Gavin closed the door after seeing his children off for the next five days. They were joining Shane’s family with a trip to California for the holiday. As the car disappeared around the turn, he realized he didn’t have the pang of disappointment and longing he usually did when he watched Kathy drive off with them. He always missed them when they weren’t with him, but the life he and Kathy had tried to build together was almost like a dream now. A little misty around the edges, with the details blurry. He was no longer full of the sharp disappointment or feeling that he’d failed them all somehow. Now, he realized, he was content. And the kids were happy. Hell, Kathy was happy. Their family might not be traditional, but it was solid.

Walking into his kitchen, he found the main reason he’d finally been able to let go of that bitterness cradling a coffee cup in her hands, sipping the strong brew while she watched the dawn break over the mountains. She’d remained in the back when Kathy had come to get the kids, not wanting to cause any more awkwardness than she had the first time they’d met. The kids were excited for their trip and that excitement had been bubbling over all night, with them both talking a mile a minute and not falling into bed until much later than their usual bedtime.

He pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her waist and propping his chin on her shoulder to look out the window with her. “I was kind of hoping you’d still be in bed,” he whispered as he dropped a kiss against her neck, relishing how she leaned into him.

She hummed low in her throat and pressed her rear against his groin. “I thought about it,” she admitted, “but the smell of coffee was too tempting.” Regan placed her mug onto the counter and turned in his arms, looping hers around his neck.

His cock twitched at the feel of her breasts rubbing against his chest. He slid his hands down and filled them with the globes of her ass. Their night hadn’t gone as planned, but she’d taken his breath away when she’d tiptoed from the bathroom in a slip of red silk so tantalizing he’d nearly come right then and there. She’d kept shushing him, concerned that the kids would hear and come running.

The memories filled him with warmth and made him rock hard. He was never going to forget seeing her in that nightie, a smile on her face as she whispered what she wanted to do.

Spending the entire day wrapped up in this woman was the only thing he could think of. “Are you sure I can’t offer you something more tempting?”

Regan rubbed against him and nibbled on his jaw. “Maybe. But it’s really good coffee.”

“Tease.” His hand landed with a loud smack against her backside, making her laugh.

Stepping out of his arms, she reached for her mug again. “I want to talk to you about something.”

“Sure.” He refused to think about the fact that no good conversation ever started with those words. Instead, he reached around her and grabbed his own mug, filling it with coffee.

She led the way to the living room, pulling the drapes back so they could see the lake with the mountains beyond. When she was close enough, he caught her hand and tugged her down onto the sofa with him. “What’s going on?” he asked. Her nervousness was rolling off her in waves and it was making him nervous and deflating his erection a bit. There’d been enough surprises in the past couple of days that he didn’t want to wait for her to finally work up the courage to say whatever it was she had on her mind.

Taking her mug, he placed it on the coffee table before arranging them so her back was pressed against his chest and she sat between his thighs. He slowly stroked his thumbs along her neck, gently easing the corded muscles there. “Whatever it is, just say it.” He moved down to her shoulders and continued to knead the muscles as she let her head fall back and thud against his chest.

“That feels so good,” she murmured, twisting to place a small kiss on the hand closest to her mouth.

“I know something else that feels even better,” he joked, trying to help ease some of her tension. He cleared his throat, desperate to get this conversation moving so he could carry her back to the bedroom. “Whatever it is, just say it so we can get back to your seduction. I want to try that massage oil on you.”

Regan melted into him, letting his hands roam over her. Taking it as a good sign he moved to her front, sliding his fingertips under her shirt and up her ribcage.

“You aren’t helping me figure out how to say this.”

“I’m not trying to help,” he told her, trailing kisses along her shoulder where her shirt had slipped to expose the collarbone. “I’m trying to seduce you, but if you didn’t know that, I must not be as good at it as you are.”

She huffed out a laugh. “I wasn’t good at it. I was terrified.”

“Why?” He was baffled by her admission. She had permeated his every thought since he found her in his kitchen, taking care of his kids. There hadn’t been a day since that he didn’t think about her and wish he was spending time with her.

She fit him. He obviously hadn’t been doing a good job letting her know how much she’d come to mean to him if she was that uncertain about his reaction to her seduction.

“Well,” she began, biting her lip, “it’s not something I’ve ever done before.”

Gavin’s hands slipped off her shoulders. “Seducing someone? You’re kidding. Why?” Regan was a fun person, someone who didn’t have a problem laughing at herself. Sex with her was a full-body affair, so why on earth had she never explored something as simple as wearing a sexy nightgown before?

Not that he was complaining. Being her first in that aspect sent a shot of lust straight to his groin that had him thinking he might just shatter if she so much as brushed against him.

Regan laughed and turned to look at him. “You’re kidding, right?”

Before he had a chance to respond, her phone rang with that shrill train whistle she hadn’t changed yet. She was starting to get used to it. Her eyes cut in the direction of the kitchen where she’d left it, but she didn’t move to answer it. The tension that had left her shoulders was suddenly back and Gavin scowled. Eventually the ringing stopped when her voicemail picked up. “You want to talk about it?”

“Todd’s been calling.” The way she said it, calm and devoid of any emotion, pricked his interest.

