“Are you worried about the kids?”

“No.” Susannah took another halting breath, still struggling to get her emotions under control. “You saw them,” she said. “They were thrilled. They always are when they get to spend time with the other dads.”

“Which is something they don’t have.”

She pressed on the bridge of her nose. “Right.” She swallowed and finally looked up at him again, remorse glimmering in her sea-blue eyes. “It just makes me feel guilty sometimes, because I know they’re never going to have that.”

He brought her back into the curve of his arm. “You don’t know that,” he said gruffly.

Taking the folded tissue he pressed into her hand, Susannah wiped her eyes and blew her nose. “I’m not saying guys wouldn’t date me, if benefits were involved.”

“Now you’re really selling yourself short.”

“But no one wants a ready-made family with five kids.”

I would, Gabe thought, much to his surprise. “I’d take you all in a heartbeat,” he said before he could stop himself.