That evening, Gabby walked into Paige’s backyard, where white lights were strung across a pretty patio. Her birthday present for Ava was in hand. The gift bag was green and bunched up to look like a flowerpot with a giant fabric sunflower growing out of it, and it held two pairs of leggings, matching T-shirts, a pair of tennies, and matching headbands and socks. She’d also tossed a large cylindrical container of washable markers and a big pad of drawing paper in another bag for good measure, because while Ava desperately needed a wardrobe update, Gabby wasn’t 100 percent certain the clothing would be a big hit.
Gabby’s heart kicked up in anticipation of seeing Cade, and she absently smoothed out the skirt of her sundress, which was bright yellow with daisies on it, her favorite. She caught sight of him sitting between his mom and Ava, wearing a light blue button-down shirt, his hair neatly combed, his face clean-shaven. An immediate wave of longing rushed through her. Being invited to his daughter’s birthday meant something, although she wanted to just enjoy it and not think too hard about what. But it was definitely a step in the relationship direction—a big step for Cade and one that filled her with hopeful expectation.
Cade stood and met her in the grass. “Hi, gorgeous,” he said with a wink that made her stomach flip. He kissed her on the cheek and bent to whisper something in her ear. It sounded like I loved making love to you.
His words sent a shiver through her. No one had ever said something so romantic to her before, and it thrilled her to the core, not to mention causing a blush that started on her chest and spread like wildfire clear up to the roots of her hair.
“Did I say something wrong?” he asked innocently, as if it wasn’t something that had just rocked her world.
She kissed him back and whispered, “I loved it too.” So eloquent, she thought as she stood there with a stupid grin on her face. They stared at each other for probably too long, because his mom suddenly cleared her throat.
Gabby walked over and said hi to Paige, Paige’s friend Matt, and Beth. She bent down to give Ava a big birthday hug and got one just as big in return. Ava twirled in her rainbow dress and showed off her sparkly shoes, then exclaimed at Gabby’s present wrapped like a sunflower.
“How’d you manage that?” Cade asked.
She shrugged. “Gift wrapping class.”
He laughed. “Forget writing. With that kind of talent, you could get a job with the elves at the North Pole.”
“I thought about applying,” she said with mock seriousness, “but the weather’s just too cold.”
“Good one,” he said, grinning as he led her to the table. She couldn’t help being pleased he’d appreciated the wrapping. And seemed excited to see her too.
The first thing she noticed on taking a seat was that Cade’s family was very…small. Nothing like her boisterous, crazy, noisy family that gathered every Sunday for dinner. And that made her a little sad—for Ava. No brothers and sisters, no cousins, no rambunctious uncles who gave piggyback rides.
Matt, who was also Nonna’s mailman, asked how she was doing. Beth regaled them with a story about pulling five peas out of a toddler’s nose in the office earlier, which made Gabby never want to eat peas again. Or have kids. Just kidding, but ew, gross.
During dinner, Cade rested a hand on Gabby’s thigh under the table, which had the effect of completely suppressing her appetite, even though she’d been starving all day. And he kept rubbing his thumb back and forth, which made her blush even more and stammer a bit. Finally, she had to push his hand away and do her best not to look at him.
It didn’t help. Even the graze of his elbow was turning her to jelly.
She reminded herself that she was thirty, not twenty. But this felt like the first time she was falling in love.
Actually, she thought, it just might be. Because looking back, what she’d felt in her other relationships was affection, attraction, sure—but, now she knew, not love. But this…this felt real. It felt right in ways she was too afraid to think of.
She snapped out of her thoughts long enough to notice that Paige was talking and appeared to be waiting for a response, and she’d completely missed what the woman had just said. “Oh, I’m sorry, what did you say?”
Paige smiled in a caught-ya! way and glanced over at her son, who happened to be looking over at Gabby. “I was just asking Cade how the writing’s going.”
“It’s going well—but how did you know I was writing again?” Cade asked.
“You’re writing again?” Beth asked, perking up across the table. “That’s terrific.”
“You just seem…happier,” Paige said, “and I hoped you would be.” She clapped her hands together, pleased. “That’s wonderful news, Caden.”
“What are you writing about?” Beth asked. “Something deep and dark and painful like last time?”
“Ha ha,” he said to Beth. “It might be a little more hopeful, but it’s really too early to talk about.”
Paige’s eyes got glossy.
“Mom,” Cade said, “I really just started a story. But it’s holding my interest and—”
She looked over at Gabby. “Gabby, you helped him get started again, didn’t you?”
