“Greg getting hurt wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t Deacon’s, either. It was Brandi’s fault. She was unconscionably careless. She could have put the baby in his crib, but she didn’t, did she? She left him to crawl around and get into her purse.”

“I didn’t feel guilty about Greg,” she said, but he couldn’t believe her. He wondered if she even believed herself. “But I never told Deacon the truth. I’ve let him think he was at fault all this time.”

The shame was all he could see now, and it hurt his heart. “Dani, honey.” He knew he shouldn’t touch her, but he couldn’t stop himself. He covered her hand with one of his and with the other he cupped her cheek. “Brandi would have been using whether or not you brought the dealer to your house. Granted, that was not a wise thing to do, but you were sixteen. We all did foolish things at that age.”

He himself had been busy starting fights and vandalizing the belongings of innocent people when he’d been sixteen. There had been . . . extenuating circumstances, true, but he’d done it, all the while knowing he was doing wrong.

“I know that,” she hissed, but she didn’t pull away. “But I let Deacon carry the blame for that for all these years. That is not nice. That is not what nice people do, Diesel. And it’s not the only bad thing I’ve done.”

Ah. This was merely exhibit one in her campaign to make him believe that she wasn’t worthy of him. He was a little afraid to hear exhibit two. And if there was an exhibit three, he was going to need a drink.

“Did you try to tell Deacon?” he asked.

She frowned. “Yes, of course, but . . .”

His brows lifted. “But?”

“He was busy blaming himself,” Dani admitted. “So I let him.”

“Do you really think he would have blamed himself less if you’d told him?”

She dropped her gaze to his hand. Then leaned into the hand that cupped her face. “No. Probably not.”

“And maybe you should have tried harder.” He stroked her cheek with his thumb, catching a tear that fell. “But you were grieving, too. And then you were busy taking care of Greg and going to school. And you were stuck with Jim, while Deacon got away. I think you more than paid your debt to the family in general.”

More tears fell. He wiped them away tenderly, and that made her cry harder.

“You shouldn’t be nice to me, dammit. Why are you so damn nice?”

He sighed. “Because I like you too much to be mean. Trust me, I can be a real SOB when I want to.”