I stopped outside the family room entrance and slowly peeked inside, my heart beating so hard I felt like I might vomit. I didn’t like feeling like this. The fear of being around women I didn’t know. It was embarrassing. Everyone in my family knew I got like this, but at least no one made fun of me.

Mom and Zia Scarlett were sitting on one of the sofas, glasses of lemonade in their hands. Across from them, a pretty woman I didn’t know was sitting on one of the chairs. Her dark hair was pulled up into a ponytail. Her blue eyes were bright and reminded me of Zariah’s when she laughed.

But it was the little girl on her lap that had that sick feeling in my stomach disappearing, and I moved into the room without even thinking. She was super tiny, her green eyes seeming to shine from a face so beautiful I felt something in my chest squeeze. Her blond hair was pulled into two pigtails on either side of her head, the ends slightly curled and glossy, like pure sunshine. The pink shorts and matching shirt she wore had tiny hearts on them that her little fingers traced over absently.

“Ryan.” Mom’s voice was warm, trying to draw my gaze to her, but I had to fight myself to look away from the little angel who was staring straight at me. When I met Mom’s gaze, she had a huge grin on her face. “Come meet Felicity and her daughter, Nova.”

I glanced back at the woman and swallowed the knot of nervousness that had returned and tried to choke me, but I only skimmed over her for a second before my eyes were back on the little girl. “Hi,” I muttered quietly.

“Hello, Ryan,” the woman returned in a gentle tone. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sweetheart.”

The little girl squirmed, and her mom set her on her feet. As soon as she was free, she ran straight up to me. “Hi,” she greeted in the sweetest voice I’d ever heard, grabbing my hand.

“Nova, do we grab people?”

“No, Mommy,” she said, dropping my hand, her bottom lip pouting. “Sorry.”

The sight of that pout did something strange to my chest. It was worse than when Ciana did it. Knowing Nova was unhappy…hurt. I took hold of her hand gently. As soon as I touched her, the pout disappeared, and I was rewarded with a smile that was just as sweet as her voice.

She was so small she barely reached my belly button, but there was something about her that made her appear larger than life as I smiled down at her.

Behind me, I heard Papa talking to Zio Ciro, and then a male voice I didn’t recognize called out, “Garret, if you’re not going to behave, then you will go to bed early tonight, son.”

“Big deal,” I heard a kid mutter.

Tearing my eyes off the angel in front of me, I glanced over my shoulder just as footsteps reached my ears. I needed to know who was coming in case I had to protect Nova. A boy who was a little taller than me came into the room. With his green eyes and blond hair, I knew he must be Nova’s brother, but when his gaze landed on her, he gave an annoyed roll of his eyes before they narrowed on me and the way I was holding his sister’s hand.