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"Shit, Dec," Brant groaned, "I thought you said you were always careful"

"Well, obviously I had ht"

"How do you know you can trust what this woman says?" Mac asked

"We’ve already had a paternity test Evan is h his hair looking even more stressed "Does he know, the boy?"

"Yeah, he’s pretty cool with everything He spent the night with Ella andincredulous, Ava said, "You’re really serious about this wo more uncomfortable about this topic of conversation than he had about Evan "Yeah, I am She’s different for me Hell, she’d probably be different for anyone But don’t start freaking out I still don’t do the long-ter omen"

"She’s beautiful," Mac offered "I’ve seen her around the office when I’ve visited"

"Yeah I bet," Declan growled Mac just smiled at him and he suspected he had stepped neatly into a trap on that one

Surprising theo out to dinner one night As far as I know, she’s the only woman you’ve ever been with forShe knows you have a family so she probably wonders why you haven’t formally introduced us"

"I rinned in agreement "I’d like to meet her too" That statement earned him a frown from both Ava and Declan

"I would rather not do this whole charade of pretending we are a nor, so you don’t need to bring her into our dysfunctional fold That would probably just hasten her departure" Giving theh If you would like towith his reet"

Brant wrinkled his nose "McDonald’s? Why would ant to meet there? That’s strictly a kid place"

"Guess what, Einstein," Ava deadpanned, "Evan is a kid"

"You knohat I ued, "it’s scary there without a kid to cover you"

"Brant," Mac sighed, "brother, we’ve got to get sorandfather had breakfast at Denny’s every et these hang-ups about fast-food places"

Ava smirked, "It’s because of his Irritable Bo--"

"Ava! For God’s sake, could you please keep it down? I don’t have that!"

Declan finally decided to take pity on them and invite them to come over next weekend Evan was supposed to come by on Sunday for a few hours He just needed to make sure Ella wasn’t there He didn’t want his fahs, mostly at Brant’s expense, everyone headed for the door Mac and Ava were the last to leave and he knew that Brant had intentionally ive theine how hard it must be to love someone like Mac loved Ava and never be able to have her Declan knew she loved him in her oay, but it wasn’t the way that Mac deserved

He shut the door behind theot ready for bed He was burnt out fro’s death had almost stopped after he opened up to Ella, but the last week had seen a return of the drea had been replaced by Ella The first night he had had the dream, it had been so vivid, more real than any of the others His beautiful Ella had landed at his feet in the drea he was grateful for was that he hadn’t woken Ella up by screa on his own bile After assuring hi next to hiht, al would happen to her if he shut his eyes

The fight with heroff His first dreae what his subconscious was trying to tell hi around, but he da her life by continuing this relationship She had obviously been a loyal daughter before he had co and blown her family dynamics all to hell Was her mother bat-shit crazy, hell yeah, but was that his call to make?

He had let this relationship deepen with her alainst his will She was just so easy to be with and damn hard to be without He loved who he was and how he felt when he ith her She cracked hie love of action movies The woman masturbated in front of him with the confidence of a seasoned pro, but then in the next ht him to his knees He found it i the day at the office If he had an extra five minutes, he went by to see her even if he barely had tie, buffered his guilt and soothed his soul She made every breath that he took sweeter

For all that she did for hiotten out of this relationship besides a ith her le father alreat kid and, while he learned how to be a father, he would probably forgive hih? Could she forgive his never ell for the people in his life that he cared about--his parents, his grandfather, Ava, Craig The list see added to that list

In typical guy fashion, this would be the point where he started putting so her out during the day Make so calls Just the typical asshole behavior his sex had perfected With all that had happened in his life lately, she probably wouldn’t even hate hi as going on He owed it to her to shoot straight If he wanted to end their relationship, he was going to have toto cause a break-up and he had done everything He had to let her go before things got worse He cared about her too ive her what she needed He’d already taken her virginity, soh to want the rest of the ith her before it was over He needed to store up enough h the bleak days ahead without her In the end though, he would be saving her, so