Present day...

I woke up that morning to screaming. Loud, terror-filled screaming. I bolted upright and reached for Keela out of instinct, only to find her side of the bed empty. I fumbled with the blanket that covered me and ended up getting my legs tangled, causing me to fall off the bed and land shoulder first on the hard oak floor.

Fuck.

“Alec!”

My heart nearly burst with fear as I jumped to my feet and quickly detangled myself from the bed sheets. On my sprint out of the room, I grabbed the first thing I could use as a weapon as I rushed down the stairs, and that just happened to be a Power Rangers umbrella. I ran down the hallway the second my feet touched the floor and skidded into the kitchen. My arms and the umbrella were raised and ready for battle. My eyes darted from left to right, and when I saw no intruders, my body slightly relaxed ... until I spotted my wife on the kitchen table.

“I thought you were being murdered!” I glared at her. “What the hell is wrong with you, woman?”

“Just kill it!” my wife pleaded. “Oh, God. Kill it.”

Kill what?

I looked at where Keela was pointing, and when I saw the man-eating tarantula gliding towards me, I screamed louder than my wife. I used the umbrella in my hand as if it was a sledge hammer, and I beat the life out of the spider. After a solid minute of blind swinging, I came to a halt and inspected the floor. The spider was there, and it was unmoving.

I exhaled a nervous breath.

“I fixed that problem, didn’t I?”

Keela, whose hands were on her hips, shook her head. “Ye’ did well, husband.”

“I wasn’t even scared.”

My wife rolled her eyes as I hunkered down to examine the spider.

“Aw …” I frowned. “I amputated one of his legs by accident.”

Keela, who was still on top of the table, said, “I wish ye’ had decapitated the little fucker.”

I looked up at her. “It seems pointless now that he’s dead.”

She grunted, clearly disagreeing. I looked back down at the spider.

“It’s not even that big now that I’m close—OH MY GOD!” 

A very manly roar rose from my throat when the dead spider came back to life and ran towards me—no doubt with murder on his mind. He was down one leg, but that loss of the limb seemed to fuel him because he was moving rapidly around the floor, zigzagging from left to right as if trying to confuse me. He was waiting for an opening to spring on me so he could strike a death blow. I knew he was because if I were in his position, I’d do the exact same thing. I sprung onto the kitchen counter just to get away from him. I threw my umbrella at him when I had a clear shot, and it hit the little fucker square on and squashed him.

“Ha! Come back from that, asshole!”

Things were quiet for a moment, then side-splitting laughter came from my right.

“I almost died, so what the fuck do you find so funny?”

“You,” Keela cackled. “Ye’ practically leapt onto the counter.”

“He was running at me. Did you see how fast he moved?”

“I thought ye’ weren’t scared?”

“I thought it was dead!” I argued. “Of course, I wasn’t scared when I thought it was dead.”

Keela continued to laugh.

“How did you even get up there?” I quizzed as I jumped down from the counter. “Did you use a chair to step up on?”

“Nah,” she answered as I moved in front of her and lifted her to the ground. “I saw the spider and just hopped on it.”

“Oh, yeah?” I waggled my brows, tugging her body against mine suggestively. “I’ve got something else you can hop on, and it’s a whole lot bigger.”

“Please,” my eldest son, Enzo, gagged as he entered the kitchen dressed from head to toe in his soccer gear. “Don’t make me sick before I’ve even had me breakfast.”

Keela pushed my body away from hers like I was scalding hot coal, and it only encouraged me to grope her further. I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her backside tight against me.

“There’s nothing sick about a man loving on his woman.”

“It is,” Enzo said as he searched the fridge. “When the man is me aul’ lad, and the woman is me aul’ one.”

Keela gasped in outrage. “I’m nowhere near old enough to be called aul’ one, ye’ little shite.”

Our kid closed the fridge door, armed with milk, ready-made pancake batter, and a carton of orange juice. He turned to face us but focused on his mother. His grey eyes, which he inherited from me, gleaming mischievously.

