"Great."

"Why don't we step inside where it's cooler?"

Normally he wouldn't have minded. Today he would rather face a SCUD missile. "Mom, sorry I can't visit right now. I've got to run in and grab a, uh, reference book," lame, pal, "and head straight back out to see a patient."

"Oh, too bad." She smoothed wrinkles from her dress, a grandma charm bracelet chiming with each swipe. "I was hoping we could have an early supper together."

"Soon, Mom." He draped an arm around her shoulder and tucked her to his side protectively. With genuine affection, familiar and welcome between them, he dropped a kiss on her head, almost level with his, since she wore her standard heels even for shopping. "I promise."

"And you'll come up to the condo to see your father before your family farewell party?"

Ah, dishing up guilt. "Sure, Mom."

She rewarded him with her smile. "Good. I'll just get a quick gla.s.s of milk before I go. The traffic wreaked havoc on my nerves, and my stomach is simply churning."

Her stomach would be served up one hefty surprise if she walked in on Lori wearing nothing but that paper-thin T-shirt and no bra. He needed to protect his mom and Lori- h.e.l.l, maybe even himself. He scrambled for a solution and came up with, "Waffle House."

"What?"

"Let me take you to Waffle House for supper."

"I thought you had to go?"

He glanced at his watch and wrestled with the need to make sure Lori didn't leave, but also to divert his mother. No choice really. He had to keep his mother out of the apartment. If Lori was still inside, she would be embarra.s.sed if not horrified, to see them. The hospital trip to visit Magda already promised to be difficult enough without tossing this into the mix. "I can always spare an hour for my favorite mom."

"What a sweet boy." She reached for her keys. "I'll just lock my car."

"No! Uh, we should take both cars so I can leave straight for the hospital."

"And your book?"

He went blank. Just like a kid caught sneaking into the house, he couldn't concoct a single excuse. All he could do was stare out over the parking lot for ideas, not that the yellow cab pulling up offered much in the way of inspiration.

The taxi inched along, closer and closer. Horror knifed through Gray. That cab couldn't be going to- "Mom, never mind." He shut his mother's door.

"You're right. Let's go together. I'll drive. Come on."

"Oh, okay."

The cab stopped in front of Gray's apartment. Surprise held him motionless for three precious seconds. Lori really intended to walk out on him a second time. Did he even warrant a note from her this go-round? Or did she just plan to slip away without a word again?

Useless anger chugged through him. He resisted the urge to charge over to the cab and confront her. Like that would accomplish anything productive with his mom as an audience.

He all but towed his mother to the Explorer. The driver honked his horn. Gray's mother glanced back over her shoulder just as Lori's gorgeous khaki-clad legs stepped through the apartment door. The afternoon sun caught her full in the face as she clutched the shorts and T-shirt to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

His b.u.t.t was officially toast. There wasn't a chance his mom would let Lori get in that taxi without pumping her for information first. He couldn't have been more busted if Lori had strolled out the door wearing his boxers.

Chapter 6.

Lori's feet grew roots in the sidewalk outside Gray's apartment. She couldn't move. Gray stalked toward her cab with his jaw set.

So much for her great escape. At least she could face him in clean clothes and underwear this time. She clutched the shorts and T-shirt closer to her chest like armor.

She forced her feet to trudge forward and plastered on a smile, weak at best. "Hi."

He ignored her and tapped on the driver's window. The window rolled down as Gray pulled out his wallet. He pa.s.sed a twenty inside. "Thanks for coming out, but she doesn't need a ride now."

"I don't?" Lori said, more than a little miffed at his high-handedness and more than a little unsettled by his closeness.

"Sorry I'm late." He gripped her elbow and stepped away from the car.

But he was only a few minutes late, and they both knew it. He had to realize she'd called for the ride at least an hour ago. Why the pretense that she hadn't been running like a coward?

Her answer strolled over in neat heels and a tidy sun-dress. Gray's mother.

Lori clutched the incriminating clothes closer to her chest. "h.e.l.lo, Angela."

Undisguised curiosity glinted from Angela Clark's eyes as she closed the last few feet between them. Her gray-blond hair, short and smoothly styled, glinted in the sunlight. Her yellow cotton dress glided cleanly across her figure, a few pounds past slim but well preserved for a mother of three adult children.

