By the time they got home, Thea practically threw herself from the car. She unbuckled Ava and carried her to the porch, fumbling at the door with the key. Butter greeted them in the foyer with excited barks.

“Mommy, I don’t feel good,” Ava whined.

“I know, honey. Let’s get your coat off—”

Vomit covered the floor before she could finish her sentence. Ava began to cry. Butter began to sniff.

“Butter, no!” Thea grabbed the dog’s collar just as Ava heaved again. Another round of what-the-hell-did-she-eat splashed onto the floor. Behind her at the door, Gavin let out a quiet curse, and Amelia yelled, “Gross!”

Gavin rushed in and took Butter’s collar.

“I’ll clean this up,” Thea said. “Can you take her up and start a bath?”

“No!” Ava cried. “I want Mommy.”

“I’ll clean it up,” Gavin said. “Amelia, honey, just stay back for a second.”

Too late. Ava turned and heaved all over her sister. Amelia shrieked. Gavin cussed out loud this time. Butter barked like he’d found his own particular heaven and tried to start licking Amelia clean.

“Butter! Stop it! Girls, come on. Let’s get upstairs,” Thea soothed. “Ava, hold it if you can until we get to the bathroom.”

Both girls crying, Thea followed them upstairs and into their bathroom. Kneeling, she told them to put their arms up and then peeled their shirts from their bodies. She’d be lucky if she could salvage either garment. She told them to finish getting undressed as she started the bath. Downstairs, Gavin said something particularly unkind to Butter before presumably putting the dog out back.

“Mommy, I don’t feel good,” Amelia hiccupped, her face pale.

Oh, no. Thea took Amelia by the shoulders and steered her toward the toilet—a split second too late. And now there were two floors to be cleaned.

“It’s OK, sweetie,” Thea said, rubbing a circle on Amelia’s back. She turned around to check on Ava, who now stood naked and shivering. Balancing on one foot, Thea leaned over and checked the temperature of the water. “Go ahead and get in the bath, Ava.”

Turning back to Amelia, she gently moved her to the side of the toilet and told her to lean over in case there was more. And yep, there was. Amelia shivered with a pitiful whimper. Thea smoothed her hair back. “It’s OK, honey. It’ll be over soon.”

She finally got Amelia into the tub a few minutes later. Gavin appeared in the doorway as she lathered Ava’s hair. He looked at the floor, grimaced, and used a leg to block Butter from coming in.

“Amelia’s sick too,” Thea said. “Can you grab some clean towels from the closet?”

“Which closet?”

Resentment pounded at her temples. “The same closet they’ve always been in,” she said in a clipped voice as she dumped water over Ava’s head.

“Which one is that?” he snapped.

“Seriously? How long have we lived here?”

“I don’t spend a lot of time paying attention to towels, Thea.”

No shit. “The linen closet in the hallway.”

Gavin disappeared and returned a moment later with one hand towel. “This is all I could find.”

The pounding became a jackhammer. “I just put an entire stack of clean towels in there yesterday.”

“Well I didn’t find them. What do you want me to do?”

“There are clean ones in a basket in my room.”

A vein popped along his jaw. “Your room?”

Thea shot to her feet. “Forget it. I’ll get them.”

She stormed to the linen closet, retrieved the stack of towels that Gavin had to purposely not see in order to miss them, and stormed back.

“Where were those?”

“In the closet.” She dropped the stack on the floor and finished rinsing Ava’s hair. “OK, sweetie, go to Daddy.”

“I want Mommy,” Ava whined.

“You’re going to have to settle for me, squirt.” Gavin picked her up from the water. He knelt to dry her off, his body brushing against Thea’s as he did. She scooted over, which earned her an annoyed scowl.

“I’ll get Ava into her pajamas,” Gavin said. He stood, Ava in his arms. Tucking Ava’s head into his shoulder, he walked out of the bathroom.

Thea finished Amelia’s hair and then paused to gaze at her daughter, who still looked pale. “You feeling any better, honey?”

Amelia nodded and yawned. It was going to be an early bedtime tonight.

“Come on, sweetie.” Thea hefted Amelia from the tub and dried her off. Then she carried her into the girls’ bedroom. Gavin sat on the floor, threading a shirt over Ava’s head. He looked up.

She looked away.

* * *

• • •

Gavin’s neck burned with frustration at Thea’s dismissal. He tugged Ava’s sleep pants up. “Let’s get you into bed.”

“I want Mommy.”

