And he couldn’t ask Angi for something more than a pretend relationship when he had nothing to give her other than himself. He didn’t deserve her.

A part of him wanted her to argue, to fight for their connection. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

She nodded. “If there’s anything you need, please let me know. And thank you again for taking Andrew today. I’m so sorry that it meant not being there for your grandmother.”

His insides felt raw, scraped out with a dull knife until there was nothing left but empty space. “Me, too,” he told her, and then turned toward his truck.

“THIS IS A bad idea,” Angi said as she followed her mother up the front walk to Gabe’s grandmother’s house later that night. Andrew followed behind them pulling a wagon that held an assortment of holiday decorations.

“Why?” her mother asked. “He shouldn’t be alone tonight, and you said he doesn’t have Christmas decorations. There are so many memories in Iris’s house for him. It should be a festive place.”

“But he wants to be sad,” Angi argued weakly.

“We’ll be sad with him,” Andrew offered, and her heart melted at the sweetness in her son’s tone.

Angi had returned to her mother’s after Gabe walked away, feeling both helpless and hollow. Bianca and Andrew were already home, and he took great pride and pleasure in regaling her with stories of his adventures with Gabe from the morning. Apparently, Johnny Rotten, as Andrew now referred to his tormentor, had come to the event with another dad and son, which he’d expressly told Andrew was forbidden by troop rules.

She would have called the little bully out on that but hadn’t needed to since Gabe had offered to be Drew’s stand-in. Johnny’s dad had left town because he and Johnny’s mom, one of Angi’s former friends, were in the midst of a nasty divorce. She had a feeling the kid hadn’t wanted Andrew to see him without a dad at his side after making such a big deal about the lack of masculine influence in Drew’s life. As if that would have mattered to her son.

The more Andrew talked, the more she realized what a huge debt she owed Gabe. Her dad had taken his grandson to the event for the past three years, but Andrew never had the kind of fun he did with Gabe.

It was a toss-up whether she felt guiltier that taking care of her son meant Gabe hadn’t had those last moments with his grandmother or that she’d put Andrew in the situation of not having a father in the first place by picking such an absolute loser for a boyfriend years earlier.

Andrew had been the one to suggest they come to Gabe’s tonight, bringing dinner and as much holiday cheer as they could manage with only a week until Christmas. As much as he’d clearly loved the event, she could tell he hated that Gabe had gotten the news about his grandmother that afternoon.