* * * *
Gavin grinned as he drove through the streets to Taylor’s house. Lunch had been entertaining and informative. They’d left later than he’d planned and Gavin decided to take them to lunch. Taylor had, of course, declined. Was the woman always so contrary? Though after he’d talked her into lunch, a sort of truce seemed to reign. He’d noticed several things as Ryan wolfed his burger and Taylor ate her salad. He picked up on the fact that Ryan wasn’t Taylor’s biological child, more from what wasn’t said than what was, but he had yet to figure out the dynamics. Ryan was exuberant, full of factoids, and liked to hum classical music, yet the boy was often guarded. Sometimes he seemed hesitant to do things and Gavin caught him either asking or looking to Taylor for permission. He wondered at that. Was it simply shyness or was it more?
Gavin was curious about Ryan, but he didn’t know how to broach a subject that he had no business delving into.
Taylor, herself, fascinated him. She talked and laughed through the lunch. Amazingly enough, they’d actually gotten along. He learned she was the more health food type. She liked water and salads. He’d asked where in Texas they were from, telling them he’d been to the Austin area for the last year off and on while his brother’s family lived there. A conversation started up about Texas places to see and things to do. He’d enjoyed himself more than he thought he would.
“Have you always lived here?” she asked him as they pulled up to her house, a brownstone with a low fat porch that had geraniums in little pots on it.
“All my life.”
“It’s different here.” Her hands lay calmly in her lap, long tapered fingers on elegant hands, short buffered nails. Taylor was built like a dancer he’d once dated, long and lithe, her movements graceful.
“I would imagine it would be,” he said.
“Thank you again for lunch. I wanted to treat you to lunch. After all you’ve done for us.”
Gavin smiled at her disgruntled voice. “Call me old fashioned, but my father taught me to be a gentleman. You open doors for ladies and you pay for their food.”
Her dimples deepened as she smiled fully at him. “Even ones who set your teeth on edge?
I feel privileged and I’m sorry you inherited us for the day.”
He wasn’t. “Don’t worry about it.”
Gavin helped them get their bags and walked them to their house.
She opened the door and let Ryan rush in. “Would you like to come in for something to drink? I don’t have a clue what we have. Probably Koolaid and who knows.” She smiled. Those
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dimples.He’d never thought of himself as a dimple man, but maybe he was.
“I better get going and let you get your stuff squared away,” he said.
A moment of silence hung between them. She reached up and touched her cheek and the small movement had the anger shifting in him again. Gavin bit down at the sight of her bruised face. His fist bunched in his pocket. It looked swollen even with her shades. And he could see the shadow of it beneath her makeup. He wondered how many different colors it was. He could see the dark purple and blue hue of battered skin. What if her jaw had been cracked, or her cheekbone? Gavin started to reach out and touch her, but instead, he curved his palm around the edge of the door.
He had been taught to cherish and protect both women and children. As a child, these were values his parents instilled in him, and later as a doctor in his field he came to believe it even more. Her lips were moving, but he hadn’t heard a word she said.
“What?”
She tilted her head. “Do you tune out all women or is it just my charm?”
He smiled. “It’s just you.”
Her sigh was enough that he felt it brush his face. “I wanted to thank you for all of this.
Again.”“You’ve already thanked me.”
Silence stretched between them and he watched as she licked her lip, and rubbed one bare arm, the movement causing that filmy material to stretch and glide over her torso.
“I did, didn’t I?”
On impulse, he said, “How about lunch later this week?”
She tilted her head. “Call me and I’ll let you know.”
* * * *
Ryan stood upstairs in his room looking out the window as Gavin Kinncaid pulled away. Gavin was pretty cool. He often seemed almost rude to Taylor, but then she was rude back to him and Taylor was never rude. Even with that jerk she’d been married to, Charles. She’d always been nice to that man.
Adults were strange sometimes.
Ryan looked around his room, saw his space posters, and his violin.
