Jonah Bennett (Bennett Mafia)

My parents were not happy because of the mafia world.

There was no hesitancy on their end.

If I chose Jonah, I wouldn’t be choosing them. They were clear on that, but I had already tried not being with Jonah. I knew that didn’t work.

So I chose Jonah. I choose to be happy.

My parents decided to disengage from me.

My sister was angry with them, but I understood. They were worried about her, too, that Jonah’s family would be a danger to her. I really did get it.

It hurt, but it made sense. Either way, I couldn’t go forward without Jonah. I knew by now that wherever I went in the future, he’d be there. That was the best option for me.

I loved him.

I couldn’t stop, no matter the hardships.

* * * *

We got married in the woods, with a woodland-fairytale theme.

I. Loved. It.

We had butterflies in the trees. Fireflies at night. I used moss for decoration. The trees had tiny, tiny doors on them to make it look like gnomes lived there. It was everything and more—my dream wedding.

I wore a wildflower crown on my head.

My bridesmaids were my sister, Brooke, and Angel.

Jonah had Tanner, Kai, and Ezekiel as his groomsmen.

The flower girls were all of Jonah’s nieces, because he had a lot by now.

Riley, Kai’s wife, was in the front bench. She was amazing. There were a whole bunch of people next to her, but I didn’t know who they were. Jonah told me they were hush-hush because of what they did. I didn’t know what that meant, given that the Bennett family was also hush-hush, but by this point, I just went with it.

His father walked both of us down the aisle, and Jonah’s stepmom cried the whole time.

Tanner made an awkward speech, which I was expecting. He talked about a lock room, about kidnapping people. One of Jonah’s uncles on his dad’s side, who Jonah didn’t know that well, made the second speech. It was way better than Tanner’s, but I’d never admit that to Tanner—who was, by the way, an awkward friend to me.

Yeah. I had no idea how that happened either.

Jonah was still a surgeon, and I had gone back to being a forensic technician. Though I knew I probably wouldn’t be content with that. I’d been considering going to school for the whole shebang next fall: a forensic scientist.

Oh yeah. I’d be calling the shots. I knew I could do it.

But I hadn’t done it yet. Because that took balls. All my balls had been taken up by marrying Jonah. Bad metaphor, but I loved him. I was almost obsessed with him. I worshipped him.

Just kidding.

I’m making it weird. It’s not actually like that.

I love my guy. He loves me.

We’ll figure it out, and we have time.

All I know is I’m hella fucking happy, and so is he.

* * * *

Much later

“Babe!”

From upstairs I heard Jonah’s yell, and then the doorbell rang right after. That likely meant Angel was here.

I finished wrapping our precious little Gabriella Brooke in a blanket. When she was snug as a bug—and yes, I chanted this in my head as I did it—I lifted her to my shoulder. She was tired, already nuzzling into me. I could’ve laid her back down in the crib, turned on the sound machine and the monitor, and she’d go right to sleep. She was perfect like that. I assumed those were Jonah’s genes, because no way did she get that from me.

But I didn’t. I couldn’t resist. I took her with me.

Because Jonah’s surgery had gone late, I’d thought we might not do our date, but he was firm. When he’d arrived, I was in sweats, with a pizza on the way and my show picked out on Netflix.

He’d taken one look at me and said, “Nope.”

I should have expected it. He’d promised a date, and he wanted them more than I did. He’d read a manual during our premarital counseling that said always keep it fresh, always keep it new, always keep it fun.

Regular dates were his solution.

Planning for regular sex wasn’t needed. We were just fiiiine in that department. I was a little sore from the position he’d put me in last night. Jonah got fucking experimental at times, emphasis on the fucking part.

Moving down the stairs, cradling Gabby in my arms, I could hear Jonah and his sister talking.

Angel had moved to Minnesota. She got a job here, but I suspected she’d come at least partially because this was where her big brother was. Lord knows, I didn’t blame her. She idolized Jonah, and a weird sort of relationship had developed between her and Tanner.

I guess that was Tanner. I had a weird friendship with him too.

We’d grown to the point that I was his sister, but when the two parts of Jonah’s family started to merge more, Tanner and Angel had become each other’s shadows. I thought it was sweet, in a fierce sort of way—the fierceness coming from Tanner. I knew Jonah’s dad had his concerns, but Angel didn’t listen. Well, she did, and then did what she wanted anyway.