brows. He smiled at both women’s expressions. He then directed his next statement to Layla. “Since we’re going to see the same movie, is there any reason we can’t go together?”
Gavin was certain there was but he knew Layla wouldn’t call him out on it in front of his grandmother. When she didn’t say anything he leaned closer to ask, “Well, is there?”
As if recovering from her initial shock, she opened her mouth, probably to say something that would blister his ear. Then she quickly closed it, seeming to remember that his grandmother was standing there, listening to their exchange.
“No, there’s no reason,” she said. “I’m just surprised you would want to see a chick flick. I took you for a blood-and-guts sort of guy.”
He shook his head. “As a SEAL, I see too much of that in real life. A chick flick should be interesting. Besides, I like Julia Roberts.”
“In that case, I see no reason why we can’t go together,” she said.
Although she’d tried to sound cheerful about it, he knew she wasn’t. Was that her teeth he heard grinding? “Great. We can go in my truck. I just need to grab my Stetson and jacket.”
* * *
“I enjoyed the movie, didn’t you?”
Layla had pretty much given him the silent treatment since leaving the Silver Spurs earlier but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact he seemed amused by it. “Yes, I enjoyed it.”
She probably would have enjoyed it even more had he not been there to cloud her concentration. It had been hard to focus on the huge movie screen with a sexy man sitting beside her.
“When are you going to stop acting childish, Layla?”
She glanced over at him. “Childish? You think I’m acting childish when you told me last night that we won’t kiss again unless sex is part of the mix?”
“Yes, that’s what I said and I meant it.”
“Well, sorry if you think I’m acting childish but I’m the one acting more adult than you. All you can think about is—”
“Making love to you.”
She swallowed, seeing a picture of that very thing in her mind. “Yes.”
“Can’t help it. You do things to me, Layla.”
When she was honest with herself, she could admit that he did things to her, as well. But she would never admit it to him. He was just like all the other men she’d known, which is why she’d sworn off relationships. All men wanted of a woman was a roll between the sheets. She wanted more from life; she had a career to build. Men and sex only got in the way of her goals.
She glanced over at him. “You were an only child, right?”
“Yes, as far as I know.”
When she looked at him in surprise he added, “My mother deserted us when I was eight and never came back. For all I know, she could have married and had more kids by now.”
Layla nodded. “She and your dad got a divorce?”
“No, but she might have changed her name and started over. Who knows?”
Layla didn’t say anything for a moment. “You’ve never tried to find her?”
“No.”
“Not even when your father was killed in the war?”
His jaw tightened. “Especially not then. If she didn’t return to see him while he was living, I sure as hell didn’t plan to give her the opportunity to see him dead,” he said in a biting tone. “Dad always believed she would come back to us. Even said he understood her need to get away. After all, he’d talked her into coming to Cornerstone.”
“Where was she from?”
“New York. Manhattan. They met while he was on military business at the United Nations. They’d only known each other a week when they married. They met one night at a restaurant, a month after her only family, an aunt, died.”
“So when they met, she had no living family?”
“No.”
He didn’t say anything else for a long moment, and then he added, “According to Dad she lasted out here longer than he expected her to. She tried being a good wife, and I remember her being a good mom. Dad placed a lot of blame on himself since he had to carry out a lot of missions, leaving her here with Gramma Mel and Grampa Gavin. And when I came along a year later, he thought she’d adjusted.”
“But she hadn’t?”
“Evidently not. One day she up and left. She told my grandparents she needed to get away for a while and asked them to watch me. She said she’d be back before Dad returned from his overseas tour. Then she got in her car— the one Dad bought for her—and drove off.”
“And she never came back?”
He shook his head. “No, she never came back. Months later, when Dad returned home and found her gone, he was heartbroken. She left him a note saying she would come back. But she never did.”
“And after all this time, you’ve never tried finding her?”
“No. She decided she didn’t want me or Dad in her life.”
* * *
Gavin inwardly admitted that more than once he had thought about locating his mother, if for no other reason than to ask her why she never came back. One of his former SEAL teammates, Nick Stover, worked for Homeland Security. All Gavin had to do was give Nick her name and there was no doubt in his mind that Nick would tell Gavin her whereabouts. A part of him knew the main reason he hadn’t done so was his fear of what he would find out. What if his mother had never wanted him or loved his dad? At times it was easier to do what his father had done and believe the best...even if it was a fairy tale.
He drew in a deep breath. Why had he shared any of that with Layla when he’d never shared it with a woman before? For some reason, when she’d asked if he was an only child, the floodgates had opened. Emotions he usually kept locked inside had come pouring out.
“Any other family besides Ms. Melody? What about aunts, uncles or cousins?”
He figured she was asking for conversational purposes only, so he obliged her. “My grandmother has a younger sister living in Saint Louis. Her only grandson, Benjamin, and I are close. We’re more like brothers than cousins. He spent a lot of his summers here. Ben’s a year older and in the Marines. Right now he’s stationed in Afghanistan, and we’re hoping he’ll be home for the holidays.”
He glanced over at her. “What about you? Any cousins?”
She shook her head. “No. My grandparents didn’t have any siblings and they had one child. I never knew my mother’s parents. They died in a boating accident when she was in her teens.”
He said nothing as he drove. They were ten minutes from his home and although there had been
