Scars of Yesterday (Sons of Templar MC #8) - Anne Malcom Page 0,147

unimaginable amount. Because that’s who Kace was. Because he already loved my children that much. Loved them like he had watched them grow inside me, like he’d known them forever. Like they were his blood.

And they loved him back. Hesitantly at first. Well, not Lily. She was not one to love with hesitation, which was going to spell trouble for us in her teenage years. Jack, on the other hand, had been more guarded. Which was entirely to do with losing his father. It created borders, boundaries to his love. A fear of loss that broke my heart.

Beyond that, he idolized his father. Adored him. And he considered it his job to protect me. One he took more and more seriously with every passing year. So even though the child inside of him wanted to love Kace for teaching him about cars, about guns—that one got me—about all the things his father had started to teach him, there was also the fact that the ghost of his father lingered. He was also old enough to feel guilt for wanting to love Kace. Like it was somehow dishonoring his father.

So it had taken him longer.

But not that much longer.

Because that was the magic of Kace.

You couldn’t not fall in love with him.

Especially when we’d all been faced with the possibility of losing him. And when we didn’t lose him, we’d had to see him weak. Injured.

And my son stepped up. He was there every step of the way. And they were steps. Kace had had to learn how to walk again. Had to go through months of intense rehab. Had to weather constant pain. It could’ve done something to him. It could’ve made him depressed. Negative. Angry. It sure made me all of those things.

But not Kace. Through everything, he smiled, even if he was gritting his teeth while doing so. Regardless of his physical condition, he always found enough energy to be kind to me. To the kids. He was magic.

Jack certainly viewed him that way. He respected Kace’s strength. His dedication. When Kace got out of the hospital, it was Jack’s insistence that he move in with us. That he drive him and Lily to school when he could drive again. That he should sell his house down the street because he ‘didn’t need it anymore’.

He also helped Kace pick out my ring. Lily helped with the proposal. Kace made sure they were involved in such a big change in their lives. A bookend to their life with their father. Kace was so sensitive and knew that they didn’t have control or agency over losing their father. Over having their mother move on. He wanted them to feel like this wasn’t happening ‘to’ them, but like they were involved in everything.

Jack was his best man at the wedding.

Things got... softer from there. Easier.

Problems arose, to be sure. There were two growing kids around with scars of their own. There were more Sons of Templar courtships, Ashley and Wire of the most surprising. Well, not to me.

But for us, at least, things seemed to settle.

Then the baby thing slowly started. He didn’t pressure me. Didn’t mention it. But still, I felt it there. With his youth, with the fact it might just be an insult to science and the human race not to carry on his magical genes.

But I just felt... done.

Life was soft now. The loss of my baby and my husband after haunted me. Was I tempting fate by bringing yet another soft, pure, unmarked piece of happiness into the world?

It was surely a selfish way to think. But I couldn’t help it.

And it had to come to a head eventually. Kace knew me too well, was far too in tune with me for me to be able to hide my thoughts on this.

I feared telling him. That he’d think less of me. That it would put a wedge in our beautiful marriage. But I had to. So I did, with a shaking voice and a fearful soul.

“Baby, I have you,” Kace affirmed the moment I spoke, pulling me to him.

“Got two children that need a second father, one here on earth to do their first one proud. It’s a responsibility. A big one. A beautiful one. In addition to being your husband, being their father fills me up. There is not one part of me that feels like my life is lacking without a kid. If you truly want one with your heart and soul, I’d be