“I’m going to get that picture printed out and frame it, along with a dozen others, and hang them all up at the house before they get there next Sunday.” Her mother had asked if they could come back tomorrow, but they’d promised to attend Kennedy and Lincoln’s birthday party. Her mother wanted to see where Tracey lived and worked, and her stepsisters—she had sisters!—wanted to see all the places Tracey had told them about, like Penny’s ice cream shop, Adrian’s father’s pizza place, and the harbor, so they made plans for her mother’s family to visit them next Sunday. The girls had confided in Tracey that between now and then, they were going to work on getting their parents to let them take a ride on Diesel’s motorcycle, which her mother and Tony were a little uncomfortable with. Tracey had wondered if she’d feel funny hearing the girls refer to her mother as their parent. But she didn’t. Her mother had more than enough love for all of them.

“Print a few extra copies for here, too.”

“You want evidence of us here? In your bachelor pad?” she teased. “Where your biker friends might see it?”

He smacked her ass, making her laugh.

“It’s funny how much can change in a month, or even in a day. Yesterday it was just the two of us. I mean, we have our friends and they’re like family, but now we have my mom, Tony, Anna, and Malia. We have a real family.”

He hugged her tighter, and she kissed his chest, taking advantage of their closeness to ask the hard question. “Was today difficult for you?”

“I was happy for you.”

“I know you were, but that’s not what I asked. Did seeing me with my mom make you miss yours more? Because I missed her for you. I felt an ache in my chest, wishing you could have had more time with her and wishing I’d had a chance to meet her.”

He hugged her again, pressing a kiss to her forehead, his lips lingering there, and she felt his heart beat a little faster. He looked at her, his stormy eyes holding hers.

“It’s okay to admit it. It won’t take away from the excitement of the day,” she reassured him.

His brows twitched, like it was even harder to admit than when he’d told her about his mother’s passing.

“Diesel, I…” Love you was on the tip of her tongue, but she didn’t want to scare him off. “I care about you and I want to know what you feel.” She shimmied up his body and whispered, “You know you can trust me with your secrets.” That earned a genuine smile and a butt squeeze.