“It’s just an expression, Ma.” He winked. “Ye’ know I think you’re beautiful.”

“Beautiful?” I interjected. “Really, Zo? You think slinging a compliment her way is going to get you off the—”

Keela elbowed me in the stomach and cut me off.

“Ye’ think I’m beautiful?” She giggled. “Thanks, son. ‘Ere, let me make your breakfast. I’ll put chocolate chips in your pancakes.”

Enzo leaned his head down and kissed her on the cheek when she moved over to him. “You’re the best, Ma.”

“Punk,” I muttered as he shot a shit-eating grin my way over Keela’s head. “Why didn’t you come running when you heard your mom scream?”

“‘Cause I heard you scream not long after, and I heard the word spider mentioned in the midst of that screamin’. I wasn’t riskin’ me life against a spider for either of ye’, I’m sorry.”

“I’ve never felt such betrayal in all my life,” I said, placing my hand on my chest. “I have no idea how you came from my angelic loins.”

Enzo laughed and nudged by me so he could sit at the kitchen table. I turned to my wife.

“He just had to call you beautiful to get his breakfast made.” I placed my hands on my hips in outrage. “I show you how beautiful you are with this wonderland body of mine, and I get an elbow in the gut. That’s just typical.”

“Hush up. I’ll make ye’ pancakes too.”

“With extra chocolate chips?”

“With extra chocolate chips, big man.”

I perked up. “You’re the best.”

“And ye’ wonder where Enzo gets it from?”

I grinned. “I am nothing if not a great teacher, kitten.”

My wife snorted in response. I leaned down and kissed her neck as she turned to the stove and switched it on. I patted her behind, earning me a giggle, which made me grin. I joined Enzo at the kitchen table and death stared at him as he tapped on the screen of his phone.

“Does your girlfriend still think I’m hotter than you?”

Enzo sighed. “She was never me girlfriend, and she never said ye’ were hotter than me. She said ye’ were hotter than she expected ye’ to be.”

“That’s the story of my life, son. My beauty stuns people; it always has and always will.”

Enzo’s eyes glinted with amusement. “I’m better lookin’.”

“You Slater kids all seem to think that. Jax thinks he’s God’s gift to women, you walk around like your junk is a foot long, and your other cousins are just as bad. Your brothers, too. I don’t know where I went wrong in raising you to give you ugly shits so much confidence.”

Enzo laughed at my obvious joke and so did my wife.

“Me sons are beautiful because I’m their mother,” Keela said as she poured pancake batter into a pan. “Your genes just gave them their height.”

And just about everything else.

“I’m thankful for gettin’ his height,” Enzo said as he leaned back in his chair. “Girls think you’re automatically ten times more attractive if you’re tall. And ten times ten just makes me the hottest specimen at school. Jax wishes he was as sexy as me. Me hair alone makes me stand out.”

Enzo was the only one in the entire family to have red hair like his mother. It was curly too, and because it was so wild, he always styled it and kept on top of keeping the length trimmed so the curls only spiralled once. Even I had to admit he was a beautiful little fucker.

“God save me from overinflated egos,” Keela mumbled.

“Some of your cousins have white hair; do you stand out against them?”

“Yup,” Enzo answered me. “I’m the hottest Slater to have ever existed. Period.”

The logic of a fourteen-year-old never failed to amuse me.

“Keep that confidence, my boy,” I beamed at my son. “A woman will surely cut it in half by the time you’re twenty.”

Keela snickered. “Did I cut yours in half?”

“Woman, you did me dirty when we first met. You dissed everything about me.”

“Yet ye’ wouldn’t leave me alone.”

“Have you seen your legs? You could have waxed me bare and used me for a surfboard, and I wouldn’t have gone anywhere. Your legs give me life, and the rest of your fine ass body accompanied with your stunning face is just a major plus.”

Keela’s ears were red as she made our pancakes.

