The Bromance Book Club (Bromance Book Club, #1)(43)

“I don’t spend a lot of time paying attention to towels, Thea.”

No shit. “The linen closet in the hallway.”

Gavin disappeared and returned a moment later with one hand towel. “This is all I could find.”

The pounding became a jackhammer. “I just put an entire stack of clean towels in there yesterday.”

“Well I didn’t find them. What do you want me to do?”

“There are clean ones in a basket in my room.”

A vein popped along his jaw. “Your room?”

Thea shot to her feet. “Forget it. I’ll get them.”

She stormed to the linen closet, retrieved the stack of towels that Gavin had to purposely not see in order to miss them, and stormed back.

“Where were those?”

“In the closet.” She dropped the stack on the floor and finished rinsing Ava’s hair. “OK, sweetie, go to Daddy.”

“I want Mommy,” Ava whined.

“You’re going to have to settle for me, squirt.” Gavin picked her up from the water. He knelt to dry her off, his body brushing against Thea’s as he did. She scooted over, which earned her an annoyed scowl.

“I’ll get Ava into her pajamas,” Gavin said. He stood, Ava in his arms. Tucking Ava’s head into his shoulder, he walked out of the bathroom.

Thea finished Amelia’s hair and then paused to gaze at her daughter, who still looked pale. “You feeling any better, honey?”

Amelia nodded and yawned. It was going to be an early bedtime tonight.

“Come on, sweetie.” Thea hefted Amelia from the tub and dried her off. Then she carried her into the girls’ bedroom. Gavin sat on the floor, threading a shirt over Ava’s head. He looked up.

She looked away.



* * *



? ? ?

Gavin’s neck burned with frustration at Thea’s dismissal. He tugged Ava’s sleep pants up. “Let’s get you into bed.”

“I want Mommy.”

Wow. Would that ever not hurt? He wished someone had told him that having children could devastate a man in ways unimaginable before. Gavin stood and picked Ava up. “Mommy’s getting Amelia dressed.”

He glanced backward. Thea had set Amelia on her bed and was helping her into a nightgown. Amelia pressed her face into Thea’s neck as Thea caressed the back of her head with a soft, soothing whisper that Gavin couldn’t hear. But he felt her voice all the same. Tender and loving. Gavin was officially jealous of his own kid.

Ava yawned, so Gavin set her on the bed and lifted the covers for her to scoot beneath. Thea had skipped the toddler bed thing with them and moved the girls straight into twin mattresses. They were way too small for Gavin’s long frame, but he made do. He laid down next to Ava and smoothed her wet hair from her face.

“You feel any better?” he whispered.

She nodded, yawning again. “My tummy doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“That’s good. You probably just ate too much at Uncle Del’s.”

“I had three pieces of pie.”

Yikes. “How’d you get three pieces?”

“Mack said we could have as much as we want.”

Gavin was going to kill him. “You need to ask Mommy or Daddy for stuff like that, honey. You know that.”

“But Mommy would say no.”

Gavin chuckled. “Probably. But that’s because she knows that if you eat too much, you’ll get sick.”

Ava’s eyelids grew heavy, and she snuggled her favorite stuffed animal to her face. The duck had once been bright yellow, but it was now faded into a dull hue from too much love. Gavin rubbed his hand up and down her tiny back, the warmth of her skin seeping through her pajama top.

“Daddy,” she whispered, eyes flying back open.

Oh, shit. Please don’t puke in my face. “What, honey?”

“I have to have a kiss good-night before I fall asleep.” Then she lifted her head from the pillow and puckered her lips.

Something warm and devastating spread through Gavin’s chest. He kissed her, rolled onto his side, and tucked her under his arm. She was asleep in seconds. Gavin turned his face into her wet hair and breathed in the scent that was uniquely Ava. He’d always heard people say they’d do anything for their kids. That they’d walk to the ends of the Earth to protect them, do whatever it took to make them happy. It’s not anything a man can understand until he feels it himself, though. He wondered if his parents ever felt like this—completely slayed with love for him and his brother. Maybe that’s what his dad meant one day after the girls were born and he found Gavin staring at the girls in their NICU cribs. His father clapped him on the back and said, “Oh, son. You have no idea what you’re in for.”

Gavin had laughed along, but his father was right. Gavin had had no idea how his life would change because of them. No clue how they would literally expand the size of his heart inside his chest, sometimes to the point of pain. No clue that the fear of something happening to them could render him useless, speechless. No clue that loving them would make him love his wife even more, something he didn’t even think was possible.

And he’d almost thrown it all away. He was still throwing it away. If his father could have seen the way Gavin had been behaving, he’d shake his head in disappointment.