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“I agree with Mads.” Marcus kissed his wife’s cheek. “This could be your way out of all of this, you know? Not to mention you two already love each other and, most important, Axel loves Gavin and vice versa. Lils said it best; blood doesn’t mean family.”
I didn’t want to burst their bubble but this was not the answer we were looking for.
I turned to Gavin, looking for a little help. “It’s crazy, right? Tell them it’s not a good idea.”
“I want to do it,” he said without hesitation.
My eyes widened. “What?”
“You can put my name on his birth certificate. I already love Axel and, biological or not, that boy is my son. He is mine in every way that counts. But regardless of if I want to do it, you have the final say, and I will follow whatever you have to say.”
“Gav, you know I love you with everything I have in me but this is Ax…he’s…he’s my whole world and I can’t do this.”
He had already been let down by one man I refused to put him in the path of potential heartbreak. I knew Gavin would never purposely hurt Ax but I couldn’t risk it.
He searched my eyes for a moment before resolution flashed across his face. “I told you from the get-go that you were in charge of the pace in which we take this. I respect your decision, Dan. Ax is your son and you know what’s best for him. But I do want you to know that whenever you are ready I would be more than happy to fill in that place in his life. I love him and you. You two are my entire world.”
Relief washed over me. I had been worried he would push me but just like I knew he would be, he gave me the breathing space that I needed.
“I love you,” I leaned my forehead against his inhaling his scent and melting into him.
“I love you too Dan.”
“You two are so cute it’s nauseating. Just get married already.” Maddy gushed from where she sat.
“Only a matter of time now before I get a ring on her finger,” Gav winked at me making my heart do summersaults in my chest.
“If that’s a proposal, it sucks ass,” Maddy complained from the seat opposite us. When I turned to her, she had a teasing smile on her face.
“Yours was over a contract,” I fired back with my own teasing tone.
“And we are happily in love with a love child on the way,” she teased back, rubbing her belly.
“A love child is when you have a baby when you aren’t married,” Lily said, “I have a love child because I, unfortunately, have no ring on my finger.”
“Woman…” Ethan rolled his eyes. “You keep turning me down.”
“I’m waiting for you to ask me nicely.”
Ethan stepped forward and cupped his girlfriend’s cheeks. “Marry me yet? Please?”
Lily smiled and shook her head.
He groaned playfully before he kissed her sweetly.
Suddenly the mood in the room shifted away from the seriousness of what the night had turned into to something lighter.
Gavin squeezed my hand, drawing my attention back to him. He didn’t speak. All he did was stare at me with those eyes.
I love you.
“I know,” I whispered. “I love you, too.”
I had to believe that we were stronger than what was headed our way. I had to believe that this would be a storm we could weather together because, right now, faith was the only thing I had.
***
The next morning, I was awakened bright and early by both Axel and Gavin staring down at me.