Cade rubbed his neck. “Mom…”
“Well, actually, no,” Gabby said. “I’m struggling just to get my own story going.”
Just then Cade grabbed her hand—this time on the table, where everyone saw. Before she could react he smiled at her. She was startled and pleased that he was treating her in front of his family like…well, like his girlfriend. “Gabby did help me get started again.”
“No, Cade.” Gabby shook her head. “I really can’t take credit for that at all.”
“Yes, you can. I guess you just make me feel…at ease. And I see how much you’re enjoying working on your own story.” He looked at his family around the table.
“Grammie, is it time for cake yet?” Ava asked, clearly bored with the discussion. “And presents.”
“Oh yes, that’s a great idea. Let’s have cake.” To Cade she said, “I feel that we have more than a birthday to celebrate.”
Paige placed the cake in front of Ava and was just about to light the candles when a familiar voice said, “Hello, everyone.”
Gabby looked up to find Elliot standing a short distance away, dressed in a suit coat and bow tie, his gray hair brushed back and tidily cut. He looked like a dapper, handsome, distinguished man, his eyes as sharp and crisply blue as the sky on a cloudless winter day. The resemblance to his son now that they were both occupying the same space was…remarkable.
The rest of the table reacted as if the king of the zombie apocalypse had just showed up. Beth gasped. Paige gave a little yelp, having forgotten to blow out the match. Matt, God love him, just looked confused, surely knowing by now this birthday dinner involved much more than having dinner with Paige’s kids for the first time.
“I hear postage is going up by two cents next month,” Matt said, clearing his throat. “Everyone might want to think about stocking up on some forever stamps now.”
Gabby stole a sideways glance at Cade, and it was Not. Good. His face was flushed, his brows knit down deeply. It took him about a second to scrape back his chair, toss down his napkin, and rise, looking like a bouncer ready to haul his dad off the property.
Gabby held her breath. She’d never told Cade that she’d met his father. There had never seemed like a good time to bring it up, and honestly, with everything going on between them, she’d forgotten. But now guilt was bearing down on her. Additionally, she wondered if she’d had anything to do with him showing up here, based on their conversation in the coffee shop.
“Hi, Dad,” Beth finally said.
“Hello, sweetheart,” Elliot answered, beaming at his daughter. To Paige he bowed slightly, which few people would’ve been able to pull off with such…aplomb. “My dear, you look lovely as always.” His gaze skimmed briefly over Matt, and he had just enough time to acknowledge Gabby with a nod before Cade had traversed the table and was now standing next to him.
“Hello, son,” Elliot said.
A vein in Cade’s temple pulsed, and one hand was balled into a tight fist. “Elliot,” he said to his father. He looked like he wanted to say more—a lot more—but his glance over at his daughter told Gabby he was choosing his words carefully.
Elliot, always ready with an irreverent quip, didn’t seem to have anything to say.
“What a surprise,” Paige said, not unpleasantly.
Cade cleared his throat and glanced again at Ava, who was quietly assessing Elliot, her eyes huge.
“I’m sorry to interrupt the festivities,” Elliot said. “But I came to celebrate with my beautiful granddaughter on her birthday.” Elliot turned to Ava while the entire table collectively held their breath. “Ava, sweetheart,” he said, holding out a package wrapped in sparkly paper with a metallic bow. “I’m your grandpa.”
* * *
Outrage clogged Cade’s throat, making the fish or whatever the hell it was he’d just eaten churn sickly in his stomach. How could his father have the audacity to show up uninvited to Ava’s party? Gabby placed a hand lightly on his arm but Cade couldn’t help stiffening. He caught his sister’s gaze across the table. Sympathy shone in her eyes but another, more familiar emotion was there too—wariness.
Cade recalled another birthday long ago—Beth’s sixteenth, to be exact—when their father had shown up, drunk and misbehaving as usual, in front of her girlfriends. It was shortly after their parents’ divorce, and Elliot had waxed on about how he’d made a terrible mistake asking for the divorce, how he’d broken it off with his current girlfriend, and how his life was meaningless without their mother. Beth had left the table crying, and Cade had helped stuff his father into a cab and gone with him back to his apartment to make sure he got there in one piece.
The many disappointments they’d suffered had begun long before that moment. But that had been sort of a turning point. The faith Cade might have had that somehow their relationship could be salvaged, that underneath it all, his father truly cared for them a bit more than himself, had been shaken.
