“Good God.” He felt like he’d just finished running the Boston Marathon.How did she do it? How the hell did she do all that every day, and probably a lot more? But justthe dinner, the squabbles, the mess, the sheer volume of stuff that needed to be remembered, done,handled with three kids. It was mentally and physically exhausting.Fun, he admitted, but exhausting.And she’d have to get up in the morning, get them up, dressed, fed. Then go to work. Afterwork, she’d replay—basically—what he’d just done. And with all that, she still had to maintain the houseand run a business.Did women have superpowers?Regardless, he was sending his mother flowers in the morning.”

“But his eyes say what he can’t. I see it, clear as day, even if she doesn’t. He’d give up his wings for her. All she’d have to do is ask.”

“She’d fucked him over hardcore. She’d betrayed him and she’d lied to him, and she knew that as far as he was concerned she’d led him on and used him as well, had consorted with people who wanted to see him dead and given them information to help them make him so. Most of all, she’d hurt him. And if the pain in her chest was anything close to what he’d felt, she was more than willing to admit he deserved to get his own back. Was willing to do more than admit it; was willing to take it, in the hopes he’d eventually decide she’d been punished enough and they could maybe move on.”

“God, the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life was giving up what he wanted so that the woman heloved could get what she needed.”

“Theo felt a lump in his throat, what the hell was all this emotion about? Gods did women feel like this all of the time, how the hell did they get anything done?”

“All he knew was that she was beautiful...and that, somehow, despite everything he’d done to try to stop it from happening, she’d managed to steal his heart one sassy smile at a time.”