Her hair, the dress, her smile all made Lori think of sunshine. Angela Clark radiated energy. The older woman clasped Lori's hands in hers, staring for five a.s.sessing seconds before she said, "It's good to see you again." Air escaped Lori's lungs in a relieved sigh. Thank goodness Angela didn't plan to chew her out for dumping her precious baby boy. "You, too, Angela."

"Grayson, quit scowling and take us inside where it's cool."

Scowling? Gray? He always smiled.

Lori turned and, sure enough, Gray's face sported a tight-lipped frown. He couldn't be mad at his mother, so the feelings must be directed at her. She followed his glare straight to the disappearing cab.

Gray couldn't care that she planned to leave, could he? The thought was crazy-and frighteningly exciting.

With no hope of alternative escape, Lori followed Mrs. Clark to the apartment. She had no choice but to make nice with Gray's mom and her son-a son who looked too good in that flight suit for Lori's currently shaky peace of mind. Gray stepped ahead to unlock the door.

Inside the apartment Angela accepted a gla.s.s of milk from Gray and drank down a third before slowing to smaller sips. She reigned from a recliner, leaving Lori and Gray to sit on the sofa together or stand around awkwardly. They sat, awkward all the same.

"So?" Angela sipped her milk, eyes skipping back and forth between Gray and Lori. "Is there something you two want to share with me?"

"Mom, shut down the matchmaking. Lori worked with us on that rescue operation we flew yesterday. The hours were long. She crashed here, in the guest room, rather than go all the way back into town. I'm about to take her home."

"Well, that's just a shame. I was hoping the two of you worked things out."

Silence echoed all the way to the vaulted ceiling. Hands shaking, Lori placed the little bundle of clothes on the couch. How ironic to have the perfect, accepting mother-in-law, but no husband. Lori wanted off the sofa, out of the living room, out of the whole uncomfortable situation.

"Angela, thank you. I'm complimented. But what Gray said is true. There's nothing going on. We're just ... old friends."

Friends. Gray winced. He wanted to grab Lori by the shoulders and demand she at least be honest. They'd been a h.e.l.l of a lot more than friends. Of course even friends treated each other better than he and Lori had. He turned to her. "Would you mind if I talked to my mother alone for a minute?"

"Of course not I, uh, could use a drink myself," Lori said, looking grateful for the excuse to escape as she backed into the kitchen.

Perched on the edge of her chair, Angela swallowed the rest of her milk. Her hand clenched around the gla.s.s, chewed-down nails turning white.

Familiar frustration welled in Gray. His mom knocked herself out worrying about her family, all the while pretending everything was normal. He couldn't do a d.a.m.n thing about it except try to keep the peace and hope like h.e.l.l her stomach didn't resemble Swiss cheese.

He needed to divert her before she invested more of her overtaxed energy into fairy-tale dreams of paper bridal bells. "Mom, put away the wedding planner. There's really nothing going on here."

Angela set aside her gla.s.s and swiped a pinky around her mouth. "Too bad Lori didn't get pregnant last summer, then you would have had to grow up and ask her to marry you."

"Mom!" Gray choked on a gulp of air and shock. He could have used some of that milk for his burning stomach.

She patted his face, the seven charms on her grandma bracelet tinkling. "It's okay, son. I know you have s.e.x."

Horrified, Gray stood. Mothers did not discuss s.e.x, not with him, anyway. "Okay, this conversation is over. Mom, I love you, and I owe you a trip to Waffle House. But we really have to leave for the hospital."

"The hospital? I thought you were taking Lori home."

Uh-oh. He shuffled like a busted teenager. "We're, uh, going to check in on a patient from the airlift."

"Patient? I thought you were evacuating-" her face was wreathed in a smile she'd pa.s.sed along to her son "-children."

She cradled her bracelet to her heart as if already selecting a spot for the next little golden grandbaby charm.

Angela rose with the speed and fluidity of an Olympic gymnast. "Well, let me get out of your way, then."

She pressed a quick kiss to her son's cheek and cleaned the lipstick away with her thumb. "Bring Lori to your farewell party. Your friends are always welcome."

