Page 122 of Personal Protection

As far as the police knew and could prove, a disturbed former employee of mine attempted to kidnap Mia for revenge, got into an accident, and died in the car. It was close enough to the truth.

My only regret over the situation was that I hadn’t had more time to make the bastard suffer before he took his last breath. The guilt of not figuring out that it was that son of a bitch behind the break-in before he had a chance to get anywhere near Mia continued to weigh on me.

Mia, of course, never blamed me. Yet, I still vowed to never let anything like that happen to her again.

“To family,” Joshua said, holding up his glass of champagne with his free hand on my shoulder.

I looked at all of them, holding up their champagne flutes. I held mine up as well.

“To family,” I repeated. We clinked glasses and downed our drinks.

As soon as I swallowed, the song faded, and I locked eyes with Mia. My heart skipped a beat, and before I could say ‘excuse me,’ my feet were carrying me to her.

“Take care of her,” her father said as he placed her hand in mine.

I kissed the back of her palm before telling him, “Always.”

I scooped her into my arms and spun us around in a couple of circles, making her laugh. The sound never failed to light up my body.

“What were the five of you over there talking about?” She jutted her head toward where I had stood with the Townsend brothers.

I kissed the tip of her nose.

“Family.”

She stopped dancing, almost making me trip. “You didn’t tell them, did you?” she whispered angrily.

“Baby, there are fifteen kids between the four of them. They can damn near sniff out a pregnant woman by now.”

She pouted. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”

I tugged on her chin. “It will be. They won’t tell anyone. But I should warn you, if they’ve figured it out, Patience, Kayla, Michelle, and Destiny are probably chomping at the bit to plan the shower. They definitely know already, too.”

Mia’s face took on a thoughtful expression. After a moment, she shrugged. “There are worse problems to have.”

“Exactly.” I spun her again, right as an upbeat song started to play. More and more of our family and friends joined us on the dance floor.

“I can’t wait to have this baby dressed in a Cup of Joy onesie,” Mia squealed with love and happiness shining in her eyes.

“Trust me, they’ve probably ordered them already.” I dipped my head to the Townsend wives.

Mia giggled. “I’m so glad I quit my job and decided to pursue my dreams. I got so much more than I could’ve ever asked for.”

“You are so much more than I could’ve asked for.”

She hummed and leaned against my chest, even though it was a fast song. “Thanks for being my favorite personal protection specialist,” she said with a smile.

“Until my dying day,” I said before brushing my lips against her temple.

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