And the worst part was, he’d been so preoccupied with his career that he hadn’t noticed the changes in her until it was too late. Until the night it happened, when it had been so long since they’d picked a meaningless fight with each other that the real one was too big to come back from. “Y’all need anything else?” The waitress appeared out of nowhere. Gavin jumped in his chair. The book fumbled in his hands and fell, cover up, in his eggs.
“Oh, I love that author,” the waitress gushed.
Gavin grabbed the book, wiped it with a napkin, and started to stammer. “Present for my w-w-wife,” he said.
The waitress raised a single eyebrow and smacked down the check. “Whatever floats your boat, honey. I won’t tell.”
She sauntered off, and Gavin dropped his elbows on the table. He dragged his fingers through his hair and stared at the cover of the book. Lord Smugness was too busy ogling Irena’s cleavage to offer advice.
But maybe he already had.
“And if I refuse to do your bidding?”
He took a deep breath and played his last card . . .
Gavin surged to his feet. Lord Boob Man wasn’t the only one with another card to play. He dropped thirty bucks on the table and shrugged on his coat.
“Dude, where are you going?” Mack said.
“To up the ante.”
“Excuse me?” Del said.
“I have some conditions of my own.”
“Hey!” Mack yelled as he stormed off. “Can I have the rest of your bacon?”
CHAPTER NINE
The street outside the girls’ school was at a dead stop in a pre-holiday traffic jam. Even with the extra twenty minutes Thea had built in for just that reason, she was still barely on time when she finally found a parking spot and jogged inside to pick up the girls. Preschoolers had to be picked up inside, rather than by the bus loop like older kids. And on days like this, it seemed nearly every kid in school was being picked up instead of taking the bus home.
Thea’s heart smiled, as it always did, at the sight of the girls sitting side by side on the bench next to the main office. Their little mouths moved at a rapid pace, chattering to each other about something Thea couldn’t hear over the shouts of other children, the conversations of other parents, and the general after-school chaos that vibrated through the hallways. Their connection was so strong—best friends already. They would always have each other, even if the rest of the world let them down.
After waiting to be buzzed in to the locked inner door by the school secretary, Thea strode in with a thank-you wave to the office staff. The girls jumped up at the sight of her, both extending colored-paper crafts.
“We made turkeys,” Amelia said.
“Nice job!” Thea adjusted Ava’s backpack, which had slipped down to her elbows. “Ready to go home?”
They ran ahead without answering. Thea reminded them to walk but couldn’t fault them their excitement. Kids were always squirrely the day before a holiday break. The thrill and anticipation of a holiday, of a day off, of a fun family tradition, made it hard to sit still.
Of course, it didn’t take long for Thea and Liv to realize their holidays looked a lot different than other kids’ in their classes. They’d spent one Thanksgiving hunched over TV dinners because their mother had taken the passive-aggressive tactic of refusing to cook a holiday meal to punish their father for some thing or another. Her parents never actually fought. They preferred the tense prison of silence.
Thea caught up with the girls on the sidewalk and took each of their hands. Their fingers were cold in hers, and Thea wished she’d thought to send gloves with the girls that morning. It was unseasonably chilly for this part of Tennessee.
“So guess what?” she said, unlocking her Subaru in the parking lot.
“What?” Ava asked, waiting to climb into her booster seat.
Thea bent through the back door to help her with the harness before rounding to the other side to repeat the process with Amelia. Then she looked at both girls with as big a smile as she could muster.
“There’s a surprise waiting for you at home,” she said.
“What is it?” Amelia asked breathlessly.
“Is it a kitten?” Ava asked.
“Nope, not a kitten.” Thea shut Amelia’s door and went around to the driver’s side. As soon as she got in, the girls picked up the guessing game again.
“Is it a hedgehog?” Amelia asked.
“Nope.” Thea started the car and eased out of her parking spot into the slow-moving traffic.
“Is it a giraffe?” Ava asked. Amelia giggled.
“Nope, not a giraffe.”
“A lion?”
“Nope.” Thea turned left at the stop sign. “It’s not any kind of animal.”
It was, in fact, something potentially far more dangerous. Nervous tension had been Thea’s constant companion since Monday night, and now that the day was finally here—the day of Gavin’s big return—she was a twitchy mess. She had no idea what to expect when she and the girls got home. She didn’t even know what she would say. She only knew what she had to do.
Which was to stay as far away from him as possible.
The girls picked up their earlier conversation in the back seat as Thea drove the rest of the way home. Crisp leaves fell from the trees and danced through the air as Thea turned onto their street. Even from several houses away, her eyes zeroed in on the dark SUV in the driveway.
Tension coiled around her lungs as she pulled into the driveway. She’d just shut off the car when the front door opened. Gavin strolled out onto the front porch with a casual wave, as if he’d never left.
Amelia spotted him first from her window and shouted, “Daddy!”
“Yep. Daddy’s home,” Thea said, swallowing hard.
“Is that the surprise?” Ava asked, and Thea couldn’t tell from her tone if she was disappointed or excited.
