Page 76 of Good Guy Gabe

As predicted, bath time is in full swing in Evan and Keira’s master bath, where they’ve half-filled the garden tub and thrown a mountain of toys in for Shelby and Valeria to splash around in. I hesitate in the doorway, watching Keira, Cadence, and Wren as they crowd around the tub, entertaining the kids while they scrub them. Maybe I shouldn’t have come down here. I don’t want Shelby to not recognize me. If I went straight from the kitchen to Mortal Kombat, Shelby would have eventually figured out who I was in her own time. That sounds way better.

I’m seriously considering backing out and wandering through the quieter hallways, using Isaiah as an excuse, when Shelby suddenly sees me and lunges for the wall of the tub to climb out. “Un Kay Kay!” she shrieks. “Un Kay Kay!”

Keira doesn’t bother to fight her. She dumps one last cup of water on Shelby’s head to rinse out any lingering wash and scoops the wriggling toddler up into a big towel.

“Is she talking now? What’s she saying?” I ask as Wren plucks Isaiah out of my arms and sets to work burping him.

I could have done that, but fine.

“She’s not saying a lot yet, but she’s already masterednoanddada,” Keira says with a self-deprecating shrug.

Cadence scoffs while she works ketchup out of Valeria’s white blonde hair. “She likes the tongue sounds better than the lip sounds. At least for now you can just chuck her at Evan.”

Valeria, meanwhile, is emitting a steady stream of, “Mamamamamamamama.”

It’s so fucking cute. I bet Dom happily answers to that. Valeria’s technically his step-daughter, but you’d never know it other than the fact that that she looks nothing like him or his other two kids.

“Well, now she’s sayingUncle Gabemore thanmama.”

“That’s whatUn Kay Kaymeans?” I promised myself I wasn’t going to cry, but jeez. I was bracing myself for rejection all day, not for getting a new awesome name.

“We’ve been trying for something closer toGabeall day, but you take what you can get.” Keira attempts to sit Shelby on the counter to brush her hair, but Shelby isn’t having any of it and starts practicing thatnothat yeah, she’s doing a really good job of.

I pick her up, and she throws her arms around my neck, no doubt trying to strangle me as well as any 16-month-old can. “I missed you, Shel-baby.” I feel guilty about being gone the last few months, but I don’t have any room to regret it. I can’t regret anything I’ve done. The best I can do is make amends, and I do that by showing up.

“We missed you, too,” Keira says, and I can tell she means the whole family. She lowers her voice. “I’ve apologized to Joss. And I meant it. It wasn’t to fix you and me. It was to fix me and her. I . . . Gabe, I had no idea that she lost her baby, and I—”

“Are you talking about Aiden James? Because it doesn’t matter whether she lost him or not. She was destroyed by what her husband did. She was destroyed by Wilmington. And you were a b—” I choose to cut myself off, same as I cut her off. I can’t let myself get worked up. If Keira’s making friends with Joss, I shouldn’t get in the way of it. Not as long as Joss wants it.

My silence gives Keira the opportunity to say, “No, you’re right. It doesn’t matter. It was just what I needed for it to click that she was a victim, too, and I should have been supporting her. I really like her. You need to fix this.”

“I am, but baby steps.”

Except I’m not a baby stepper. I wear size 14 sneakers. I don’t know how to do anything small. So once Shelby and I are settled on the sofa, I fire off a quick text to Joss.

GABE

keira said she talked to you. are you ok w that?

JOSS

Why are you asking?

GABE

just checking. don’t want you uncomfortable if you don’t want her around but you don’t want to be rude to her

JOSS

I can tell her off myself if I want to. I’m a big girl.

And prickly, I see. I’m going to ask these questions and offer to fight these battles for her, but she is an adult. She’s not afraid to go for what she wants. She’s just creative about it.

There’s a whole chain of texts here showing her creativity. Like the day she needed boxes brought down from the attic, but then she pulled my pants down when I reached up to the attic pull. Or the time I was tying up some cords in her studio and she bent over a table to get something, only to hike up her skirt and show off her lack of panties.

The biggest struggle is making sure I leave before she kicks me out. She’s made it clear this is all she wants from me for now, and that hurts, but I think it would hurt worse if I gave her the opportunity to kick me out every time.

I’m starting to think she’s copping extra attitude in her texts to prove something to herself. She knows I’m going to win, but she’s refusing to lose gracefully.

---