The Bromance Book Club (Bromance Book Club, #1)(20)

“Did you see us, Daddy?” Amelia asked, moving to hug his legs.

“I did, sweetie. You were incredible.”

“I’m hungry,” Ava said, and Gavin wanted to twirl her around for the segue.

“I’ll make you some macaroni and cheese when we get home,” Thea said.

The whistling grew louder, but he was going to risk it. “You know what? I’m hungry too. Why don’t we go to Stella’s?”

Stella’s was their favorite restaurant. They’d been taking the girls to the small downtown diner since they could sit up in high chairs.

“Yeah, Mommy! Can we go to Stella’s?” Amelia asked.

Gavin held his breath as he met Thea’s hard gaze. He swallowed. “You can tell me more about Vanderbilt,” he suggested.

Thea shot him a glare that felt like a kick in the balls, but then she pasted on a happy smile for the girls. “That sounds great,” she said. “Why don’t you take the girls, and I’ll meet you there?”

“I want to ride with Mommy,” Ava said, gripping her hand.

Gavin flinched as her words hit their mark, but he managed to smile. “Amelia can ride with me, and Ava with you.”

They were parked on opposite ends of the lot, so they parted ways on the sidewalk. Amelia held his hand tightly and started to swing her arm back and forth. “Ava th-leeps with Mommy every night,” she said, hopping off the curb.

His chest shifted at her lisp. Thea had reassured him several times that it was no reason to worry, but he did. Having a stutter was no reason to be ashamed, of course, but it took Gavin a long time to be at peace with his. He’d endured way too much bullying as a kid and a teenager to not be worried about the idea that his own daughters could face the same thing.

“Every night, huh?” he said, finally catching up to what Amelia had told him.

“She wakes up and gets in with Mommy, but not me. I sleep in my own bed all night. She calls me a baby because I don’t like thunder, but she’s a baby because she’s afraid of the dark.”

Gavin paused along a row of parked cars and crouched down to be eye level with her. “It’s not very nice to call each other babies, honey. It’s normal to be afraid of things.” The words of fatherly wisdom rolled off his tongue, but his brain was distracted. Since when was Ava afraid of the dark? “Even grown-ups are afraid of things. It doesn’t make us babies, does it?”

Amelia shook her head. Gavin smiled and stood. They started walking again, but they hadn’t taken more than a few steps when Amelia asked. “What are you afraid of, Daddy?”

Losing you and your mom, he thought, his throat thickening. It seemed his daughters were determined to destroy him emotionally today. He swallowed against the lump. “Clowns,” he said, exaggerating a shudder. “Big red shoes and squeaky noses.”

Then he grabbed her under the arms, hoisted her onto his shoulders, and reveled in her squeal of joy.





CHAPTER SEVEN




“There they are.”

Thea pointed as Gavin’s SUV turned into Stella’s parking lot. She and Ava had been waiting on a bench outside the restaurant for about five minutes. Gavin must have gotten caught in the post-play parking jam. Which was fine, because Thea needed a minute— or five—to calm down. And not because Gavin told her to, but because he had. When had a woman ever calmed down because a man told her to do so?

The only thing that was going to make her calm down was for this night to be over. She could’ve killed him for suggesting Stella’s in front of the girls. He should have known they would cling to the idea and beg to do it.

Thea stood as Gavin and Amelia crossed the parking lot. She turned away from his smile, but somehow his hand once again found a place on the small of her back. She stiffened, and he let it fall away.

“Well, look who’s here,” said Ashley, a waitress who had worked at Stella’s as long as they’d been eating there, when they walked in. “Haven’t seen you guys since the summer.” She gasped dramatically at the girls’ faces. “Oh my gosh, I don’t think we serve deer here.”

“We’re fawns,” Amelia corrected happily. “We had a school musical today!”

“A school musical? You aren’t old enough for that. I refuse to believe it.” Ashley winked at Thea and nodded for them to follow her. “Your favorite booth is open.”

This is what Thea loved about living in a small town. They were regulars here with their own booth. Was there anything more comforting than a place where everyone knew your names and the menu never changed? It was the kind of simple tradition Thea and Liv had never known as kids. Would it seem less special for the girls once they stopped coming as a quartet and moved on as a trio?

The girls followed Ashley through the maze of tables decorated with red-checkered tablecloths and vases of fresh flowers that were refilled every morning. Each window was bracketed by white farmhouse shutters on which Stella had draped twine for hanging snapshots of customers and their families. Including theirs. That was going to be awkward in a few months.

The girls slid in on opposite sides of the table, and Thea let out the breath she’d been holding. She didn’t want to sit next to Gavin, which was childish, but still.

“Y’all want your usual to drink?” Ashley asked as they all settled in. “Two waters and two chocolate milks?”