“Shut up,” she mumbled.

Enzo laughed. “I’m goin’ to me footie match in an hour. I’ll take the boys with me since their match is after mine. Uncle Ry said he’d drive us all in his van. I’ll bring them for food on the way home. Ma already gave me the money.”

That was no small feat. Enzo was our eldest son at fourteen, Murphy was twelve, Ares was eleven, Ace was nine, and Miller was six. Together, they were a handful for Keela and me to deal with, so Enzo offering to take them all out was a parenting win.

Keela beamed our son’s way. “You’re such a good boy, always takin’ care of your brothers.”

“Speaking of your brothers,” I quizzed. “Where are they? It’s entirely too quiet in this house right now for them not to be doing something wrong.”

My daddy senses were tingling.

“The four of them are across the road,” my wife answered. “I’m surprised ye’ didn’t wake up when they were gettin’ dressed. They sounded like a herd of bloody elephants. Miller and Ace argued for ten minutes about who was shadowing the twins today. They didn’t stop until Jules took Miller and Nixon took Ace and separated them. Those two will put me in an early grave with how loud they are, I honestly don’t know how ye’ sleep through their chaos.”

“Sleeping like the dead is a superpower. Many want it, but few have the power to wield it.”

Enzo snickered. “You’re full of it, Da.”

“Thank you!” Keela announced. “I’ve been tellin’ ‘im that for years, son.”

“The pair of you are haters.”

“Can ye’ please stop usin’ terms that are meant for young people?”

I rolled my eyes at my child. “That term was used before you took up residence in my left nut sack, so shut it.”

“Alec!” Keela admonished as Enzo burst into joyous laughter.

He always got a kick out of me when I ragged on him, and I loved it.

“I’m being honest,” I said to my wife. “Kids these days think they own words when they only have them because we dumbed that shit down for them.”

Keela flicked her eyes to Enzo. “He’s right. All the slang you say, we said.”

“I can’t imagine Da callin’ anyone an eejit.”

“That’s different,” I said. “If I moved here on my own, I probably would have lost my accent and adapted your mom’s, but I’m always around your uncles, so I guess we keep our accent alive ... though it’s not as prominent as it used to be, I’ll say that much.”

“Agreed.” Keela nodded. “Ye’ say the word fuck more like me than ye’ use to, and ye’ don’t say talk in that funny way anymore.”

I smiled. “I’m basically Irish.”

Enzo snorted. “Yeah, Da, you’re so Irish.”

I ignored his sarcasm and focused on his mother.

“Can we make another baby while the other babies are away?”

Enzo made a noise dangerously closed to a squeal.

“Please don’t,” he pleaded. “Four younger brothers are all I can handle when I have a million little cousins to deal with as well. I beg ye’ not to do this to me.”

Keela laughed at how terrified our son looked.

“Your da is teasin’ ye’, son,” she assured him. “Five is our lucky number, just like your aunties and uncles.”

Enzo practically deflated with relief. “Thank Christ.”

I snorted. “You love your brothers and cousins, especially Georgie.”

“Georgie is everyone’s favourite because she is so precious.”

“Precious,” Keela repeated with a laugh. “She’d kick ye’ in the mouth if she heard ye’ say she’s anythin’ other than tough.”

Enzo thanked his mother as she placed six pancakes on his plate.

“We know not to say things like that around ‘er. She hates bein’ the only girl, so we have to make ‘er feel like she’s in charge.”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t kid yourself, son. She is in charge. She has you and every other man in this family wrapped around her little finger. She loves being the only girl. She just pretends that she hates it to keep you all on your toes.”

Enzo sighed. “I don’t know how she does it. Even when she annoys me, I still love ‘er stupid face.”

Keela chuckled. “She’s the only girl, so all of ye’ want to protect ‘er.”

“She can be scary sometimes, like, she knows how to fight really well. I think we all did a bad thing by wrestlin’ with ‘er growin’ up. The only people she can’t pin are Jax, me, Locke, Jules, and Nixon. She still gets the better of Beau, but only just. She’s a savage, Da. I’m tellin’ ye’.”

