Page 124 of At the Edge of Surrender

And I whispered at the crown of her head once again, “I’ve got you.”

Only that time I added, “And I’m never going to let you go.”

THIRTY-ONE

EMERY

“Ifinkthis is a very good idea.” Maci sang it as she kicked her feet from where she was buckled in her new car seat in the back.

I inhaled a shaky breath.

No, I thought it was a very horrible, bad idea. Especially after what had happened between me and Kane in the middle of the night. Well, what seemed to be happening between us every night. This connection deepening with each moment that passed.

He’d stayed with me the entire night. Until the dawn had broken, and I’d felt the soft brush of his fingertips along my cheek before he’d quietly slipped from my bed.

Then I’d spent the entire day locked behind my bedroom door pretending to work on plans to take over my sister’s store when I returned to Wisconsin in a vain effort to protect myself, then tried to come up with a million reasons why I couldn’t come with them tonight, only to land on the one reason why I had to.

Maci.

Maci who was meeting people who were supposed to become her family.

No chance would I hide while something so momentous was occurring in her life.

So, here I was, sitting in the front passenger seat of a shiny, very expensive red SUV that had been sitting in one of the bays of the detached garage at his house.

Kane in the driver’s seat beside me. Wearing jeans and a black tee that did far too good a job of showing off the strength that bristled underneath. The man slung back with a tattooed arm stretched out, one hand on the wheel and one of those ridiculously attractive grins playing all over his mouth as he glanced in the rearview mirror at Maci.

“Well, I think it’s going to be, too. They can’t wait to meet you.”

“Because they really wanna know your bestest friend?”

One of those smoldering glances was cast at me before it flicked up to the rearview mirror then back to the road. “That’s right, they do. My whole family is super close.”

“Well, me and my mommy and my auntie and my grammy and even my grampa Ted are like this!” Maci crossed all her little fingers together, twisting her wrist in an awkward gesture as she tried to demonstrate just how close we were.

My spirit moaned, though in it was a twining of sweetness, this affection for the little girl so stark.

“That close, huh?” Kane enthused, though I could feel the deep affection in his voice, too. The thickness as he came to a stop at a red light in the middle of town as we headed to River Tayte’s house.

A man I had been told wasn’t actually his brother but rather his friend, though Kane had said he considered every single person we’d meet today his family.

The only true blood relative he had here was the little girl in the back seat.

That weight pressed heavily on my chest.

We needed to tell her soon, but that confession seemed locked in my throat, waiting for the right time, all while I wasn’t sure there would ever be theright time.

But I could feel it stirring in Kane beside me.

His need to claim it.

To tell her what she really meant to him.

The light turned green, and he accelerated down Culberry, the main street that cut through Moonlit Ridge. We passed by the hotel where we’d been staying, then my stomach twisted as I caught a glimpse of the entrance of Twisted Moon Tavern, and that twisting devolved into a fist of greed when Kane peered over at me.

I swore I could see exactly what he was imagining in the depths of those magic eyes.

Me propped on his desk with his head between my thighs.

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