The Bromance Book Club (Bromance Book Club, #1)(31)

“What?” Ava asked, waiting to climb into her booster seat.

Thea bent through the back door to help her with the harness before rounding to the other side to repeat the process with Amelia. Then she looked at both girls with as big a smile as she could muster.

“There’s a surprise waiting for you at home,” she said.

“What is it?” Amelia asked breathlessly.

“Is it a kitten?” Ava asked.

“Nope, not a kitten.” Thea shut Amelia’s door and went around to the driver’s side. As soon as she got in, the girls picked up the guessing game again.

“Is it a hedgehog?” Amelia asked.

“Nope.” Thea started the car and eased out of her parking spot into the slow-moving traffic.

“Is it a giraffe?” Ava asked. Amelia giggled.

“Nope, not a giraffe.”

“A lion?”

“Nope.” Thea turned left at the stop sign. “It’s not any kind of animal.”

It was, in fact, something potentially far more dangerous. Nervous tension had been Thea’s constant companion since Monday night, and now that the day was finally here—the day of Gavin’s big return—she was a twitchy mess. She had no idea what to expect when she and the girls got home. She didn’t even know what she would say. She only knew what she had to do.

Which was to stay as far away from him as possible.

The girls picked up their earlier conversation in the back seat as Thea drove the rest of the way home. Crisp leaves fell from the trees and danced through the air as Thea turned onto their street. Even from several houses away, her eyes zeroed in on the dark SUV in the driveway.

Tension coiled around her lungs as she pulled into the driveway. She’d just shut off the car when the front door opened. Gavin strolled out onto the front porch with a casual wave, as if he’d never left.

Amelia spotted him first from her window and shouted, “Daddy!”

“Yep. Daddy’s home,” Thea said, swallowing hard.

“Is that the surprise?” Ava asked, and Thea couldn’t tell from her tone if she was disappointed or excited.

“That’s the surprise!” Thea forced cheeriness into her own voice. “Daddy’s home just in time for Thanksgiving.”

Amelia squealed, drowning out whatever response Ava might have had. But both were eclipsed by the roaring in her own ears as Gavin jogged down the porch steps and headed their way.

Two observations hit her at once. First, it looked like he hadn’t shaved since Monday. Second, she liked it. Which he probably knew, because she used to tell him he was sexy when he hadn’t shaved.

He also wore the kind of outfit he knew she liked—loose-fitting jeans that hung low on his trim hips and a flannel shirt worn open over a snug T-shirt. He had pulled out the big guns. Good thing her heart was made of Kevlar.

“Hi, Daddy!” Amelia yelled.

Gavin’s smile grew as he waved at the girls in the back seat. Nervousness bled into resolve. The girls were happy. That’s what mattered right now. Thea would take this one day at a time for their sake.

Thea followed Gavin with her eyes as he rounded the hood. He stopped by her door, a quizzical pull on his brows.

Oh. Right. She was just sitting there.

Thea took her keys from the ignition and grabbed her purse from the passenger seat. Gavin backed up a step as she opened her door. With a swallow, he shoved his hands in his back pockets. “Hey,” he said, low and sexy.

“Are you growing a beard?” she blurted.

He smiled and dragged one hand down his jaw. “That depends.”

“On what?”

“On whether you like it.”

She shrugged and turned to open Ava’s door. “It’s your face,” she grumbled.

“True, but I would definitely have an opinion if you decided to grow a beard.”

The girls giggled. Bending, she unbuckled Ava’s harness. Gavin walked around to Amelia’s side and did the same with her car seat. Thea avoided his eyes as she pulled Ava from the car and set her on the ground. “Go see Daddy,” she said.

Gavin got Amelia out and hoisted her in his arms, then waited for Ava to slowly round the back of the car. “Hey, squirt,” he said, squatting to hold his other arm open for her. Thea held her breath as Ava hesitated for a moment. But then she exhaled as Ava willingly went to Gavin. He stood, both girls easily in his arms, and met Thea’s eyes over the hood of the car.

“Anything need to be brought in?” he asked.

“The turkey.”

His eyebrows did the quizzical thing again. “You’re taking a turkey to Del’s?”

“Del’s? What do you mean?”

“I just figured that since we canceled on my parents . . .” He shrugged.

“You just figured you’d make plans for us without talking to me?” she finished.

“It’s what we did last year, so yeah, I assumed we’d go again this year.”

“Yeah, Mommy, we want to go to Del’s,” Amelia piped in.

“I want to go to Del’s and play with Jo-Jo,” Ava said.

Resentment prickled her along her spine.

“Is that OK?” Gavin asked.

“No, it’s not OK. I bought a fresh turkey for us to have at home.”