Page 27 of Break the Barrier

Thea’s skin pinks, her eyes moving to Lue. “Sure, yeah.”

“Thea—”

She cuts me off. “I’ll see you guys around, though, and Lue, be sure to come in and tell me how the auditions go.”

“Okay.” Lue sounds disappointed, and I’m still rooted there, confused. Thea retreats down the hallway, and I realize this is upto me. She doesn’t feel welcome because of my being home, so I’m the one who has to convince her to stay.

“Thea, wait.” I shoot a “stay put” look at Lue and rush after Thea, who’s already got her hand on the door.

From this point of view, the hallway walls block Lue’s view, so I take advantage of that and grab Thea’s arm, spinning her around to look at me.

“Where are you rushing off to?” I ask, my chest nearly meeting hers. Her eyes snap up to mine, and I give her a grin. “There’s dinner to be had.”

“Oh, no. I made that for you guys.”

“You made us dinner, then rush off without eating with us?”

Her frown appears, and fuck, something is wrong with me because I find it adorable and have to physically hold myself back from taking her lips with my own. “You don’t need me to eat with you, Logan.”

“No,” I agree easily, and she looks at me in surprise. “But wewantyou to eat with us.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll…see you tomorrow.” Her hesitation about meeting with me tomorrow makes me want to laugh.

So that’s what this is about.

“I think.” I step just slightly closer, bringing us together with one tug on her arm. One of her hands grabs my hip for balance, and I smile. “You should come sit down, tell me about your day, and eat some dinner with me and my daughter.”

Thea stares up at me, maybe shocked by my words. Maybe excited, deep down underneath, even if she won’t admit it.

“I…” She bites her lip, and I’m not ashamed to say my gaze lands there and stays firmly put.

“Say yes,” I encourage again. Thea needs to be pushed. She needs to be needed. She needs to be taken care of and cherishedand thought of as someone other than the organized bar owner she is.

“Okay,” she says, letting out the deep breath she’d been holding. “But only because Lue may be upset if I don’t.”

Sure, we’ll go with that.

We sat down together around the table, Thea serving everyone portions of her shepherd’s pie—mine being far larger than the rest—and me getting everyone settled with drinks. We worked around each other easily, getting things ready for dinner, and I had more than one daydream about this being a reality we eventually fall into. Us getting dinner on the table, sitting down as a family.

That’s one dream I keep to myself, but secretly, I’ve always longed to share my life with someone in that way.

Lue talks to us the whole time, telling Thea about her play and everything she wants to accomplish before high school starts.

Thea listens with intent, making sure my daughter knows she’s heard, and I’m so grateful for that.

Lue is the most important thing in my life. She’s the center of our family, the one thing that my brothers don’t fuck with because they all love her so much.

I think about Jax and Mitch, how they haven’t come home much in the past few months, only making short appearances for holidays. Stetson and I kind of hold down the fort.

Mitch has a past in this town, and his best way of dealing with that past is staying far, far away. I can’t blame him, but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt when he never comes home.

Then Jax…Jax’s excuse is not really an excuse. He was too big for this small town, wanting to venture out and make a name for himself. I’d say he’s done so, but maybe not the way he wants to.

So, it was important to me that the people I brought into Lue’s life were good ones, ones that had the potential to stick around.

I’ve rarely dated, and by that, I meanneverdated.

There was far more risk than reward when it came to dating someone seriously. But when I’d met Thea a few years ago, she’d hit me like a strike of lightning. I had no idea what to do with myself, and so I stayed a friend, waiting for something to tell me that it would be okay for us to become more than that.