For years afterward, Cade kept hoping. Kept giving Elliot the benefit of the doubt. Until the book review. That had been the final straw, when the relationship had gotten too toxic to continue.
Cade would be cordial to his father. But he wasn’t going to allow his father’s bad behavior to impact another generation.
Cade went to grab Elliot’s arm, ready to guide him away from the party. But he hadn’t counted on Ava getting there first. Ava had climbed down from her seat and run around the back of everyone’s chairs, preventing Cade from seeing her quickly enough to stop her. She approached Elliot and tapped him on the leg. “Hi, Grandpa,” she said.
Elliot squatted beside her. “Here’s your present.” He held it out to Ava again. “Happy birthday, sweetheart.”
Ava looked eagerly at her father. “Can I open it?”
“Of course you can,” Elliot said, and then finally had the decency to catch Cade’s eye. “If it’s all right with your father, of course.”
“It’s fine, Ava,” Cade said. His voice sounded weirdly monotone to his own ears. What else could he say?
Ava tore into the package while Elliot stood and surveyed the table, his eyes lighting on Gabby. Cade tensed, not wanting Gabby involved in the mess that was his family drama. “Gabriella, darling,” Elliot said, “so nice to see you again.”
Wait—what? Cade turned toward Gabby, who waved her fingers a little reluctantly at Elliot—and avoided Cade’s gaze. “You two know each other?” Cade asked.
Gabby turned as crimson as the now-setting sun, confirming the worst. “Um, well, we met just a few weeks ago, actually,” she said, so quietly he almost had to strain to hear.
“It’s a bwacelet!” Ava exclaimed, lifting something silver and sparkly from a Tiffany blue box.
Cade’s gaze shifted to Ava. The box in her hand wasn’t just Tiffany blue. It was the Tiffany blue.
“Look, look,” Ava said, holding the bauble up for everyone to see. “It’s so pretty!”
And apparently very expensive. Giving a four-year-old a Tiffany bracelet was inappropriate. But Gabby knowing his father—and not telling him? That was just plain inconceivable.
* * *
“Can I get you something to drink, Elliot?” Paige asked.
“What are you having?” he asked Ava, who was seated on the other side of him.
“Milk,” she said.
“Very well then,” he said to the waiter. “That’s what I shall have too.”
Elliot cast a tentative glance around Gabby at his son, whose jaw was so tense it could’ve supported a steel bridge. What could she say to break the ice between these two? Talk about the weather? Hemingway, maybe? Anything literary did not seem like a good topic.
“Gabriella encouraged me to take part in my granddaughter’s life,” he announced.
Oh God, oh God.
Cade’s gaze drilled into her. “You’re giving my dad family advice?” His voice was an octave higher than usual.
“Not advice exactly, but I did urge reconciliation.” She turned to Cade and dropped her voice. “And for the record, I didn’t suggest crashing a birthday party…” She cleared her throat. “It might’ve been better to call first, Elliot,” she said.
“I always did love a surprise.” He raised his milk glass in a toast and took a healthy swig.
“Do you like milk, Grandpa?” Ava asked.
“Milk is a wonderful drink. It makes you big and strong, and it goes fabulously with chocolate cake.”
Ava picked up her milk too and took a hearty swig, then swiped off her milk mustache with her arm. Well there, at least some good came of this, right? One look at Cade let Gabby know he was not impressed.
“So when did you start drinking milk, Elliot?” Paige asked.
Elliot lowered his glass. It hit the table with a dull clink. “When I stopped drinking three years ago.”
From Cade came a tiny snort. As if he didn’t buy that at all.
“Did anyone not get cake?” Paige asked, not unkindly, passing out more pieces as fast as she could cut them.
Cade took a piece with a stiff nod. Apparently, his jaw was still too clamped to allow speech. So Gabby was a bit surprised when he whispered in her ear, “How exactly do you know my father?”
“We met…by accident,” she said. Which was sort of true. “He was my mom’s writing teacher, and I looked him up. I had no idea he was your father.”
“He’s an ass,” Cade whispered so low she wasn’t certain she’d heard it. It was the first time she’d ever heard him say a bad word about anyone—even Tony.
“That one’s from me too,” Elliot said, pointing to a rectangular-shaped package. Ava tore into Elliot’s next gift with the gusto of a child oblivious to the conflicts of the silly adults around her.
“I hope that one’s not from Tiffany too,” Cade said.
