The Bromance Book Club - Lyssa Kay Adams Page 0,66
the stairs two at a time.
She rushed over to him. “What happened?”
“Nothing. It’s fine.”
“What did you say to them?”
“I told them that I was enjoying a nice evening with my wife and that I would appreciate it if they would leave us alone.”
“Don’t do that again. Do you hear me? They could have been crazy! I don’t want you to do that again.”
“I won’t.”
“I’m serious.”
Gavin put his hands on her hips and pulled her against him. “Do you w-want to dance?”
* * *
• • •
“Dance?” Thea scanned Gavin’s face for signs of another head wound. Had one of them hit him in the bathroom?
Uncertainty flashed across his face. “I thought maybe you w-w-wanted to.”
“I—”
“We don’t have to.”
He started to step back, but Thea covered his hands with her own. “I didn’t say that. We just, we’ve never danced before.”
“I know. It’s long overdue, don’t you think?”
Yes, but not much about their marriage was normal. They were doing a lot of things for the first time that most married couples did long before they got married and had children.
“I like dancing,” she finally said. Wait. No. What was she thinking? This wasn’t supposed to be a real date. She was supposed to be going through the motions. The washi tape and wine were scrambling her brain. She backed up.
“So do I,” Gavin said. He caught her hand with one of his and pulled her back. He curled their fingers together. “So should we?”
Thea looked around the dark loft. They were safe from prying eyes, and the band was playing a slow song.
Nervous butterflies took flight in her stomach as Gavin wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against him. His other hand curled around hers, and he tucked them both against his heart. It was manly and gallant and sexy as hell, and that was before he began to move.
Which. Wow. He swayed with a natural rhythm that took her breath away. Of course, most athletes had good body control, but that didn’t mean they could actually dance. She’d seen enough dugout dance-offs to know that most baseball players left their skills on the field. But Gavin? Wow. Where’d he been hiding this?
“Do you regret not having a real w-wedding?” he asked after a moment of quiet swaying.
“We did have a real wedding.”
“You know what I mean. A big wedding.”
Her gut twisted. This was dangerous territory as far as conversations went. “Not really. Do you?”
“I didn’t used to, but now I think I’d like to have the memory of you walking down the aisle in a white dress.”
“It’s just a dress.”
“This isn’t just a dress.” His hand splayed across her back. Her heart raced. The flirting that had bothered her so much last week was giving her warm fluttery feelings tonight, and that was not good. She stared at his shoulder to avoid his eyes.
“What about a honeymoon?” he murmured.
“What about it?” This was definitely venturing into dangerous territory. Thea focused on her steps, her breathing.
“I regret not having one of those,” Gavin said playfully, rubbing the pad of his thumb suggestively across her low back.
Thea coughed. “Where would you have wanted to go?”
“Someplace warm where you could walk around in a bikini all day.”
Laughter bubbled up, unbidden. “I haven’t worn a bikini since the girls were born.”
“I know. It’s a source of great d-disappointment for me.”
They danced in silence for a beat, but then he spoke again. “If we’d had a w-wedding, w-would you have had your dad walk you down the aisle?”
Thea swallowed and closed her eyes. She didn’t want to think about that bastard right now. Not when she was all tangled up in other confusing emotions. And that kind of question was why she shouldn’t have opened the door to the conversation at all.
“Talk to me, Thea,” he said against her hair.
“Why does any of this matter?”
“Because you matter.”
Thea shook her head. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “It seems like the kind of a thing a man should have to earn, not just expect to be able to do.”
Gavin tugged her closer. “He didn’t earn it.”
“No. He definitely did not.”
They danced in silence for several minutes after that. Thea’s body chronicled every way his body brushed and molded against hers. He bent his head and kissed the top of hers.
“Why don’t you want to go to the wedding?” he asked quietly.
For some reason, she answered. “Because I can’t stand to watch another young, naïve woman get scammed into believing that she’s the one who will