the drawer. His eyes drifted to the corkboard and an embossed invitation stuck with a thumbtack. He had to blink twice to make sure he was reading it correctly.
“Your dad is getting married again?”
She slid away from him and walked to the kitchen sink. “Are you surprised?”
“What happened to Christy?”
“Crystal. He cheated on her with the new love of his life.” Thea filled a glass with water and used it to wash down the headache medicine she used whenever she felt a migraine coming on.
“When did all this happen?”
Thea shrugged and turned around. “Sometime last winter? I don’t remember.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I don’t know.” She sighed. “It didn’t seem important.”
“How’s your mom taking it?”
Thea pressed her fingers to her temple. “I really don’t want to talk about my parents right now.”
“Sorry. Right. Are you—” He gestured toward her forehead. “Are you OK?”
“Fine.” She swallowed and looked at the floor. “Gavin, we need to make some decisions.”
Her words were another slingshot that sent him back in time. Whether she realized it or not, she’d said the exact same thing the day she told him she was pregnant.
Thea let him kiss her but not for long. She planted her hands in the center of his chest and pushed him back. “What are you doing?”
Gavin pressed his hand to her abdomen, where his child—their child—grew beneath his fingers. “I’m happy, Thea.”
“That’s great,” she said with more acrimony than he would have expected. “But we need to make some decisions, Gavin.”
“What’s there to decide?” With his right hand still pressed to her stomach, he used his left to cup her jaw. “Marry me.”
An idea took hold. The words had worked back then, so maybe they would work again. It definitely seemed like something Lord What’s-His-Name would do, at any rate.
Gavin closed the distance between them. Thea lifted her gaze from the floor just in time for him to slide his left hand along her cheek. “What’s there to decide?” he said. “Marry me.”
Her head drew back from his touch, her face scrunched in confusion. “What?”
His heart thudded nervously. “It’s—that’s what I said wh-when—”
“I know, Gavin.” Her arms wrapped around her torso in a pose that managed to look both tough and vulnerable. “I just wish you wouldn’t ruin it by saying it now.”
Ruin it? His heart sputtered. “I am not ready to give up on us.”
“It’s too late.”
“It’s not too late,” he said, channeling Lord Always-Says-the-Right-Thing. “It’s never too late for love.”
Thea snorted. “Are you serious right now?”
Okay, maybe that was a bit much. Thanks a lot, Lord Asshat. Still, it was now or never.
And if this didn’t work, he was going to kill Mack and Del and throw Lord Claptrap into the fireplace. “What if . . . what if we could start over?”
Thea lifted her hands to ward off his words. “Gavin, stop.”
“Let me move home—”
“No.” Thea sidestepped him and was halfway across the living room before he could catch up in steps or words.
“Let me move home,” he repeated. “And if I can’t w-w-win you back, I’ll . . . I’ll let you go. I’ll agree to a divorce.”
Thea turned around, an incredulous squint to her eyes. “This is the twenty-first century. I can get a divorce whether you agree to it or not.”
Right. Of course. Shit. “I know. Wh-what I mean is, I’ll give you whatever you want. I’ll pay off the house for you and the girls, give you whatever amount of child support you need. Anything. We don’t even need lawyers.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Your agent would kill you if you got divorced without a lawyer.”
“Why? Are you planning on taking me to the cleaners?”
His attempt at humor was apparently not appreciated, because her lips formed a tight line. “No, but what if you get traded and have to move? Things could get really complicated with custody.”
Custody. The word made him want to puke. “Please, Thea. Just give me a chance.”
“To do what?” she blurted, throwing her hands wide in an exasperated gesture.
“To prove how much I love you.”
Her lips parted again. She stared at him for a moment that lasted forever. “Please stop saying that,” she finally whispered, her voice pained.
“Stop saying what? That I love you?”
Her silent nod hit him like an errant pitch. He stumbled back a step. “Why?”
“I don’t trust those words. Not anymore.”
Gavin fought for air. He’d suffered some tough losses in his life. Life-changing ones. And humiliations that burned to this day. But this . . . this was as close