Blind Love (13 page)

His mom came and stood beside him. “So that neighbor of yours is something.”

He nodded. “Her name’s Lauren. She’s a therapist.”

“Explains a lot.”

“She’s blind.” Not sure why he mentioned it, but he did.

“Didn’t notice.” She took a swig of water from her bottle. “Who’s Officer Ben?”

His muscles tightened. “Ex-husband.”

“They together?”

He gulped down some of the cold beer. “Seems like it.”

She looked over at him. “Does she know you have feelings for her?”

Gabe’s bottle froze mid-air. “Leave it alone.”

“Leave what alone? Only asking questions. Can’t stop me from inquiring, can you?”

He tossed his bottle into the trashcan. “I’m not her type.”

“Huh, that right? So what type are you, exactly?”

Lauren’s words flashed again. “The running kind.”

“Ain’t that the truth.” She laughed.

When she noticed the unpleasant look he shot her, she stopped and shook her head. “Well, stop running then.”

He opened his mouth to answer, but couldn’t think of a damn thing to say. Instead, he walked away and tried to ignore the woman. When Lauren’s front door slammed shut, his mother wandered to other side of the house. The blinds rustled. “Interesting, the ex just left.”

She came back to the living room. “Hmm, I wonder if she has a washing machine.”

Before he could tell her it wasn’t an option, his mother walked out the back door.

Chapter Twenty

On Fire

Lauren stretched out on the sofa, trying to recover from her long workday. As brain dead as she was, she couldn’t stop thinking about Evan’s panic attack. She also kept wondering who the over-perfumed woman Ben described as a Louise look-a-like from
Thelma and Louise
was.

“Got it,” Sunny said as she walked into the living room and sat on Lauren’s ankles.

“Could you not find another spot to sit?” she groaned and pulled her legs out from under Sunny’s butt. “Got what?”

“The records you wanted. I got them. All of them.”

She sat straight up. “How?”

“Archived newspaper articles and the rest with her social security number.”

“How’d you get her social security number?”

Sunny laughed. “With a little money and the right websites, there’s nothing I can’t find. By the way, you owe me a hundred dollars.”

The buttons on her keyboard clicked as she typed. “Eight years ago, sixteen-year-old Mathew Evan Briggs was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at his family residence in Tyler, Texas, on May fourth.”

Lauren hugged her legs and rested her chin on her knees. His world must have seemed hopeless for him to take his life. If only he had gotten help.

“Get this.” Sunny interrupted her thoughts. “Gabe’s kid was born five months after his brother died, on October twenty-first at St. Luke’s in Houston. Parents listed as Autumn and Gabriel Briggs. Any guesses on what his legal name is?”

No need to guess, Lauren already knew the answer. “Mathew Evan Briggs?”

“Yes, ma’am. It goes with your theory, doesn’t it?”

She nodded but didn’t respond. None of this made sense. Why’d he marry her? Was it an emotional decision? His way of trying to make up for not saving his brother?

“Their marriage certificate says Gabriel and Autumn were married August twelfth,” Sunny continued.

Lauren did the math in her head. “Three months after Matt died. Same year?”

“Of course.”

“Any clue how old she was at the time?”

“Seventeen,” Sunny said. “And I know what you’re going to ask. I already looked into it. In the state of Texas, minors can get married with consent from a parent or legal guardian. In this case, it was her foster parents who signed.”

Sadness filled her at the thought of the young girl pregnant and alone. “They let a seventeen-year-old get married?”

“She was pregnant, obviously wanting to keep the baby, and there was someone willing to help. It makes sense they’d consent to the wedding.”

A knock at the back door ended their conversation. Sunny’s laptop slammed shut. “Let me go put this stuff away.”

Lauren waited for her amateur detective to get upstairs before she and Jack headed to the door.

The overwhelming fragrance of flowers hit her senses as soon as she opened it. She inhaled the floral perfume and stared at the pink blur of a woman standing in front of her.

“Hi there, you must be Lauren. I’m Kayla, Gabe’s momma.” She had a thick Southern accent and a gentleness to her voice. “I was wondering if you had a washer and dryer.”

Jack walked over and licked the stranger. “Hey, big guy. It’s great to see you again too.”

So this was the woman from the backyard. An image of a brown-haired Susan Sarandon popped in Lauren’s head and along with it, a slew of questions. The main one was if Gabe didn’t have any contact with his mother, what was she doing here? There seemed to be only one way to find out.

Lauren smiled. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. And yes I do, they’re in the garage. I’m going for a jog, but I’ll open the garage door and you’re welcome to use them. My friend Sunny’s here. If you have any questions, knock on the front door and she’ll be able to help.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it. This saves me from trying to find a laundry mat…” She could hear the grin in the woman’s voice as she rambled. “Maybe after your run, I could drop off some meatloaf? I just made a fresh batch.”

