“Honestly, I never thought Gloria would be an issue between us because she and I both saw our marriage as a formality, which we’d already agreed to end the previous Christmas.”
“She said you initiated the divorce.”
The truth might startle Heavenly, but Beck wasn’t going to pretend he wasn’t devoted to her. “Yeah. I’d decided I wanted to be free. For you.”
“Before we’d even started dating?”
“I already suspected you were the one.” He inched closer and stroked his fingers down her so-soft cheek.
Heavenly’s eyes slid shut as she nuzzled into his touch. “Beck…”
Emotion clogged his throat. Thank god she was no longer shutting him out.
Lifting her delicate fingers, he tucked his palm beneath hers. Seth reached over and placed his hand on Heavenly’s.
Once again, their trio was whole.
With a soft sigh, she squeezed his hand and rested her head on Seth’s shoulder.
“Anything else you want to know?” Beck offered, itching to claim her mouth.
When she shook her head in answer, he stole a quick buss, then forced himself to pull away. He couldn’t get distracted when they still had so much ground to cover. Then Seth sealed the circle by skimming his lips over hers as well.
Slowly, they parted, then Beck cleared his throat and did his damnedest to get them back on track. “I need you to make me a promise, little girl. And I’ll make you one, too.”
“What?”
“I’m not perfect, but I’ll do better about being honest with you. I know you had extenuating circumstances, but you have to swear you won’t ever shut me out without a word again. Nothing good happens when we don’t communicate.”
“I promise.” Contrition spread across her face. “I’m not usually that mule-headed, but you had just seen the worst parts of my life—my poverty, my dad’s condition, my desperation. And while I was at my most vulnerable, I trusted you.”
With her body. With her heart.
And he’d blindsided her.
Beck swiped away her falling tears. “You can still trust me. You have no idea how terrible I felt when you saw those divorce papers because I knew exactly what you were thinking. But it hurt that you didn’t care enough to want an explanation.”
“I just couldn’t handle more right then. My dad—”
“That’s why I didn’t try harder to tell you. Under any other circumstance, I would have tied your ass down and made you listen.”
“I believe you.” A watery smile flitted across her face. “You two make it hard to stay mad. After my mother left us, Dad made me promise I’d choose a man who put me first every day. You’ve done that over and over.”
“We always will,” Beck vowed.
“But I need something from you, too, angel.” Seth suddenly grabbed her chin, his stare tense. “You scared the hell out of us when you left alone. Do you know the things that could have happened to you?”
“I wasn’t trying to worry you.” Heavenly nibbled her lip.
“Promise you’ll never take off like that again. Right now.” Forget tense; Seth looked fucking fierce.
Beck scowled. Was Seth trying to run her off? “What he means is, we knew you had to take care of your dad’s ashes, but you didn’t tell us you intended to do it that day, especially all alone. Neither of us want you driving across the country while you’re grieving. If we’d known, it would have saved us a lot of panic. We could have helped.”
“I’m sorry. I needed to be alone with my dad one last time. And I needed to think. I still do.”
About what came next. About her future. About whether he and Seth were even in it.
Beck shoved that last possibility away. “We understand.”