Page 120 of Stealing Home

“Yeah.” Dom stopped beside the stool next to him. Gavin’s watched him closely, but he didn’t reach out to touch him. A very unreasonable part of him wished Gavin would. He sat down, and for a moment, neither of them spoke.

“We still need to talk about Talia,” Dom said. Gavin nodded but didn’t speak. “I love you.”

Gavin went completely still before turning his head to look at him.

“I need you to hear that before we do anything else. You didn’t believe me before, and I’m still pissed about that, but it’s true.” Dom felt his throat tighten. “I’m so fucking in love with you that I slept in your shirt because I couldn’t have you, and I’m still pissed off enough to hate admitting that.”

“Dom—”

“Please let me finish.”

Gavin’s mouth snapped shut.

“You told me you loved me, and somehow, I still ended up trying to convince you to stay. And you still don’t know anything about what happened.”

Gavin looked down.

“She came here because there were things we needed to settle. That’s it.” Dom folded his hands on the counter. “She brought the information I’d been asking for. She still doesn’t want to be a mother. And she’s giving up her rights completely.”

Gavin’s head whipped up and he looked at Dom with a frown.

“Yeah.” Dom nodded. “If you had given me five seconds to fill you in, you would have known that.” Gavin had the decency to look ashamed. “But even if she’d come here asking for something else, it wouldn’t have changed what I wanted. I don’t ever want to get back together with her.”

Gavin rubbed a hand over his mouth. “I saw the three of you together, and I felt like I’d walked into something private that I wasn’t supposed to interrupt.”

“You walked into the living room.” Dom had raised his glass to take a sip, and he set it down hard enough to make the water jump. “How many nights have you spent here with us?”

Gavin’s gaze dropped to the counter, a flush spreading up his neck.

“How many, Gavin?”

“A lot.” Gavin rubbed his thumb over his knuckles, then stopped and lifted his eyes to Dom’s. “Enough to know better.”

Dom turned toward Gavin just as Gavin shifted to face him. Their knees brushed, and Dom’s legs slipped between Gavin’s thighs, settling into a position that had become natural for them.

“She wasn’t there when Lucia got sick for the first time.” Dom looked down at their legs. “She didn’t sit there with me, checking her temperature and wondering if we should call the doctor again. She wasn’t here when nothing made her comfortable, and I was trying not to lose my shit because I couldn’t make her feel better.” His throat tightened at the memory, and he looked back up at Gavin. “You were.”

“Dom—”

“And when I got sick next, you were there to take care of me too.” Dom continued as if Gavin hadn’t spoken. “You made sure I ate, and you took care of Lucia so I could sleep. You were here for all of that.”

He could remember waking to Gavin’s voice through the baby monitor, low and patient, carrying on a conversation with Lucia as though her babbling made perfect sense. Dom had lay there listening, too exhausted to get up and so grateful it had hurt. How could Gavin have been part of those moments and still think he didn’t belong here?

“She wasn’t here for any of that because she didn’t want to be.” Dom smoothed a hand over the cool surface of the island, studying the pattern in the marble instead of looking at Gavin. “She missed it all. Lucia’s first tooth, the new sounds she discovered, the clothes she barely wore before she outgrew them.” He paused. “Lucia looks for you when she hears your voice. She doesn’t do that for Talia.”

Gavin dropped his eyes, and they sat in silence for a minute before Dom continued, “Talia doesn’t know anything about Lucia. Or me. And she never cared when I had a bad game or when I was too tired to be the life of the party with her. But you…”

Dom trailed off and leaned forward, trying to catch his gaze. “You’re the person I wanted to come home to. If something happened when I was on the road, you were the one I wanted to call. Even when I had nothing to say, you were the one I called because sometimes I just wanted to hear your voice.”

His voice was hoarse and he took a large swallow of water. It was unbelievable how much it hurt, having to explain a life he’d believed they both understood they were sharing.

“I’m so sorry,” Gavin said. He looked down at his hands, shoulders folding in on themselves, and Dom watched the color drain from his face. Gavin looked miserable, and Dom fought the urge to comfort him. “If I could take all of this back, I would.”

“I just don’t understand why you thought Talia being here for an hour meant more than the life we’d been building.” Dom paused. “Well, the life I thought we’d been building.”

Gavin’s lips parted, but nothing came out. Dom combed his fingers through his hair. He wanted to take Gavin’s hand and lead him through every room in the house until he understood how much of him was already there and how often Dom looked up expecting him to be there.

“I don’t know,” Gavin said at last. “I let myself get used to you. To us. And I think I was waiting for somebody to tell me I’d misunderstood what all of this meant.”