I looked down at my shoes, uncomfortable from the praise. “I don’t know about successful.”

“Shut the fuck up right now. Don’t you dare try to deny it,” a sharp voice came from the kitchen.

Her heels clicked as she emerged.

She was wearing head to toe black. Leather pants, a designer sweater tucked haphazardly into them, gold and diamonds adorning her ears, neck and wrists. Her heels were at least six inches, and her eyeliner was sharp and severe. Same with her red lipstick and hair that was slicked back to accentuate her angled features.

Again, she looked like Rowan and her sister, but much harsher, beautiful in a different way.

She was intimidating as fuck.

Until she smiled warmly and brought me into her arms like the rest of her family had. She smelled of a perfume so expensive it probably didn’t even have a name.

“I’ve done the research on your bakery, sister,” she said once she let me go. “It’s hard to open a food business of any kind. In this economy?” She shook her head. “By all means, you should’ve failed. You’re thriving. I could make you millions if you want to franchise.” She regarded me shrewdly. “But you don’t want to franchise, do you?”

I shook my head. I had already been approached with the offer and turned it down. No matter how much money was promised, I wouldn’t do it. I couldn’t be at every single location, making sure the exact right ingredients were used, the highest possible quality. People would cut corners. The quality would suffer. It would turn into something cold, big, soulless and utterly unlike what I created.

“Calliope, leave her alone,” Rowan scolded, suddenly beside me, glaring at his sister. But I knew Rowan’s glares, and this one was all for show. You could see the warmth underneath it.

“Take these, won’t you, Dad?” he asked his father, gesturing to the bags. His father took them, but not before leaning in to kiss his son on the cheek.

“Good to see you, son.”

It made me feel all melty to see the easy affection displayed by even the alpha males in the family.

“Calliope wants to make everyone rich,” Rowan explained, putting his arms around me.

Calliope’s manicured brows furrowed. “Why you’re saying that like it’s a bad thing baffles me.”

“I’ve got everything I need right here,” Rowan replied, squeezing me tighter.

Cue more melty feelings.

Calliope rolled her eyes. “Easy for you to say with a construction business making the high six figures with projections reaching the millions in your ten-year plan.”

“For fuck’s sake, Calliope, stop nosing into my financial shit,” Rowan snapped.

Her ruby lips parted, showing her straight white teeth. “Make me, Rambo.”

After that, I witnessed what seemed to be a routine for the family. Kendra was the peacekeeper between her brother and sister, who loved to argue yet obviously adored each other. The children, Wyatt and Molly, were, as Kendra said, savages but adorable savages. Keith was quiet but friendly. Hank was much like his son, a man of few words but showed each and every member of his family how much they meant to him as easy as breathing.