Page 53 of Stealing Home

“Sorry,” Dom said with a laugh, almost fumbling the bread before he pulled it into his body. “I just assumed you came as a set now.”

“Usually,” CJ said. He followed Dom to the kitchen. “He’s at the house.”

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah.” CJ shrugged. “The fence out back finally gave out after the last rainstorm. Gavin’s coming to take a look at it and give us a quote, so Evan stayed behind.”

Dom’s grip tightened almost imperceptibly on the bread. “Oh.”

CJ glanced sideways at him. “He’ll be here once Gavin leaves.”

“Good.” Dom nodded and busied himself with setting the bread on the counter and stirring the sauce again.

Lucia spotted CJ and let out an excited squeal.

“There she is,” CJ said, crossing to the swing and crouching to her eye level. He offered her a finger, and she wrapped her tiny hand around it immediately. “Hey, Lucky.” Her whole face lit up.

Dom watched them as he stirred, and after a moment, CJ looked up at him.

“You look tired.”

Dom scoffed. “I’ve got a three-month-old, and we just played a game that went into extra innings.”

“Nah,” CJ said, shifting to sit cross-legged on the floor. “You looked tired before that.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m serious.” CJ watched him stir the sauce for another minute. “Is it baseball?”

“Is what baseball?”

“The reason you’re not sleeping,” CJ said.

Dom shook his head. “No.”

“Okay.” CJ drew the word out like he was thinking. “We all know Lucia keeps you up, so it’s not that.” He was quiet for a moment. Then, almost casually, he asked, “Gavin?”

Dom stopped stirring, and CJ homed in on it.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

Dom let out a breath through his nose and resumed stirring the sauce. “Am I really that obvious?”

“Only if someone knows what they’re looking for.” CJ pushed himself up off the floor and came to stand next to Dom. “Like you not smiling at your phone like an idiot every ten seconds the way you used to.”

Dom stared into the pot. “I screwed everything up.”

CJ waited. He was good at silence, never pushing someone to speak or rushing to fill the silence. But when Dom didn’t continue, CJ asked quietly, “What happened?”

Dom gave a humorless laugh. “You mean besides kissing him?”

CJ’s eyebrows climbed. “You kissed him.”

“He kissed me, but yeah.” There was no point in pretending otherwise.

CJ leaned against the counter. “And?”

“Lucia woke up.”