“What happened?” she asked, wary of the silence now.
“She hit me. Then she tried coddling me, promised she’d never do it again. By that point, she’d broken enough promises for me to know the truth. I was smart enough to walk away.”
“She kept coming at you,” she said, “in other ways.”
“Every way she could,” he said with a grim nod. “Until it wasn’t just her anymore who didn’t know what a happy home was. It was me, too.”
Mavis felt the anger coil into her fingers. She had to take several breaths to empty it out. “Was it her who called you tonight?”
“Yes. That week, before I went to see Thomas, I had a cease-and-desist letter drafted. With some help from Dad and friends of his and mine, we found enough evidence to incriminate her.”
“I can’t imagine she was happy.”
“Livid.”
“Can she find a way around it?” Mavis asked. If she knew anything about Tiffany, it was how tricky the woman was.
“Not on my terms. Not unless she wants to lose everything.”
“She’s already lost everything. She threw all of it away with you.” She’d been paying attention to more than just Gavin’s words. “You’ve won.”
A pause. “Yes.”
He didn’t sound like someone who had. Because Tiffany Howard would always be his mother, Mavis thought, no matter what she was. “You’re wondering why you were never enough,” she said, carefully. “You’re thinking that if you were enough, she would have dialed back the bitterness and the anger, in some small way at least.”
“Maybe.”
“You must know it has nothing to do with who you are and everything to do with who she is? A parent who can use a child the way she used you isn’t a parent at all. The fault, the sickness, lies with her alone. It has nothing to do with you.” Stroking him again, she tweaked her neck until she could see the hardness of his face. “I know who you are. Remember?”
He nodded, once.
“You’re you,” she told him. “That’s enough.”
“For you?”
“For anyone.”
He turned so that his nose grazed her cheek. “And you?”
“Yes,” she whispered, wanting to hold him fast in the dark. “Me.”
“Even if I’m a SEAL with more mommy issues than Carrie?”
“I think poor Carrie’s got you beat.” Pivoting on the bed until her front was pressed to his, she placed her hands on either side of his face. “She’s gone now,” she said. At his nod, she pressed her lips to the scars on his cheek. “You’re still here.” She kissed his other cheek.
His touch rose to her chin, tilting her mouth to his. They kissed in slow, luring increments—until they were both good and lost.
His exhale was ragged as he pulled back enough to press his brow to hers. “Mmm. Since we’re both here…”
She smiled. “Uh-huh?”
“…and we’re pretending that it’s you and me in this room—nobody else?”
“Nobody.”
“What do you say we get on with it?”
“With the birthday sex?” she queried, smug. “Hanky-panky? The celebration of life?”
“All that,” he confirmed.
“Condom?”
He jerked his chin toward the wallet he’d left on the nightstand.
She ranged across him, nabbing the wallet. His hands on her waist pulled her back to him. She straddled his waist, beaming as her navel buffed against his and she found that his excitement was as precipitous and high-reaching as her own. She unfolded the wallet, spied the handy packet hidden in the fold… “Good man,” she crooned.
He took the wallet, tossed it aside before bringing her down to him. “Come ’ere,” he said.
“Last thing.” She tugged the quilt up until it was all the way over their heads. Under the intimate enclosure, she took his kiss and his hands and they both folded into each other until the rest of the world was forgotten.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
MAVIS HAD LEFT Prometheus with her parents again. In the morning after they said goodbye to Zelda and Errol (and Errol’s ghost), Mavis and Gavin stopped at the farm to pick up her dog.
“He likes you sleeping at my place,” Mavis said.
Gavin had spent the drive trying not to watch her. She made it difficult. Her face was bare, her freckles bright, and he didn’t think he’d seen the smile fall from her mouth since they woke.
He feathered his fingers through her hair. There was sterling silver at her ear. He traced the shape of the metal. “I wouldn’t blame him if he wanted you all to himself.”
She glanced at him briefly. “Ditto.” Her lips turned in on themselves as the road drew her attention again. “He’s involved in this just as much as we are.”
Gavin caught her drift. “I don’t plan on things changing for the time being.”
“I could let that slide,” she mused. “Or I could ask what you mean by it exactly.”
“What?”
“‘For the time being,’” she answered. She shrugged. “What does that mean?”
The smile wasn’t lost, but it didn’t have to be for Gavin to know that she was set on this point. “What do you want it to mean?”
“I don’t expect you to commit to us in the long term.”
“No?”
She shook her head. “The long term’s new to you, just like civilian life. I want you to find out who you are. Then decide if you want us to be part of that.”
“You’d wait for me to figure it all out?”
She nodded, reflective.
His hand was braced on the back of her seat. It flexed to touch her. He stopped it. It took some effort but he stopped looking at her. If he looked at her any longer, he wondered if he’d be able to keep himself together.
She parked in her parents’ drive. Neither of them said anything as they got out. He met her around the hood of the car. Before she could start for the house, he took her hand. She stopped and he drew her to him.
He’d nearly drowned as a SEAL candidate during Hell Week. Kissing Mavis was like that. Only in reverse.