“Sounds perfect,” she said, omitting the fact that she hated meatloaf.

When Kayla walked away, Jack nudged Lauren’s leg. She knew what he wanted.

Jogging was one of the things Lauren never felt confident doing without Jack. Yes, she had the stupid white stick. Her parents had bought it for her, insisting she accept her life as a blind woman. It was still in the corner of the coat closet where she tossed it years ago. Hell would freeze over before she’d ever use it.

“Looks like Jack wants to come over and play. Do you mind?” Kayla asked.

Lauren smiled and shook her head. “Not at all. Free Jack.”

The door shut and locked, she put on her jogging shoes and snuck out of the garage before Sunny noticed. The last thing she needed was for someone to talk her out of conquering one of her fears.

By counting the steps and staying focused, she made it to the end of the sidewalk without running into any animate or inanimate objects. After a right turn at the end of the road, she finally got to the park and wooded trail behind the house and grinned.

Piece of cake.

Her heart raced and she hadn’t even started the run. She looked around. Greens, blues, and browns surrounded her. The voices of children playing a few yards away in the park filled the wooded trail.

Like normal, she turned on the playlist on her cell and inserted one of the buds to her headphone in her ear. She could hear everything around her with the other ear while still enjoying her workout. The best of both worlds.

Fifteen minutes later, after stretching, Lauren started a slow jog. As long as she stayed on the inside of the fluorescent lines she was safe. A few years ago, the neighborhood association got together and painted the edges of the path in bright orange specifically for her. At the time, she found the whole thing offensive. Instead of telling them what she thought, Sunny made her thank them for their efforts. Never again would she complain about the ugly lines.

With each curve she turned, Lauren grew more confident and ran a little faster. Yes, her eyes hurt from squinting and straining, but she wasn’t nervous anymore. This was one more item she could cross off her list of things she could not do. Her chest puffed and she fell in rhythm with Alicia Keys’s soulful voice in her ear.

“She got both feet on the ground.

“And she’s burning it down.

“She got her head in the clouds.

“And she’s not backing down.”

She smiled. The woman was singing about her and damn it felt good. A whiff of something herbal hit her nose. Where had she smelled that before? Seconds later a black fuzz scurried across the path. As she tried to figure out what it was, she ran off the trail. Unlike the jogging route, the ground on the sides weren’t level and Lauren lost her footing.

Pain coursed through the entire right half of her body as she slid down uneven terrain, landing on her side. But worse was the popping sound her ankle made in the process. Lauren spit out all the gritty things which had found their home in her mouth during the fall. She tried to breathe through what felt like tiny nails being shoved into her leg.

“This girl is on fire…

“This girl is on fire…”

She tugged the stupid bud out of her ear and dragged herself into a sitting position. As soon as she did, two things become crystal clear: her ankle was messed up and she wasn’t alone.

The musky scent of marijuana mixed with mint and menthol hit her senses. The same odor from a few minutes ago, but stronger. Gravel crunched a few feet away. From the way it sounded, the person was heavy set. The pounding of Lauren’s heart increased exponentially with each step the stranger took toward her.

A smile plastered on her face, she waved. “Hi!”

No response. Instead, the sounds grew closer. A dark blur of a person came into view. Her muscles tightened and pulse thudded behind her ears. She filled her fists with gravel and waited.

The prowler walked past her without a word and continued onto the jogging trail. A few minutes after the dark fuzzy image disappeared, she released the dirt and the breath she’d been holding.

Probably a teenager smoking some cheap pot in the woods.

Shaking off the fear, she bit back the urge to tell him drugs were bad. Not like he’d have listened anyway.

Her cheek, elbow, knee were all scraped and bleeding, but she’d live. When Lauren stood, the pain which felt like pins being shoved into her leg earlier transformed into fiery hot swords, repeatedly plunging into her muscles and tendons. Her eyes watered. She grasped on to a tree and tried not to pass out. Once the wave of pain ebbed, she scanned for anything recognizable. Fortunately, the orange strip was still visible. A thank you note to the HOA was definitely in order, she thought as she hopped her way back to the track.

“Lauren?” Gabe shouted from a distance.

Relieved to not be alone with the teenage druggie, she waved her hands in the direction of the voice. “Over here.”

His sneakers crunched against the path and soon the red of his shirt came into view. Lauren tried to hobble her way to him. When she started to fall, he caught her and picked her off her feet.