He ran a finger down the wooden body, huffing out a sigh. He was glad to be back home with his stuff, especially his violin.
A honk from below drew his attention back. Ryan waved and wondered if they’d see Dr.
Kinncaid again. The man was cool and had this deep rumbly voice and his family was neat, living in that great big house that had the pool. They hadn’t had a big tour because Mrs. Kinncaid and Taylor started talking about plants. Who wanted to talk about plants?
Gavin and his mom got along great. Maybe when he was that old, he and Taylor would still get along. Taylor was great. Not like that other one. No, he wasn’t going to think of
her
.
His stomach churned and tightened.
Shaking his head, he picked up his violin and found a piece of music he wanted to practice. The notes flowed from the instrument, through his arm and chin, connecting at his heart
28
and flowing back out. That’s how he liked to think of it anyway.
Music was the best.
29
Taylor walked out of the office and onto the sidewalk.
“Taylor,” his quiet voice had her turning. Gavin stood still and silent, leaning against the wall. He was dressed in a dark button down shirt
and slacks, those wicked eyes hid behind black shades. A sigh slipped out of her.
Idiot
.
“Lunch?” he asked.
“Funny, I don’t recall my phone ringing.” She dug her keys out of her purse. Her heart did a little skitter as he stepped closer to her.
“I like spontaneity. Women tend to get irate when something planned gets cancelled due to say, labor, or complications.”
Women, plural. “You would know, I’m sure.”
“Jealous?”
She ignored him and shook her head.
“Okay. Truce. I’m hungry and you’re off for lunch I presume, so let’s go eat.”
Taylor figured she should say no, but she was hungry and knew no one. “Fine, since you asked so nicely, how’s a girl to refuse?”
“Did you get a rental?” he asked.
“Yes.” Taylor pointed and they walked to her gray compact car. Gavin took her elbow and her blood hummed at the simple contact, even as she stiffened for a moment. She cleared her throat. “At least the dealership loaned me a car while mine is in the shop.”
“Well, I’m right over here.”
She started to jerk away, but the slight shiver from his touch, made her pause. Plus, she had to admit, she liked the feel of his hand, warm on her arm. It had been a long time since a man had not only walked her to a car, but had been a gentleman about it. Which, considering who this was, it seemed almost odd. She was used to his rude, sometimes condescending behavior.
Though yesterday he had been nice enough. And here he was today to take her to lunch.
And she was reading more into this than she should be.
Idiot.
He looked to her car and said, “I’ll admit, for some reason, I didn’t expect you to drive a Mercedes. Social workers make more than I thought. At least you have another to drive.”
Taylor only smiled at him. She didn’t want to tell him how she had all but blackmailed Charles for the damn car, and then had to give him the money to let her keep it. Should have just let her ex have the stupid thing and bought a new one. She did have money from a comfortable inheritance, from her parents and a distant aunt, but it was the principle of the thing. And it was hers. And now it was in the shop.
“I never asked, are you busy today? I just assumed you were going to lunch.”
“Yes, I was … going to lunch that is. Actually, someone else asked and I lied and said I
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already had a lunch appointment.” She smiled. “And you fell nicely into place.”
He leaned closer to her, backing her against the door of the car. “Did I now? Sort of like being used, isn’t it?”
She licked her lips. “Um…. No, not really, because I didn’t know you’d be here and….”
He was so close she could see his eyes behind his shades, smell that cologne he used, or maybe it was his aftershave.
“Oh, but being used has its advantages,” he continued with a wicked grin and a wiggle of brows. What did that mean?
If she leaned a little closer she could kiss him. Taylor blinked, cleared her throat.
Finally, she took the bait. “Dare I even ask what those advantages are?”
For a moment he only have her his almost-smile, and tilted his head down so that he stared at her over the rims of his shades. His eyes twinkled, catching up at the corners.
Gavin Kinncaid could be dangerous, no doubt about it. His full charming smile caught her breath.
