The trip back from Scotland was a blur. Gabe had made all the arrangements just like he said he would. They had their flights booked for the following day and their bags were packed for them.

“Daddy, where are your bags?” Emma demanded, stomping her foot at the front door. “We’re going to be late! I want to see the planes!”

He crouched down with a watery expression and pulled Emma to him, squeezing her in the tight hug.

“Daddy! Too tight. Go get your bags,” she insisted, pushing back in his hold.

“I’m not coming with you sweetie,” he sighed, squeezing her again.

“Why not?” Now Emma’s gaze was the watery one. She looked to Alex, who stood frozen, unable to explain to her daughter what had happened. Emma squeezed him back with her arms wrapped around his neck. “Daddy, why aren’t you coming?”

“I still have work here, Emma, but I can talk to you on your mom’s phone every night. And you can call me at any time, okay?”

“And once you’re finished working you’ll come back home?”

Gabe’s gaze darted to hers before darting away.

“We’ll see, sweetie. We’ll see.”

Alex wiped a stray tear off her cheek before Emma could say it. The hug from him was enough to quell Emma’s melt down. He kept avoiding her gaze and refused to talk to her. Every time she tried to get him alone to talk to him, he would walk out of the room. With Emma there, it made it harder to try to talk to him and he seemed perfectly fine with that situation. Emma took a nap just before the car was to arrive and she thought she finally have her chance, but he pushed back Emma’s hair and kissed her on her forehead and excused himself before she could speak to him again.

He came back as the car arrived to take them to the airport and she picked Emma up to carry her to the car. He said his goodbyes to Emma again, giving her a big hug and promising that he would talk to her as soon as they landed. The car pulled off and she peered out the back window, watching him as he stood in the middle of the road with his hands thrust into his pockets.

The flight was uneventful, if much more subdued than their trip to Scotland a few weeks earlier. There was a car waiting to take them home when they got to their home airport. Opening the door to their house felt like they were walking into someone else’s house. It was their house, but it felt different now. The cottage had become home while they were in Scotland. Their home with Gabe. All the items she had purchased in Scotland came in a shipment a couple of days later, and he included a few extra items for Emma.

Jen called to check in on her a few times.

“Why did you bring the papers if you didn’t intend to use them?”

“I grabbed them from the office when I was getting ready to leave. I was checking them over in my room and he popped in. I freaked. I didn’t want him to see them so I threw them in my bag and started packing on top of them. I forgot they were even there.”

“Why didn’t you tell him that you never intended to have him sign them?”

“I tried, but he was upset that I had them drawn up in the first place.”

“That’s not fair to you. He has no idea what things were like for you back then,” Jen snapped.

“I can’t say I blame him. I thought I’d put it all behind me. I thought I could let it go, then I found out the truth about Lesley and it made it all so much worse. If I hadn’t been such a coward back then and found out what really happened, we wouldn’t have had to be apart at all.” She threw herself onto the guest-room bed, clutching the pillow to her chest. It had been a few weeks, but there was still the faintest hint of his scent. She’d taken to sleeping in there since they got back.

“Alex, you can’t completely blame yourself. And you can’t completely blame Gabe. A lot of this crap storm is because of that prick, Aaron. He’s the one that should be miserable, not you two.”

“Hopefully that little shit will get his at the meeting Gabe’s having in a couple of days with his new talent agency.”

“Gabe’s coming back to LA?”

“Yes, there’s going to be a gap in production for a few weeks. He’s going back to LA for a while, and I hope he’ll come by here, too,” Alex sighed.

“Hang in there Alex. I’ll give you a call in a day or so and check in on you two.”

The pair moped around the house, staying mainly in their pajamas. She didn’t even make pancakes. This was cereal emergency time. Emma missed her daddy and was moaning that she didn’t get to see him in person every day like she’d grown accustomed to. And for her, she missed the companionship, the help with Emma, and most importantly, his love and affection. She’d been mostly numb since their fight in the cottage. She didn’t know which way to turn. Everything she’d done to try to protect herself from heartache and here she was, alone again.

She’d been so wrapped up in not being afraid to be alone that she forgot to be okay with being with someone when things were going right. Her fear of falling in love had put her in the exact place she’d always prepared herself for—being alone. Did she feel like she wasn’t worthy of a loving relationship?

* * *

He left the cottage immediately after Alex and Emma left. Rattling around the house all on his own, being reminded of them at every turn, was not his idea of a good time. He checked into a hotel and spent as much time as he could on-set. Trying not to think about them during working hours was much more difficult than he imagined.

Coming home to a house that was buzzing with energy, filled with laughter, and covered in toys was something he hadn’t realized he’d been missing out on all these years. Only a few weeks, and now he was lost without them.

The pain in his chest was still there whenever he thought about those papers. Alex had been so upset with him that she’d wanted to take his little girl away from him. Although she’d said she never intended to give them to him, the fact that she’d had them drawn up was enough to cut him to the core.

Heading back to LA the following day would help resolve at least a couple of his current issues. Who would have thought that two weeks ago, he wouldn’t have cared less about Aaron? But he wanted to make sure that Aaron paid for what he’d done to the three of them. Shopping around for a new agency had been easy. It wasn’t too often that a franchise star sought new management, but he’d gone with the one that had a stellar reputation and would be on board with the future career plans he wanted to put in motion.