Gareth looked exhausted. Dark circles ringed his eyes; his hair appeared disheveled though she wondered if it was intentional for the look suited him. He always did have that bad boy charm about him, though this time it did nothing for Riley.

"Gareth, what are you doing here? Everyone's looking for you," she exclaimed.

"I didn't bring my charger, so my phone's dead," Gareth said. "Can I come in?"

Riley stepped aside, and he walked past her and into the apartment. She shut the door behind him and leaned against it. He turned around to face her, and Riley wondered what he wanted to talk about, or if he wanted something else. She became suddenly conscious that she was wearing only a thin T-shirt with matching pajama bottoms and no bra, and hugged her arms defensively to her chest.

"Did Paige tell you what happened?" she asked, hoping that the answer would be in the negative. "Is that why you're here?"

"What about Paige?" he asked, alarmed. "Are the boys all right?"

"Nothing," she said, shaking her head. "The boys are fine. I know about them, Gareth. I know they're yours and not Clint's. I also know that it was Clint who had me moved out of the apartment three years ago, not you nor Paige. He was the one who left me the money."

"I know," Gareth said, frowning. "Collette no longer works for me. I fired her as soon as I found out."

"Did she tell you?"

"I overheard her telling Clint yesterday morning that she'd kept the rest of the money as her babysitting fee. I guess he just found out, too, and had to make sure. She said something about leaving 'Gareth's girlfriend twenty grand,' and I didn't need to hear any more," he said, sighing. "Riley, I honestly had no idea that Clint and Collette were behind all this. If I'd known—" he took a step toward her and stopped. "Could you put on a robe or something? I see that you got your nipples pierced. Looks great, by the way."

Riley glared at him before walking past him and grabbing her robe from the bathroom and slipping it on. It was so like Gareth to say it and probably why she wasn't as horrified as she should have been.

She gestured to him to sit down, choosing to perch on the short part of her L-shaped couch while Gareth sat on the longer side, although they were still close enough for their knees to almost touch. Riley thought how Gareth would have touched her thigh if they had still been together. He was always touching her, just to let her know that he was there. It was one of the things she had missed the most when he'd left, which had driven her to use drugs to numb the empty feeling every night when she went to sleep, and again every morning when she got up. But it had been three years since he'd touched her that way and she had become used to being alone until Ashe had come into her life.

"I'm sorry for everything, Riley," Gareth said. "All this time, I really thought you were fine. You never answered my letters when I was filming Hell's Kingdom. Collette told me that you had already moved out of the apartment by the time she got to New York, and I had no reason not to believe her. Then I got busy with my career, but I should have checked on you. I should have at least called to see-"

"I don't care anymore about what happened between us, Gareth," she said. "What I want to know is why you and Paige did what you did. Two weeks ago, I heard you tell her you loved her. Have you loved her all this time? Was it Paige you really wanted from the beginning? If you came all the way here from Nashville to apologize to me, at the risk of getting fired from your movie, at least, answer me that."

He exhaled and rubbed his temples. "All I wanted to know was why she kicked you out of your apartment, and why she left you that money. I thought it must have been Paige—had to be. That's the only reason I went to see her. I swear, Riley, but even there, even with the best intentions, I fucked up." He cradled his head in his hands. "But then, when have I ever not screwed up?"

"Many times, Gareth, you didn't," Riley murmured. "But you haven't answered my question."

Gareth took a deep breath, his eyes distant. "Do you remember my mom?"

"Of course," Riley replied though she didn't have to tell him what she remembered about the woman. Gareth's mother had worked as a waitress at a nearby restaurant during the day and spent her tip money on cheap tequila shots at a local bar. Sometimes, she went home with a different man a few days a week while Gareth's father dished out his rage on their only son. Some people said she turned tricks.

Yo mama a ho, Gar, they'd say as Gareth and Riley would walk past them and he'd lose his temper and charge them. Gareth always lost to the boys who were taller and bigger than he was, but no matter how many times they beat the crap out of him, he never gave up. He always defended his mother.

Then one day, when he was sixteen and taller than everyone else, with all the girls after him because they thought him a stud for being a one-woman man, he stopped defending his mother and agreed with everyone else that she was a whore. He even said it to Riley, and that was because he'd seen her go down on some stranger in an alley.

They were all right about her, Ri, he had told her. Thank God for you and Paige. You both took after your mom.

Gareth ran his fingers through his hair. "All I wanted when I was growing up was someone to tell me I was worth something. When I couldn't get that from the shithole I called home, I found it at your house. Your mother was the first woman ever to treat me right. She told me once that she wished I was her son." He smiled, not looking at Riley but straight ahead at the old box TV with the built-in VHS player. "God, she made me so proud that day, Ri. Your mother was one classy lady, and I mean it. You take after her. I always wondered why she chose to stay where she was when I heard that she grew up in Manhattan—Upper East Side. That's what my mom said once."

"That was probably just talk," Riley said, watching him trace imaginary circles on the coffee table with his fingers, then little squares and spirals. "Maybe she just went to school there or something."

