The Magnolia Sisters (Magnolia Sisters #1) - Michelle Major Page 0,77
his mother standing in the doorway of the office at the fire station.
“Did Lucas pay you to say that?”
Lila chuckled as she entered the room. “No, but your friend is a smart young man.”
“Which must mean I’m not?” He forced a smile but tension ricocheted down his spine. His mother had always hated his chosen profession. He knew she wished he were more like his ambitious older brother, holed up in a corner office, with a paper cut the biggest potential physical hazard on the job.
As the town’s longtime librarian, his mom valued books and quiet and learning and...all the things Gray chafed against growing up. He’d taken after his father—an adrenaline junkie with a deep commitment to service but an equal devotion to action.
The kind of action that had killed his father and landed Gray in the hospital. He’d been cleared by his doctor to return to work but was relegated to desk duty. There had already been two dozen calls this week, and it tore him up to watch his crew heading out for each call while he manned the fort at the station.
Lucas had been the most vocal that Gray should take a few personal days to recover but that might have more to do with Gray’s black mood versus concern for his injuries. He was healing fine. His chest still ached, but he absolutely wouldn’t stop or allow anyone to believe the accident had sidelined him.
He’d received a call from Douglas Damon the day after the accident. Gray’s attorney had wished him well for a speedy recovery but also mentioned that he’d heard from Stacy’s attorney asking if Gray wanted to formally amend their current custody arrangement while he recuperated. Gray had downplayed the severity of the accident, although he didn’t think he was fooling the older man. Then Douglas brought up the fact that a private security company outside Raleigh might be hiring an investigator, the words nudging open a dark cavern in Gray’s stomach.
He loved his job. It was more than work to him. It was his calling, and he felt honored to serve the people of Magnolia in that capacity.
But he hated to think that his devotion might also cost him a chance at more time with his daughter.
“You’re intelligent.” His mother slid into the chair across from the desk. “More than you give yourself credit for.”
Gray waited for the backhand side of her compliment. When his mother only studied him, he blew out a breath. “You don’t have to soften it, Mom. I know how you feel about the fire department and my role here. You think I’m reckless, just like Dad.”
She flashed a wistful smile. “I think you care, just like he did.”
“That caring got him killed.”
“Yes,” she admitted slowly. “But he would have been miserable doing anything else.”
Just like Gray.
“I want to talk to you about your new girlfriend.”
Gray felt his brows draw together. “Avery isn’t my girlfriend,” he said, although saying the word out loud in association with her felt strangely right. But he couldn’t have a girlfriend if the woman in question continued to take such great pains to avoid him. He’d barely seen her since the accident, although every day she left some get-well gift on his back porch. Brownies, a stack of magazines, DVDs of old-school family movies, a six-pack of his favorite beer.
Her thoughtfulness touched him even as it annoyed him that she dropped off the presents at odd hours when she must know he wasn’t home. He didn’t know where she went when she left the carriage house early in the morning only to return after dark each night. But he wanted to, and that irritated him the most.
“I saw how you looked at her,” his mother said. “You wear your heart on your sleeve, Grayson. You always have.”
“She’s in town temporarily,” he countered, unable to deny his ridiculous infatuation with Avery. No point with his mom. She knew him too well. “Nothing will come of it.”
“Didn’t you say the same thing when you first met Stacy?”
“She got pregnant,” he reminded his mother. “It’s different.”