Wow. Would that ever not hurt? He wished someone had told him that having children could devastate a man in ways unimaginable before. Gavin stood and picked Ava up. “Mommy’s getting Amelia dressed.”

He glanced backward. Thea had set Amelia on her bed and was helping her into a nightgown. Amelia pressed her face into Thea’s neck as Thea caressed the back of her head with a soft, soothing whisper that Gavin couldn’t hear. But he felt her voice all the same. Tender and loving. Gavin was officially jealous of his own kid.

Ava yawned, so Gavin set her on the bed and lifted the covers for her to scoot beneath. Thea had skipped the toddler bed thing with them and moved the girls straight into twin mattresses. They were way too small for Gavin’s long frame, but he made do. He laid down next to Ava and smoothed her wet hair from her face.

“You feel any better?” he whispered.

She nodded, yawning again. “My tummy doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“That’s good. You probably just ate too much at Uncle Del’s.”

“I had three pieces of pie.”

Yikes. “How’d you get three pieces?”

“Mack said we could have as much as we want.”

Gavin was going to kill him. “You need to ask Mommy or Daddy for stuff like that, honey. You know that.”

“But Mommy would say no.”

Gavin chuckled. “Probably. But that’s because she knows that if you eat too much, you’ll get sick.”

Ava’s eyelids grew heavy, and she snuggled her favorite stuffed animal to her face. The duck had once been bright yellow, but it was now faded into a dull hue from too much love. Gavin rubbed his hand up and down her tiny back, the warmth of her skin seeping through her pajama top.

“Daddy,” she whispered, eyes flying back open.

Oh, shit. Please don’t puke in my face. “What, honey?”

“I have to have a kiss good-night before I fall asleep.” Then she lifted her head from the pillow and puckered her lips.

Something warm and devastating spread through Gavin’s chest. He kissed her, rolled onto his side, and tucked her under his arm. She was asleep in seconds. Gavin turned his face into her wet hair and breathed in the scent that was uniquely Ava. He’d always heard people say they’d do anything for their kids. That they’d walk to the ends of the Earth to protect them, do whatever it took to make them happy. It’s not anything a man can understand until he feels it himself, though. He wondered if his parents ever felt like this—completely slayed with love for him and his brother. Maybe that’s what his dad meant one day after the girls were born and he found Gavin staring at the girls in their NICU cribs. His father clapped him on the back and said, “Oh, son. You have no idea what you’re in for.”

Gavin had laughed along, but his father was right. Gavin had had no idea how his life would change because of them. No clue how they would literally expand the size of his heart inside his chest, sometimes to the point of pain. No clue that the fear of something happening to them could render him useless, speechless. No clue that loving them would make him love his wife even more, something he didn’t even think was possible.

And he’d almost thrown it all away. He was still throwing it away. If his father could have seen the way Gavin had been behaving, he’d shake his head in disappointment.

Behind him, Thea’s quiet voice broke the silence as she told Amelia to close her eyes and dream good dreams. A thick wall of emotion clogged his throat. A few minutes later, Amelia’s bed creaked as Thea stood. Then her petite silhouette cast a shadow over Ava’s bed. Gavin rolled his head to peer up at her. She stubbornly refused to meet his gaze as she leaned over to peer at Ava.

“She fell asleep fast,” he whispered.

Thea pressed the back of her hand to Ava’s forehead for a moment and then did the same thing to her cheeks. “Neither of them has a fever.”

Gavin had long ago stopped asking how Thea knew for sure. The best thermometer is a mother’s hand. He knew that Gran Gran–ism by heart now. And it was always proven right. Thea probably knew the girls’ normal temperatures better than her own.

With a weary sigh, she straightened. “I’m going to take a shower.”

Gavin eased onto his back, careful not to wake Ava as he removed his arm from her waist. “I’ll clean up the bathroom.”

Thea grimaced. “I forgot about that. I’ll do it since you handled the other one.”

“I got it, honey. Go take a shower.”

She blinked and stiffened at honey. “I said I’d do it,” she said, obstinately refusing to accept even the smallest olive branch.

“Christ, Thea. Can’t I even offer to help without it becoming a fight?”

Ava stirred at his sharp voice. Thea shot him a dirty look. “Fine. Clean the bathroom.”

She stomped out of the room. Gavin swallowed another blasphemy. By the time he was done with the bathroom, the shower had stopped running, but he needed a time-out before he attempted to talk to her again. He stalked to the guest room to change into running clothes. The only thing that was going to ease the tension in his muscles was the pound of the pavement and a dripping sweat.