I grinned. “She’ll keep trying until she can pin all of you.”

“I know.” Enzo chuckled as he ate. “I think the next time she jumps me, I’m just gonna let ‘er win, so she can get it out of ‘er system.”

I leaned back in my chair and stared at my son long enough for him to stop eating and look at me.

“What, Da?”

“Nothing,” I answered as his mother put pancakes in front of me. “Just thinking that I love you. You and that mop of red hair.”

“I love ye’ too, Da,” he replied. “And don’t hate on me hair. It’s a bird magnet.”

I snorted, then bumped fists with him. We ate together, then Keela tidied around the kitchen, joining in on the conversation when something interested her, but for the most part, we talked about sports.

“Zo,” Keela said as Enzo finished eating. “If Miller and Ace act up while you’re out, phone me and I’ll come pick them up.”

“Jules and Nix will be with me. They worship the twins, so they won’t be bad around them.”

“We should move the pair of them in here if that’s the case,” Keela said, making me snort.

When Enzo left the house, it was so quiet I could hear myself think ... that hardly ever happened. I stared at my wife, my eyes roaming over her body hungrily. I thanked God she wore pyjamas shorts; her legs were soft, supple, and though she was on the short side, her legs were long, and I loved them. My eyes travelled up to her cute ass next, then her tiny waist, then to her mass of thick red curls.

“How do you get sexier with each passing day?”

Keela looked over her shoulder and locked eyes with me.

“Have ye’ been watchin’ me again, playboy?”

I raised my brows. “Kitten, I watch your fine self every chance I get. Now come here and give daddy some loving.”

She wiped her hands dry on a tea towel and walked towards me, her hips swaying from side to side. She had a grin on her face, and I knew right away that she wanted to fuck me. I straightened up when she gripped the hem of her T-shirt and pulled it over her head. She had no bra on, so her bare breasts drew a groan from me. This was my wife’s one insecurity. After have so many babies and breastfeeding them all, they weren’t as perky as they were when we first met, and telling her that was perfectly natural wouldn’t have worked so I worshiped them just as much I did when I first laid eyes on them because I loved them just as much now as I did then.

The second Keela was in touching distance, I reached around and snagged her by her waist. She laughed as she kicked off her pyjamas shorts and straddled my thighs as I took a rosy pink nipple in my mouth. Her breathy sigh of satisfaction made my cock hard. When her hands slid from my shoulders down my bare back, I hissed against her breasts. When she gently raked her nails over my sensitive flesh, my body involuntarily bucked. My wife knew what touching my back did to me, and she knew it well.

I stood, making her laugh as she wrapped her legs around me. I grinned up at her, but my smile disappeared when I heard a high-pitched cry. Both my wife and I jumped with fright.

“Mammy!”

Keela gasped. “Miller!

I set Keela down and ran out to the hallway with my heart in my throat. I came to a sliding stop when I found my youngest son in the arms of my big brother. Ryder was trying to soothe Miller, but he was too far into his sobbing to calm down for him. When my son locked eyes on me, he cried louder. I took him when he reached for me.

“What happened?”

“He fell and hit the back of his head playing tag with the twins in the yard.” Ryder frowned, placing his hand on his hips. “I checked, and he has no cut, just a small bump.”

I hugged Miller to my chest and swayed him from side to side to calm him, and I caught the moment my brother looked down at my boxers and used his hand to hide a grin. I looked down and saw the tent I was sporting. Excellent.

“Don’t,” I warned, looking back up at my brother. “She’ll kill you if you make jokes when he’s crying this much.”

Keela appeared next to me, fully dressed and cooing as she took our son from me. Ryder and I were forgotten as Miller became my wife’s sole focus. She wandered off into the living room, and it didn’t take long for her to calm Miller down. His crying slowed down until he was just sniffling. Ryder and I leaned against the doorway as we watched Keela work her magic.

