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Mick didn’t deserve her

"What’s wrong, Gavin?"

He took her hands in his "My brother and I aren’t seeing eye to eye right now, and it’s probably not a good idea for o inside"

She crossed her ar It’sElizabeth"

"Oh And Mick has a problehed "Do you like her?"

"Yeah, I kind of do Don’t really knohy since she tries uess we kind of fit, at least for now Moht"

"And you didn’t want to because of Mick"

"Well, I asked Elizabeth to coed off because ofwell, because of everything that went down before She didn’t want to ruin Mick’s party"

Tara druo What happened is in the past Elizabeth fixed it and apologized My God, he fired her What hed "I think Iher over here If Mom wants her here, then she should be here"

"I can try, but I’et any objection from me, Gavin"

"You’re a better person than most people I know, Tara"

She kissed hi your brother hoonderful I ao talk to Mick"

"I’VE CHANGED MY MIND I’M NOT GOING IN, GAVIN THIS has disaster written all over it Why don’t you just linejust a little overly dra realistic They all hate ot out of the car They’d been sitting in the driveway for fifteen ry He came around to Elizabeth’s side and opened the door "Get out now If you don’t, I’ll throw you over my shoulder and carry you inside"

She leveled hiing ot out of the car and stood there "I can’t believe I agreed to this"

He took her hand and dragged her stiff body to the front door "At least try to smile and pretend to be pleasant"

The front door opened, and his et here" She folded Elizabeth in her ar"

Elizabeth’s stiff stance ed her She put her ar ship "I’ve ot over how cute the two redheads looked whenever they ehter, which is probably why his ravitated toward Liz Of course Liz was so shenever she was around hisGavin never could fathoed when she ith his family She loved his father equally as well

Of course now that he knew her history, he realizeda warm family to come home to since she’d lacked one of her own

His mother held on to Elizabeth’s hand as they walked toward the house "Sha We missed you at the holidays"

"I didn’t think I’d be welcome I screwed up so badly with Mick"

"Bah Youus hasn’t? You iven"

"I’ets the best of me sometimes"

Gavin didn’t hear what else Elizabeth said because when they walked into the house the noise level in there was deafening People were spread out everywhere And his mother had run off somewhere with Liz, so Gavin went to find Mick or his dad

They were both in the kitchen, his father with a beer in his hand and Mick with a bottled water Nathan was there, too, and they were laughing and talking sports, of course

"Happy birthday, old uarded smile "Hey, thanks"

They shook hands Gavin was still irritated after their last

"Hey, Nathan, great to see you again"

"Hi, Gavin" Nathan offered up a wide grin

He seerown a foot since Gavin had seen hireat Doing so with DadMickDad has really helped a lot"

Gavin shifted his gaze to Mick, whose eyes filled with pride when Nathan called hi brother was a father to a teenager now Things sure had changed a lot "I’etting married"

"I am I couldn’t ask for a better father He’s what I alanted in a dad"

"And you’re the son I always drea a little teary-eyed, too "Okay, fellas, before we all break down and start sobbing and end up in a group hug, let’s get back to talking about baseball"

"I’ll leave you all to talk about o find Elizabeth Moht her here"

Gavin stopped "Yeah, I did"

"I can’t believe you, aze skirted to Nathan, who cast a frown in their direction "Let’s not do this now"

"Why? This affects Nathan, too"

"Mick You need to be polite to your brother," their father said

"Oh, I need to be courteous to Gavin What about how he treats ht Because it had always been about Mick What was best for Mick Be careful what you say to Mick Don’t upset Mick Mick has a problem, so we need to be extra nice to Mick Look up to Mick Be like Mick Stand in Mick’s shadow

Shit