“Do you really want to know?” he asked, his voice low and deep.
Yes. No. Probably. Taylor sighed.
This time a laugh rumbled out before he tapped her nose. “Yes. No. Probably?”
Oh, God, did she say that out loud?
Again his chuckle vibrated the air between them. “You’re cute when you’re flustered.”
It was from spending too much time with him yesterday, that’s what all this was about.
A man. He was just a man.
And she knew most men were pigs, jerks, or worse. Friends. Yeah, they could just be friends--even if she did have fantasies about him.
Taylor wasn’t up for anything else. Was she? No. She had Ryan, her new job, and…. And that’s all she needed. His cologne assaulted her. It was.
Then why did she wonder if there was more out there for her or if she’d already had her chance on the love merry-go-round and blew it?
That was a depressing thought. Charles, her one and only? No, don’t think so.
But right now, she needed to concentrate on her job, getting Ryan settled, and starting life over. And that’s what she would do. Concentrate on Ryan and her work. But this dark-headed doctor kept intruding. Thoughts of the man had kept her up half the night. Either she had it really bad for some guy she’d just met--okay that was probably a given--or she’d been too long without sex. Probably another given.
Sex with her ex had just been sex. But with Gavin?
Where had that thought come from
?
“Hello?” Gavin said loudly in her face, his expression questioning.
Taylor shook her head. Lord, he’d think she was an idiot.
“Um. Sorry,” she muttered.
“I’d dearly love to know what you were thinking about,” he said in that soft, rumble of voice. She just bet her would. She could feel her face flaming.
“Nothing.”
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His expression, one brow cocked, one lowered, said he was trying to figure her out. “And just where were you going to meet me?” he asked.
“Meet you?”
He poked his tongue in his cheek before saying. “Lunch? You said you lied and told someone you had a lunch appointment, and I fell nicely into place.”
“Oh!” God help her! “I haven’t a clue,” she admitted. “Maybe you have an idea. Though I’m telling you now, I’m paying.” She held up her hand. “And spare me your gentleman’s speech.”Another crooked smile, this one devastating charm, and she felt nerves dance at the flash of teeth.“Fine. I get to drive though, and we’re taking my car.” A hand was held out to her, and she simply stared at it. His sigh filled the air between them. “Don’t tell me, besides no one taking your elbow, no one ever offered you their hand either. What’s wrong with those Texas cowboys?”
Taylor rolled her eyes and reached for his hand. Her breath caught in her throat. Such a simple thing, a glance of fingers on palm, but it felt like her entire being had suddenly awakened.
Nerves no longer danced--they reeled as blood pumped through her veins. She blinked, staring at her long pale fingers still lying on his tanned large palm.
“They must be too busy with their horses,” he continued as his fingers closed over hers.
By the grace of God, she didn’t stumble along after him. Even managed to remember to lock her car. Talk about humiliating. Did he not feel it? Amazingly enough, her mind still functioned within the context of his dumb remark.
“Not all men in Texas are cowboys. Not all of them go to rodeos, know how to saddle a horse, or own cattle contrary to popular belief. You couldn’t have caught Charles or any of his cronies dead in a pair of boots or a hat if you had all but paid them.”
Great! Just great. Can I say
anything more idiotic than bringing up my ex
?
They walked in silence to his SUV.
Gavin held her hand in his, and like the day before, he opened the door for her, making certain she was in before he shut it. Hopefully, he wouldn’t pick up on her mention of Charles.
He’d leave it alone. She could have been talking about anyone. And why should he care? He wouldn’t. Leather groaned and sighed as he slid into the driver’s seat.
“Charles?” he casually asked as they pulled out of the parking lot.
But she caught the slight tension in his voice, noticed he wasn’t exactly smiling now.
Instead of answering him, she just shook her head and grinned. “Where are we going to eat?” “Charles?” He was stubborn.
Two could play this game. “I was sorta thinking Mexican or maybe one of those bar and grill places with great salads.”