Grieved Loss (Bellandi Crime Syndicate 3)

"You too. August hasn't been able to stop talking about you," she said, and her eyes narrowed on him.

"Could I get anyone drinks?" a waitress asked, stepping in from the door I knew must have led to the kitchens.

Ryker went about ordering a bottle of wine and water for the table, asking if anyone wanted anything else. When no one objected, "Apple juice for the kids, please,” he said.

"Isn't it a little late for them to have all that sugar?" Sigrid asked as she took her seat next to my Dad. The kids each claimed a seat at one end of the table, Ines in the high chair between Sigrid and I, with Axel between his Grandpa and Ryker. Right where I knew my Little Man would want to be. The way he flourished under male attention, I knew without a doubt that he'd needed it even before his father died.

He hadn't gotten it then, but he had it now.

I couldn't be anything but grateful for that, no matter how it came to be.

"We're celebrating," Ryker said, fully humoring my aunt through her judgmental phase of the evening. She'd come out the other side and be as warm as could be, but she had to feel Ryker out as both a potential husband and a potential father for the kids. I didn't blame her for the hesitance, given that Ryker had come out of nowhere and just magically appeared in our lives.

Since she couldn't know the truth, it had to seem as simple as we'd rushed our relationship. Which we had, regardless of Ryker being a creep.

"Oh?" she asked, taking a sip of her ice water after the waitress brought it.

Ryker didn't answer until she'd retreated to the kitchen, when the kids fiddled with their children's menus. It already seemed like old news to them, regardless of the fact that Ryker had only told them a couple days before. "I've asked Calla to marry me, and she's accepted." He took my hand in his, staring down at the ring on my finger as he brushed his thumb over it and then brought my hand up to kiss the back of my knuckles.

"I didn't exactly say yes." I pointed out, but there was a light lilt to my voice. Playful, rather than admonishing.

"Is my ring on your finger?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes."

"Then you said yes, Tesoro." He beamed down at me, releasing my hand to turn his attention to Axel as my aunt gaped at me from across the table.

"You're engaged?" she asked, shooting me a look that communicated I was insane. Her eyes were wide, with her brow raised up to her hairline as she gaped at me. "This man didn't exist a month ago."

"I know it's fast, but—"

"It's insane is what it is!" she whispered, as if the entire table couldn't hear her.

"Don't cut her off," Ryker inserted, his voice going lower as he shifted from the warm and welcoming man that could win Sigrid over to the man who would just piss her off. If she knew half of how domineering he could be, she'd hate him. "You give her a chance to speak for herself, and you at least listen to what she has to say before you argue with her." I'd

expected Sigrid to glare at him, but a little of the anger faded from her face. "Fact is, I asked August for permission. He gave it. I asked the kids for permission. They gave it. So maybe you should take the time to get to know me and see our relationship before you condemn it as too fast."

"What's the rush? If your relationship is so fabulous, take your time with it and enjoy it."

"Why waste time?" Ryker asked back. "I know I will want Calla as my wife tomorrow, and next weekend, next month, next year, fifty years from now. I will always want her next to me. I won't throw that time away to appease other people's opinions." Sigrid had nothing to say to that, no argument that could be made in the face of Ryker's strict condemnation of wasting time.

"We never know where life will take us," I told her. "If you'd asked me five years ago, I'd never have guessed that I'd be a widow. I regret a lot of things about my life and that marriage, but I'll never regret the marriage itself. How could I when I got Axel and Ines?" Axel looked over at me, his eyes intent on me, and he surprised me by nodding with a smile. In that moment, it felt like my son had seen what I hadn't. Like he'd seen my marriage for what it was before I was ready to. "Ryker loves the kids, and he loves me," I said, and I felt emboldened as my voice didn't waiver when I said the words. I believed them.

As insane as it was, he made me believe them every day.

"Why wouldn't I want to give that to us all?"

"They aren't talking about getting married tomorrow, Sigrid," Dad inserted, leaning back in his chair as the waitress came to take our orders. Ryker was occupied, ordering Fettuccine Alfredo for Ines and encouraging Axel to order what he wanted himself like the big boy he was.

When he finished, the waitress came to me, and I opened my mouth to place my order. "Not tomorrow. Next weekend, actually," Ryker told my father. My eyes snapped over, looking at him like he was a pushy bastard. He just didn't know how to ease someone into it, how to show any semblance of normalcy with his expectations. "You're both invited, of course," he added.

My father stared at him like he'd lost his mind for just a moment, and then he threw his head back and laughed so hard the waitress jumped at my side and her menu clattered to the floor.

"Oh, Calla Lily," he murmured when his laughter faded. I finally ordered my dinner, watching the waitress move to a shell-shocked Sigrid. "I knew he'd move fast. I didn't think he'd have you married in a month, but I knew he'd move fast. You stood zero chance against that."

"Thanks for the help, Daddy," I shot back. He laughed again, and after he ordered his food, he jumped into a conversation with Ryker about the Chevelle, of all things. Sigrid watched Ryker interact with him, and the casual way he had with the kids that spoke of just how close they'd become in their time together.

I knew what she saw.