“Gabby’s young, and she’s been through a lot,” Eli begins, but I whirl, cutting him off.

“You’re pissing me off with this whole Gabby’s innocent and weak shit you keep flinging at me. She’s not fucking weak. She’s the strongest person I know, and if you had any respect or love for her at all, you’d see that too. If she didn’t want me around, or if I did something to piss her off, trust me, she’d be the first to kick my ass.

“She’s the most amazing mother I’ve seen, and I was raised by one of the best there is. She loves that boy more than anything. She’d die before she ever let him come into harm’s way. But you know what? She’d do the same for any of you, or anyone else she loves. She’s fiercely loyal, and she loves so big for someone so small.

“Just because she’s a little thing doesn’t mean that she’s weak.”

I stop pacing and ranting to find all four men standing with their arms crossed and smiles on their faces.

“You’re right,” Beau says. “So what are you going to do?”

What am I going to do?

“I’m going to make sure she knows how magnificent she is, and I’m going to beg her to have mercy on me and be with me forever.”

“There better be a ring in there somewhere,” Beau says.

“She can have anything she wants,” I reply. “You guys do know that I do quite well at baseball.”

“If we didn’t think you could take care of her, you wouldn’t be here,” Ben says quietly. “But the money is only one piece of it. No woman we love will ever be hurt by a man again, not if we can stop it.”

“I get it.” I rub my hands over my face, and then meet Eli’s eyes with mine. “You know I get it. Kate was hurt more than any human being should be, and I couldn’t stop it. It’s the most helpless, fucked-up feeling there is. No one deserves that. You have to know that I’d kill anyone that ever tried to hurt her that way again.”

“I do know,” Eli says with a nod.

“And I’d die before I ever let Gabby be hurt. I don’t want to hurt her, I want to love her. I want to make sure she and Sam are safe and happy, always.”

.Beau, Declan, and Ben are much more relaxed. Almost…jovial.

“Did I miss something?”

“Nope, we’re just happy with your response,” Beau says. “Shall we go back in so I can continue to kick Eli’s ass at pool?”

“Fuck that. I have a woman waiting at home,” Eli says with a grin. “I’m out of here.”

Gabby is waiting at home, too, and she hasn’t been feeling well. Not to mention, she and I need to have a talk.

“I’m out too,” I reply.

“I’ll play,” Declan says. “Come on, Beau. We can take Ben.”

“You can’t take me at anything,” Ben replies with a laugh. “But you can sure as fuck try.”

“I was fucking winning,” Beau says with a scowl.

“Come on, take it like a man,” Ben says.

***

It wasn’t terribly late when I got back last night, but Gabby was already asleep, and now I feel her trying to quietly slip out of the bed without waking me.

She’s fucking avoiding me.

And it’s pissing me off.

I let her slide out of the bed, and when she’s a few feet from the bathroom, I say, “We need to talk, Gabby.”

She stops in her tracks and her shoulders sag as she turns around and stares at me with sleepy eyes. “About what?”

“About why you’re avoiding me.”

“I’m not,” she says and pushes her hand through her hair as I climb out of the bed. “I was trying to let you sleep. Sam and I are heading into the city for the day.”

She doesn’t say it out loud, but without you is obviously at the end of that sentence.

“Did I do something to piss you off?”

She frowns and looks down at her feet, then up at me. “No.”

“Then what’s wrong, baby?”

She shakes her head, but before she can deny that anything is going on, I grip her shoulders in my hands and kiss her forehead. “Something is wrong, and I need to know what it is.”

She steps back out of my grasp. “I’ve told you a hundred times, nothing is wrong.”

“You’re lying.”

She shakes her head stubbornly. “Stop this. I told you. Nothing. Is. Wrong. Now drop it. I don’t need this from you, Rhys. If you don’t like my answer, that’s your problem.”

She stomps into the bathroom and slams the door, and I decide to give her space for now before I say something I’ll regret.

Like stop fucking lying to me and just tell me what the fuck has crawled up your ass.

That won’t help anything.

So I return to my own room upstairs, and take a shower, answer some emails, and waste a bit of time, and when I’m sure that Gabby and Sam are gone, I head downstairs.

Eva, the new employee, is in the kitchen getting breakfast ready for the guests. Eva is in her fifties, recently widowed, and wealthy. But she’s also lonely, and this job was right up her alley.

She smiles as I walk in the kitchen.

“Can I get you anything, Mister Rhys?”

“No thank you, Miss Eva,” I reply with a smile. She raises the spatula and points it at me, a smile on her pretty face.

“You’re too skinny. You need to eat.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I wave and leave out of the back, heading for the road. I need to work off some of this frustration. I plug my earphones in my ears and jog, then work my way into a run.