The Bromance Book Club - Lyssa Kay Adams Page 0,67
change him, that she’s the one who will make him stay. He won’t. He’ll leave her, because that’s what he does. He leaves.”
* * *
• • •
The ride home was silent.
Not tense silent. Just . . . weird silent. All night, they’d existed in a sated, peaceful void, avoiding the unpleasant, lumbering elephants between them. So much unresolved unpleasantness had been blissfully forgotten for one night.
Gavin pulled into the driveway and killed the engine. Neither of them moved to get out, though.
“I had fun tonight,” he said.
Thea didn’t want to admit that she had too, so she said nothing. What good would it do to encourage him with false hope? Once they exited the dark haven of the car, the jungle of reality would unleash the trumpeting herds, and no amount of missing and wishing for things to be different would chase them off.
Gavin cleared his throat. “So . . .”
Thea looked over at him. “So?”
“Since this is a date,” he started. “Do I get to kiss you in the car before I walk you inside?”
Air seeped from her lungs. “Is that what people do on dates? I’ve forgotten.”
“I remember doing a lot more than that in a car with you,” he said, his voice husky.
Thea’s cheeks got hot. “You know that’s probably the night I got pregnant, right?”
“I always w-wondered.” The heavy-lidded way he looked at her suggested he had wondered but didn’t particularly care; he just liked the memory and wouldn’t mind making a new one.
Which was why the smart thing to do would be to get out of the car now.
But she wasn’t feeling very smart. She was just feeling. “Yes,” she murmured.
“Yes?” he repeated.
She looked at his lips.
A happy sound rose from Gavin’s chest as he claimed her mouth. This wasn’t like before. This wasn’t like the kiss from the kitchen or the one the night he moved home. This kiss was no explosion of passion, but it was every bit as shattering. Who knew there could be such volatility in such tender pressure? This was a kiss that required a slow breath through her nose and a strong grip on her seat. The kind of kiss that told her she was going to be in trouble if they kept up this charade of dating.
Gavin adjusted the angle of his mouth and brushed her lips once, twice, a third time. Then he pulled back and gazed down at her, a half smile lifting the corner of his mouth.
Gavin rubbed his thumb across her lower lip. “You feel like reading tonight?”
Thea’s head nodded up and down on its own.
An hour later, she fell asleep to the soft cadence of his voice and the confused beating of her heart.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Did you kids have fun last night?”
The next morning, Gavin swung the fridge shut to find that Liv had materialized in the kitchen as if she’d teleported. He jumped and swore.
“Yes.”
“Bummer,” Liv said. “I was hoping to get out of the basement.”
Gavin set down the milk for the girls’ cereal. Thea was upstairs getting the girls dressed. He hadn’t actually seen her yet this morning; he’d only heard her movements. “You know, Liv, this little thing we d-d-do is amusing and all,” Gavin grumbled, “but I don’t have the patience for you this morning.”
“Just watching out for my sister. Didn’t I warn you about hurting her?”
Gavin opened a pantry and withdrew the Cheerios. “Did it ever occur to you that this is none of your business?”
“She’s my sister.”
“And my wife.”
“I live here.”
“Feel free to move out.”
“You first.” She snapped her fingers. “Wait. You already tried that once.”
“And I don’t plan to do it again.”
Thea shuffled into the kitchen, and Gavin fumbled the cereal.
“Hey,” he breathed.
“Morning,” Liv chirped.
Thea stopped short, her eyes darting back and forth between them. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Gavin said.
“Just telling my brother-in-law how much I think of him.”
Thea sighed and reached with both hands to twist her hair atop her head. The girls stumbled into the kitchen in matching pink T-shirts and purple leggings. Gavin scooped them both up and poured their cereal.
Thea’s shoulders were stiff as she filled a cup of coffee. Had she slept any better than him? Because he’d slept like shit. Crawling out of her bed last night to return to the guest room had taken Herculean strength. He didn’t possess it this morning. He had to touch her.
He walked up behind her, slipped his arms around her waist, and nuzzled her cheek.