“Interrupted playtime, did we?”

“Yeah,” I answered. “It’s cool, though, as long as he is okay.”

I fixed my boxers, glad my erection wasn’t an issue anymore. Hearing my son’s cry and realising he was hurt killed it instantly.

“I’ll call later to see how he is,” Ryder said. “I have to take the rest of the tribe to soccer soon.”

I clapped my hands on his shoulder. “Thanks, bro.”

Ryder left, and I joined my wife and son on our couch. When I sat down, Miller climbed onto my stomach and lay his head on my chest. Keela smiled at him when he sat up and looked at my bare chest. This prompted my son to strip out of his tiny little soccer outfit. I laughed when he was down to his cute little Batman boxers and lay back down on my chest, getting himself comfortable. There were three Slater kids who hated wearing clothes. Miller and my nephews Israel and Rafe loved to be in their birthday suits whenever possible.

“Out of all our boys,” Keela said, running her hand over Miller’s back, “he is the most like you.”

I tugged on Miller’s hair, earning me a smile. He grew his hair out, so it hung low and brushed his neck just like mine did. He was definitely my mini me; he did everything I did and said everything I said, which had me watching my P’s and Q’s daily. He was my baby, mine and Keela’s last child, so I went out of my way to baby him because I knew these days were numbered. Before I knew it, he’d be a teenager like Enzo.

The front door suddenly opened, and Ryder’s middle son, Alfie, strolled in, he too was wearing soccer gear. Nearly all of the Slater kids played soccer. They all played for the same club, just on different teams because of their age differences.

“Cousin.” Alfie frowned at Miller lying on me. “My guy, are ye’ okay?”

Miller turned his head so he could look at Alfie. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

“D’ye wanna come and play Fortnite with me?” Alfie asked, then he looked at me as he sat down. “Can he, unc? Me Da said I don’t have to go and play football if I came over ‘ere and played with Miller.”

Alfie loved Miller, I knew that, but right now, my nephew was using my son to get out of playing soccer, and it tickled me. Fortnite was the latest craze that all the kids obsessed over.

“Sure.” My lips twitched. “Only for an hour, though, okay?”

Alfie nodded, jumped up, then ran out of the room and up the stairs to the kids’ game room without a backwards glance.

“Cousin!” Miller shouted as she scrambled off my chest. “Wait for me.”

“C’mon then, Mills!”

When both kids were upstairs, I turned to Keela and found her smiling and shaking her head.

“I honestly can’t believe they all address each other as cousin.”

“I can’t even remember how it started, but it’s cute.”

Keela leaned against me and rested her head on my chest.

“Wanna do somethin’ fun?”

I looked down at her. “The kids could come down at any—”

“I’m not talkin’ about sex, Alec.”

I frowned. “What then?”

“I was thinking of watchin’ a film.”

I paused. “What movie?”

“I don’t know ... oh, I know one of the Jurassic World films are on Sky. The second one, I think. What about that?”

“We aren’t watching that.”

I made a vow to God to never watch that damn movie ever again.

Keela looked up at me. “Oh yeah, I forgot that ye’ cried when the dinosaur with the long neck died when we saw it in the cinema.”

“You saw him, Keela!” I grunted. “He was calling for help; he was asking the humans to stop the boat and help him, but they didn’t, and he—” I cut myself off midsentence and took a few deep breaths. “He died,” I finished. “It was sad, and I wasn’t the only one who cried, so leave me alone about it.”

“Everyone else who cried with us was under the age of fourteen, big man.”

I glared at my wife. “Then me and the kids are the only ones who aren’t pure fucking evil in this family!”

My wife chortled. “What d’ye want to watch then, crybaby?”

I perked up. “I vote Star Wars.”

Keela groaned and laughed when I said, “I’ll eat your pussy until you come later if you watch the new movies with me.”

“Ye’ better make me toes curl, husband.”

