Really, they were grasping at straws. Layne let them grasp.
What was she going to say? When I almost died in the barn, this guy saved my life . . .
The pillow was pulled away from her face, and her mother’s heavily made up face smiled down at her through a cloud of some expensive perfume. “Oh, Laynie, I wish you’d told me.
Once we finish with this mess” she waved a manicured hand to indicate the treatment room “we can go to the mall. I saw the cutest dress the other day and thought, If only Layne didn’t have ”
Layne sat up. The oxygen tube strung around her face pulled tight, but she didn’t care. “No.”
Her mother blinked. “No?”
“No. I like the way I dress. And it’s too late to play mom.”
More of the confused stare. “It’s too late to play ”
“You heard me!” Layne snapped. “I get straight As, and you don’t give a crap. I take care of Simon, and you don’t give a crap. I spent the last ten years trying to get your approval, and you didn’t give a crap. Now that I’m perfect, you want to play mom. Well, I’m not playing. I want you to leave.”
“Layne, I am your mother ”
“Too late.” Layne cut a glance at her father. “Can you make her leave?”
“I can’t make your mother do much of anything.”
Her mother folded her arms. “Layne, I am not listening to this ”
“Go,” Layne hissed. “Or I’m asking the nurse to call a social worker. And I’m going to tell them all about how you ran off with some guy from the country club, and how you don’t show up for visitations, and how you ”
“Layne!”
Layne jerked the oxygen tube away from her face. “Go. Or I will. How will that look to all your perfect friends?”
Her mother staggered back, her mouth working but no sound coming out.
Then she turned on her designer heels and walked out of the room.
Layne squinched her eyes shut and told herself not to cry.
She felt her father step in front of her. “I won’t ask if you’re okay,” he said.
She opened her eyes. He was looking right at her, no sign of his iPhone.
“You can ask,” she said, “because I am now.”
Then she leaned forward to give him a hug.
CHAPTER 43
School was closed for the week.
It didn’t stop Gabriel from waking at five the next morning.
He wandered into the kitchen and flipped on the dim light over the sink, rinsing the coffee carafe to start a new pot. Then he found a package of chocolate chip cookies in the cabinet and dropped into a chair at the table.
A purse had been left on one of the other chairs, and Gabriel raised his eyebrows. Quinn or Becca had spent the night.
His brothers sure were getting daring.
Or maybe Michael was getting more lax.
It made Gabriel think of Layne.
He missed her.
Light footsteps crept down the hallway, and Gabriel grinned, wondering which girl he was going to catch doing the walk of shame.
When Hannah tiptoed into the kitchen with wet hair and wearing an oversized T-shirt with jeans, he almost choked on a cookie.
“Damn,” she whispered, her cheeks pink, but a rueful smile on her lips. “I knew it was a mistake to leave my purse down here. Nick or Gabriel?”
“Gabriel.” He pushed the cookies across the table. “Have a cookie. Is that my brother’s shirt?”
Her cheeks turned redder and she grabbed her bag. “I think that’s my cue to leave.”
“Nah. Stay.” Gabriel gestured at the counter. “I just made coffee. You want a cup? Where’s Michael?”
She hesitated, then eased into a chair. “He’s in the shower.”
She paused. “Look, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea ”
“Don’t worry, I already have.” Gabriel pulled three mugs down from the cabinet. “How do you take it?”
“With an obscene amount of milk and sugar.”
Déjà vu hit him in the chest, and he hesitated before pouring.
“Me too.” Then he joined her at the table.
She wrapped her hands around the cup and took a sip, just as Michael came through the doorway. Wet hair, clean shaven.
He stopped short upon seeing Gabriel. “I thought you’d be out for a run.”
“Hey, Mike,” he said innocently. “I thought girls weren’t allowed to spend the night?”
“Watch it.”
“At least you’re not wearing her shirt.”
“I think that’s enough.”
Gabriel opened his mouth to fire back, but then Michael stepped up to the table, ducked his head, and kissed Hannah on the cheek.
