“You’re nervous?” Jasmine’s surprise was genuine as she looked over at him, poised to knock at his parents’ front door.

“Aren’t you?”

Cade fought the urge to tug at the neck of his T-shirt and kept his voice casual. They were late to Daphne and Landon’s engagement party and he was already anticipating the stink eye from his mother. And somehow the sudden realization the two of them were going to get the nosy eye from everyone else at the party struck him as painful in the extreme.

“What are you nervous about? This is your family.”

“I don’t—”

He was prevented from saying anything by his father’s bright smile as he swung open the door. “Just tell your mother you got here a half hour ago and have been mingling ever since. I’ll back you up.”

“Thanks, Pop.”

Frank patted his back as they walked in. “She’s been so out of her mind with the preparations for today, you may get lucky and she hasn’t even noticed you’re late.”

Cade had no doubt his mother had noticed, but he’d take the out his father offered and play it to the hilt.

He and Jasmine did as instructed and spent the next half hour mingling. Although the two of them got more than a few eager looks (aunts who were meddlesome on the best of days) and the occasional wink (his cousin Buddy, who usually played the family asshole), most everyone seemed to take it as a matter of course that he and Jasmine were together.

“I think you worried for nothing.” Jasmine whispered in his ear, her hand locked in his as they surveyed the yard from his parents’ back patio. “Everyone’s in a happy mood. And no one really cares all that much that we’re here together.”

“Most of them are wondering why it’s taken us so long.”

Mischief lit her dark gaze as she turned to him, a cocky smile tilting her lips. “Yeah, Rossi. Why did it take so long?”

“Because I’m a bonehead?”

“No arguments from me.” Jasmine pressed a quick kiss to his lips. The kiss was chaste, there in the middle of his parents’ back porch, but it promised so much more.

“Jasmine. Behave.” Lynn Shane’s admonition echoed from somewhere behind his head as she and her husband, Percy, stepped outside.

“Mom! Dad!” Jasmine hugged them both, and Cade did the same. He’d always loved Jasmine’s mother but, if he were honest, was a little scared of her, too. She had the same quality as his mother—an odd ability to make you feel like you were the most important thing in her world, while at the same time assuring you she’d whip your ass if you took a step out of line. Lynn also had a scary resting face that would give cops a run for their money.

“Why don’t you and your dad go get us some drinks? I see a few empty lawn chairs over there, and Cade and I will snag them.” Lynn’s instructions brooked no argument, and Jasmine and her father disappeared as Cade and Lynn headed for the chairs.

“Your mother did a beautiful job, as always. And I’ve never seen Daphne so happy.”

Cade looked across the lawn, where Daphne and Landon were surrounded by well-wishers. He knew Lynn’s words for the truth. “She’s lit up inside. I can’t decide if I want to punch McGee or hug him.”

“I’m not a proponent of violence.” Lynn smoothed a hand over her summer skirt. “Unless, of course, it’s while someone’s protecting my daughter.”

Cade nodded.

“Tell me that animal’s behind bars.”

“For a good long time.”

“But he will get out some day.”

“We can spend the next twenty years worrying about it, or we can live our lives. Barrow’s already fifty. And since he turned snitch to get out the first time, his chances of surviving long in prison aren’t good.”

“Oh.” Lynn’s eyes widened at that. “Well, then . . .”

Cade normally avoided being quite that honest about criminal behavior, but he was willing to make an exception for Lynn. He would remain vigilant over Barrow’s case, and he’d already raised holy hell the man had gotten out in the first place, but the man’s actions while on parole didn’t bode well for him. Stalking and attacking the victim of his first crime in public was the first nail in his coffin. Battling a cop sealed the lid.

“You’re dating my daughter.”

The swift change in topic shouldn’t have caught him off guard, but it did. “I—. Well, yeah.”

“She loves you.”

“I love her, too.”

Lynn’s eyes narrowed at that. “All the Rossis love my daughter. That’s no surprise.”

“I really love her. Make-a-life-with-her love.”

“You took an awfully long time figuring it out.”

“I know.”

“You’re not going to go back to your old ways? Catting around town?”

Cade avoided the urge to tug at his T-shirt collar again and assured himself that he deserved the third degree. Yet even as he knew he needed to keep himself in check, he couldn’t fight the subtle layer of frustration. Yes, he’d been an asshole. And yes, he’d dragged one woman after another around town while the one he was meant for all along was left to watch.

But he loved her. And he had finally pulled his head out of his ass. Didn’t that count for something?

“That’s as much an insult to me as it is to your daughter.”

The dark eyes, so like Jasmine’s, narrowed. “How so?”

“She’s amazing. She’s bright and smart and beautiful and funny and about a million other things I’ve never found with another person. I’m in this. All the way in this. No matter what my history might suggest.”

“I see.”

“I know my track record sucks, and I know I deserve a few good jabs about that. But it’s not who I am.”

“Then that’s all I needed to know.”

“Why?”

In a heartbeat, that sharp, assessing gaze faded, replaced with something he’d seen so many times in his own mother’s eyes.

Love.

“I’ve watched my baby pine over the love of her life for the past twenty years, helpless to do anything about it. You’ll forgive me if I have worries it will somehow be snatched away from her.”

“It won’t.”

“I know that now.” Lynn leaned forward and pulled him close. “I just needed to hear it for myself.”

Cade pulled Jasmine’s mother close and sunk into the hug. He’d run for so long, it felt good to stand still in one place. Even more than that, it felt good to be welcomed into Jasmine’s family.

Something had his gaze shifting, and he saw his sister across the lawn, a bright smile filling her face. Daphne had her hand locked in Landon’s as the two of them talked to a small circle of friends. But her smile was all for him.

It was slightly superior, as all sister smiles were prone to be.

It was supremely satisfied, as if to say she’d finally gotten her way.

And it was full of love.

Bright and shiny and so very happy. The same love he’d seen between his parents had found its way to a new generation.

Jasmine and Percy rejoined Cade and Lynn, and the four of them toasted the day on a round of smiles and laughter. There, in the backyard he’d navigated as a boy, Cade toasted his sister’s future and then toasted his own.

They had so much to celebrate.