“It’s a classic edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales,” Elliot said. “Signed by the editor and the illustrator.” Of course he probably knew them both personally.
“That’s a beautiful gift,” Gabby said, as Ava leafed through the gilt-rimmed pages, clearly enraptured. Surely Elliot deserved a shot at being a better grandparent than he was a father?
“What a nice idea,” Paige said poignantly. “Because we all want this precious child to believe in fairy tales for a little longer.”
“Exactly,” Elliot said.
Ava threw her arms around her grandfather. “I like the book. But mostly I like that I got a grandpa!”
Elliot rubbed the back of Ava’s head a bit awkwardly. “Well,” he said, swallowing hard, and Gabby suddenly realized Elliot was overcome. Cade had looked down, busily checking his phone. “I hope you’ll spend many hours looking at the beautiful drawings and enjoying the stories,” Elliot said, his voice catching a little. “Maybe…maybe I could even come back sometime and read you a few.”
“Okay.”
This was met with silence from Cade, who apparently had no intention of answering. Finally, Paige said, “Ava, come open your other presents.”
As Ava jumped off Elliot’s lap and dug into her present collection, Gabby held her breath. If Cade could reconnect with his father, he might be able to talk out the problems with that bad review, which Cade had said didn’t matter to him, but how could what your father said not matter? Clearing all that up might also help him with his writer’s block. Besides, he’d said he wasn’t angry, but it was obvious that was not the case—at the moment he looked like he was seething.
* * *
Cade waited until everyone ate their cake before he pulled his father aside. “How about if you walk out with me?” he asked, but it wasn’t really a question.
“Of course,” Elliot said, standing up and saying his goodbyes. Cade escorted his father to the driveway, where the two men stood face-to-face in front of a white Mercedes SUV.
“Look,” Cade said, relieved to be out of earshot of the rest of his family, “I’m going to assume the best and believe you meant well by showing up here, but I have to tell you that I will do anything it takes to protect my child, and I cannot expose her to someone who is unreliable and inconsistent. That means you, Dad. Life is more than grand gestures. It’s the little everyday things that matter. You were never really good at that kind of thing.”
“I’d like to have lunch with you sometime,” Elliot said, which was irritating as hell, not to mention off topic. To anyone else, he looked like a nice, pleasant guy, strong and good-looking, with a friendly smile and a head of silver hair that made him look a lot gentler than he was. But the accumulation of hurts over the years told Cade a very different story.
“Did you hear anything I just said?” Cade asked. “How can we have lunch if we can’t even talk to each other?”
“You’re still angry about what I said about your book.”
“Look, Elliot, you were probably drunk when you wrote that review anyway. You’ve been a terrible father.”
“Maybe so, but I’ve always told you the truth.”
“I don’t need your version of the truth. It doesn’t matter to me anymore what you think.”
“I agree I’ve been a shitty father to you and your sister. But I’ve stopped drinking, and I’d like you to give me a chance to prove that I’m different.”
Cade looked at his father. For the first time, he looked older, and that gave Cade a queasy feeling. Time was passing. There had been so many wasted opportunities for both of them: things to share personally, as father and son, and professionally, because they both were part of the same literary world.
“Do you want to know why I came?” Elliot asked. “Because I remembered something.”
“And what was that, Elliot?” Cade kept his voice neutral, but apprehension made his stomach twist. He didn’t want to know what his father remembered.
“Gabriella saw the Hemingway quote in my office. I remembered the day you gave it to me. The day you got into Iowa.”
His father had surprised him with a present that day too—the same print. It had been meaningful to both of them. They’d talked about it a lot in the years when Cade was deciding his career path. A writer’s life is hard, his father would say. It takes dedication and literally bleeding your soul out onto the page every single day.
Cade had thought he’d understood that. But in the end, perhaps he hadn’t at all.
Regardless of the way things had turned out, he and his father would always be linked by their love of writing, whether Cade liked it or not. And they were both stubborn, driven men who’d worked hard to achieve goals—at least, Cade had thought of himself like that, despite his inability to write.
Cade frowned, refusing to get sucked in by the memory. “Where are you going with this?” He didn’t like thinking of his father as his father let alone someone he had a lot in common with, both good and bad.
“That moment reminds me of all my shortcomings.”
“You’ve accomplished a lot, even if you didn’t become a writer.”
“I don’t mean about that. I never had anything near the raw talent you do. I was thinking more about being your father.”
“I—I don’t know what to tell you about that one, Elliot.”
