The outdoor party wound down as bellies filled with burgers, steaks, and brats, and little ones’ eyes got heavy. The night had gone better than he could have dreamed, and he couldn’t wipe the dopey grin off his face each time Hadley nearly poked out the eye of anyone who asked to see her ring in her eagerness to flash it at them.
That she had known about Carbonado diamonds didn’t surprise him, and she was quick to educate anyone who asked (and some who didn’t) about how scientists theorized their scarcity was due to a single asteroid impact.
“You did good.” Boaz clasped him on the shoulder. “I’ve never seen her this happy, and I took her to her first Dragon Con when she was eight.”
Wreathed in a proud smile, Mom never left Hadley’s side as they navigated the room.
“Thanks.” Midas soaked up how the pack embraced her, and she embraced them right back. “That’s all I want. To make her happy.”
Boaz watched them for a moment longer but glanced away as if the sight of Mom and Hadley hurt him.
“I didn’t know,” he said quietly. “How did I not see it?”
Midas had wondered the same thing, at first, but he knew his Hadley. She would protect those she loved at any cost, especially to herself. She had suffered in silence most of her life, and nothing he could say to Boaz could make him feel better or worse about the agony clawing him up inside when he looked at her.
“Don’t treat her like she’s broken.” Midas studied him. “I’m not saying turn a blind eye to her past. She’s going to want to talk to you about it someday, now that you know. She’ll also want precautions taken on Macon’s behalf. But don’t let her catch you staring at her like you are now. She’s worked too damn hard. I won’t let it all to have been for nothing.”
“You really do love her, don’t you?”
“I agreed to be Mr. Spock, didn’t I?”
Boaz snorted out a laugh. “Sucker.”
“You’re her Man of Honor,” he said toothily. “Dr. McCoy.”
“Goddessdamn it.” Boaz recoiled. “You’re not serious.”
“As a Vulcan.” Might as well get in character. “Better practice your I’m a doctor, not a… one-liners.”
Adelaide waved to him as music spilled into the backyard from speakers mounted on the porch.
Guess the party had caught its second wind, now that the littles were tucked safely in their beds.
“I’m being summoned.” Boaz lingered a moment longer. “Just a friendly FYI, Addie is heavy into Keanu.”
“Reeves?” Midas frowned. “Are we talking a Speed-themed wedding?”
“More like Constantine with a splash of John Wick.”
Hadley waved her geek flag proudly for all to see, but Addie hadn’t unfurled hers around Midas yet.
“She’s that into him?”
“Hadley is a geek in the broadest sense of the word. She lives and breathes her fandoms. Addie isn’t that into any particular franchise, so much as the man himself.” He frowned. “She blames her best friend for it, but I’ve seen the body pillow in her closet with him screen-printed on it.”
Giving up on Boaz’s ability to take direction, Addie came to collect him. “Come on.”
Midas gave them ten minutes before Abbott noticed they were physically exerting themselves, intercepted them, and sat them at a table where they could be monitored for the rest of the night.
Until then, they rocked gently in a slow dance while other couples moved to the upbeat tempo.
“Hadley’s eyes are glazing over,” Mom warned after hitting a cooler for a can of beer. “She won’t last much longer without caffeine or sugar.”
Meeting the entire pack was overwhelming, especially when they were welcoming you to the family.
“I understand Mr. Whitaker is bound for rehab,” she said. “Otherwise, I’m sure he’d be here.”
“He would,” Midas agreed. That was the nature of the bargain Hadley had struck with him.
“Matron Pritchard, on the other hand, has already left Atlanta.”
That bit of news jerked his attention to his mother. “That was fast.”
Mom watched Hadley, a faint smile arranged on her face that clashed with the furious storm in her eyes. “She plans on returning to Savannah, where she will pack her husband and her belongings, then relocate to upstate New York.”
Careful of his tone around the woman who was his mother and his alpha, he asked, “Why would she do that?”
“She won’t be Matron Pritchard much longer, and she’s not the type to sit idle. She has family there, and she’s decided to take a position with their firm.”
“What about Macon?”
“They don’t know it yet, but Boaz and Adelaide will be signing guardianship papers within the hour.”
“And if Mr. Pritchard balks?”
“He’s welcome to secure lodgings in Savannah, if that suits him better, but he has been evicted from the Pritchard home effective immediately. The Pritchards will be allowed supervised visits with Macon, after a time, but they are to have no contact with any future grandchildren.”
Mom wasn’t much for empty threats, and Hadley was pack. Mom could take the law into her own hands if she deemed it necessary. Neither the Grande Dame nor the Lyceum could protect the Pritchards now.
“He may not have raised his hand against his daughter,” she added, her voice arctic, “but he didn’t stop his wife, and that’s unforgiveable. The elder Pritchards are about to receive an all-expense-paid education in what happens when you harm my children.”
“What will you tell Hadley?”
“I’m hoping she will choose to believe her mother had a come-to-Jesus moment in that clinic and decided to get her life right.”
“You’re getting soft in your old age,” he teased. “You let her mother off with a warning.”
“Yes, well.” Mom ran her tongue along the edge of her teeth. “I thought about ripping out her throat.”
Amused, though he knew it for the truth, he still asked, “What stopped you?”
Wrinkling her nose, she curled her lip. “Can you imagine how that bitter woman must taste?”
Ford waltzed up to her as the music changed and held out his hand. “May I have this dance?”
Flushed rosy with pleasure at having
