Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 76934 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76934 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Officially.
In my name and everything.
And maybe a part of me had always wished to be an actual part of the family in a way that couldn’t be written off by distance. But if that had been my ultimate goal, there’d been dozens of Costa men to choose from over the years.
It wasn’t about having that coveted last name.
It was Christopher.
With his big heart, his strength, his empathy, his way of getting under my guards and showing me why they didn’t need to be there in the first place.
It was the kids, too.
For adding richness and texture, connection, and love.
I wasn’t their mother. I’d never be their mother. And all of us were okay with that. Because we knew what we had. We knew it wasn’t conventional, but it was still special.
It wasn’t about being a part of the Family as an organization. It was about being a part of a family that meant the world to me.
“Noted,” Christopher said, smiling as he took my hands and gave them a squeeze.
Charlotte and Ezzy stood up behind me in pretty bruised purple dresses they’d picked out that matched the flowers. Standing up as Christopher’s best man was, unsurprisingly, Liam, looking way too mature in his expensive suit. And with him, Zeno. Without whom none of us were sure any of this would have been possible.
We went through our vows, laying out promises in public we’d already made in private.
While the cheers from the kiss were still echoing through the hall, Christopher pressed his forehead to mine.
“How’s it feel being Mrs. Costa?”
“It feels like I’m a mob wife,” I said, beaming. “I feel like I immediately need to go out and purchase an ungodly amount of gold jewelry and faux fur jackets…”
Christopher’s laugh rolled over me.
“Fuck, I’m gonna love spending forever with you.”
Christopher - 5 years
“Really?” I asked, plucking the book out of Alara’s hands. It featured what had to be an eight-foot-tall purple alien—shirtless, because of course he was—and his petite human clinging to him. “More alien smut? Does this one have a nub too?”
“A nub? How uninventive. He vibrates.”
“He… what?”
“Yep. It vibrates. And is ribbed. For her pleasure.”
I laughed, handing her back the book she was reading for her club, knowing that the alien and his vibrating, ribbed member would mean some wild sex for us in the near future.
“Please tell me you’re not having Char read that too?”
“While she is eighteen and perfectly capable of handling hardcore alien smut, she is still in her rom-com phase.”
Rom-coms.
That tracked with the stacks of brightly colored books all around the apartment with their illustrated covers that looked innocent enough.
“Though they’re doing all kinds of unspeakable things in those books too. There was one with an ice pop used—”
“For the love of God, please don’t finish that sentence,” I said as I walked over toward the kitchen.
This place had been our home for years now, longer than I’d ever been in one place since I was a kid. Longer than the kids had, too. Even if Liam had long since moved out. We still kept his bedroom for him. And he was around all the time between jobs, hustling to make a name for himself. At his rate, he was going to be the youngest Made man in Costa history.
It had started as a major fixer-upper that just so happened to be the right size and price. Over time, we’d carefully turned it into something that felt lived-in and familiar.
A big, updated kitchen for me to cook in. Never-ending, floor-to-ceiling built-in bookcases. Cat trees. Dog beds. Trinkets from trips we’d taken. Family pictures.
There was nowhere on Earth I’d rather be than this home we’d created. Though I did occasionally miss the love nest over the pawnshop since Liam started renting it out.
“What do you want for dinner?” I asked as Alara stuck a bookmark between the pages and watched me.
“Whatever will make you sluttily roll up your sleeves,” she said, making a chuckle escape me before we both fell quiet at the doorbell.
“If that is Brio with another animal…” I said, shaking my head.
We still had our black cat Binx, who practically lived in Charlotte’s room since that was his person.
We’d actually let Tuna leave with Liam because, as much as it hurt Alara to let him go, we all knew that the dog had bonded hard with Liam, and making him lose him would have been unfair. Liam still dropped him off at the pawnshop every day so he could work, so he and Alara sort of had joint custody of the dog.
But after he was gone, Brio decided that meant we had plenty of room for other small, ornery, former street dogs.
Which, apparently, we did. Since we now had three of them.
“I got it!” Charlotte called, running out of her room in a sundress she had not been wearing when she came home from school an hour ago. I was pretty sure she’d put on makeup too.