“I’m not going to lie and say I’d like to try and make it up to you. What we’ve lost can never be gotten back, can it? All I can offer is a promise to do better for your daughter.” He hesitated before dropping his voice. “And I hope for you too, son.”
“I don’t need you to be my father anymore, Elliot.” Cade wasn’t trying to be cruel. He just couldn’t fathom letting his father back into his life after all that had passed between them. “But I can accept your apology. And if you want a relationship with my daughter, something she clearly wants as well, you can have one…but there are rules.”
“I’ve never been good at following rules, but I’m finding in my old age they may have some merit. Name them.”
“Showing up like this out of the blue…that can’t happen. And no Tiffany bracelets, that kind of thing. Ava’s four, for God’s sake.”
Elliot turned and opened his car door. “Write more of your rules down and bring them to lunch. What do you say?”
“This isn’t a joke,” Cade said softly.
He sighed heavily. “I hope you’ll consider it.”
He didn’t wait for Cade’s answer, just got into his car and drove away.
* * *
Cade was still standing in Paige’s driveway when Gabby found him, walking around his mom’s Toyota Camry and checking the tires.
“Hey,” she said, approaching a little reluctantly, because she was trying to gauge his mood. Specifically, his mood as it related to her.
“Hmpft,” he grunted.
Oh-oh. “Did your dad leave?” she asked, looking around. No sign of Elliot, and Cade was doing a very intense inspection of the right front tire rim. “What are you doing?”
“My mom needs some air in her tires. Actually, it looks like she needs a whole new set of tires.”
“Well, that’s nice of you to check for her.” At nine at night in the dark?
No response. Okay, he was pissed. She would have to confront this head on. “Cade, I—”
He straightened up, so she finally made eye contact with him over the hood of the car. “How could you actually know my father and not tell me?”
“I looked him up because his name was on one of my mom’s college papers. And he was everything you said—a miserable, cranky old man. I hadn’t planned to keep that a secret, only I knew how you felt about him and it seemed the time was never right to bring it up. But then he looked me up and brought me another one of my mom’s papers, and it was clear to me that he wanted a relationship with you—and with Ava. No, not wanted—longed for one. Underneath all that crotchetiness, I saw a very nice, charming man. A man who knows he’s made mistakes.”
“Says every woman who’s ever fallen for him.”
“Says any woman who’s ever fallen for you.”
Cade’s eyes widened in surprise. Gabby rushed on, trying to capitalize on the fact that he was thrown a little off balance.
“He seemed so lonely, and I encouraged him to seek you out and talk to you.” She shrugged and opened her hands to the sky. “I figured it was up to him to initiate the conversation with you. I didn’t think he was going to choose Ava’s birthday to do it.”
“He chose a place where I couldn’t refuse him. He’s always been manipulative like that. Not to mention he’s always loved a crowd.”
Damn Elliot and that Hemingway quote on the wall anyway. Without it, she never would’ve recognized all the lost potential between father and son. She never would’ve felt sorry for Elliot or encouraged him to seek out Cade. But now she felt that she’d wronged Cade.
Gabby had seen Cade’s forgiving nature in action. Had seen him be kind to everyone he knew and loved. But, it appeared, the man had his limits.
Cade sighed heavily and turned to her. “I know you’re all about peace and love and family, but there are some families that just can’t be fixed…and mine is one of them. Not every story has a happy ending.”
“No, I suppose it doesn’t.” Her eyes were watering—must be the sudden breeze that kicked up. “I shouldn’t have gotten in the middle, between you and your father. I thought an opportunity to iron out your differences would put you more at peace and help you to leave some of the issues of the past behind.”
He turned back to the tires, a sure signal their discussion was over. “I’m going to stay out here for another minute and calm down before I go back to the party. Is Ava doing okay?”
“She’s oblivious—just having a great four-year-old’s birthday.”
He was dismissing her. Just like that. And he was still angry, which she hated.
“I’d be a liar if I said I hadn’t hoped you could work it out with your dad,” she said. Cade seemed so…closed off. So alone.
He stood up and dusted off his hands. “I understand that being in a relationship means opening up to let someone else in. But I’m not sure how I feel about someone else influencing the course of my—and Ava’s—life. I’ve been the one in charge of deciding that for a long time.”
“I don’t know what to say, Cade,” Gabby said, feeling uneasy. “But I’m sorry for meddling.”
“It’s okay,” he said, but his voice fell flat. “I’ll see you back at the party in a little bit.”
She walked back by herself, feeling like things were not really okay at all.
