“You guys don’t have a clue,” I tell them.

“I understand what you’re going through. The thing is, this is not healthy. You need to go back to work soon. You need to understand that the girls and Sophie will be okay at home without you.”

I know they’re right, but a permanent, cold dread settled inside me once Sophie was taken. Knowing now what the men who had taken her wanted to do to her and that I would have been left with two baby girls to take care of—looking at my girls every day and knowing I had failed them—I never want to feel that kind of fear ever again.

“We’ll all stop by and check on them while you’re at work so you can have some peace of mind,” Trevor offers.

“I don’t know.” I rub the back of my neck.

I have enough money to live comfortably for at least a couple of years, but I know Sophie’s ready to kick my ass if I don’t back off a little. It’s unbelievable to me how she acts like nothing happened, like she has no fears, while I spend every day worrying from the time I wake up until I go to sleep.

“We’re all worried. You need to talk to someone about what’s going on,” my dad says.

I look at my brothers and dad, seeing concern etched in their faces. I know Sophie’s worried, and now, seeing that everyone feels the same way, I know I need to get help.

“Okay. I’ll talk to someone,” I agree, taking a swig of my beer.

“Thank God,” Trevor groans and sits down, “I thought I may need to beat the shit out of you to get you to listen.”

“When was the last time you were able to take me?”

“I could take you,” he says, puffing out his chest.

“I’m gonna let your mouth slide this time, but only because I don’t want to embarrass you in front of Liz. I doubt she would want to sleep with you anymore if you cried like you did the last time I kicked your ass.” I smirk.

“Fuck you! You kicked me in the nuts. That shit doesn’t count.”

“Whatever,” I mutter, fighting back laughter.

“This is what I missed,” Cash says, sitting down.

I take a seat as well, and when I look inside the house through the glass doors, Sophie’s eyes meet mine. She gives me a smile I haven’t seen in weeks. That’s the moment I realize how worried she is about me. I take a breath and mouth the words, “I love you,” before going back to talking to my brothers.

“Why do act like nothing happened?” I ask Sophie, who is sprawled out on top of me later that night.

“What do you mean?”

“You act like nothing happened, while I relive that shit over and over again.”

“I know you’ll protect me. I think about it sometimes, but really, I think about the girls and you and how lucky I am to be with my family. I know I could’ve died that night. I know what David wanted to do to me,” she whispers, clinging to me. “He told me about the other women he and his brother hurt. His brother, Dustin, told me what they had planned to do to Lilly, but when she got fired from the school because of Cash’s ex, it threw a wrench in their plan. I was afraid, but I knew you would find me, and I guess I deal with it because I know what I could have missed out on,” she says, cuddling closer.

“Shit,” I whisper, finally getting it. I don’t know how I missed it before. I’m doing to her what she did to herself for years. I hate that I’m trying to shove her back in her bubble when she has a million reasons to be out enjoying life.

“Yep,” she whispers back. “Now I just need you to start living life with me again.”

“I love you, sweet Sophie.”

“Love you too,” she mumbles, and I kiss her head.

I think about my girls and my need to protect them and their mother, and then I think about being their father and what that means. I can’t be the reason they’re never able to experience life to the fullest. I would hate myself if my own fears stunt their growth or turn them into fearful adults.

What I didn’t know was that, when my girls became teens, I would wish I had made them fearful of everyone, especially the male population.

Epilogue

“They’re grounded until they’re forty,” I tell Sophie as I watch both my girl across the football field. “Why did you encourage them to be cheerleaders?” I grumble as I watch one of the football players come off the field, giving Harmony a smile. “Yo! Hands off!” I stand and shout when another player picks up Willow and swings her around in a circle. His head turns my way, and his face pales when he sees me. “Yeah, you. Hands off,” I repeat. He drops Willow immediately, making her stumble and glare at him.

“Honey, calm down,” Sophie says, pulling on my back pocket.

“Calm down?” I glare at her. “This is your fault. Seriously, babe. Those skirts with your genes?” I shake my head. “Fuck no, I can’t calm down.”

“So your daughters can’t talk to boys, but your son can do that?” She nods to where my seventeen-year-old son, Bax, has his mouth on some girl.

“I never claimed to be fair, babe, but the shit with your daughters is getting ridiculous.”

“They’re going to college at the end of summer, and as much as you want to, you can’t keep them locked up forever.” She shakes her head at me.

“They’re not going away for college,” I tell her.

“Whatever. Can you please sit down so we can watch the rest of the game in peace without you freaking out and scaring everyone?”

“You need to tell the girls that flirting shit isn’t going to fly,” I growl.

“Honey.” Sophie leans into me, her mouth getting close to my ear. Her breath hitting my skin makes me instantly hard for her. Even now, almost nineteen years later, I can’t get enough of my wife. “If you calm down, I will do whatever you want when we get home.”

“You trying to bribe me with sex?” I ask, turning my face to look at her.

“It’s not a bribe.”

“What do you call it?”

“A promise.” She winks.

“I can get you to do whatever I want without taking you up on that offer,” I tell her with a smirk.

“True.” She smiles.

“You are so beautiful, baby.” I run my fingers down her cheek. “All that beauty… You gave all that shit to our girls, and now I’m paying for it.”

“We have good girls.” She pats my thigh.

She’s right; I know she’s right. Both my girls are straight-A students. Actually, all my kids are good kids. Willow and Harmony are getting ready to graduate and Bax is a year behind them. Then there’s Talon, who’s in junior high, and our adopted twins—our son, Sage, and daughter, Nalia— just turned six. Sophie got her dream—her large house in the country that we filled with kids. If she hadn’t gotten sick after having Talon, forcing her to get her tubes tied, she would probably still be popping my babies out.

