Grieved Loss (Bellandi Crime Syndicate 3)

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I'd thought Chad loved me.

I really, honestly had. To think there were relationships where people weren't too absorbed in the lives they lived separately to put the focus on one another seemed impossible.

How could you be someone's complete focus with everything else that happened in a day?

But even when he left during the day, even when we spent time apart, somehow Ryker always let me know he was thinking of me. Sweet text messages asking what the Princess and I were up to came throughout the day, and when he was home with us nothing could distract him from enjoying every second of the time we had together. It seemed like a happy little bubble that existed in the two days after his confession of love.

Like nothing could pierce the safe place we'd created within one another. I didn't want reality to intrude, because reality meant I would need to think about what our relationship meant for my life. It meant I had to consider if it could survive out in the real world.

It meant I had to wonder if it was real, and if what I had with Ryker was a lie, then I never wanted to know the truth.

So the knowledge that Ryker had arranged for us all to go to dinner with Dad and Aunt Sigrid felt like an unfortunate intrusion on my bubble. I loved her. I really did. But my aunt would tear our relationship to pieces. She'd analyze everything Ryker said and did in an attempt to rip it to shreds. She would say that he was just a rebound, that I wasn't meant to marry the first man I dated after losing Chad. A week prior, I would have agreed with her.

But Ryker made me question everything. I just had to hope he knew what he was getting into with her.

The kids bounced around in the backseat as we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant Ryker had suggested. I knew just from looking at it that it must have been Bellandi owned. He swore it was child friendly, that Lino had encouraged Matteo to open it up to cater to the parents who wanted to go somewhere nicer but also wanted to bring their kids along.

I never would have guessed just by looking at it. I mostly assumed that if there was no animal on the sign, my kids wouldn't be welcome. Or at the very least, they wouldn't have a children's menu.

As soon as Ryker parked the car, I jumped out to get Ines out of her seat. The kids had been too antsy trying to get them dressed, and I thanked everything that was holy that Axel had seen Ryker in a suit on more than one occasion. Not that I'd put my six-year-old in a suit to go to dinner, but he did put on a button-up shirt with no fuss because he idolized Ryker.

And Ryker filled out a suit like no man I'd ever met.

Ines bounced up and down happily once I set her on the sidewalk and took her hand. The pretty pink and white dress Ryker surprised her with assured she would love him for the rest of the week.

The sparkly silver shoes had bought him a year.

I fought the urge to tug at my own dress, the navy fabric hanging off my shoulders felt inappropriate given I was a mom, but while it was fitted, it wasn't scandalously tight. And the length made it more appropriate as it hung down to my knees. I'd considered not wearing it, but the subtle, abstract pattern on the fabric made it too beautiful to pass up. The fact that the color was a perfect combination with my lilac geode necklace and my engagement ring was entirely coincidental, I was sure.

Ryker smiled at me, holding Axel's hand as they came around to the sidewalk. He carted Ines up into his arms, clutching her tightly as she beamed down at him with adorable baby teeth with gaps between them. They made a perfect pair, Ryker with his dark hair and olive skin and Ines all porcelain and blond.

Axel took my hand, tugging me to the door as Ryker strode toward it. For the first time, not that I'd had many opportunities, I watched women's gazes swing to him as he moved. The sight of my baby girl in his arms seemed to only amplify how handsome he was. Whereas without her, and without the warmth in his gaze as he stared down at her, he might have looked unattainable. With that steely look he so often had when he thought I wasn't watching him.

But with Ines cradled safely in his arms, women felt safer to smile at him. She became an entry point, an invitation. I knew if he even acknowledged their smiles, they'd probably approach.

It only made me chuckle, because I couldn't blame them. Every time I saw him with my kids, my ovaries burst to life as if I didn't already have my hands full as it was.

When we stepped into the restaurant, Dad and Sigrid weren't at the front. "Mr. Fiore," the host said with a smile, grabbing menus and ignoring the rest of the people waiting at the front. "Your companions are right this way." Axel looked up at me with amused eyes, nodding like the service impressed him.

Like a six-year-old knew anything about good service. I chuckled at him, mussing up his hair in a way I knew would pester him. He'd spent too long trying to get it to lay flat.

"Grandpa!" he yelled, running for where my father sat in the middle of the private room at the back. Why we needed a private room for just us was beyond me, but as the host took Ines's jacket from Ryker and hung it on a coat rack, I felt nothing but appreciation for the quiet.

"Hey, Axe," Dad stood, catching my son in a hug when he crashed into him. "Ryker, you didn't have to go to all this trouble."

"No trouble at all. I wanted to give my Sunshine a night off from cooking," Ryker smiled, stepping forward to shake Dad's hand as Sigrid came and pulled me in for a hug.

"You look beautiful, sweetie," she murmured.

"Thank you," I said, ducking my head shyly. I wasn't sure if I would ever get used to wearing dresses and makeup again after not having the time for things like that. I liked it, enjoyed feeling like I was a person again and not just a mom.

Like I could be both.

"Aunt Sigrid, this is Ryker," I said, introducing the man that I couldn't see, but I felt him when he stepped up behind me. His arm wrapped around my waist, stroking over the fabric covering my stomach as he tucked himself against my back.

"It's nice to meet you," he said, nuzzling his face against my temple until I giggled from the ticklish feeling of his scruff against me.