"Nah, she was classy, that lady," Gareth said. "And I know it's twisted, but that's how I love Paige. Not because she's your sister, but because she's the mother of those boys—my boys. What I did—we did—there's no excuse, and I'm so sorry, Ri. God, I'm so fucking sorry it's not funny. Who screws his girlfriend's sister but an asshole?"

"Gareth—"

"But she's also raising my kids—my boys," Gareth continued. "She's my sons' mother and she loves those kids more than the world itself. She'd do anything for them."

"And she would."

"Those boys are so lucky to have a mother who just loves them, no matter how they came to this world. My mom couldn't even give me the time of day, and she only had one son. Me! Can you imagine if she had had three?" Gareth said, chuckling wryly. "We'd all have been turning tricks, or worse."

"I would have run out of bunk beds," she said, smiling and reaching for his hand if only to stop him from gouging his fingers into the wooden laminate.

Gareth sighed. "I never meant to hurt you, not in a million years. But then, I'm nothing but a selfish prick really. All I do is hurt people, even when it's the last thing I want to do. I know I could never make it up to you, even if I tried, and now, knowing what Collette and Clint did, it seems even worse."

"I'm a big girl now, Gareth," Riley said, squeezing his hand. "You don't have to rescue me anymore."

Gareth studied her, the anguish on his face fading, the lines that creased the skin between his eyebrows softening. How many times had he told her that he'd always be there to save her? He was always some superhero to her—Superman, Batman, Aqua man—and trying to see if he could breathe underwater.

"I'm serious, Gar. I'm all right," she said. "Well, I will be okay. And so will you and everyone else. We'll all get through this royal mess we find ourselves in."

"It still doesn't change the fact that I hurt you, or that every time you look at those boys, it will always hurt you," Gareth said. "They're proof of what Paige and I did. And I don't know what I can do about it."

"The boys can't be blamed for what happened, Gareth," Riley said. "If I did that, I'd be doing the same thing my dad did to me... still does to me because he'll never stop blaming me for mom dying. I can't do that to those kids, and I don't intend to. I mean, I may have thought of abandoning them, but I can't. I'm not perfect in this, but I'm trying to do what's best for the boys."

Tears sprang into Gareth's eyes, but he wiped them away before they had the chance to roll down his face. He tried to speak, but the words refused to come out. Riley's chest tightened then, the memory of him slipping through her bedroom window with a black eye coming back to her. His father was going through one of his moods again.

One day, Ri, we'll move out, and God help us, we'll make it, you and me. I'll always take care of you, babe.

"Everyone's been coddling me since my mother died, you and Paige most of all," Riley continued, her thoughts returning to the present. "And then there was Clint, doing his own thing behind the scenes. But I need to stand on my own two feet now. I need to live my life on my terms. If I'm hurt, then I'll figure out why and deal with it—not with drugs like I did before—but as a responsible adult. I don't need anyone to rescue me anymore." She paused, frowning. "Well, maybe if I'm hanging off a building or something, then I might need someone to rescue me, but otherwise, no."

Gareth chuckled, and Riley glimpsed the gleaming white teeth between his lips, the corners of his mouth creating the dimples that he was known for, dimples that made women and even some men swoon.

"That's where you got it all wrong, you know," Gareth said, his hand reaching toward her, touching her face, stroking her cheek. "All that time, you got it all wrong."

She frowned in puzzlement. "What?"

"You were the one who was always there for me, more than anyone in the world. You were my anchor, and I'm not just saying that to say it, Ri. I mean it. I always knew I had a safe place to go to when things went crazy at home, just like I do now though I doubt someone will agree," he said.

"He'll live."

Gareth squeezed her hand, his eyes boring right into her. "You were my knight in shining armor, Riley. You. They don't just come in M for male, you know."

He dropped his hand and sighed. "But I screwed up. I'm the one who took from you, and I kept taking, even when you were running on empty." Gareth withdrew his hand, pressing the heels of his palms against his eyes before sliding them down so that it was his fingers that wiped away these tears. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed and sniffed, and Riley handed him a tissue.

She took a deep breath, brought her arms around him and held him as he sobbed. Then she pulled away so she could take a box of tissues on the coffee table and hand it to him. His nose had begun to run.

"How did you get here?" she asked. "They're all looking for you. I think they even checked the airlines."

"I drove," replied Gareth, blowing his nose and tossing the tissue into the plastic trashcan she held out to him. "Thirteen fucking hours, Ri. Six states, though don't ask me to name them. I should have flown, but I needed the time to think without anyone telling me to do this or do that, to emote, or to take it one more time from the top. I just needed to get away and go someplace where I remembered feeling safe, and that led me right here."

"Well, you're safe here," Riley said, squeezing his hand.

"Do you want me to call Ashe and tell him where you are? The studio is ready to file a report on you."

"That would be a good idea," he said, leaning back against the couch. "Then I'll be out of here in no time. Sorry if I messed up your day."

"You didn't. If you hadn't come to apologize, I'd have hunted you down," Riley said. "I'm tired of being left in the dark by everyone else. I'm not a baby."

Gareth smiled wistfully. "You never were, Ri. But maybe it made all of us feel bigger when we made you one."

Riley looked at him for a few moments, the meaning of his words sinking in. She nodded and retrieved her phone from her bedside table. Then she took a deep breath and dialed a number.