“Does that upset you?” I shook my head. “No, for the first time in a long time, I know who I am. I like me. It’s everyone else I’m worried about. I reacted so quickly earlier, and I know if anyone ever hurt him, family or not, I would rip them to pieces and sleep like a baby afterward. So,” I tipped my wineglass in a toast, “I feel a multitude of things.” Reggie’s smile, the first real one I’d seen from him, shined a fraction brighter as he tipped his head. “I would expect no less from you.” “Does that make me a monster?” Reggie shook his head. “No, that makes you a protector.”