Prometheus interrupted, greeting them with an excited yip. They broke apart just in time for the dog to finish his run. He dived at Gavin, then at her. As Mavis took her turn, Gavin’s attention veered to the man near the side of the house where Prometheus had come from.
Kyle stood with his hands on his hips, frowning at the both of them in condemnation. Gavin straightened, planting himself in front of her.
James came around the house, too, saw the stare-down in progress. He proceeded across the drive. “Mavis.”
“Dad,” she said. “I hoped you’d be here. Zelda sent home a ton of shrimp.”
James looked from her to Gavin. “You’re just now getting back from the party?”
At least the older guy looked more curious than hostile. And because Gavin held James in respect, he nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Mavis had retrieved the pot of shrimp from her back seat. “Here,” she said. “I figured Mom could break it up and take it to Flora, split it among Olivia and Briar, too. There’s enough to feed an army.”
“That’s fine, sweetheart,” James said kindly. “Why don’t you take it into the house? Then you and Prometheus can head on home.”
“What do you mean?” Mavis looked to Gavin. “You fixed my canoe. I thought the two of us could take it downriver and try to find the eagle our neighbors say they saw earlier in the week.”
“Later,” James told her. “Right now, I think your man has business to attend to.”
“He does?” Mavis asked, growing defensive when she saw Kyle, too, hovering in the distance.
Gavin squeezed her hand. “It’s all right.”
“You don’t have to stay here with them,” Mavis told
him.
Gavin read James’s expression. Yes, he did. “I’ll get a ride home.”
Mavis frowned at the three of them. “Here,” she said, hefting the pot into her father’s arms. “Take this.” She stepped in front of Gavin, exchanging a silent look with him before she let go of his hand and returned to the driver’s door.
Gavin held the air in his lungs as Mavis drove off. James waited until she’d disappeared down the wooded lane before clapping Gavin on the shoulder and turning him to walk in Kyle’s direction. “Get in the truck, boys. I’ll take this shrimp inside.”
“Why?” Kyle wanted to know.
James answered, “Trust me, son. It’s time we took a drive.”
* * *
JAMES PICKED THE AIRFIELD, Gavin knew, because it was closed on Sunday and it was isolated. He let Kyle drive, Gavin sensed, because he didn’t want the quarrelsome navy boys sitting elbow-to-elbow in the cab of the single-cab pickup with the Bracken-Savitt Aerial label on the side. The crop dusters were tucked inside their hangars and nothing broke the heat of the tarmac until the pickup’s shadow swept across it and came to rest near the end of the first runway.
Kyle got out first. Gavin stepped out next, letting James disembark, too. The three of them came to stand at the back of the truck.
James lowered the bed and made a come-hither motion. “Let’s have ’em.”
Kyle waited a beat, then asked, “What?”
“Your weapons,” James answered. “Any firepower and sharp objects you have on your person; I want it here first.” He knocked on the tailgate.
Gavin hesitated. He saw Kyle do the same. The latter sighed, then reached warily around to the small of his back. He lifted his trusty Colt into the air.
James made the motion again. “Gimme.”
Kyle unracked the pistol before relinquishing it. When James looked to Gavin, he handed him the long blade he kept at his hip.
“Very good.” James placed the weapons in the bed and closed the tailgate with a bang that echoed into empty air. “All right. Here’s the dilemma. You two used to be thick as brothers. For some reason or other, this changed through the years. It’s a shame because our families are close-knit and they’re about to be closer with the wedding next month. But now we’ve got another hang-up on our hands.”
When James stopped, Gavin took the initiative. “That is?”
Kyle answered. “It’s Mavis.”
James nodded. “Mavis.”
“Your problem isn’t your sister,” Gavin told him, resigned. “It’s me. I’m the problem.”
“You don’t understand,” James said, shaking his head. “The short of it is that she’s in love with you.”
Kyle cursed.
Gavin glanced from one man to the other. “How do you figure that?”
James lowered his eyes, solemn. “She’s her mother’s daughter. I’ve spent the last thirty years staring at the same spark in Adrian. There’s no mistakin’ it.” He gauged Gavin’s reaction. “She hasn’t told you.”
He was sweating, his mouth was suddenly parched, and the heat had nothing to do with either. He shook his head.
James nodded. “I won’t ask how you feel in return. Hell, I won’t even ask what your intentions are. I saw enough to know you’re here for her, temporarily or not. What I will say is that whatever’s going on between you and Mavis has little chance of survival if the two of you—” he pointed between them “—keep feuding. You may not think so. She may not, either. But nobody can get away from the fact that we’re all in each other’s pockets. And I don’t think any of us are going anywhere for the time being. Mavis looks happy. I’d like her to stay that way. So…” He gestured them toward one another. “Let’s do this.”
“Do what exactly?” Kyle demanded.
“Well, that’s up to you,” James decided. “You want to talk it out, talk. You want to fight it out, fight. I’ll be the ref. Just get it done.” He checked his watch. “There’s shrimp at the house and I want to be back before lunch.”
“You’ll stand there and let us punch it out?” Kyle asked, surprised.