“That’s the surprise!” Thea forced cheeriness into her own voice. “Daddy’s home just in time for Thanksgiving.”
Amelia squealed, drowning out whatever response Ava might have had. But both were eclipsed by the roaring in her own ears as Gavin jogged down the porch steps and headed their way.
Two observations hit her at once. First, it looked like he hadn’t shaved since Monday. Second, she liked it. Which he probably knew, because she used to tell him he was sexy when he hadn’t shaved.
He also wore the kind of outfit he knew she liked—loose-fitting jeans that hung low on his trim hips and a flannel shirt worn open over a snug T-shirt. He had pulled out the big guns. Good thing her heart was made of Kevlar.
“Hi, Daddy!” Amelia yelled.
Gavin’s smile grew as he waved at the girls in the back seat. Nervousness bled into resolve. The girls were happy. That’s what mattered right now. Thea would take this one day at a time for their sake.
Thea followed Gavin with her eyes as he rounded the hood. He stopped by her door, a quizzical pull on his brows.
Oh. Right. She was just sitting there.
Thea took her keys from the ignition and grabbed her purse from the passenger seat. Gavin backed up a step as she opened her door. With a swallow, he shoved his hands in his back pockets. “Hey,” he said, low and sexy.
“Are you growing a beard?” she blurted.
He smiled and dragged one hand down his jaw. “That depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether you like it.”
She shrugged and turned to open Ava’s door. “It’s your face,” she grumbled.
“True, but I would definitely have an opinion if you decided to grow a beard.”
The girls giggled. Bending, she unbuckled Ava’s harness. Gavin walked around to Amelia’s side and did the same with her car seat. Thea avoided his eyes as she pulled Ava from the car and set her on the ground. “Go see Da
ddy,” she said.
Gavin got Amelia out and hoisted her in his arms, then waited for Ava to slowly round the back of the car. “Hey, squirt,” he said, squatting to hold his other arm open for her. Thea held her breath as Ava hesitated for a moment. But then she exhaled as Ava willingly went to Gavin. He stood, both girls easily in his arms, and met Thea’s eyes over the hood of the car.
“Anything need to be brought in?” he asked.
“The turkey.”
His eyebrows did the quizzical thing again. “You’re taking a turkey to Del’s?”
“Del’s? What do you mean?”
“I just figured that since we canceled on my parents . . .” He shrugged.
“You just figured you’d make plans for us without talking to me?” she finished.
“It’s what we did last year, so yeah, I assumed we’d go again this year.”
“Yeah, Mommy, we want to go to Del’s,” Amelia piped in.
“I want to go to Del’s and play with Jo-Jo,” Ava said.
Resentment prickled her along her spine.
“Is that OK?” Gavin asked.
“No, it’s not OK. I bought a fresh turkey for us to have at home.”
“I guess you should’ve asked me first, huh?” Gavin said.
“Asked you first?” Her voice came out an incredulous squeak as Gavin left her standing in the driveway to carry the girls inside.
Thea whipped around and stormed to the hatchback. Did he really think it was a good idea to spend Thanksgiving with other people this year? And not just other people, but other Legends players and their wives? Right. That’s exactly what she needed.
Thea grabbed two grocery bags and carried them inside. She hoisted the heavy bags onto the kitchen island, wincing as the glass jars inside clunked against the granite countertop. Her eyes focused on a bouquet of fresh daisies that hadn’t been there when she left the house earlier, and she bit back a growl.
She started unloading the bags, pulling out more Thanksgiving ingredients that wouldn’t get used tomorrow, when she heard the door open. Gavin returned a few moments later and set the two other bags on the island.
“Hey,” he said.
Her hands froze inside the bag, fingers wrapped around a bag of fresh cranberries.
“Hey,” she said, resuming her unpacking, nonchalantly sliding sideways to get away from his heat.
“I put up a tarp.”
She looked at him. He pointed at the wall, now covered by a blue plastic sheet.
“Oh.”
“We’ll have to talk at some point about what we’re going to do about that.”
“I am going to finish tearing it down.”
Gavin cleared his throat. “About tomorrow.”
“What about it?”
“I’m confused. You’re the one who said you wanted the girls to have a good holiday. They like going to Del’s, and that’s what we did last year, so I didn’t think it would be a big deal.”
“It’s a big deal.”
“Why?”
“With everything that’s going on with us, do you really think I want to spend tomorrow with a bunch of people who are going to be watching our every move?”
“They’re our friends, Thea.”
“They’re your friends, Gavin.”
“What does that mean?”
“Except for Nessa, I can’t stand most of those women. Or, more to the point, they can’t stand me.”
Gavin shook his head as if her words made no sense. “What are you talking about, Thea? Since when?”
“Since forever.” Thea filled her arms with canned goods and walked to the butler’s pantry.
“Is there more to that answer?” Gavin asked behind her. He stood in the doorway, arms braced against the frame and blocking them both in.
