Dear God in heaven, he was going down in a ball of fire. He could actually feel the flames licking his skin. A whistling sound in his ear told him he was one stupid remark away from crashing and dying.

“Mommy, did you see us?”

“Thank God,” Gavin breathed as Amelia and Ava ran toward them.

Thea’s features transformed. She opened her arms and waited for them to throw themselves against her. “You were amazing!” she said, bending to kiss each one. “The best dancing fawns ever.”

“Did you see us, Daddy?” Amelia asked, moving to hug his legs.

“I did, sweetie. You were incredible.”

“I’m hungry,” Ava said, and Gavin wanted to twirl her around for the segue.

“I’ll make you some macaroni and cheese when we get home,” Thea said.

The whistling grew louder, but he was going to risk it. “You know what? I’m hungry too. Why don’t we go to Stella’s?”

Stella’s was their favorite restaurant. They’d been taking the girls to the small downtown diner since they could sit up in high chairs.

“Yeah, Mommy! Can we go to Stella’s?” Amelia asked.

Gavin held his breath as he met Thea’s hard gaze. He swallowed. “You can tell me more about Vanderbilt,” he suggested.

Thea shot him a glare that felt like a kick in the balls, but then she pasted on a happy smile for the girls. “That sounds great,” she said. “Why don’t you take the girls, and I’ll meet you there?”

“I want to ride with Mommy,” Ava said, gripping her hand.

Gavin flinched as her words hit their mark, but he managed to smile. “Amelia can ride with me, and Ava with you.”

They were parked on opposite ends of the lot, so they parted ways on the sidewalk. Amelia held his hand tightly and started to swing her arm back and forth. “Ava th-leeps with Mommy every night,” she said, hopping off the curb.

His chest shifted at her lisp. Thea had reassured him several times that it was no reason to worry, but he did. Having a stutter was no reason to be ashamed, of course, but it took Gavin a long time to be at peace with his. He’d endured way too much bullying as a kid and a teenager to not be worried about the idea that his own daughters could face the same thing.

“Every night, huh?” he said, finally catching up to what Amelia had told him.

“She wakes up and gets in with Mommy, but not me. I sleep in my own bed all night. She calls me a baby because I don’t like thunder, but she’s a baby because she’s afraid of the dark.”

Gavin paused along a row of parked cars and crouched down to be eye level with her. “It’s not very nice to call each other babies, honey. It’s normal to be afraid of things.” The words of fatherly wisdom rolled off his tongue, but his brain was distracted. Since when was Ava afraid of the dark? “Even grown-ups are afraid of things. It doesn’t make us babies, does it?”

Amelia shook her head. Gavin smiled and stood. They started walking again, but they hadn’t taken more than a few steps when Amelia asked. “What are you afraid of, Daddy?”

Losing you and your mom, he thought, his throat thickening. It seemed his daughters were determined to destroy him emotionally today. He swallowed against the lump. “Clowns,” he said, exaggerating a shudder. “Big red shoes and squeaky noses.”

Then he grabbed her under the arms, hoisted her onto his shoulders, and reveled in her squeal of joy.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“There they are.”

Thea pointed as Gavin’s SUV turned into Stella’s parking lot. She and Ava had been waiting on a bench outside the restaurant for about five minutes. Gavin must have gotten caught in the post-play parking jam. Which was fine, because Thea needed a minute— or five—to calm down. And not because Gavin told her to, but because he had. When had a woman ever calmed down because a man told her to do so?

The only thing that was going to make her calm down was for this night to be over. She could’ve killed him for suggesting Stella’s in front of the girls. He should have known they would cling to the idea and beg to do it.

Thea stood as Gavin and Amelia crossed the parking lot. She turned away from his smile, but somehow his hand once again found a place on the small of her back. She stiffened, and he let it fall away.

“Well, look who’s here,” said Ashley, a waitress who had worked at Stella’s as long as they’d been eating there, when they walked in. “Haven’t seen you guys since the summer.” She gasped dramatically at the girls’ faces. “Oh my gosh, I don’t think we serve deer here.”

“We’re fawns,” Amelia corrected happily. “We had a school musical today!”

“A school musical? You aren’t old enough for that. I refuse to believe it.” Ashley winked at Thea and nodded for them to follow her. “Your favorite booth is open.”

