Epilogue
Five years later
Sneaking past my boys’ room so I don’t wake them up and so that I can have a quiet morning is like exiting enemy territory via a minefield. It’s seven in the morning when I tiptoe through the hallway, then down the steps to reach the ground floor of our family hotel.
It’s really a mansion not a hotel anymore since only we stay in it at the island, but Blake calls it a hotel, and Bishop and I don’t give a fuck about proper terminology.
In the kitchen, I grab the coffee someone’s already made and walk outside to the patio, where my sister-in-law is breastfeeding. She startles as she sees me and covers the top of her breast, turning a pretty shade of red.
I sit down on the other side of the table, going for nonchalant so as not to make her feel uncomfortable.
Vanessa usually covers up while breastfeeding, so she probably forgot the light cotton blanket or didn’t think anyone would come down this early.
Blake is awake, but it’s workout time for him, vacation or not.
I stare at the ocean and the waves, not looking at Vanessa. “I can leave if you’d like,” I offer.
“Nah, it’s fine. I’ll get used to it.”
“Did you not breastfeed Thomas?”
“No. Went with the bottle.” She clears her throat. There’s something more there, but I don’t pry, just nod in agreement, and surprisingly, Vanessa continues, “Just couldn’t with Thomas, you know.”
“I don’t know, really. I can’t imagine having a little man stuck on my tit for a year.”
Vanessa giggles, and Benny walks out at the same time. She sets her cup on the table and sits closer to me.
“I didn’t breastfeed,” she says.
“Oh,” Vanessa says. “We were just talking about this. I didn’t with Thomas.”
“Why not?” Benny asks, and I’m all ears. See, women can ask each other shit. Men? Nah, I’m good just sitting here, listening, learning, thinking about my wife’s tits.
“I had baby blues with Thomas.”
Well, I know what that is. Benny and I had twin boys. There were complications at birth. We think that’s why Dex is showing early signs of autism. When you have two kids, you notice how Lucas seems to socialize better and how Dex just doesn’t make any eye contact.
We have people working with us so we can diagnose if there is something to diagnose and then help him live the best life he can live.
Benny sips the coffee, big, bright, brown-almost-hazel eyes peeking over the cup, watching Blake walk up from the beach. He nods at the pair of us and kisses his wife on top of her head, then whispers something that makes her blush. I bet it’s about her tits. I’m not the only perv in the family.
Like clockwork, Mika opens the sliding doors, rolls out the breakfast cart, and starts setting our table, while Blake hits the shower. Vanessa excuses herself, and Benny and I sit alone.
She eyes me, eyes twinkling.
“Yes?” I prompt.
“Have you thought about Daddy’s offer?”
Her father offered me the position of head of the family.
He said the three companies I kept from his old portfolio are performing better than any businesses his rival have set up.
But I don’t think that’s why he picked me.
Despite what he says, and what I previously thought of a man who sold his kid to a stranger, I now think everything he did and is doing now is to secure Benny’s future.
It doesn’t hurt that he thinks I’m a ruthless bastard who’s gonna kill anyone who’s trying to compromise my family, namely my relationship with his daughter. He’s never asked me about Brando, but I think he knows I did it.
Besides, I’d always wanted to move away from Hellway Corp. and leave Blake completely in charge of it, I just never imagined I would be a mob boss.
“Hudson?”
“Yes.”
She smiles. “Yes, what? You thought about it, or you’ll accept?”
“Both.” I figure why have Benny as a princess when I can make her my queen?
I guess she colors my decisions too. Why wouldn’t she?
A wife is a man’s entire world, a woman who, if treated well and loved, will lay her life on the line for him.
A man ought to honor that and do whatever it takes to make her happy.