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CJ waited, clearly expecting more.

“And I panicked.” Dom set the spoon down before he stirred a hole through the bottom of the pot and crossed to the island. He planted both palms against the cool surface and dropped his head. “One second I was kissing him and not thinking about anything except how much I wanted to keep kissing him, and the next, I heard her crying. Every promise I made to make her my priority came crashing back at once.”

CJ stayed quiet, and Dom appreciated that. He wasn’t sure he could get the rest of the story out if he felt like he had to defend himself at the same time.

“I told him I couldn’t do it. That Lucia comes first. Baseball already takes me away from her more than I want it to, and that’s with her being at the stadium with me. When I’m not doing something baseball-related, I need to be here. I need to be her dad.” He straightened to look at CJ. “I’m barely balancing those two things now. How the hell am I supposed to add a relationship to it?”

“You don’t have to know that answer yet.”

Dom huffed. “That’s easy for you to say when you’re not the one who could screw it up.”

CJ’s expression tightened, but he let that pass. “What did Gavin say?”

“He said he wasn’t asking me for anything.”

“And?”

Dom looked at his hands. “I apologized.” CJ was quiet long enough that Dom finally raised his head. “What?”

“I think you owe him another conversation.”

“What’s the point? I told him the truth. What else is there to say?” Dom straightened and shrugged, even though the movement felt anything but casual. “It doesn’t matter anyway. He left while I was upstairs with Lucky. I haven’t heard from him since.”

CJ’s eyebrows lifted. “Nothing? At all?”

“Not a word.”

Saying it aloud made him feel even more pathetic, like he’d been sitting in the silence of the last two weeks waiting for it to mean something less humiliating. Dom pushed away from the island and returned to the stove to stir the sauce again.

“Did you reach out to him?” CJ asked.

Dom looked over his shoulder, and he knew the look on his face was answer enough.

CJ gave a slow nod. “Right.”

“What was I supposed to say?”

“I don’t know,” CJ answered. “Maybe start with the part where you didn’t actually want him to leave.”

Dom’s hand stilled. Across the room, Lucia squealed from her swing and kicked both feet, making the toys hanging above her bounce. CJ smiled at her automatically before looking back at Dom.

“Did you want to kiss him?”

Dom stared into the sauce.

“Dom.”

“Yeah,” he admitted quietly.

“Do you regret kissing him?” CJ asked quietly.

“God no.” The answer came so quickly that it caught him off guard, and a smile tugged at his mouth.

Even now, with two weeks to pick apart every second of that night, he couldn’t make himself regret it. He regretted what came afterward. He regretted panicking. He regretted watching Gavin’s expression close off a little more with every apology. But the kiss? Not even a little.

CJ nodded slowly. “Did you regret that Lucia woke up?”

Dom’s smile disappeared. “I will never regret my daughter.”