With enough tenderness that Gabriel didn’t want to mock it.
Just checking up on the investigation, my ass, he thought.
He looked away. “I’m going out in a bit, so you two can have the house to yourselves.” Then he smiled. “Except for Nick.And Chris.”
“I’ve got to be at work at seven-thirty,” said Hannah. “So I won’t be here long.” Then she jumped and pulled a vibrating cell phone out of her pocket. “It’s my folks, so I’ve got to take this . . .”
But she was already walking down the hallway and stepping out the front door.
Michael turned from the counter with a cup of coffee in hand. “Don’t start,” he said to Gabriel.
“I didn’t say anything. I’m just glad you weren’t jerking her around.” Gabriel paused. “So I guess you don’t have too much baggage after all?”
Michael gave him a look. “Trust me. I do.” He sat down at the table. “She just has enough to match.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means she has a five-year-old son.”
Gabriel went still. “Holy crap.”
“So we’re taking things really slowly.”
“Looks like it.”
This was quite possibly the first time Gabriel had ever seen his older brother blush. “It was late. She slept here. We did not ”
Michael broke off. “I don’t really think I need to explain myself to you.”
Gabriel smiled and took a sip of coffee. “No, no, I’m enjoy-ing this.”
Michael ran a hand through his hair. “Not like it matters when I don’t even know what the next few days will hold. You said you think this Calla girl is going to keep setting fires?”
“Yeah. I do.”
The front door opened again, and Hannah whisper-shouted down the hallway. “Gabriel, someone is here to see you.”
Michael raised his eyebrows. “It’s five o’clock in the morning.”
“Don’t look at me.” Gabriel walked down the hallway and out onto the front porch while Hannah walked back inside.
Layne stood there, in black yoga pants and tennis shoes, with a turquoise hoodie and her hair in a ponytail. Her face was flushed, her eyes shining in the porch light, tendrils of hair stuck to her forehead.
“When you said four miles,” she said, “you weren’t freaking kidding.”
“You ran here?” he said. “In the dark?”
“Only the first two miles. Then I was dying.” She shrugged a little. “I walked the rest. I’m sure I’m a mess.”
“No,” he said, feeling a bit dazed at finding her there. “You’re beautiful.”
“I’m sorry I just showed up,” she said, looking shy. “I knew you’d be awake, and I need to ask you ”
“Ask me later,” he said. And he kissed her.
CHAPTER 44
Layne’s legs were ready to give out, but she didn’t mind.
Because Gabriel was walking her home.
“I should have driven you,” he said, shaking his head. “This is nuts.”
“This takes longer.”
“Good point,” he said, catching her waist in his hands and kissing her again.
And her back was against a tree and her fingers were tangled in his hair and she was forgetting what she’d even come to talk about in the first place.
But then his fingers slid under the hoodie.
She caught his wrists, and he drew back, his eyes dark in the early morning light.
“Are you still worried about your scars?” he said gently.
“You know I think you’re ”
“Wait.” She blinked up at him in surprise. “You don’t know?”
“I don’t know what?”
She took his hand and slid it under her shirt. “My scars are gone.”
His hand went still against her skin. “How?”
She gave a little laugh. “You tell me. They disappeared after the barn fire.”
His fingers drifted higher, skimming along her rib cage. “All of them?”
“Yes, all of ” She gasped as his thumb went under the edge of her bra, then playfully smacked him. “Hey!”
“Sorry.” He kissed her again. “Thought I should check thoroughly.”
Then he pulled back. “We should walk. I don’t want to get you in trouble. Your father hates me.”
“Oh, you’ve saved my life twice now. I think he might give you the time of day.”
“Really?”
She shrugged a little, smiling up at him. “Maybe. Give it time.”
Then she sobered. “But I want to know. About you.”
He sighed, then bent to pick up a dead leaf from the path. He spun it by its stem. “Truth?”
She nodded.
The leaf sizzled and flared to life, catching flame that sparked light across his cheeks.
“Let’s walk,” he said. “And I’ll tell you everything.”