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“Then it’s past time.”
The boys exchange glances again.
I nudge Darwin, who pulled me back into his lap as soon as I finished reading the Arcana.
“What?” he mutters.
“Ask him,” I mutter back.
Darwin looks like I’m pulling his fingernails out with pliers rather than suggesting he ask our fiancée out on a date.
“Forget it—” Gabe begins.
“No. You deserve better. Darwin, ask him properly.”
The fae boy gives me a hard, silver glare, but he softens before he turns to Gabe and says, “Gabe, would you go out with me tomorrow night?”
“No,” Gabe says.
Boys. OMFG.
Chapter34
The Wrong Kind of Ball
Darwin’s face works into such a mash-up of hurt-revenge-rage that I reach across and grab Gabe’s hand, ready to turn our skin to stone if his Empyrean spirit decides to make an appearance.
“Let’s just take a breath—” I say.
“I don’t need a breath,” Darwin hisses. He pushes me off his lap, grabs his coat off the back of the chair, and stalks out of the reading room.
Fuck.
I squeeze Gabe’s hand. “Baby boy?”
“I have the right to say no,” he says, a muscle in his jaw knotting.
“Of course, you do.” Maybe right then wasn’t thebesttime to exercise it, but I’ll support his right to say no with my dying breath. “It’s just ... I wouldn’t have pushed if I thought you didn’t want to go out with Darwin.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to go out with Dar; it’s that I want him to fucking choose me for once. You shouldn’t have to push.Ishouldn’t have to push. He should ask me out because he’sdesperateto spend time with me. I’m sick of loving people who need me less than I need them.”
I climb into his lap and hug him. “You’re our heart, Gabe.”
Gabe cups my cheek in his hand. “When I’m with you, I know I’m the center of your world, Teddy. I don’t have any doubts. I look in your eyes and see all the love there. I’ve never felt that way with Dar. Not once. Ever.”
“If the examples he’s had of how to love someone are as bad as mine, he may not know how to show it.”
“But you do show it. All the time.”
“You taught me how. Both in this Time and in the future. You love-bombed me until I was so full of love, I gave it back to you. Maybe that’s what Darwin needs.”
Gabe’s eyes flicker. “I can’t. I’m sorry, Teddy. I need him to take the first step. I need him to put himself out there instead of always being the one who is needy and vulnerable and gets his heart fucking stomped all over.”
“Baby boy,” I whisper. “Is that how you feel? That we’re stomping all over your heart?”
“Not you. Not Charlie. I trust you both. I completely understand how you felt when you got back. I don’t hold it against you. Yes, your reaction hurt—a lot—but I’ve forgiven you and I hope you’ve forgiven me. That’s not what this is about. It’s about Dar always forcing me to be the one who gives everything. I can’t do it again. I need him to give this time.”
I run my fingers through his soft hair and hold on for a kiss that lets all that love well up between us. When he eases back, I rest my forehead against his. “I want to go after him.”
