Page 113 of Gabriel & Skye

He loosens his shirt. “Yes,” he hisses. “I’ve tried calling her, but she’s not picking up.”

“Why would she come here after all this time?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t know. But I can only think of one reason. I already called Hartley.” He runs a hand through his hair, but before he can say anything else, Trinity comes running back with her picture.

“Daddy, Daddy look!” She waves it at him. “I dwew a moo moo.”

He takes it off her and crouches down, looking at the picture — and her — like she’s the most precious thing in the world. It’s adorable. There is nothing this man won’t do for this kid, that much I know.

“I can see Daisy too, and is that Geraldine with a suitcase?”

She nods with vigor. “And you, Daddy. And Skye. This one’s a chicken.”

“Oh, honey, that’s so pretty.” I can hear the strain in his voice. “I’m going to take it to work and hang it in front of my desk so I can look at it all day long.” He cups her little face as she beams up at him. “I need you to go wash up for dinner, okay?”

“Okay!” She zooms off with Daisy hot on her heels and I take the takeout bags from him as he picks them up off the floor.

“Jesus, this is a mess.”

“I know that it’s not great, but we need to find out what the heck she’s doing here, what she wants. Maybe she was just curious, after all this time?”

He glances up at me. “You know by now what this woman did to us.”

I nod. “Yes, and it’s horrendous.” I cup his face as he tries to hold it together.

“What if she’s back to try to take her from me?”

“She can’t do that,” I whisper.

He has tears in his eyes as he imagines such a travesty. “How do we know? She could just swoop in and try to take her away. She’s the mother. We all know that only ten percent of men ever get custody in most cases.”

“She abandoned you,” I say. It’s blunt, but he has to hear it. “Has she ever paid child support?” He shakes his head. “So, she would have no legal grounds to take her anywhere. And we don’t even know that’s what she wants yet.”

“I called Hartley. She’s going to call me tomorrow. She was still in a meeting, but said not to worry. If Tiffany did come back, it would be unlikely she’d be given anything but visitation.”

I squeeze his arm. “I’m so sorry. I know this can’t be easy for you.”

He stares at me. “She broke me and took my heart, stomped on it, and left. Leaving our baby, too. She was only two months old. I did everything I could. I wanted her to have counseling. Whatever it took,” he says. “I can’t say I know shit about post-natal, or even if that’s what she had or even why she no longer wanted to be married or be a mother. Just that she ‘wasn’t feeling it’ and couldn’t do it. Can you believe this shit?”

I smile sympathetically as I let him rant. He needs to get it out.

“She never contacted me once — only for the divorce — I gave her time, years, to have ample opportunity to be in her life, even visitation. She didn’t have to do anything but be there. But — of course — she was too shallow and selfish to give two shits about either of us. She wanted to further her career. And you know what gets me the most? The fact she chose to leave Trinity. I can understand if she fell out of love with me; since I’m such a shit husband, but to leave a two-month-old? She was so tiny. I held her in these hands.” He waves them at me as I bite my lip to save from crying. My poor, broken man. My heart aches for him.

“I know you don’t want to hear this right now, but you were clearly better off. She chose her path, and she has to live with it. I’m sure that she has regrets. How could you not? But it doesn’t mean she’s back, okay? Talk to Hartley. We’ll get a plan in place.”

He stares down at me. “I like it when you say we.”

“I didn’t mean it like that… or to impose…”

He pulls me to him, his mouth crashing to mine. He lifts me and before I know it, I’m being pinned to the pantry door and his erection digs into my stomach.

I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him back.

This beautiful, passionate man.

“I want you so bad,” he says.

“Gabe, Trinity is about to come back…”

---