Present day ...

When I entered the kitchen and found my wife preparing dinner, I snuck up behind her and snaked my arms around her petite body, making her yelp with fright. I laughed, then leaned down and planted kissed on her neck.

“Scared you.”

“Ye’ bloody well did.” Branna chuckled. “Ye’ still move so silently. It freaks me out.”

I smiled and placed a soft kiss on her cheek. “How are you feeling after what happened with the twins earlier?”

“I’m fine now that they’ve apologised and are okay with each other,” she answered as she continued to peel potatoes. “I often ask God why he didn’t give us five girls to raise, then I think of all the hassle Georgie gives Dominic and me sister, and I realise that I’m perfectly happy dealin’ with five annoyin’ lads.”

I patted her behind. “I’d have a lot more grey hairs if we had five Georgies. I love that girl something fierce, but man, she gives her daddy and mama a hard time, and she doesn’t even mean to.”

Branna chuckled. “She’s such a good girl, though, and she has all of you men, young and old, wrapped around ‘er little finger.”

“Don’t remind me.”

My wife relaxed back against me. “Can ye’ believe the twins will be fifteen in a few months? I can’t. It feels like we just met yesterday, and now we have two almost fifteen-year-olds.”

I pressed my face against her hair. “I know, I was just thinking earlier about past events and meeting you was one of them.”

“What else did ye’ think of?”

“This and that,” I answered. “Things that brought us to our now.”

Branna hummed. “We’ve had an eventful life together.”

“And the best is yet to come.”

“I know,” Branna chirped. “We’ll hopefully have grandbabies in another decade.”

“Jesus,” I laughed. “Don’t saddle me with grandkids when we still have a kid under ten.”

“Can’t help it. I love babies.”

Her occupation proved that.

“Where are the boys?”

“Their bedrooms,” Branna answered. “They’ll come running when food is ready for them.”

“Want to have some fun in the meantime?”

My wife snorted. “If we have fun, then the dinner won’t get cooked.”

“We can get takeout.”

“I already have everything in the oven cookin’. The potatoes are the last thing to be prepared before I boil them.”

“Then I’ll help you, and we can have ten minutes to ourselves,” I mused. “I know you like long, thorough sex ... but a quickie is good for the soul.”

Branna’s shoulders shook as she laughed. “Help me then.”

I sprang into action, and in just a couple of minutes, we had potatoes peeled, washed and placed in a pot of water on top of the stove to boil. When Branna turned to face me, I was already stripping out of my clothes at a rapid pace. She burst into laughter as she rushed over to the kitchen door and shut it. She flicked off the lights so our neighbours behind our house wouldn’t see my bare ass if they looked into our kitchen.

“You’re worse than a teenager!”

“It’s your fault,” I stressed. “I hurt for you, woman.”

“Aw.” She clicked her tongue. “D’ye’ want me to make it better?”

“Yes,” I almost pleaded. “Yes, please.”

Just as she reached for me, the kitchen door opened, and Branna screamed. I grabbed the first thing I could from the counter to cover my groin and did so just in time for the light to turn on.

“It’s not what it looks like!” Branna shouted, her hands on her cheeks.

Jules looked back and forth between us, and said, “Are ye’s havin’ a bleedin’ laugh?”

Branna didn’t speak, but I laughed, and it drew my son’s hostile glare my way ... until he dropped his eyes to my hands.

“Da, please don’t tell me you’ve no boxers on behind that cookbook. Please.”

“Okay.” I smiled at my son. “I won’t.”

Jules threw his hands up in the air, and to his mother, he waddled his finger, and said, “I’m so disappointed in ye’, Ma. Messin’ around with him when your children are home. Had I been one minute later walkin’ in ‘ere, I could have been scarred for life. For life, I tell ye’. Shame on ye’, woman. Shame!”

Branna stared after our son after his dramatic exit, then she looked at me and said, “Why do I feel sad at disappointin’ ‘im?”

“Because he could convince the Devil that he was God, that’s why. Now come here and give me some of that sweet loving.”

“I can hear everythin’,” Jules hollered from the hallway. “Every single word, and I’m callin’ Childline!”

Branna burst into a fit of giggles, then proceeded to pick up my clothes from the floor and hand them to me, breaking my heart entirely.

“I’m gonna whoop your ass, Jules!” I shouted. “You ruined Mommy and Daddy’s alone time.”

“I’m diallin’ Childline as we speak!”

Branna’s laughter brought a smile to my face as I dressed. When I was fully clothed, I leaned my hip against the counter and watched her busy around the room as she checked on the dinner as it cooked. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my entire life, and she was mine. She vowed to spend her life with me, to love me and stand by me through thick and thin, and she had done just that. She stuck by me when she probably should have run for the hills, and she gave me my children and took care of all of us even though she worked a trying job.

