“He could have changed inside. Maybe taken clothes from someone there?”
“Sure.” Gavin considered it but dismissed it. “Lead the witness all you want, Counselor, but even with my head addled, I’d swear they were two different people.”
The small tease was enough to draw a smile out of her, and Gavin had the overwhelming desire to kiss her again. But he held back, also fascinated to see how she worked the puzzle with him. Because while he might prefer kissing her, the increasing sense they had a ticking clock over their heads had become evident with the panicked gunman abandoning his car and making a run through the streets of Brooklyn.
“So you think they’re partners, then?” Sera finally said, aligning to his belief there were two perps.
“‘Partner’ suggests some sort of collaboration. Not one leaving the other for dead.”
“It’s an oldie but goodie for a reason. There’s minimal, if any, honor among thieves.”
“Maybe, but—”
He broke off at the high-pitched wail echoing from the hallway, before a very recognizable figure burst into his room.
“Gavin! My baby!” She kept moving, heading straight for the bed where Sera sat beside him, her hands still firmly in his.
He could already feel Sera trying to pull away and off the bed, but he hung on tight. There was no way he was facing this new threat alone.
“The nurse said your wife was with you! Wife! What wife, I said!”
Gavin knew his head wasn’t functioning at optimal capacity, and the headache he’d diligently ignored was equally unprepared for the shrieks that hit his skull like the repeated stab of an ice pick.
But pushing it all aside, Gavin still recognized he had a duty. And if he ever hoped to have sex with Sera Forte again, he’d best get to it.
“Mother. Let me introduce you to Sera.”
Sera had always recognized that if she were lucky enough to find someone to be in a long-term relationship with, they were going to come with parents. Her personal circumstance—basically orphaned by her early teens—wasn’t the norm, and most individuals in the dating pool still had at minimum one parent. It was the reality of modern life, and she was happy for it. She’d even dated a guy a few years back who had both parents, two stepparents and three other former stepparents, all of whom had remained in his life.
That one had been...a lot. A sweet sort of a lot, but somewhat overwhelming all the same.
But even that expansive set of parental figures hadn’t prepared her for Evelyn Hayes.
Gavin had determinedly hung on to her hands, but the moment his grip loosened as his mother crossed the room, Sera took her shot and slipped away, getting off the bed. How awkward would it be to meet his mother practically draped over her son?
It was awkward enough the rumor of his “marriage” had reached her before anyone had the chance to do damage control.
Although Sera stepped away from the bed, she didn’t go far. It was time to see this through and explain how the hospital staff had come to call her Gavin’s wife. Wasn’t that what she’d vowed to herself a short while ago, awaiting details in the waiting room with the others? That she wanted her child to know their grandmother? To have a family to lean on and depend on?
“Mrs. Hayes?” Sera addressed the woman, oddly aware she’d been addressed similarly not that long ago.
Evelyn Hayes turned from her son, her face settled in soft, albeit confused, lines.
“I’m Sera.”
“Mom, I’m sorry that the two of you are meeting under these circumstances, but Sera’s someone very special to me.”
“Your wife?”
Although she couldn’t be entirely sure, the question sounded more intrigued and excited than angry or upset, and Sera wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.
Gavin, however, seemed far less confused. “No.” Gavin smiled as Sera fought the grimace. “There was, ah, some miscommunication with the nurse’s station about that.”
“I see.”
Again, Sera searched for something dismissive in the woman, but she was fast catching on that Evelyn Hayes had a bit more fortitude than her initial shrieks entering Gavin’s room might suggest. A point she proved as she turned toward Sera and extended her arms for a hug. “I’m Gavin’s mom, Evelyn. It’s lovely to meet you, dear.”
Sera went into those open arms, shocked to realize just how badly she needed the hug. And how worried she’d been about this meeting. “It’s so nice to meet you, too.”
Evelyn squeezed her once more before pulling back. “Now. Why don’t you two tell me what’s going on here? Because you might not be married, but I’m a woman of a certain age who has had plenty of years to read any number of signs as well as social cues.”
“Mom—”
Evelyn waved a hand at Gavin, ignoring the urgency in his tone. “Hush. It’s not every day a woman’s son is nearly blown to bits by a bomb, and she finds out she’s going to be a grandmother. I’d much rather focus on the latter so I don’t fall to pieces over the former.”
“How’d... I mean, how do you know I’m pregnant?”
“A mother knows, dear. And since this will be my first grandchild, I can’t say I’m sorry about it in the least.”
“But we’re not—” Sera stopped abruptly, suddenly uncomfortable painting a picture for Gavin’s mother of exactly what she and the woman’s son were to each other.
It had been convenient to categorize them as a one-night-stand with consequences, but that no longer seemed to fit very well. Neither did two people in a steady relationship, though, so she was sort of at a loss for how to categorize them.
Evelyn reached out and grabbed her hand. “You don’t need to define anything for me. That’s for the two of you to decide.” With the matter seemingly all figured out, she turned back to Gavin. “How are you feeling?”
“Good.”
Sera was close enough to see the exasperation on Evelyn’s face before she spoke. “Want to try that again?”
