Page 55 of The Fling (Close Quarters 2)

“It was the day you called about Monique turning up. Drew asked if she could come and help with Zoe and I kind of...well, I made it clear she wasn’t welcome.”

“Because of that agreement we made about introducing people to Zoe?”

“Yeah.”

Gabe watches me for a moment, his expression guarded. When we play poker, the game seems to go on forever because we’re two stone pillars. Hiding our emotions is what we’re good at. “I’ve decided to let Monique have partial custody of Zoe.”

“What?” If my eyes were any wider they would pop straight out of my skull. “Have you forgotten what she did?”

Gabe holds his hand up in a gesture that is such a “dad” thing to do. “Zoe’s life is different to lots of other kids’, and that means I need to be a different father for her than I would be for another child. She doesn’t have time for grudges or fear or regrets, because we won’t have four or five decades with her. We won’t have years to change our minds and find forgiveness. I have to be a better personnow. Because now is what matters to her, so it’s what has to matter to me.”

Watching Gabe talk about his daughter always chokes me up, but I’m holding it all in. Being silent as the dead of night. Even though I want to shake him and tell him that Monique is poison and that she’ll only leave again.

“What if she can’t handle it?” I ask.

“That’s a possibility. She might leave,” Gabe admits. “She might decide again that it’s all too hard. But she might not. She might stay and give Zoe a chance to have a mother who cares about her. I can’t control any of that.”

“Aren’t you worried?”

“Of course I’m fucking worried.” Gabe laughs. “I’m shitting bricks at the thought of my little girl getting hurt. But I sat Zoe down and talked to her. I told her that I’d love her no matter what, that I will always be there for her. But sometimes people do bad things because they’re frightened or because they’re trying to protect themselves. She looked at me dead in the eye and asked me if we were giving her mother a second chance.”

“Where did she get that from?”

“Disney, probably.” He crosses his legs and bounces his foot. “But I said yes, we’re giving her mother a second chance. I almost can’t believe it—I never thought I’d see Monique again. I could be making the biggest mistake of my life, letting her back in.”

“But?”

“But it’s a risk I’m willing to take, because the potential payoff could be that Zoe has both parents in her life. Here’s the thing—the whole risk-reward equation isn’t set up to tell us toalwaysavoid risk. It’s to help us figure out if a risk is worth it. If the potential payoff is worth it.”

In some areas, risk is where I excel. I quit a job that would have set me up for life to pour all my money into research knowing the chances of finding something in Zoe’s lifetime are not in our favour.

But that riskisworth it. The chance—no matter how minuscule—that I might be able to help her is worth it. Because that little girl is the light of my life and I’d do anything for her.

But being with Drew isn’t worth the risk?

Can I imagine my life with her in it?

Yes.

The answer comes so quickly and without hesitation that it takes my breath away. Icanimagine my life with her. I can imagine us being old and still crazy hot for one another. I can imagine her sleepy, sooty eyes being the first thing I see in the morning. I can imagine her leaving me dirty notes in my laptop bag and sending me naughty texts while I’m at work. And I can imaginemecounting down every second of every workday until it’s time to see her again.

I’ve never imagined that before.

“People can always walk away, Flynn. The second we stop trying to control that, the happier we’ll all be.” My brother knows my mind is drifting. He’s always been able to sense when I’m grappling with an issue—big brother magic, perhaps.

“I don’t like not being able to control things.”

My brother shakes his head. “People aren’t things, Flynn.”

“You’re such a smartass.”

But he’s right—people have their own minds and make their own decisions. I could never imagine trying to water down a woman like Drew by controlling her decisions. And I guess that’s the scariest part—trust. I need to trust that she’ll stay if I ask her to, that we’ll both be equally invested in making things work. That this heat won’t burn itself out.

You know it won’t.

Because the fact that Drew has even gotten this far under my skin is telling. I never let people slip past my defences. Ever. I never give people a chance to know me. To see me beyond my fancy suits and my stoic expression. I know there’s something between us, something that could be everything.

The question is, can I take that risk?

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