“I want to be with you, Audrey. Not just as the father of your child, but your partner in everything. I want to share a home and a bed.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready to go there, Xavier.”

“I know. I just wanted you to know that’s how I feel, what my goal is.”

“We have a lot we don’t know about each other. I mean, I only just found out you’re a SEAL.”

He grimaced. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

“Have you ever been in love?”

He paused. He’d thought he was in love with Lynn, but wasn’t certain if the feelings had never been there or if the way she’d dumped him had killed his connection to the deeper emotions. “I don’t know.” He went on to explain the relationship and the breakup in brief terms. She needed to go to sleep, but he didn’t want her to think he was avoiding this conversation.

“Have you ever been arrested?”

He laughed. “What? I thought you were going to ask favorite color or favorite movie. We’re going straight to jail?”

“Yep. Favorite movies and colors can change over time, but a criminal record follows you.”

“Well, not if you were a minor…”

She grinned. “You were arrested. What did you do?”

“I was arrested, but no charges were ever filed, and it was juvie, so no record of any of it.”

“I’m waiting, Mr. I’ll-tell-you-anything.”

“I…shit. Jae’s going to kill me.”

“What? Jae was involved?”

“We were fifteen and full of ourselves. A senior who was our team’s quarterback and even more full of himself comes driving up to the school in a flashy sports car on game night. He nearly hits Jae and me and two freshmen as we’re crossing the lot. I called him a dickhead, and he puffed up, tossed a few racist slurs against me and Jae. During the game, we decide to get some revenge by stealing his pretty car. We just planned to move it a few blocks from the school. Jae was on the JV team, so no one paid any attention when he slipped into the locker room and took the asshole’s keys.”

Audrey put a hand over her eyes. “I don’t like where this story is headed. Please tell me no one gets hurt. Did you even know how to drive yet?”

“Well, not a stick shift. They didn’t cover that in driver’s ed. So yeah, that was part of the problem. We get pulled over two blocks from the school by a cop on patrol. It’s kind of obvious when someone who has no clue how to drive a stick shift is behind the wheel of a fifty-thousand-dollar car that the car probably doesn’t belong to them. Especially when said driver doesn’t even look like he’s hit puberty yet.”