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 passed 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.>Gray's family of five clumped together on a flight line. He must have been about nine or ten, his brother and sister younger.
Lori had met his parents. They only lived an hour away and had joined Gray and her for dinner twice. There hadn't been time to get to know the couple who'd brought up Gray, but she'd liked what little she'd found.
She had to face it. He'd had a happy home life, didn't have hang-ups about kids. Gray simply didn't want home and hearth for himself. He preferred the bachelor life.
So what was she doing waiting around for him? As if to confirm her decision, the canned music on the phone ended and the cab dispatcher's voice asked for her information.
Lori replaced the frame and gave the woman Gray's address, an address still memorized even after a year apart.
* * *
Fifteen minutes late, Gray pulled into the apartment's parking lot. Debriefs couldn't be rushed, although he'd tried. Throughout the whole meeting, he'd worked to puzzle through a way to resolve things between Lori and him.
If he had the chance.
He couldn't shake the feeling she would leave before he returned. Maybe she'd called a friend to give her a ride.
Not that it should matter. He could track her down at her place or the hospital, and they could still see Magda together.
God knows Lori had left him flat before. Why should one more time matter? But it did. He wanted her to be waiting inside for him, like the old days.
She'd stayed over more than once. Near the end, she had almost lived there as well. He'd certainly thought asking her to move in officially would be no big deal. Wrong. It had sparked another argument, one that hadn't ended with mind-blowing make-up sex.
Stuffing the past away, he whipped the keys from his car just as another car slid into place beside him—a white Chevy Cavalier just like his mother's. He wasn't a believer in coincidence or fate, but he had the sinking feeling one of the two was about to have its way with him. Gray strapped on some much-needed bravado and opened his door.
His mother's silver-blond head soon appeared over the roof. "Hello, sugar."
Dread turned his blood to sludge. His perfectly coifed mother, a woman with inbred grace, gentility and rose-colored glasses, wouldn't be able to appreciate the nuances of his current awkward-as-hell situation with Lori.
"Hi, Mom." He circled to his mother.
Gray skated a quick look at his apartment door. Was Lori still inside? His mother would leap straight to a wealth of conclusions he didn't even want to consider, much less ex-plain. Not that she would even believe him, anyway.
"I was on my way to the commissary to stock up and thought I'd drop in to see you."
"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 glass 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—hell, maybe even himself. He scrambled for a solution and came up with, "Waffle House."
"What?"