Page 130 of Demanding Mob Boss

"Speaking of Irish soup, could you teach me to make that seafood stew Cian pilfered from your freezer, Mrs. Doyle? It was delicious."

I've looked up recipes online and tried a couple, but none tasted exactly like hers.

"Cian raided Ma's freezer to feed you?" Shea asks, her tone surprised.

"Please call me Mona, dear. Though I think you'll be calling me Ma sooner than later. And of course I'll show you how to make it. I like to serve it with soda bread."

"Connor got some of that from his mom for us to have with the soup."

"What do you think of Elliott?" Mrs. Doy—Mona asks me.

"He's really nice. He's really into Connor and they share their baby with me. I'm learning a lot about being around children and how to care for them. Elliott and Connor are both good dads."

Mona says, "I would expect nothing less of my nephew. I'm glad his, um…boyfriend is also a good father. My great-niece deserves only the best."

Mona hesitated before saying boyfriend. I don't know if it's because she's uncomfortable learning her nephew is gay, or that his partner is a transgender male, but she doesn't misidentify and she doesn't sneer. So, I'm sure she will do her best to be accepting and loving toward the new little family.

She's clearly already fiercely protective toward Dot.

"Dot needs family that accepts her dads and their relationship. Elliott's parents don't and it has caused a lot of stress for Elliott."

Cian looks at me. "I didn't know that. I'll sort them when we get back to Chicago."

Lachlan laughs. "If you don't think Connor already has, you don't know your cousin very well."

Everyone laughs, except me. I'm thinking about how protective Connor is toward Elliott and Dot. Cian is just as protective of me.

Connor loves Elliott. He told me so. I’m not sure Cian loves me and I don't think it matters. As long as he wants to make a life with me.

Chapter 41

ANNA

Mona and I make the Irish Seafood Stew for dinner that night and true to her word, she shows me step by step how to prepare it and the soda bread she says Cian enjoys.

Once the bread is in the oven, Mona turns to me and gives me a searching, worried look. "I don’t know if he can love you."

"My parents loved me, but I was still too much for them," I tell her. "I'm not too much for Cian. He is my person, but I'm his person too."

"Being Cian's person could become smothering," she says in a tentative tone.

I touch her shoulder briefly, wanting to comfort, but not wanting to prolong contact. "People think we're both broken, but our broken pieces lock together and make us both whole."

"That's beautiful." Mona gives me a quivering smile. "And neither of you are broken. You're just you."

I smile back, my heart light. "I like being me when I am with him."

"And you don't think that will change?"

"Do you think he'll get tired of being my touchstone?"

"No. He's obsessed with ye and I do not see that changing, lass."

"I'm obsessed with him too." To the point that I like it best when his cum is rubbed into my skin.

"You were made for each other." She shakes her head, tears trickling from her eyes that she dashes away with the side of her hand. "I didn't think my boyo would ever find someone like you."

"I needed to be found." It's nothing less than the truth.

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