though it would probably give Adam a heart attack, I was okay with that. I liked the idea of another Leggy roaming around.
I also liked the idea of another Vinnie roaming around too. I figured both old ladies would be in heaven, rocking things up about now.
“Where is he?” I questioned, staring up at Adam.
“Dad’s hoarding him, as usual,” he grumbled, twisting around to peer over his shoulder. I stood on tiptoes and just saw Robert through the crowd.
He strode toward us, a blue sling on his chest, and I grinned at him when he gave me two thumbs up. The second he was near, he congratulated me, but though I darted onto tiptoe to kiss his cheek, I gave my son more attention, whispering his name in his ear too, “Kham.” It meant the sun in my language, and that was because he brightened every day now he was in it.
Both babies responded to their names with smiles, like they knew I was sharing a secret with them, a secret that was only for us until they elected to give it to their chosen partner.
Would they have jílos?
Would they have to strive like Adam and I had? I wasn’t sure if I wanted that for them, but I prayed they’d be blessed as we had with a love so pure, so strong, that it could survive psychopaths and years of misery.
Now, with my family altogether, my universe was complete, and I sighed happily, more happier now than I’d been back in the water.
Which was really saying something.
Sure, there were always shadows to spoil things. Mom was still certain we were cursed, though we’d been together four years, and although she loved the kids, we were graced with doomsday looks every time she visited. It saddened me that I was glad those visits were rare.
Anna, after Cain’s sentencing, was pretty much catatonic—existing from Valium to Valium, while never leaving her house. To be fair, I wasn’t too upset about that. The bitch. Adam had finally told me everything, from how she’d forced him to marry Maria or she’d take away my grants, to how she’d slapped him and hit him—not once, but often over his childhood.
And though Cain’s specter and Maria’s death would always affect Freddie—he still had some nightmares about being stolen away from his bed by a man who looked like his dad but who, Freddie declared, he’d known wasn’t—I knew we were exactly what he needed. A normal family.
Well, as normal as we got.
“I don’t know how it’s possible that you’re as fast now as you were before,” Robert muttered in disbelief as he bounced Vinnie, who’d started to grumble. “I mean, you had kids. You’re older.”
“My father, the charmer,” Adam interjected dryly.
Snorting, I shrugged. “It’s a gift.”
Adam rolled his eyes at our personal play on words, making me smirk at him.
“What? It is!”
“Freddie, show me the good stuff,” Robert said, and my son trudged over to him, but he kept his arm over his chest so Robert couldn’t see the medals.
Both grandfather and grandson were a little grabby-handed with the medals. It was fortunate I had enough for everyone to wear if they wanted to.
As Freddie and Robert bickered over my pretty hardware, I turned to Adam and saw he was watching me. There was heat, as always, in his eyes. But more than that, there was love and need and affection and… just everything.
A universe of feeling in that one glance.
We’d come a long way to make it here, and every day with three kids, a pro-athletic career, and a real estate company wasn’t exactly peaceful, but we made it work and we were happy.
“What do you think?” Adam asked quietly. “Have you decided?”
I bit my lip as I thought back to the water, and I thought about how it felt to race, and to take part in something as crazy as this, but also something as thrilling.
I’d been talking about retiring. The twins took a lot of energy, Freddie’s aptitude for the water was like his biological father’s—not that he knew and ever would know Cain was his biological dad—and we knew he’d want to start racing like me when he could. Life was kind of crazy, but…
I pulled a sheepish face at him, and his eyes flashed with laughter. “You owe me five hundred bucks.”
“You don’t have to crow!” I grumbled, shoving him in the side. Not hard, but hell, from Ally’s squawk, you’d think I triggered an earthquake.