Every part of her heated from the contact. Lauren’s brain was warring with itself. One part told her she needed to get out of his arms. A safe distance from him was the only way to think clearly. While the other side wondered how close his mouth must be to hers because she could feel his breath on her cheek. She filled her lungs with his pine and cedar cologne and fought the urge to run her fingers through his hair.

He slid her onto a nearby bench. “What happened?”

“I fell, but I’m okay.”

When he pressed his fingers against her ankle, the pain shot up the length of her leg. Lauren fought back the whimper threatening to escape and slammed her eyes shut.

“Breathe.”

“I am,” she grunted.

He chuckled. “Well, nothing’s broken. But you’re pretty scratched up. Let me clean you off.”

The water he poured cooled the burn of her knee. It did the same for her arm. But each time his fingers brushed against her skin, a new burn took over, one which went much deeper and one she tried very hard to ignore.

When Gabe started picking away the debris from her lips, Lauren stretched her injured ankle. The pain helped her focus on something other than her need to pucker up and kiss his fingers while he repeatedly brushed them against her mouth.

His hand moved to her cheek. “So what happened?”

“I thought I saw a skunk.” Her voice a little too husky for her own taste.

“Jack’s good with skunks, right?”

Lauren’s brows shot up. “Don’t start with the ‘you need to accept your limitations’ speech.”

“Oh, not starting. Just preparing you because you won’t be able to hide the cuts on your cheek and mouth.”

The thought of Ben growling at her made her cringe. “Oh God. Kill me now.”

“Naw, I kinda like having you around.” His finger traced her cheek, chin, lips. Lauren found herself fantasizing about how his mouth would soon follow the path. This time when she turned her ankle, it was with more force than intended. She yelped.

“We need to get you home, but I’ll have to carry you.”

The last thing she needed was for him to touch her again. She climbed onto her good leg. “No, I can walk.”

“Really? How do you figure?”

“It’s not so bad,” Lauren said, grinning through her pain.

A long silence made the uncomfortable situation even worse. Finally, Gabe spoke. “Okay, fine. It’s a shorter distance if we cut through the woods. Let’s go.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Q and A

Lauren hobbled after Gabe as he whistled and pointed out trees and fallen timber along the wooded grounds. It was becoming harder and harder to walk, much less speak. Sweat dripped from every part of her. Each time she put weight on her injured ankle, it felt like a hundred archers were shooting arrows of fire into it at once. She finally stopped against a tree and snapped at him. “The shortcut through the woods should have gotten us home in five minutes. We’ve been walking for at least twenty.”

He leaned beside her. “If you let me pick you up, we’ll get there a lot faster.”

Her leg screamed for her to say yes, but her pride squawked at the image of being carried home. “If you’d go in the right direction, I’d bet we’d have already gotten there,” she said in her best Southern drawl.

“That’s cute,” he laughed and walked off in what was most likely the wrong direction.

Lauren considered her options. She could tell him to go to hell and head back to the jogging trail on her own, but it was getting dark. Everything in the area looked the same, there was no way to know which direction was which. The chances of her actually making it there were next to impossible.

“You’re going to have us wandering around here until I say yes, aren’t you?”

He didn’t respond, just whistled.

She glared at the red blob. “Fine, go ahead and carry me. Just know I will pull out every piece of hair on your head…”

He had her off the ground before she finished the sentence. Lauren wrapped her arms around his neck and swatted the back of his scalp.

“Happy?” she asked.

Gabe’s chest rumbled when he laughed. “Very.” His breath hit her mouth and she found herself licking her lips and trying to come up with ways to make him do it again. Instead, she bit her tongue, literally.

They moved in silence. She thought about her clients, shaving her legs, the teenager in the woods, everything and anything to not focus on how easy it would be to lean forward and kiss him. There were images she was trying to ignore as well. The main one was of him sprawling her across the dirt and stripping off her clothes…

“Am I’m going too fast for you?”

The question had her cheeks burning. “What?”

“You accused me of running this morning.”

Lauren flinched. “I’m sorry if I offended you.”

“It might have gotten under my skin a little.”

She laughed. “A little?”

When he chuckled, his breath did that hitting her face thing again. “Maybe more than a little, but I decided there may be some truth to what you said.”

She bit her lip.

He put his chin on hers and pulled the lip out from under her teeth. “Is there more you want to say?”

“Yeah, I might have done some snooping.”

“Snooping, huh? Hold the thought for a sec.” Gabe sat her next to a tree and positioned himself beside her. When his arm pressed against hers, goose bumps erupted along the path. “Okay, tell me.”

Lauren scooted away and rubbed her skin, trying to make the mountain range on her arm disappear. Since he didn’t sound angry, she pushed on. “I looked into your brother’s death. Your wedding. Evan.”

He dropped his bottle of water into her lap. “I told you this morning, I’d answer any questions you had.”