“It doesn’t matter,” she snapped. “We’ll go to Del’s tomorrow, and then I never have to hang out with those women again.”
She plowed past him and searched out the girls in the living room. They were sitting on the floor and watching a cartoon on PBS. Thea crouched down and kissed them both. She was doing this for them. She had to remember that.
Which she was able to do through much of the evening—during pizza, the girls’ bath, and bedtime. After getting both girls to sleep, she went to her own bedroom without a word to Gavin and shut the door. If she could make this her nightly routine, she just might survive this.
She had just stripped down to her bra and panties when the door opened.
* * *
• • •
Thea whipped around as Gavin strode in. “What are you doing?”
He closed the door and leaned against it, swallowing against his dry throat at the sight of her bare skin. “You established your conditions, Thea. Now it’s my turn.”
Thea’s eyes did a you have to be joking bug out before she shook her head with an angry exhale. “No. You don’t get to set any conditions.”
“First,” he said, peeling away from the door. “We attend the team Christmas party.”
Every year, the Legends hosted a black tie post-season bash at the ballpark for players, families, and other staff.
“No.” Thea shook her head. “Absolutely not.”
He sauntered closer. “Second, we go on a date every single week. Just the two of us.”
She laughed openly. “No.”
Gavin took another step. “A real date, Thea. Not grocery shopping or some other mundane activity you can think of to avoid being alone with me.”
“Sorry. Next?”
He closed what remained of the distance between them. “We kiss good-night. Every night. Starting tonight.”
“You can’t be serious,” Thea said, her jaw clenching. “No. No way.”
Gavin stepped back. Time to play his card. “OK, fine,” he said, raising his hands in a wide shrug. “Then let’s call this off right now. Let’s go get the girls, tell them we’re getting a divorce, and we’ll let the lawyers figure out who gets them on Christmas and which one of us keeps the house.”
The first chink in her armor was a rapid blink of her eyes. She wouldn’t do that to the girls, and Gavin knew it. Still, he found no joy in watching her eyes flicker with a pain that told him how right the guys were yesterday morning. There were things he needed to find out about his wife.
Thea clenched her jaw. “I can’t believe you would use the girls against me like this,” she seethed, shaking.
He winced inwardly but plowed forward. “You’ve left me with few options, Thea. Your conditions would have made it impossible for me to win.”
“Win? Is this a game to you?”
He lowered his gaze to her lips. “A game? No. A competition? Yes.”
Thea braced her hands on the edge of her dresser behind her as Gavin inched ever closer. Her eyes darted to his lips and lingered there. Blood roared through his ears as logic and reason failed him. Because instead of backing away like he should have, he leaned closer. Dipped his head. Nudged the tip of her nose with his.
“What’re you doing?” Thea whispered. She might have been aiming for angry, but the breathless anticipation in her voice gave her away. She was as turned on as he was.
“Sealing the deal,” he rasped.
Then he palmed the back of her head and he kissed her. He kissed her like he had last weekend, open-mouthed and probing. And just like last weekend, she greeted his passion with a split-second of resistance before all but melting into him with another one of those sighs that sent a surge of lust to his groin. Gavin changed the angle of his mouth and went deeper, pouring everything he couldn’t say and she didn’t want to hear into the push and pull of his lips against hers.
Thea’s hands fisted the front of his shirt. And when she pulled back enough to suck in a shaky breath, he took advantage. He lowered hi
s lips to the hot, sensitive skin of her throat.
“I’m going to fix everything,” he whispered, heated and fervent. “I swear to God, I am going to make you trust me again, Thea. I’m going to make things perfect again.”
And just like that, she went stiff in his arms. She pushed him away and turned her face.
“What’s wrong?” Gavin panted, holding her hips to keep her from slipping away.
“There’s no such thing as perfect,” she said flatly.
Gavin begged for Lord Seduction’s guidance on what to say but came up empty. His delay gave her time to grab his wrists and pull his hands from her body. “I need you to leave now.”
“Thea—”
“Go, Gavin.”
Gavin stepped back and wished he was wearing a longer shirt to hide the hard bulge in the front of his jeans. Thea slid to the right and turned around, hands pressed to the top of her dresser as if she needed help standing up. He’d probably pay for it later, but he couldn’t stop himself from stepping closer once again. He lowered his mouth to her ear. Her shoulders tensed.
“I know what you’re doing,” he whispered. “And I know why. But I’m not going to let you push me away again. Not without a fight.”
Her breath caught. “Why are you doing this?” she rasped. “What do you possibly get out of this?”
A smile spread his lips wide. Thank you, Lord Benedict. “I get the best prize of all,” Gavin murmured, dragging a finger down the nape of her neck. “I win you.”
* * *
• • •
A strange sound woke Thea the next morning.
It sounded like rain, but the sky outside her window was lavender and clear.
It wasn’t until her skin felt the warm brush of humidity that she realized what it was. Thea shot up and kicked free of the sheets. The bathroom door stood ajar, letting out a soft billow of steamy air.
The Bromance Book Club Page 10