“Daddy, can I be a cheerleader when I get big?” Nalia asks, making me grit my teeth.

“You can be whatever you want when you get big, honey,” Sophie tells my beautiful little girl, making me cringe.

“Do Daddy a favor, baby, and don’t be a cheerleader.” I pull her from the seat below me into my arms.

There is nothing greater than being a father, but it’s also difficult watching your kids grow up. Having girls only makes it that much harder. Boys can look out for themselves, but girls need someone there to watch out for them.

Sophie

“Grandpa!” Nalia yells, running across the backyard.

I lift my head from Nico’s shoulder to watch my dad pick up Nalia and swing her around. My dad got out of prison and moved to Tennessee a few years ago. I love having him around. He has become good friends with Nico’s dad, and he even started working for Nico’s brothers doing construction. Before he got out of prison, we wrote letters back and forth. I think it was easier to talk to him through letters. I knew that I could say whatever it was I needed to say, and he could reply with whatever it was he needed to get off his chest.

It helped that I was never alone when I got a letter; Nico and I would sit outside or in bed and read them together. I knew he would be there to hold me when it was all done, and that was all I would ever need. After a while, I started sending my dad pictures of the kids and opened up to him about my family and everyday life. He told me about himself and what he was doing each day. It was difficult to talk about the past, but we did. And we each shared some of our favorite memories of my mom. I loved that we could share that.

He even sent me a key for a storage unit in Seattle that held things from my childhood home. I hated going through the stuff that had been stored there. Having to relive some painful things from my past was hard, but in the end, I was able to have pictures of my parents along with mementos and things I had left behind when I moved out.

“How’s Grandpa’s angel?” my dad asks Nalia, who’s holding his face in her small little hands.

“So happy! I have a new boyfriend at school.” She laughs, smiling at her grandpa, who, up until that moment, was smiling at her.

“What the fuck?” Nico whispers, looking over at me. I bite my bottom lip to keep from laughing.

“You’re not allowed to have boyfriends, beautiful girl,” my dad tells her, kissing her forehead.

“But he brought me chocolate,” she tells him like that’s the most important quality in a boyfriend.

“Me, Grandpa James, your daddy, or any of your uncles will give you whatever chocolate you want, angel.”

“Really?” she asks, smiling.

“Really.” He grins back before setting her on the ground.

As soon as she’s free, she runs inside yelling to anyone who will listen that she’s going to get chocolate. By that point, Nico is muttering under his breath about how this is all my fault and that I need to teach our daughter that boys are gross.

“I’m gonna go inside and see what the kids are up to,” I tell him, getting off the overstuffed bed/chair that sits on our back patio.

“Don’t think that we’re not gonna talk about that shit tonight, baby.” He kisses my temple before smacking me on my ass once I start to walk away. I look over my shoulder at him and laugh at the look on his face.

“Love you, Dad,” I say, kissing my dad’s cheek before walking into the house. I love my family.

Nico

“Please stop teasing!” Sophie cries, trying to lift her h*ps higher into my mouth. I’m not having it; I press her h*ps down into the bed, keeping her just like I want her.

“Take it, Sophie,” I growl against her.

“I can’t! I want to come… Let me come!” she cries, trying to push me away.

I grab both of her hands, holding them against her h*ps as I bury my face in her pussy. Once she’s dripping wet, I flip her onto her stomach, pulling her h*ps up high before slamming into her. I watch her hair fly back, her head drop forward, and her ass lift higher, meeting me thrust for thrust.

“That’s it, baby. Fuck yourself.” I still my movements so I can watch her taking my cock, f**king herself hard.

“Nico?” she whimpers.

“What, baby?” I ask, not even looking at her, my eyes glued to our connection.

“Fuck me,” she moans.

I look up to see that her eyes are locked on me over her shoulder. I put my hand under her arms, lifting her up until she’s sitting on my cock, and I do what she wants—I f**k her hard and fast. I feel my balls draw up as she begins to clamp down around me. My hand goes to her hair, pulling her head to the side so I can take her mouth in a deep kiss.

“Hell yes.” I growl my orgasm down her throat as she whimpers hers into my mouth. “I can never get enough of you, sweet Sophie.” I pull out of her, lying down on my back before pulling her on top of me.

That’s the truth. It’s going to be nineteen years since we first got together, and most days, it feels like the first. I’m still as anxious now as I was then to get home to her. She’s not only my wife, but my best friend.

“I love you.” She cuddles deeper into me.

I run my hand down her back, loving the smoothness of her skin. “Love you too, baby, but you need to get a handle on your daughters.” I feel her cheek move against my chest and know she’s smiling. “I’m serious,” I tell her.

“I know you are, honey.” She doesn’t say anything else, and I know I’m f**ked and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.

“Why do I have to be here when I have heard this story a million times?” Jax asks, looking annoyed. I watch my oldest nephew grab a beer before sitting down on the couch.

“I agree with Jax. I’ve heard all this before—the Mayson curse…blah blah blah,” Cobi says, leaning against the wall.

“Can you hurry? I have a date,” Bax says, looking smug before getting a pound from Jax.

I look at Asher and shake my head. My sons and nephews are a f**king handful. I thought my brothers and I were bad growing up, but hell no! We’re looking more and more like choir boys compared to them.

“The younger boys have never heard about it, so shut up and sit down,” Asher says, and all the boys automatically sit down and shut up. Once Asher finishes telling them about the curse and the history of it, they all look at each other and laugh.

“You, Uncle Cash, Uncle Trevor, and Uncle Asher are all just crazy. I don’t care what any of you say. The Mayson curse isn’t real. It’s just something Great-Grandpa and Grandpa Mayson made up to make you guys worry or something.” Bax shrugs, walking over to sit down next to me.