Epilogue
BUTCHER
The years had flown by, and they’d been busy ones.
At Moira’s urging, I’d taken the olive branch offered by my family in England when we’d got an invite to the wedding of one of my nieces. I’d never admit it, but I’d been nervous about going home.
It had been years since I’d seen them. I’d missed so much. Nieces and nephews, I didn’t know. Sisters-in-law I’d never met, and my Da. He’d gotten old. I regretted the time I lost with him the most. We were a stubborn lot of feckers …us O’Sheas.
In the end it had all been fine and me, Moira and our kids often found ourselves making the journey to visit them.
And I was glad of it, because I more than anyone knew how fleeting life was.
I hadn’t stopped my vigilante work, but I had pulled back. I was mostly semi-retired with Keelan handing out most of the punishments. It’s only when I felt the darkness encroaching that I reached out to Aiden and asked for a job.
***
The front door to our home slams open and chaos ensues as my family tumbles through the door. Mikayla is in the lead, laughing her head off and being chased by her younger brothers. We’d stopped at three, but I swear sometimes those three felt like six.
I caught Mikayla as she flew at me shouting, “Da, you’re home.
Guess what?” Not that she gave me a chance to answer before she was spouting off about her day.
Putting her down, I picked up each of our boys as they walked up to me, kissing cheeks and ruffling hair.
Mikayla may look like Moira’s mini me, but our boys?
They were all me, except for their curly hair.
Those wild curls could only come from their mother.
And then there she is, smiling at me as she closes our front door. We still lived in the same house, but we remodelled it, knocking into the house I’d lived in and extending it into one big home.
Opening my arms I wait for my love, my reason for living, my anam cara. The woman who changed me for the better, who loved me for what I was and didn’t care about the darkness I carried in me.
She would always be the light to my dark.
Enfolding her in my arms, the noise and chatter of our children fades away as they find their toys or go to their rooms until finally, it’s just me and my sunshine.
Lowering my head I kiss her, long and deep, pouring everything I feel for her into it until it’s hard to tell where I end and she begins. I kiss her until we need to take a breath.
“Love you,” I whisper against her lips.
Moira smiles her beautiful smile at me, brightening my world as she places her hand over my heart and replies, “Tá mo chroí iaistigh de. For always.”
The End