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In the paddock one of the prized stallions suddenly erupted into a wild gallop, hooves churning the soft earth, mane flying.
“God, I’m an idiot.”
“Congratulations,” Garrett said with a chuckle. “It’s hard to admit, but once you do, you can fix things.”
“I don’t know,” Griffin told him, his heart still heavy, his mind racing with possibilities. “I think I might have blown any chance I had there. I not only walked out on Nicole, but on her son. No way is she going to forgive me for that. Her ex-husband did the same damn thing to her before Connor was even born.”
“Useless male,” Garrett muttered.
Griffin agreed. And it shamed him to realize that he’d walked out on them, too.
“He never went back. You will,” Garrett said firmly, catching his brother’s attention. “You make a mistake, you fix it. It’s the King way. Hell, it’s your way. In spite of what I usually tell you, you’re not an idiot, Griffin. You know what you want. You knew when you came here. You just wanted to hear me say it out loud.”
His twin was right, damn it. Griffin hadn’t had one easy moment since he’d left Nicole. He had to try to get her back. Damned if he was going to lose the best thing he’d ever found.
“Hell,” he said wryly, imagining the look on Nicole’s face when he showed up at her house, “she’ll probably slam the door in my face.”
“You won’t know until you try.”
Shaking his head, Griffin argued, “Nicole and Connor both deserve the best. What if I suck at being a husband and an instant father? Is it fair to them to risk it?”
“Griffin, you’ve never sucked at a damn thing if you wanted it badly enough.” Garrett reached over and gave his twin’s shoulder a hard shove. “If they deserve the best, then give it to them.”
Griffin nodded, feeling his old self-confidence come rushing back. He’d been second-guessing himself when it came to Nicole for so long, it was a relief to finally see his path laid out in front of him. Hell, yes, they deserved the best. And he’d damn well make sure they got it.
“So?” Garrett asked. “You going to be at the palace for dinner tonight?”
Griffin grinned. “Hell, no, I’m going home. To Nicole.”
* * *
Nicole missed Griffin so much, it was a physical ache.
It had been days and nothing had changed. If anything, the pain kept growing, swelling inside her until she could hardly breathe. But it wasn’t only her pain she had to deal with.
Connor had been moping around in toddler misery. Every day he asked for Griffin and every day, she explained that Griffin had had to go away. Her son’s pain layered over hers until Nicole felt as though she was drowning.
Middle-of-the-night television was less than thrilling, but it beat lying in bed, trying futilely for sleep. She sat on the couch in her tank top and boxer-short PJs, flipping mindlessly through the channels until she came to an infomercial about psychics. For only five dollars a minute, you could have a stranger tell you how to fix your life.
But she didn’t need a psychic for that. What she needed was what she’d already lost.
Outside, the world was quiet, peaceful. Inside, the television sound was set to whisper. So when the doorbell rang, she jumped a foot off the couch and then hurried to the front door. She grabbed the phone on the way, just in case she needed to call 911. But then, what kind of mad-dog burglar would ring the bell?
She looked out the window at the front porch and her heart jolted hard into life when she saw Griffin standing there in the soft glow of the porch light.
Why was he here? What should she do? Ignore him? Open the door just so she could slam it?
He rang the bell again, and her decision was made. If Griffin kept that up, Connor would wake, and then she’d spend a half hour getting her son back to sleep.
Flipping the locks, she opened the door and looked up into blue eyes that locked on her like twin lasers. “Griffin, what do you want?”
“You.”
“What?” Impossible. She was dreaming again. It was the only explanation. In the snatches of sleep she’d managed to grab over the last few days, her mind had tortured her with dreams just like this one, dreams in which Griffin came back, begged her forgiveness—like a King would ever do that—and pledged his undying love. The dreams always ended the same way, too—with Nicole waking up, emptier than when she’d fallen asleep.
