Page 86 of One Quick Obsession

“You’ve done research on this. You know things. I’m just so confused.”

“What? Ranger’s a family member now. A Cage.”

“A Blair Cage,” she corrected.

“Whatever. I’m just not going to screw up this cat’s life. Right, Ranger?”

Ranger yawned, showing me his teeth.

“Okay, we’ll find him a brother. A little Cage brother. Who knew?”

“Okay, enough with that,” I said with a laugh, before I kissed Scarlett hard on the mouth, rubbed Ranger’s chin, and went to get ready for the day.

After leaving Ranger with his dinner, water, and a new toy, we headed to Aston’s lake house.

There were far too many cars parked around the area, and I knew Aston was already thinking about a way to make this work for the long term, but I would leave it up to him. I didn’t have the space for that many Cages, so I didn’t have to worry about it. At least that’s what I told myself.

As soon as we walked inside, everybody said their hellos, and Scarlett was immediately enveloped into the family.

I leaned down, lifted Hazel onto my hip, and grinned.

“Hello there, Hazel.”

She smiled and rubbed my beard with her tiny little hand. “Hi, Uncle Hudson.”

When Violet pulled at my jeans, I leaned down and lifted her onto my other hip before making my way into the living room.

I ignored Blakely taking a photo of me holding the girls, but only because she had to be hormonal considering she was ready to pop any day now.

“Where’s your mama?” I asked, searching for Sophia.

As if I’d conjured her, Sophia came around the corner and grinned. “Hello there. I see you’ve attacked your uncle.”

The girls hugged me tightly, babbling about something, and I just shook my head.

“They let me pick them up, unlike Ranger.”

“That cat will let you pick him up one day,” she teased as she brushed Violet’s hair from her face.

“Maybe. We’ll see. Where’s Cale?” I asked, searching for my brother-in-law.

“Oh, work trip.” She said it with a shrug, and I frowned, but forced myself to blank my face since the girls were in my arms.

When Hazel was plucked from my arms and tossed around the room in her Uncle Kyler’s embrace, I didn’t scowl. He didn’t get to see the girls as often as I did. And considering I didn’t live nearby, that was saying something.

Everybody milled about, looking happy, as if we had done this countless times before. Maybe we had, just not in this sense.

I knew this wasn’t what my father had envisioned when he had forced this upon us. He had expected us to fail. There was no doubt about that, but he had been wrong.

I set Violet down, and she ran over to Theo, who picked her up and continued his conversation with Emily.

There was a bountiful amount of food and drinks around the house, and the volume increased with each laugh and joke.

As Scarlett wrapped her arm around my waist, continuing her conversation with Phoebe, I took a sip of the beer offered by Flynn.

I hadn’t expected this type of family, this type of future, had never thought I deserved it.

And now I was never going to let go. Scarlett and I had fought for each other, and come out scarred, and yet whole at the same time.