I fist pumped the air. “I always do, wife.”

I grabbed the remote and turned on The Force Awakens. Alannah Slater chose that moment to enter my house like the plague she was. I paused the film before it even had a chance to start, and I glared at her as she walked into the living room. She pulled a face at me when she looked my way.

“That’s way more of your ugly arse than I need to see on this fine Saturday morin’.”

I stretched my body out. “I’ll be naked the next time you enter my crib, Ryan.”

“I haven’t been Alannah Ryan for ten years, and ye’ know it.”

“You’ll always be a Ryan, you life-sucking monster. No Slater woman in her right mind would ever be as evil as you.”

Alannah sat down on the armchair and snickered. She knew damn well that she was a hellion, and from the look on her too pretty face, she was pleased about it, too.

“Well,” I began, “what’s good, four eyes?”

Her jaw tensed as I knew it would. Her eyesight had worsened over the years, and she refused to get laser eye surgery out of fear she’d go blind or something, so she settled on getting glasses. She hated them at the start, so I teased her about them every chance I got, and it still bugged her after all these years.

Alannah deadpanned. “Ares and Ace wear glasses, too.”

“True, but they’re my precious babies. You’re a demon from hell.”

I blinked when Alannah took her glasses off and rested them on her thigh.

“Why’d you take them off?”

“Because I don’t wanna see ye’ right now. Your ugly face gives me headaches.”

Keela snorted. “That’s funny.”

Alannah looked in her general direction and smiled.

“Can ye’ see me, Lana?”

“Just the outline. All of your features are blurred beyond recognition.”

Keela looked at me. “She takes ‘er glasses off a lot when she’s around you.”

“It’s because I’m so sexy that she’s tempted to grope me, so in order to keep my little brother happy, she hides her insane attraction to me by taking her glasses off in my presence. She can’t help that she wildly attracted to me.”

Keela lips twitched in amusement.

“Oh,” Alannah snorted, “and here I thought I did it because your ugly mug makes me eyes burn.”

“Nah, that’s what you want to believe, so you don’t feel bad about wanting my sexy body.”

Alannah rolled her eyes. “I swear ye’ love the sound of your own voice.”

“I’m partial to it,” I agreed.

“Remember when ye’ had strep last year and lost your voice?” At my nod, she said, “Those were the best ten days of me life.”

Keela burst into giggles as I glared at my arch-enemy.

“You’re turning my own wife against me, Ryan.”

Alannah, looking mighty pleased with herself, put her glasses back on and looked at the television screen and said, “Are ye’ watchin’ Star Wars?”

Keela nodded. “The Force Awakens.”

“I don’t really like them, the old or the new ones.”

I gasped. “Get the fuck out of my house.”

Alannah didn’t move a muscle. Instead, she beamed at Keela when my wife thumped my side. “Ye’ can’t kick people out of the house because they don’t like the same films as ye’.”

“You calm yourself.” I pointed my index finger at her. “Star Wars is more than a movie franchise, and you know it.”

Alannah snorted. “Star Trek is better.”

Keela sucked in a breath. “Alannah, run.”

I felt my blood boil. I shot to my feet and put my entire focus on Alannah Slater. She was a pest that I was about to exterminate. Keela’s warning was all the head start she got as I made a beeline for her. She jumped to her feet, screamed like a banshee, and ran out of the house at high speed, but that didn’t derail me from chasing her. Neither did just being in my boxers.

“Get back here, you little Trekkie whore!”

I could have sworn I heard her fucking laugh as she ran from me.

“Help!” She screeched as she sprinted for Ryder and Branna’s house.

She made it to the front door just as Ryder and Damien raced outside. When they saw the scene before them, they started to laugh. Damien stopped laughing and widened his eyes when he realised that his wife wasn’t slowing down. He opened his arms and caught her as she flung herself at his body and wrapped her short-ass limbs around him.

“Save me,” she panted. “He’s fuckin’ crazy!”

