Page 115 of Tulips and Lost Time

“You promise?” Kari’s voice trembles, her heart tumbling down, down, down into the pits of despair. “Do you swear, Luca? You’ll make it right between you and my brother?”

“I swear on everything we are. You’re my forever, Bear, and he’s my best friend. Beneath his rage is just a terrified man who wants to protect you.” I turn my face and drop a kiss on her brow. “We have that in common.”

“Was it better the next week?” Kane leans against the wall and folds his arms. But he looks down at Marcus and Billy and grins. “Was it all over after a good heart to heart sesh with your bestie?”

Marc chuckles, shaking his head and staring down at Billy’s pert nose. “Took about six more months, a lot of bitching and awkward family get-togethers, then almost losing my baby.” He glances up and swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the action. “I felt, amidst my grief, that Luc was part of the reason I was losing my son, too. In my eyes, he was the reason my whole fucking life sucked.”

“Mostly, I was just trying to do the right thing,” I murmur. “I was standing in the middle of a whole bunch of people I loved, and all of those people had a different idea of what the world should look like. If I chose Meg or Kari, then I was hurting Marcus. If I chose Marcus, then I was neglecting the woman I loved, and I would have been on the wrong side of right and wrong.”

“He was breaking my heart, every single day for most of a year.”

“And then?”

Marc snorts, slipping his finger into Billy’s hand and smiling when she closes her fist around the digit. “Then, Meg was nine months pregnant, and I thought I was gonna lose her, too. Luc and I did what Luc and I had grown used to doing—we were arguing over Kari. Months had passed since that day inside the apartment, and she was still with him. I was bleeding and hurting because I’d made it an ultimatum: him or me. And as far as my brain stretched, the fact that she didn’t dump him, meant she chose him. I know differently now,” he amends, leaning in and kissing Billy’s forehead. “I get it all now, but back then, we were all hurting. So Luc and I were bickering, like always, and Kari was putting herself between us. Telling us to knock it off.”

“Next thing we know, Meg is in labor,” I finish. “She’s laid out on the garage floor, screaming for help, and so fucking sure she was gonna die. And Kari and I were… well…”

“A paramedic and a nurse,” Kane nods, firming his lips in thought. “Handy.”

“So we’re calling for an ambulance, and I’m shouting at her not to push. Filthy garage floor. Loads of nasty germs. Keep it in and just wait things out. But of course?—”

“Babies are gonna come whenever they’re gonna come. And my son…” Marc chuckles. “He’s made a name for himself of moving at whatever the fuck speed he wants to move at. Fast or slow, he sets the pace, and the rest of us are scrambling behind to make sure he survives his latest crazy shit.”

“Either way,” I shrug, a small smile rolling across my lips when Marcus looks over, “Meg was screaming, and his baby was crowning. Marcus was still pretty fucking pissed at me, and then I was gonna have to ask his girl to take down her pants in front of me.”

Kane snickers, his shoulders bouncing as he looks at Marcus. “Salt in a wound.”

“He didn’t make it weird though.” Grumbling, Marcus rocks the baby. It’s unnecessary. She might be the most content infant I’ve ever known. But it’s what adults do: they rock the baby. It’s self-soothing just as much, if not more, than it’s infant-soothing. “The baby was coming faster than the ambulance, and I had a paramedic and a nurse right there. So…” He shrugs. “I let him do his thing.”

“He said if I delivered and kept mom and baby safe, he would forgive me forever. It was a deal made during crisis,” I smirk, “and such deals probably shouldn’t be enforced?—”

“Hell they shouldn’t,” Kane declares. “That’s the point of striking while the iron is hot.”

“I genuinely thought I was gonna lose them both,” Marcus adds. “I kept telling Meg she would be fine, but in the back of my panicked mind, I thought that was it for me. The culmination of the worst year of my life, and I was about to lose the woman I loved, and my baby.”

“He swore forgiveness if I helped him,” I finish. “Which worked for me. I was gonna help no matter what, but he made the deal, and I had a chance to get my family back together. So I accepted the terms, kept Meg breathing, delivered Marcus’ son, and then I made damn sure he kept his side of the bargain.”

“Then I asked him to be godfather to my child,” Marcus sighs, gazing down at my daughter much the same way he gazed down at his son years ago. “I told him I’d be cool with him and my sister, since he’d proven he did, in fact, love her. It wasn’t a one-night thing. It was forever. So I said fine. Everything would be cool between us, so long as he and Kari never, ever, ever kissed in front of me or made things weird.”

Grinning, Kane glances over to me. “You sucked her tongue into the back of your throat right then and there, didn’t you?”

Marcus’ nose and lips wrinkle with disgust.

But I laugh and shake my head. “No, though at this point in the story, we were at the hospital, formally meeting Chance Luca Macchio and hearing about the godparent stuff. Kari was feeling sassy after months and months of family drama, so I guess she was going all in. She sat on my lap and kissed me, and though Marc was grinding away at the enamel on his teeth, she was done dealing with the bullshit. We were together and we weren’t hiding anymore.”

Kane presses a hand to his chest and mocks, “The greatest love story of all time.”

“Shut up, Bish.” I roll my eyes and push away from the wall. We’re just three grown ass men, loitering at the top of a staircase when there are better, comfier places in the house to be. So I move past Kane and head onto the stairs. “It was our love story. And even with all the shit we had to go through, even after all the years where we couldn’t be together, it was the greatest love story I would ever know. She was my forever, and I wasn’t stepping aside or quitting her for anyone.”

“Which just so happens to be okay with me.” Marcus follows me down. “Once I moved past the anger, I was okay with how things had turned out. Because if a dude must see his sister with a man, then I suppose that man being his best friend is a decent solution. Twenty years of character assessments. Loyalty. Kindness. Honesty. There are absolute fucking monsters out there, preying on women with the sole intention to isolate her away from her family and fuck shit up.”

“Like with Laine,” Kane snarls. “That prick who fucked her up.”

I drop my chin in acknowledgement and turn off the stairs and head toward the kitchen. “Like Laine. But we dealt with him and got her out of that situation.”

“Who dealt with him?” Kane speeds his steps, brushing past a lazier, slower Marcus, and grabs my shoulder, spinning me back until we’re eye to eye. He stares into my fucking soul and rumbles, “What did you do about Graham?”

I flash a pleased smile and keep walking. “Nothing.” Everything. “I was just there for my sister as much as I could be. As much as she would allow. Though mostly you and Jess owned all that real estate.”

---