This is what Thea loved about living in a small town. They were regulars here with their own booth. Was there anything more comforting than a place where everyone knew your names and the menu never changed? It was the kind of simple tradition Thea and Liv had never known as kids. Would it seem less special for the girls once they stopped coming as a quartet and moved on as a trio?

The girls followed Ashley through the maze of tables decorated with red-checkered tablecloths and vases of fresh flowers that were refilled every morning. Each window was bracketed by white farmhouse shutters on which Stella had draped twine for hanging snapshots of customers and their families. Including theirs. That was going to be awkward in a few months.

The girls slid in on opposite sides of the table, and Thea let out the breath she’d been holding. She didn’t want to sit next to Gavin, which was childish, but still.

“Y’all want your usual to drink?” Ashley asked as they all settled in. “Two waters and two chocolate milks?”

“Sounds great,” Gavin answered. “Thanks.”

“I want the grilled cheese,” Amelia said, scampering onto her knees and leaning her elbows on the table. “And applesauce.”

“What do you want, honey?” Thea asked Ava. “You want the grilled cheese too?”

Ava shrugged. Thea held in a sigh. She couldn’t let this sullen behavior go on much longer, because Ava was venturing into outright disrespect, but Thea wasn’t going to say anything now. Tonight was tense enough already. Besides, she wasn’t going to punish her daughter for the crime of being a child and expressing her confusion the only way a child knew how. Adults expected too much of children sometimes.

Once, in the weeks after her father filed for divorce, Thea’s mother locked herself in her room for days. When Thea knocked one day to complain she was hungry, her mother screamed at her to grow up and to stop being so selfish.

Thea had been ten. She and Liv learned to cook for themselves after that.

Thea planned to make sure the girls received age-appropriate counseling after the divorce—something else she and Liv probably would have benefited from. Hopefully, that would help Ava adjust to the new reality of her world.

The waitress wandered over with their drinks and took their order before leaving them again in strained silence.

“Daisies,” Gavin suddenly said, staring at the jar in the center of the table. He smiled at Amelia. “Mommy had a daisy in her hair the first time I saw her.”

Amelia giggled. “She did?”

“I did?”

Gavin looked at her. “It was woven into your braid.”

“Why did you have a daisy in your braid, Mommy?” Amelia asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember that.”

“That’s too bad,” Gavin said quietly. “Because I’ve never forgotten it.”

“Mommy likes dandelions,” Ava grumped.

Thea blinked several times and tore her gaze away from Gavin, who was studying her again like he did during the theater. Like he did on Saturday. As if seeing her for the first time. Maybe he was. It had been years since she felt like he saw her at all.

Thea smoothed Ava’s hair. “Dandelions from you will always be my favorite.”

Awkwardness hung in the air like a thick layer of humidity. Thea pulled out the crayons and coloring books she always carried in her purse to keep the girls occupied when they were out. This time, though, Thea was using them to occupy herself. She helped Ava color a picture for several minutes until Gavin cleared his throat.

“So,” Gavin started, toying with his glass of water. “Wh-when are you going back to school?”

Thea kept her eyes locked on the coloring book. “If I’m accepted, I’ll start classes this summer.”

“So it’s just for one semester?”

She snorted. “I wish. Maybe if I went full time, but that’s not really possible with the girls. I hope to be done in eighteen months.”

“Eighteen months,” he repeated. “That, uh, that seems doable.”

“I’m glad you approve.”

“And then what? I mean, after you have your degree?”

“I’ll pursue an art career. Just like I always planned.”

He hesitated a long moment before responding to that one. “That’s, uh, that’s great,” he said. “I’m glad to see you return to your art.”

“So am I.”

Their food arrived, and the busy task of helping the girls eat while trying to also get some food into themselves stifled any other conversation, thankfully. Midway through dessert—a brownie skillet that they always shared as a family—Stella herself emerged from the back and wandered over to their table to chat.

“I was just thinking about y’all,” she said. “Been ages since you’ve been in.”

“We’ve been busy,” Thea said automatically, the lie so natural that she almost believed it herself. “The girls are in preschool now and taking dance classes, so it’s hard to get out.”

“Y’all have any plans for the holidays?”