“If you must,” James said with a shrug. “You want rules, here they are. No killing each other. That definitely wouldn’t make Mavis happy. No firing, no stabbing… That’s why I have these.” He patted the tailgate. “No eye-gouging. And no broken bones.”
Gavin waited for Kyle to move. The man just frowned at him. “Are we doing this or…?”
“Depends,” Kyle said. “Did you sleep with her?”
Gavin raised a brow. “Little bit, yeah.”
The tension shuttered between them. The air took on the consistency of gunpowder. Kyle’s death stare was enough to light it. “How long?” he wanted to know.
Gavin almost smiled. “You know that night with all of us at the tavern?”
“Since then,” Kyle said, not questioning. Challenging.
“Since then,” Gavin confirmed.
Kyle lips firmed together. “Why?”
“What?”
“Why her?” he wanted to know. “Why did it have to be Mavis?”
Gavin measured him closely. “If you think it’s to punish you in some way, you’re wrong.”
“No?”
“It’s got nothing to do with you,” Gavin told him. “Or Harmony. Or anybody else. It’s real. It’s ours. And there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.”
“Until you take a hike, you mean?” Kyle ventured. “Until you leave her, and then me and Dad and the rest of us have to mop up the mess you made? You did it to your parents. You’ve done it to Harmony and Bea. You’ve made it clear time and again that you’re not tied here. No matter how many times I try to drag you back, you get one whiff of responsibility and you leave.”
“Responsibility.” Gavin ran his tongue over his teeth. “That’s what you think I’m afraid of.”
“It’s the same with women,” Kyle said, unabashed. “Things get serious, you hit the trail. They’re lucky if you call them beforehand to let them know you’re leavin’.”
Gavin set his teeth. “You’re a better monkey on a gun than you are at running your mouth.”
“Now it’s Mavis,” Kyle argued. “Mavis. Before a few weeks ago, there wasn’t much you wanted to do in that department other than trade barbs.”
“Things change,” Gavin said. “Roll with the punches.”
“That’s hard, not knowing when you might swing wide and hit her.”
Bastard. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“The dog gnaws at the leash when he isn’t freed fast enough to suit him.”
“Keep talking,” Gavin muttered. “I’m curious as to whether I could take you still or not.”
“You want a rematch, you tell me, boo. I’ll let you take first shot.”
“I call her Frexy.”
“What?” Kyle spat.
“Frexy,” Gavin said, slower. “It’s a mash-up. Between Freckles and Sexy.”
Kyle barked a laugh that had nothing to do with mirth and everything to do with intention.
“Her ass is as plush as her mouth,” Gavin detailed. “I make a fine study of it, every chance I get.”
Kyle had stopped laughing.
Gavin pushed some more because, somehow, it wasn’t enough. “I’m thinking of having a mold done. It’s that good. And the noises she makes… Christ. Like an alley cat in he—”
Kyle came at him. Gavin raised his hands in fighter’s stance. “Come on. You know you want it.”
Kyle leaned into it, landing a fist in the face.
Gavin saw stars. He reeled. Ow. He managed to keep his feet. Shaking his head clear, he reacquainted himself with the version of pain he’d always responded to best. Dancing back on his heels, he rolled his head on his shoulders. He was feeling springy, light on his toes
. “Been saving that?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.” Kyle came at him again.
Gavin opened up his senses. He felt more in tune with them. Maybe it was the chance at action. Like old times. He bent backward, letting the blow whistle in front of his nose. As the momentum took Kyle forward, Gavin circled around on his hips, planted his feet and tackled.
The tarmac didn’t absorb either of them as Gavin took Kyle down. With a deft kick to the legs, Kyle flipped Gavin over his head. The somersault disoriented him for a hair’s second. Long enough for Kyle to launch himself at him, switching things up. Gavin found himself pinned under Kyle’s heavy torso, the shadow of an arm arcing over his head. He braced for the second jab.
“Don’t go for the nose,” James called from a distance. “You break it, it’s your ass, son.”
The fist hit Gavin in the jaw. “Ah! Son of a bitch!” He gritted his teeth, tasted blood. His voice grated from his chest. He brought his knee up, going for a low blow.
Kyle crumbled. “Ah. Harmony’s going to kill you,” he said.
A sinkhole opened up inside Gavin, wide and treacherous. The pit ached and he realized how much he missed what had been. He missed when friendship had been as natural between them as breathing. Before the world took too much. “You always were a sucker,” Gavin informed him, throwing him off. He spat blood on the tarmac.
“You’re still an asshole.” Kyle heaved himself slowly to his feet. For a second, he wasn’t steady. That was something, at least.
James asked, “Y’all done already?”
Kyle shook his head, braced his hands on his hips. “You still haven’t told me. What it is about her? Why’re you willing to change for her of all people?”
It was simple, Gavin realized. He spread his arms. “I choose her. Just like I choose this place. Because I’m free to do so.”
“What was stopping you before?” Kyle was almost at a bellow. His frustration at its peak. “When it was your parents. When it was your sister. What the hell was stopping you then?”
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