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“Are you really doing this? Letting him back into your life?”
Mel shrugged. “I don’t know,” she hedged. “I have more to consider than just myself and how I feel about it. If it were just me, it’d be easy. He’d already be gone, but it’s not. If there’s even the slightest chance he’s genuine and wants a relationship with his children, how can I deny them that? It would be wrong. Every child deserves a father. Giving him a chance to explain and then slowly prove himself is the right thing, isn’t it?” she asked, almost hoping there was another way. One that didn’t involve putting hearts on the line.
Blake groaned and raked a hand through his hair. “Yeah,” he said after a minute. “It’s the right thing. If anyone knows what it’s like to grow up without your parents, it’s me.”
Before she knew it, he reached out and pulled her into his arms. She sunk into him, wishing the last fifteen minutes had never happened. All she wanted was to kiss him without Craig’s ghost pressing in on them.
“Can I ask you a question?” Blake murmured against her hair.
Mel pressed her face further into Blake’s shoulder, breathing in his comforting scent as she nodded her consent.
“Do you still love him?” he whispered.
The question stabbed something inside of her, something long since buried. But she couldn’t fully translate the feeling into words, so she answered as truthfully as she could because there was no point in a lie.
“I don’t know,” she whispered back and felt his muscles tense. “I don’t think so.”
“Just promise me you’ll be careful,” Blake said, his voice thick.
“Promise.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
BLAKE
Blake signaled the bartender for another drink, then waited, wishing he had someone to wallow with, but as it turned out, Grant was on a date, and he really didn’t feel like playing the drunk who spilled his guts to random strangers, so he was on his own.
He took a sip from his tumbler of whiskey and hissed at the burn.
The image of Craig, along with Mel’s shocked expression as she took in her ex, replayed in his head for the millionth time.
Blake couldn’t help but wonder if the kids weren’t all he was after. Not that it mattered what he thought. Mel was an adult, and she knew what she was doing. Blake was merely the manny. He and Mel had barely just begun a relationship, so while he had a stake in this, he had no pull.
Besides, as much as he wanted Craig gone, he knew firsthand how badly it sucked to grow up without your parents, and he would never begrudge them that. Mel was doing the right thing by weighing her ex out, then taking small steps toward a reunion if the situation warranted one. But Mel . . . she was a whole different story. Craig didn’t deserve her. Not after he left her like he did, empty-handed with nothing but debt and three babies to take care of on her own. Even if he had changed—which was yet to be seen—it was a scum move, and if Blake had anything to say about it, he wasn’t touching Mel again with a ten-foot pole.
Blake rattled the ice in his drink and stared at the amber liquid. It reminded him of Mel’s eyes, so he grumbled and drank more of it down, relishing the burn in his throat and the way it warmed his chest.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The timing of it all couldn’t have been worse. Blake needed more time. Days, weeks, months to solidify this thing between them. Before Craig showed up, Blake would’ve thought he had a pretty good shot at fully winning Mel’s heart. But now . . . He wasn’t so sure. His confidence was shot. He saw the way that she looked at him. It was different—full of history, pain, and the past—and it made Blake’s heart hurt.
When Blake asked Mel if she still loved him, she said she didn’t know. It was a blow to the ribs. Because the one thing he couldn’t compete with was the past when all he had was the future.
MEL
WHAT IF HER KIDS COULD have their father?
What if he was sincere?
What if he had changed?
What if he still loved her?
What if he could be there for her this time? Be her rock? The husband he should’ve been the first time around?
These were the things that kept Mel awake all night. They were the thoughts that had her stum
bling her way across the lawn on rubbery legs, feeling weak and exhausted.
Before Craig returned, she was finally content with her life. The new job, the house, and Blake had all happened at once. She was happy with the future laid out before her, thrilled and the possibilities. And then Craig came crashing in, and now everything shifted, throwing her life into upheaval, once again.