* * *
Cade walked into his mom’s backyard to find everyone preparing to leave. The birthday girl had fallen asleep on the porch swing, and Cade’s mom had carried her into the house to the couch. He shook hands with Matt as he left. Gabby asked Beth for a ride home, claiming a headache, while Cade offered to stay and help his mom clean up.
After the dishes were done and the food put away, Paige grabbed two beers from the fridge, opened them, and handed one to Cade. “Let’s go sit outside for a few minutes—if you have time.”
“Yeah, I’d like to,” Cade said, taking the beer and following his mom out onto the porch. It was a fine late September evening, cool with a light breeze, perfect for sitting and talking.
“Thanks for hosting Ava’s birthday dinner,” he said, reclining on a cushioned chair. “And for making the cake.”
“Oh, you know I loved doing it. I love spending time with Ava. Your coming back here was a good thing, Caden.”
Cade was quiet a long time. Of course he had things on his mind, but he knew that even though his mom had forgiven Elliot, she’d suffered a lot because of him and didn’t want to drag her into this.
“So. Your father,” she said, bringing the topic up herself. “You’ve avoided him since you’ve been home, and I understand that, but I’m a bit worried that you’re holding on too tightly to the past.”
“Dad’s a wild card, Mom. Why are you on his side?”
She shrugged. “I guess because I’ve learned that sometimes it costs more emotional energy to keep someone away than to allow them in. And realizing you have the power to control that makes all the difference.”
“I don’t need someone gifting my daughter inappropriate and expensive things.”
“He might respond to a suggestion on that one.” She paused. “I believe him when he says he stopped drinking. And I see the look in his eye when he watches you and Ava. I believe he genuinely regrets losing you as a son. But you know, your father’s not the important one in this conversation.”
“You’re right. Ava is. And I don’t want another person flitting in and out of her life. Emerson already does that. It’s too much for Ava to handle.”
His mom waved her hand dismissively. “I’m not worried about Elliot doing that. I’m thinking of you—your relationship with Gabby. I worry you’re so focused on what’s behind you that you can’t see what the future holds. And worse, I fear you don’t want to acknowledge what’s right in front of you now.”
“Mom, I—”
“You can’t hide how you feel about her. You never were very good at hiding your feelings anyway.”
“I’ve been in control of Ava and me for a while now. I’m not sure I want to share that. After Emerson, it was a blessing in some ways to be on my own.”
“Life isn’t very tidy, Caden. You chose Emerson when you were young and naïve, and she gave you a beautiful daughter. But you’re a man now, and you can make a choice with your eyes wide open. Sooner or later you’re going to want to start taking risks and start living your life again. And I hope you do it with Gabby. She’s wonderful.”
“Matt seems nice,” he said, uncomfortable with the subject of Gabby.
“He is nice. He cooks and he likes to dance and—bonus perk—he mails all my packages for me. You know how I hate going to the post office.”
“I’m glad you found someone.”
“Thanks, dear,” she said, giving him a big hug. “I love you. And I want you so badly to be happy.”
“I love you too,” Cade said, hugging his mother back. “And don’t worry about me, Mom.”
Cade carried Ava from the house and put her in her car seat without her even waking up. Before he started the car, he pulled out his phone, but he didn’t make a call. Instead he gently tapped the phone against his steering wheel.
He thought about his life before, with Emerson. It had been volatile, unpredictable—upsetting. Being accused of taking her ideas had shaken him to the core. Even worse was being left on his own with a one-year-old. He knew in retrospect he’d made the wrong choice for a spouse. He’d closed his eyes to all the signs, and doing so had caused him to live his worst nightmare.
He also knew that to fully live, he had to let go of the hurt from Emerson. And figure out a way to coexist with his father. But Gabby—she really hadn’t done anything wrong. Perhaps she did harbor the rather annoying belief that everyone should be part of a loving family whether they wanted to or not, but she also understood his hurts. And she wanted to heal them. He was trapped by his past, and she could help him move forward. But first he had to let her in.
His mother was right. He had to start taking risks or he would never build a life for himself and Ava. The risk of letting Gabby in was worth it. Gabby was worth it.
I’m sorry for being an ass, he texted. Please give me another chance.
I’ll consider it came the immediate reply. She was right to give him some flack. He didn’t deserve to be forgiven without explanation. And he wanted to explain. To tell her he was out of line.
Come over to my place so I can apologize in person.
Nothing like a good grovel, she answered. Be right over.