“Death!” I hollered as I slowed down to a brisk walk. “Death is what you shall—OW!”

I cut myself off when blinding hot pain shot up my right foot. I reached down, grabbed my foot and hopped around as agony tore through me. It happened. What every parent feared happened ... I stepped on a motherfucking Lego. Right there in the front yard of my eldest brother’s home.

“The devil is real!” I hissed as I lowered my foot back down to the ground. “So fucking real!”

I heard my brothers crack up, then childlike laughter joined them. I turned to Ryder’s van, loaded with his kids and mine, and they were all pointing at me and laughing their little heads off while Enzo was grinning with his phone pointed in my direction. I glared at him until he put the phone away with a rueful smile.

I looked at Damien and Alannah who was standing next to Ryder smiling so wide I knew her damn cheeks had to be hurting.

“Where are your demon kids?”

“In our car behind you,” Damien answered.

I turned around and waved at my nephews who were laughing at me, too. I think they were laughing at me being outside in just my boxers rather than stepping on a Lego.

Little shits.

“Dame and Ry are goin’ to watch their footie games. Don’t ye’ wanna go?”

“You know I’m not allowed at one of their games until my two years are up.”

“Oh yeah,” Alannah mused. “I forgot ye’ got a two-year ban for distruptin’—”

“I disrupted nothing,” I stated firmly. “That damn referee was paid off. I could feel it in my bones.”

The entire ban was a joke. I was standing up for the club’s honour, and I get a two-year ban for assaulting a referee. I barely touched the man. I think I shoved him at best and maybe told him I’d lodge my foot up his ass, but that was it.

“That gave ye’ no right to attack the man durin’ the kids’ game, Alec.”

I waved my sister-in-law off. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“Ye’ made the man cry,” Alannah countered. “And a bunch of the kids, too.”

I’ll admit ... I forgot about that part.

“Bad things happen every day. They needed toughing up.”

“It was a nine-year-old’s football game, Alec. Not the bloody World Cup final.”

My brothers laughed at Alannah, which made me rolled my eyes.

“Even if I wanted to go to their games, which I don’t, Miller hurt his head, so he’s staying home. Alfie is in my house too. I’ll watch them.”

“Ye’ sure?” Alannah quizzed. “I won’t be there to annoy ye’. Dominic will be there, so will Kane. I’ll be at the community centre.”

She practically lived there.

“That’s a tempting offer, but no. I’m good, love.”

Alannah snorted as she walked by me, and mumbled, “Star Trek is still better.”

“Trekkie whore!”

She ran all the way to her car laughing. She jumped into the passenger side and locked the door, screaming when she looked up and saw me staring through the window motioning my finger across my neck.

“You’re done when I get you, Ryan.”

“I’ll have you know she’s been a Slater for ten years.”

I looked at my baby brother, ignoring the fact that at thirty-eight he wasn’t a baby anymore, and glared at him.

“The demon part of her is a Ryan. That’s when the bitch comes out to play.”

“Don’t curse!” Alannah shouted through the window.

“Excuse me, but I am a Christian.” I placed my hand over my heart. “I would never speak such vulgar language in front of children.”

Alannah rolled her eyes. “It’s amazing how ye’ become a man of God when you’re in it up to your neck.”

I scowled at her. “Back off, Satan.”

She beamed at me, then discreetly stuck her finger up at me as my brother drove off with my nephews waving and making funny faces at me. Ryder was getting into his van too, so I waved at him, then jogged back across the road to my house, watching my step this time. When I entered my house and closed the door after me, I went into the sitting room and found my wife lying on her side with her eyes closed. I knew she was asleep without having to get close to her to confirm it. After we had babies, she developed the magical ability to fall asleep whenever there was silence.

I sat next to her and put her feet on my lap. Un-pausing the television, I watched Star Wars by myself. When an hour passed by, I got up, careful not to wake Keela, and went to check on the boys. They were off their video game without me having to tell them, which pleased me. They were playing with slime that the boys had recently made, and once I saw they had the protective sheets on the floor, I made no mention of reminding them to be careful.

