"King is going to walk me," she said, not able to meet my eye. "I mean, I know Charlie is like a..."
"Scotti," I cut her off, shaking my head, "Pops isn't going to be offended that you didn't ask him to walk you. Don't be ridiculous. King has been the only father you have ever known." In fact, when I decided I needed Scotti in a more official capacity and bought the ring, King had been my first stop on my way back from the jewelry store.
I had found him in his office, busting his ass to get it ready to open up. My brothers and I, along with his brothers, pitched in as much as we could to get the shithole he bought into workable condition. But he was still months away from being able to open up shop.
When I walked in, he had been sledgehammering a wall of broken, crumbling Sheetrock. Hearing me, he had looked over his shoulder at me. "Figure there's only one thing that puts that look on a man's face," he said, dropping the sledgehammer, and moving toward me. "You're gonna ask her."
"Not before I ask you."
His smile went a little amused at that. "I know Scotti wouldn't appreciate being discussed like chattel, but I appreciate you coming here."
"I know what she means to you. It's the right thing."
He nodded at that. "Can't think of anything that has made her smile the way you do, Mark. Figure if that is all you can offer her, and let's be real, we both know you have a lot more than that, but if that was all there was, I would be happy for her to have that for the rest of her life."
So I had my permission.
And it was only right Kingston was the one to give her to me.
Hell, from what I had pieced together about the time they spent in the cabin when Scotti was in a funk about leaving, King had been the one to try to reason with her.
That's a damn fine man, my father had said after he had spent half an evening talking to Kingston, getting the whole story about how he had taken on the parental role of all his younger siblings, sacrificing all the things he maybe had planned for his own life to do so. These days, you don't see that kind of selflessness.
And I couldn't have agreed more. And as we worked side-by-side on his place, it became more and more clear exactly how much he had sacrificed, how hard he was scrambling to make up for lost time. But that being said, there wasn't a single speck of resentment in him. He never talked about the career, wife, or kids he had needed to put off to take care of his siblings. In fact, even as he busted his ass to get his new business started, he also still made time to help Nixon and Atlas with theirs. As for Rush, well, he was dirty-talking women at Fee's place and happy as a fucking clam.
I knew his focus was work right now, getting a life together, but I hoped he wanted more eventually.
It would be a waste for a man that yummy to not have a woman. That was Fee.
And he's a genuinely good person too. Guys that hot are never decent. And that was Lea's input.
Give him time. That was Dusty, always the one to believe a little time, a little faith, and maybe some deep-breathing did wonders, no matter the situation.
"And I know you have Ryan, Shane, and Hunter standing up with you," she went on, anxiety a strange thing to find in her, and something that was proving how important this whole thing was to her. "Do you think that Fee, Lea, and Dusty would..."
"Woman," I cut her off, tone firm, "you're their family now. Of-fucking-course they are going to stand up with you. Just try to stop them. And the girls are gonna wanna all be flower girls. All that traditional shit is handled. You just pick your dress, what food you want, and the decor. The rest is gonna handle itself. And, if you don't want to even handle that shit, outsource to Fee. She loves it."
She watched me for a long minute, eyes completely unreadable, something that never happened anymore. Just when I was about to ask what was wrong, she shook her head slightly. "I'm really lucky," she declared, making my heart do a strange as fuck expanding thing in my chest. She thought she was the lucky one? "I mean you're awesome and everything. And I love you," she said, lips twitching. "But I mean... I got parents and sisters and, though I had plenty of my own, brothers. I got nieces and a nephew and stability and... and I don't know what the hell I ever did to deserve any of it."