Gavin clapped my shoulder. “Can I buy you a beer?” he asked.

I looked down at Kiera, wondering if she’d be okay with me separating myself from her party for a moment. She beamed at me, wetness on her cheeks and hope on her face. I knew her answer before she nodded. She wanted this for me. I’d known all along she’d wanted this for me. She kissed my cheek, then left us to our bonding.

I walked with Gavin the short distance up to the bar. Gavin ordered beers from Troy, who stared at us openmouthed, like he couldn’t believe there were two of us now. I suppressed a smile as he handed us each a bottle. Troy had to see the family resemblance. It made me wonder if other people in the bar were noticing it too, but oddly…I didn’t care. After going through that gut-wrenching experience with Gavin, telling the world he was my natural father suddenly seemed…easy.

Gavin smiled at me as he sat on a bar stool. He tilted his head toward where Kiera had disappeared. “Your girlfriend is very nice. She was quite kind to me. I hope you’re not angry about what she did.”

I glanced back at her; she was talking to Denny, back by her family. “Honestly…I was furious at first.” I looked over at him and shrugged. “I’d worked so hard to ignore you, and she just went and…ruined it.” I grinned as I shook my head. “She’s always been able to wreck me.”

Gavin chuckled. “The good ones always do.”

I wondered briefly if he considered my mother to be one of the “good ones,” but knowing what I knew about her, I figured probably not. He must mean Hailey and Riley’s mom. Hailey had told me that her mother had died several years ago, when Riley was just a toddler. It didn’t feel right to ask Gavin about it yet, so instead, I apologized for something that I genuinely felt bad about.

“Hey…I’m sorry I ignored you for so long. I should have…if I’d just…responded…maybe this wouldn’t have been so hard.”

Gavin looked at me a moment, then nodded. “And I’m sorry I…hounded you. I probably should have stopped after the first month or so.”

I laughed as I remembered his relentlessness. “Well, Hailey did say stubbornness ran in the family, so…”

Gavin laughed at that, then he held his beer bottle out to mine. “To being stubborn,” he said.

I clinked his bottle with mine as I laughed. And it felt…great.