“What does he want now?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t listened to any of the messages.”

Gavin felt the band that had squeezed his chest when she mentioned her ex’s name ease a bit. “Do you think he’s serious about trying to get you back? Or maybe try to apologize again?”

Regan was shaking her head before he’d finished. “He tried that when he was here. I heard him out, which is more than I had to do. It doesn’t matter what he wants. I don’t want to talk to him.”

“Okay.” The moment had changed. There was no way he was going to get her back in the bedroom now. Tucking a strand of hair back behind her ear, he let his fingers linger there, stroking the soft skin along the shell of her ear as he tried to think of something to lighten the mood. “Want to tell me about that shopping trip that had you deciding to try your hand at seduction?”

Color flooded her face and she bit her lip, but her eyes smiling. “It was quite the shopping trip. Bethany wanted to surprise Connor, so she asked me to go with her. She figured I’d want to get a little something for myself. Or you. Us.”

He smiled at her stumbling over the words. “I love Bethany.”

This time she laughed, which made him smile wider. The tension was leaving her shoulders again and she leaned back against his chest and continued her story. “So we all went to the store and Erin tried to get me to buy this black scrap of lace, but Gwen told me your favorite color was red, so— “

“Wait. My sister was there? I don’t want to hear this story after all.”

She laughed at him again, picking up his arms to wrap them around herself like she would a blanket. “I’d never bought a teddy before. I thought they were useless.”

“Trust me, they aren’t useless. It was very, very useful.” The color stayed high in her cheeks as she shook her head, but her smile was smug.

Regan tucked her head under his chin so he couldn’t see her face. “I always thought it was stupid to spend the money on something like that when it would just end up on the floor after a few minutes.”

Gavin weighed his words, not sure of the right thing to say. He didn’t consider himself overly adventurous in the bedroom, but he knew what he liked. And Regan fit the bill right down to her willingness to try new things. “It didn’t make you feel sexy? Or,” he struggled to find the right word, “empowered?”

He’d never thought much about it, but as much as he loved seeing a sexy woman in lingerie, particularly his sexy woman, he’d always assumed they got something out of it too. Why else would they do it? A little more bounce in their step, a bit more of a sway to their hips, something that screamed that they were the shit and he was damn lucky to be catching a glimpse of what they were showing him. Not to mention turning him into a blubbering idiot over how great they looked. Weren’t all guys that way?

She bumped his chin with the top of her head when she nodded. “I did. But I didn’t think I would.”

“Your ex is a jackass.” This time her laughter went all the way through her body and into his. He tightened his arms around her and pulled her tighter against him as he settled back against the sofa again.

“That’s what we call him. Todd the Jackass,” she told him once she could catch her breath. “But, yeah, I felt that way with you. Sexy. Beautiful.” She pulled away and turned to look at him. “I feel a lot of things with you that I haven’t felt before.” Her voice was soft and slid over him like a caress. “That’s what got me to buy the lingerie.”

Gavin felt his breath hitch. “What is?”

“How you make me feel.” She shifted around so they were face to face, her legs draped over his thighs, her core pressed solidly against his erection. “When I left Todd, I was angry. Partly at him, but mostly at myself because I realized that I’d lost myself along the way. At some point I’d stopped being Regan and became his girlfriend. Then his wife. It was the same thing I’d done while I was growing up. I was never just me; I was always Joyce and Nicholas’s daughter or Becca and Chloe’s sister.”

He gave her hands a squeeze. “I think you’re underestimating yourself. You’ve always been strong and brilliant. You were a softball star and made your own way. You can do it again.”

“I don’t know what to do. What I want to do.” She lowered her forehead to his and held herself still. Just breathing. Whatever it was she needed to do in that moment. He was humbled she felt safe enough with him to lay all her doubts on the line.

He just wished he could help her figure out the next steps.

And at the same time, he knew the best thing he could do for her, for this budding relationship of theirs, was to let her do it on her own. “I know it’s been intense since you’ve been home, but you have an opportunity to start over.” He brought her hand to his mouth, brushing a soft kiss into her palm before curling her fingers closed. “You can do anything, Regan. You are the strongest, most capable woman I have ever been blessed to know.”

“You just want me to put that teddy on again.”

“Hell yeah.” He laughed. “That goes without saying. But that’s not what I’m talking about here. I know you’re being pressured to make a decision about going back to work or school or whatever. But you can do whatever you want now. You’ve got a chance to recreate yourself. How many of us ever get to do that?”

“You don’t understand,” she started, but stopped when he placed a finger against her lips.

“You’re right. I can’t understand all the pressure you’re under. But I’m here for you, however you need me to be. And I’m not saying this just because you wore that amazing teddy last night. I’m saying it because I care about you. The you that showed up here to take care of my kids and let them help you make kabobs. The same you that has been working so hard on rebuilding the friendships from your past and reconnecting with your sisters. The you that is working to redo your grandparents’ house, and finally putting yourself first to figure out what you want.”

He settled her against him. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a nurse or a doctor or working the drive-thru window at the local fast food place. What matters is you and the person you are inside. That’s the person I’m falling in love with.”