Page 103 of Breathtaking

I cup her face in my hands and brush my lips over hers. “I will love you with my dying breath, Lennon Beneventi. Then I’ll find you again and love you forever.”

“Ohh...” She looks up at me with that smile I’ll never get tired of pulling from her. “That was a good answer.”

“Good enough for a little slow and steady?”

She looks over at Brennan. “Think we can be quiet?”

“I think we can try.”

EPILOGUE

MADDOX

The first time I saw her, she took my breath away.

And every time I kiss her, she breathes life back into me.

—Maddox’s Secret Thoughts

“Iwarned you my family takes Christmas Eve pretty seriously,tesoro.” Lennon looks at me with a green tinge to her cheeks as she lies tucked into my parents’ couch, as Nonna and my mother add another fish dish to their Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner. Lennon made it through one fish before she turned green. “If you didn’t like calamari, you didn’t have to eat it.”

“I love calamari. I didn’t even eat it. It was the smell. Something about the smell sent my stomach reeling,” she whispers and closes her eyes. “I can’t decide if I want to throw up or just lie here and pray it passes.”

“Come with me,” Caitlin announces as she takes Lennon’s hand and pulls her from the couch.

“Cait... Slow down. I think I’m going to be sick.”

I watch as Caitlin says something I can’t hear, and the two of them head out of the room.

“Where are they going?” Callen asks as he moves next to me with a plate of calamari in his hand.

I take a crunchy bite and pop it into my mouth. “No clue. But these taste great.”

“They smell fine too,” Callen adds as he sniffs the plate. “I don’t think it was the fish.

“Fuck. If she gets the flu, do I have to keep her away from Brennan?” I ask, hoping Callen has the answer, but he shakes his head.

“How long before we should start worrying what they’re doing up there?”

I look past him at the empty stairs. “Maybe Cait’s got Lennon lying down in her old room.”

“Under the poster she’s got up there of Lennon’s brother Rhys? That’s a little creepy.”

Dad laughs as he joins us. “You’re mother remodeled Caitlin’s room last year. No more posters of princes. Lennon’s safe for now. What are the girls doing?”

Callen and I shrug.

“My money’s on getting Lennon something to feel better,” Callen throws out, like we’re betting on a horse race.

“Maybe.” I think about it. “Lennon looked like she was going to puke when Cait took her upstairs.”

Nonna walks in and takes the plate out of Callen’s hand. “The table is set for you to eat sitting down. Not to walk around like you’re in a food court.”

“Sorry, Nonna.” Callen still sounds the same as he did when he’d fuck up as a little kid and have to apologize to Nonna for crushing her rose bushes with a football. “We’re trying to figure out what the girls are doing upstairs.”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake. She’s green and queasy and tired and emotional. She’s pregnant. The girls are probably talking about that.”

“I’m sorry?” My voice rises to an octave I didn’t know I could hit. “What?”

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