“No. Maybe.” Annoyance marred his features. “I think I’m more pissed at Declan—Roarke. I think I’ll call him Roarke.” His mouth curved.
“Not liking that smile, Theo.”
“He and mother deserve each other.”
A part of Gabby wanted to agree, but she couldn’t find it in her heart to simply give Declan to that woman. And yet, she didn’t have the right. She was an ex.
“You should give him a chance. Get to know the man he is now.” Gabby found herself saying.
“No thanks.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re not pawning me off on him, are you?”
“What?”
“You are,” he smirked. “You don’t like me. And I get it.” He leaned in conspiratorially. “Honestly, I think I was a pain in the ass when you got home because I was jealous.”
“Jealous?”
“Yeah, don’t let it go to your head.” He leaned away and grinned at her cockily. “Get that I’m a star, and we may no longer be related by blood, but I’ll always consider you my big sister. Of course, I look up to you.”
“I’m …” she pressed her lips together so she wouldn’t burst out laughing. “Really touched.”
She must not have hid her humor well, and that seemed to bother Theo. His face lost his initial arrogance and he stared at the floor, worrying his lips between his teeth. “I’m sorry about earlier.”
“I was the one who thrashed your car.”
“Yeah, but I was a dick for inciting the guys to make fun of your series. That was not cool, especially when you’re the one who inspired me to go into acting.”
Gabby’s eyes slitted, studying her brother to see if he was pulling her leg, but he said those words guilelessly and— with her cop’s instinct that could spot a bullshitter a mile away—sincerely.
“You watched my series?”
He glanced up and smiled, almost sheepishly. “Yeah. Got my hands on them when I was ten.” Then as if remembering he was the great Theo Cole, he added. “As I said, don’t let it go to your head.”
Rascal.
It was kind of … endearing.
Declan stalked back into the living room, his face dark and angry.
He pointed his phone at Theo. “You invited Claudette here tomorrow?”
“Don’t you want us to be one big happy family?”
Declan’s eyes switched to Gabby and she sucked in her breath at the raw yearning reflected in them. Theo stiffened beside her.
“That’s not possible,” he rasped.
“Damn straight, that’s not possible.” Theo stood and stepped into his space. “Because you can’t keep it in your pants and you had to cheat on my sister. “
“Theo!” Gabby exclaimed. Declan had no defense. He figured out he couldn’t lie about it now that her former stepmother was back in the picture.
“You’re gonna defend him again?” Theo yelled at her. “I just … can’t deal with you all right now.”
He stalked off.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” Declan’s voice was cold.
“I don’t know how to tell him”
“That you cheated first?”
A lump formed in Gabby’s throat as his statement registered. “Why can’t you just admit that you slept with Claudette?”
“I have no defense. She’s gonna say that we fucked.”
Gabby flinched at the coarseness of the way he said it.
“And the only other possibility is that you would be his mother,” he added. “Which according to you would sound crazy, right?”
The sneer on his face almost broke her. Why was he being so cruel?
And why the hell was she trying to be the better person. “He’s hurting, Dec. He just lost Peter.”
“Don’t need you to tell me that. I get where some of this teenage rage is coming from. At least I had the sense not to go wreck his car.”
Her cheeks burned as her momentary lack of control came back to bite her, but Theo wasn’t the only one hurting and she tried to make it right again. “Dec, do you want me to talk to Theo?”
He glared at her. “No Gabby. I don’t need your help with my son.”
It was like a slap to the face but, more than that, it tripped something inside her. A tremor of the past reverberating in the present.
The disgust on Declan’s face when he found out she was pregnant didn’t do as much damage as the words he’d said.
“Pregnant? I’m not the sucker I once was, Gabby. Trying to pawn off another man’s child? When you deliver that kid? I’ll be demanding a paternity test.”
He slammed the door on her open-mouthed face. It was the final jolt she needed to accept that she’d lost her husband.