The door closed behind Angela with a resounding click.

Gray crooked his knee forward, favoring his injured leg, and jangled his keys in his hand. He stared at the door and didn't even bother chasing his mother down. She thought it was all so simple. Pretend to be happy and it became true. His family was just like the picture he kept by his desk. Full of paper-thin smiles with nothing underneath.

He would plaster one on to get through the afternoon with Lori, and hopefully find an answer to cutting ties, cleanly this time.

She deserved substantial emotions. After a lifetime of hiding his in order to face the world with a smile, Gray wasn't sure he had much substance left.

*** Lori stared out the Explorer window, Gray's voice filling the car as he sang along with the radio. Country today. The man had eclectic tastes and always knew all the words.

Nerves pattered double time as she wondered what she would find when they saw Magda. Couldn't he speed up?

Sometimes she wanted to shake him until he took life seriously. Other times she found his lightheartedness a welcome relief. After his mother's visit, they could both use a breather.

Time to get her head back in tune with her professional responsibilities. Magda needed a home, and Lori wasn't about to let Gray's appeal distract her from doing her best for that little girl.

Charleston came into view as they crossed the Ashley River. Hints of muggy marshland wafted in through the vents. The whole town carried the scent of humidity and history. Time-weathered steeples rose above the skyline from St. Philip's, St. Michael's, and other churches, earning Charleston its second name, the Holy City. Gray's mother had likely already booked a wedding date for them in one of those hallowed historical landmarks.

Lori tore her gaze away. A castle-like turret jutted into view from the Citadel, Gray's military college alma mater.

Sheesh, did she have to relate everything she saw to the man belting out bar tunes beside her?

All the same, she owed him an explanation. "About the cab-"

"Forget it," he said as they pa.s.sed a restaurant on stilts by the Low Country's bog, the site of their second date.

"No. I won't. It just seemed ... safer to meet at the hospital."

His knuckles whitened around the steering wheel. "What? You can't even sit in the same car with me for a few minutes?"

"Gray?" Water lapped high along the sh.o.r.e. Moonlit walk. Their third date.

"Forget it."

Anger snipped her already ragged emotions. What had happened to Doctor Lighthearted? "I don't understand. It's not like we're some kind of couple. I don't have to answer to you."

"Nope. We're not, and you don't."

She couldn't resist asking, "Then why are your shorts in a knot?"

His grip slackened, and he hooked his wrist over the steering wheel. "I don't know."

Her anger deflated. She could always count on Gray's honesty. He never kept his feelings from her, and if she didn't like them, well, at least she wasn't in the dark. "You don't know?"

"Nope." He shook his head slowly. "I just know when that cab stopped in front of my door, I was so mad at you I forgot my mother was three seconds away from walking into a d.a.m.ned embarra.s.sing situation."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

They pa.s.sed her favorite hole-in-the-wall deli, their last date. "I hurt your feelings?"

Gray winced. "Well, I wouldn't put it that way."

"How would you put it?"

Pulling into the doctors' parking lot, he left the car running, air conditioner blasting. His face tipped to the sky, his brows meeting. Sunlight streamed over the strong planes of his lean face, his broad forehead and square jaw. Lori didn't realize she was holding her breath until her vision dotted with dizziness. Why was his answer so important?

His gaze slid to meet hers. "I understand you have to go. Just show me the courtesy of saying goodbye first this time, okay?"

Guilt pinched her breathing like a too-tight seat belt. Why hadn't she realized today echoed the past, how she'd left him, with no note, no goodbye?

How unlike her, too. She was seasoned in farewells. Why hadn't she given him something she'd perfected through countless childhood moves?

She should have known a vagabond like Gray would appreciate an appropriate goodbye as much as her gypsy parents did. People like them could turn off relationships as easily as they stamped their pa.s.sports as long as farewells were exchanged.

Throat closing off, she nodded. "Okay."

After a curt nod, he reached into the back seat. His broad chest brushed her arm, and it was all she could do not to wrap her arms around him and apologize. Regardless of how their relationship had ended, no matter that she needed peace and he craved adventure, she respected this man and for the first time realized he had been hurt, too.