She was the light of my life.

“Do you have any idea how perfect you are, Branna?” I asked, walking over to her and pushing stray hairs away from her face. “I’m not sweet-talking or trying to get you naked. I’m being serious. Do you have any clue how incredibly amazing you are? I can’t believe you’re my wife, sweetness.”

Her cheeks flushed. “Ryder, what’s brought this on?”

“Nothing,” I answered. “I was just watching you, and it struck me just how in love with you I am. I’m in awe of you, sweetness. I always have been, and I always will be.”

Branna’s eyes glistened with unshed tears, and before she could say a word, I leaned down and pressed my lips against hers. She turned her body towards mine, slid her arms around my waist, and relaxed against me as we kissed. I loved how she felt against me, how she tasted, how she smelled. I loved everything single thing about her.

“I love you,” I said against her lips. “I love you so much, Branna.”

“I love ye’ too, Ry.”

I smiled when I heard a long sigh from the doorway.

“I hate to admit it,” Jules grunted. “But that was very romantic. Ye’ have to teach me that, Da. Everythin’ ye’ said was gold.”

Branna turned her head, and to our son, she said, “What he said isn’t rehearsed. He put what he feels for me into words. When you fall in love, you’ll say somethin’ similar to your partner, I imagine.”

Jules rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. How long until dinner will be done? I’m leppin’.”

“Half an hour,” Branna answered. “Eat an apple if you’re hungry in the meantime.”

He groaned but grabbed an apple and ventured out of the room. I heard arguing in the living room then which told me Jules wanted the remote control for the television and whichever one of his brothers had it wasn’t giving it up. I was about to go and dissolve the argument by the taking the remote for myself when my phone rang. I found it on charge on the other side of the room.

“Did you put this on charge?” I asked my wife.

“Yeah,” she answered. “It was nearly dead.”

I thanked her, picked up my phone, and answered it when I saw it was Kane calling.

“What’s good, little brother?”

“Did you know Georgie had a fucking boyfriend?”

I nearly fell over. “A motherfucking what?”

“I’ll take that as a solid fucking no,” Kane grunted. “She has one, a boyfriend, I mean. And he’s a Collins.”

Now, I knew Kane had no quarrels with the Collins family, he was married to one for God’s sake, but Georgie was our niece, and she was the only girl amongst our horde of boys ... and a snot nose Collins boy was her boyfriend. That was a big fucking problem.

“A boyfriend who’s a Collins?” I repeated, hoping I heard the entire conversation wrong. “Is that what you just said?”

“Word for word, brother.”

“No,” I said. “No she fucking does not!”

“Trust me, Ry.” Kane sighed. “She most definitely does. Damien called me with the bad news.”

“Where does he live? Which brother does he belong to?” I demanded. “We’ll fix this problem inside of the hour.”

“We can’t.” My brother grunted. “We’ve been banned from hurting the boy by the highest chain of command.”

I sucked in a breath. “Bronagh forbid us?”

“Yup,” he replied. “Dominic is Croughs with Damien, and he needs us there to make sure he doesn’t do something that will make Bronagh divorce him or land his ass in jail. Alec is already on the way, and I’m good to go.”

“Shit, come and get me. I’m ready right now.”

I looked at my wife and found her silently laughing as she checked on the potatoes.

“Branna, why are you laughing?”

“Because, accordin’ to what I just heard, Georgie has a boyfriend who happens to be a Collins lad, and you and your brothers are havin’ a meltdown over it. That’s why I’m laughin’.”

“This isn’t funny,” I stated. “This is very serious.”

“You’re damn right,” Kane echoed.

Branna shook her head. “Where’s Dominic?”

“In a pub.”

She laughed again. “Go on, go with your brothers to help ’im through this. I have to call me sister to get the full story.”

I walked over, kissed her cheek, then turned and walked out of the kitchen.

“Kane, are you on the way?”

“Driving toward you as we speak, bro.”

I hung up on him, shoved my phone in my pocket, grabbed a jacket, then left my house. My life was great—no, my life was perfect. I had come across some bumps in the road along the way, then some fucking mountains, but I managed to climb each one and get to where I was now, which was happy, in love, and very blessed. I reminded myself of this as I waited for my little brother to come and pick me up. I rehearsed a speech in my head that I hoped would give Dominic some comfort, but I wasn’t sure if it would work. Georgie was his baby girl, his firstborn ... I think this would be one of those mountains in the road that me and my brothers would have help Dominic overcome together, but I knew in the end that we would get through it because that was what families were for.

We were there in good times, the bad, and the downright ugly. There was nothing we couldn’t tackle together as a family ... and this little Collins motherfucker would soon realise that.