“If your game is done, want to drive over to the inn with me?” he asked the boy. “I could use a solid wingman when I apologize to your mom.”

“Yeah, I’ll go,” Drew agreed, then offered a sneaky smile. “But I have to tell Nonna ’cause she’s babysitting me. So you’re gonna need to talk to her first. And she was even madder than Mom, I think.”

“Well played,” Gabe muttered, clapping the boy on the shoulder. “Let’s go talk to your nonna.”

ANGI LAUGHED AT something the mother of the mother-to-be said. A lame joke about how to keep a husband happy when your attention was all on a newborn baby.

The young woman had stared wide-eyed at her mom like she’d made it to adulthood without realizing that her parents must have a sex life, or at least had at some point. Of course, Angi had no experience balancing a romantic relationship with motherhood when she’d had a baby—or ever. Gabe had been the closest she’d come. Everyone in town knew how well that had worked out for her.

“You just gave the fakest laugh I ever heard,” Mariella said quietly as she came to stand next to Angi in the threshold between the inn’s formal living room and the kitchen.

“It doesn’t matter. Nobody’s paying attention to me.”

“Emma and I are,” Mariella countered. “She’s worried about you.”

Angi lifted a brow. “And you?”

“To be honest, I’m irritated that you let a good one go.”

“What was I supposed to do, beg him to stay?”

“It’s not unheard-of. Gabe Carlyle looked at you like you hung the moon and the stars. Do you know how precious that is?”

The image of the adoring way Dylan Scott had gazed at Carrie a few weeks before Christmas outside the town hall popped into Angi’s mind. She remembered wishing for somebody who would look at her like that.

The difference was Gabe had turned away.

“It’s too late now. He’s gone. Clearly he didn’t have any problems taking his adoring eyes off of me.”

“He was going through a lot with his witch of a mother in town.” Mariella’s voice went tight. “You’ve got a great mom, Ang. You can’t possibly know what it’s like to grow up feeling as though you’re a burden to the person who’s supposed to care about you most in the world.”

“Gabe knows that his mother’s problems had nothing to do with him.” Angi said the words with conviction because she needed to believe them. She needed him to be the villain because it was the only way she felt she had a chance of healing.

“Don’t be so sure. Our parents play a big part in teaching us what it’s like to feel love and whether we deserve it or not.” Mariella gestured to the pregnant mother who was being feted by her female family members and friends. The sophisticated blonde’s gaze turned wistful. “When a negligent parent’s words and actions tell you you’re worthless, it’s a lesson that sticks even when you grow up and know better. Trust me.”