“Are you guys hungry?”

“Yeah,” they answered in unison.

“What do you want?”

“I’m feelin’ noodles,” Alfie answered.

“Yeah.” Miller bobbed his head in agreement. “I want noodles, too. Curry ones.”

“I’ll have chicken, please.”

With their orders noted, I went down to the kitchen and made their noodles. I called them down to eat when I dished them up and put them on the table. I jumped a little when I felt hands slide around my stomach. I relaxed when I heard my wife giggle.

“You scared me.”

“I know,” she mused. “Ye’ never hear me when I come up behind ye’.”

“‘Cause you move like a ninja.”

Keela chuckled, and when I turned to face her, my smile vanished when I saw her eyes were red and swollen.

“What’s wrong?”

She blinked. “Nothin’, why?”

I lifted my hands to her face and gently brushed my fingers under her eyes.

“You were crying.”

Keela waved me off. “I just had a bad dream.”

“About what?”

She looked away from me. “Those noodles smell good.”

I turned her head back in my direction and frowned down at her. I hate seeing her upset in any way, and knowing something made her cry, even if it was a dream, made my stomach roil.

“Alec, I’m fine, honey.”

“Then tell me what made you cry.”

She swallowed. “It’s just ... that ... that nightmare I used to have, remember?”

My entire body tensed, and my heart rate pick up its pace. She hadn’t had that nightmare in years and knowing that those images were once again in her beautiful mind cut me to the bone. She only had that nightmare because of me. Everything about it was my fault.

“Kitten.”

“I’m fine.”

She didn’t move a muscle.

“Keela.”

She closed her eyes. “It was ... I saw them ... touchin’ ye’ again.”

Sickness filled my gut, and my heart just about shattered. I tightened my hold on my wife.

“I have never been touched until you first lay your hands and lips on my body. I have never been touched in any way that matters until there was you. You’re the only person on this Earth to own me mind, body, and soul.”

Keela began to cry.

“I know,” she sniffled. “I know this. I know ye’ were forced into what happened. Me mind just likes to torture me. I’m sorry.”

It had been a long time since we spoke about our past, mainly because we’d moved beyond it and started a new life together. I knew my wife had accepted what had happened, but knowing it still hurt her, hurt me.

“You saved me.” I said, brushing loose strands of hair behind her ear. “You gave me my life, my babies, and my happiness.”

She looked up at me, and her beauty stunned me. She had more laughing lines around her eyes, but her energy for life shone brighter than ever within them. We were in our forties now but being with her still made me feel twenty-eight. She was my rock, my heart, and there was nothing on this planet that I wouldn’t do for her.

“I wouldn’t change anythin’ about what happened,” Keela said, surprising me. “Gettin’ through that got us to today. I love our life together, I love our babies, and I love you so much it sometimes doesn’t feel real that I am this happy. I don’t know why I had that stupid dream, but it means nothin’. It hasn’t meant anythin’ for a very long time. All that matters is you, Alec. You’re amazin’ the way ye’ are, and I would never change anythin’ that made ye’ the man and father ye’ are today. You’re my perfect, ye’ always have been.”

I kissed her the second she finished speaking, and we only broke apart when cheering and fake heaving filled the room as Alfie and Miller came downstairs to eat their noodles. Keela smiled up at me and pecked my lips once more before she turned to the boys and settled them at the table. I watched her as I leaned against the counter, and as per usual, I silently thanked God for blessing me with a woman who gave my life meaning.

My heart was full and happy, but I remembered a time when it wasn’t. Things weren’t always so perfect for me or my brothers ... but I had a secret that only one brother and one woman knew, and if I had my way, it’d stay that way. There weren’t a lot of things I was able to protect my brothers or my wife from in the past, but some secrets were better left unspoken. I’d do anything for my wife and family, and keeping things from her that could never be changed was one of them.