we’re closing the store on Saturday for the wedding. We’ve already made sure that the town knows about it,” Lukas says.

“Sounds good. Let’s get some rest, I have a feeling the next few days are going to be non-stop fun.” Lorenzo chuckles.