Lauren took a swig of the drink and handed it back before continuing. “I didn’t trust you.”

“Fair enough. Find anything interesting?”

She found a twig on the ground and fiddled with it. “A lot. According to the dates, eight years ago you had unprotected sex with a minor, got her pregnant, and married her three months after your brother killed himself.”

His arm tensed. “Is that what you think happened?”

Lauren shook her head. “I think Autumn was Matt’s girlfriend and Evan’s his son. That you married her in some convoluted attempt to take care of her.”

“Does the reason why I married her make a difference?” His voice was sad.

A part of her wanted to touch him. To caress away the pain. Instead, she broke the branch into small pieces as they talked. “To me, it does.”

“It’s a long story,” he whispered.

“You said I could ask anything and you’d answer.”

He put his arm around Lauren’s shoulder and pulled her close. She tried to stay focused, but the way his fingers kept moving up and down her skin made it hard to breathe much less think.

“Autumn was a junior in high school when Matt killed himself. She was pregnant and had no family. It would have been hard for her to make it without help.”

Gabe tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. “So I tried to get a job, but all I had was my high school diploma and Marines Corps experience. Turns out employers weren’t impressed with my shooting ability.”

The water bottle crinkled as he took another swig. “I couldn’t find a job decent enough to support us. By marrying her and re-enlisting, she and Evan got the benefits and financial support a Marine’s family gets. It kept them out of the welfare system and was the only way I knew how to take care of them.”

Lost in thought, neither of them spoke. She rested her head on his shoulder and tried to imagine what it must have been like for him. He lost his brother and gave up his future for someone he barely knew.

After a while, Gabe ran his fingers up and down her arm and again the mountain ranges exploded across his path. “Next question.”

“You don’t have to answer them. You’re allowed to tell me to mind my own business.”

His mouth pressed against her head. “No, I want you to trust me, so go ahead.”

She closed her eyes and savored the contact. If he only knew how much she wanted the same. “Why’d you stay married to her?”

He blew out a breath. “She needed me. I figured she’d tell me when she was ready to move on.”

“And what about you? When you were ready to move on would you have divorced her?”

“Don’t know. She died before I got to there.”

His words stung, but she understood. The day Autumn died was their first night together. Sometime after her death was when Evan probably met Gabe. “Evan grew up without a father. Why’d you stay away from him?”

“I figured she’d find someone to marry and he would step in. Why confuse the kid?”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s a cop-out. By not being in his life, you made things harder for him.”

“I know. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”

Lauren’s chest tightened as she thought of the scared little boy from her backyard. “Evan didn’t agree to any of this.”

Gabe let out a breath. “I made a lot of mistakes. Not being around for the little guy and not being able to protect Autumn are top on the list. Now I need to figure out how to fix it and I need your help to do it.”

She pulled away and turned to face him. “Me?”

“Evan knows something about Autumn’s murder but is too scared to speak up. I’m hoping with you, Jack and now my mom in the picture, maybe he’ll finally tell us what he knows.”

“Speaking of your mom. She’s currently doing laundry at my place.”

He laughed. “I know. She showed up today. Said she’s been sober for eight years. She seems to be good for him.”

Gabe picked some leaves out of her hair and smoothed it down. “You’re okay with Jack hanging out with Evan as much as he’s been doing?”

Lauren closed her eyes and found herself hoping he’d keep touching her. She worked on keeping her voice calm when she responded. “Someone killed his mom. The little guy’s scared. Anything I can do to help him get through this, I’ll do.”

Both of them sat in silence until Gabe finally spoke. “And your ex-husband?”

Her stomach twisted at the thought of Ben. He wouldn’t be happy about any of this. “I’ll have to explain the situation to him.”

“I don’t want to create problems between the two of you.”

“There’s nothing going on with me and Ben.”

“You sure about that?”

It was pitch black now and Lauren had successfully turned the branch she fiddled with into mulch. She wiped the dust off her hands and pulled herself up. Her ankle protested, but it was bearable.

“Ben and I can’t go back to what we had before. Too much time’s passed and too much has happened.” As she said the words, she knew it was true. “His only goal right now is to keep me safe from a murder suspect. Who by the way, I am currently wandering around a dark forest with.”

He chuckled and a few seconds later, she was off the ground, in his arms, and he was walking. When Jack’s barking broke through the silence of the forest, they stopped to listen. The thought of almost being home made her sad. “Thank you for telling me about you and Autumn. You didn’t have to.”

Instead of responding, he pressed his lips to hers. Lauren’s grip around Gabe’s neck tightened as the kiss deepened. When they finally pulled away, she rested her forehead against his. Her feelings confused her. As attracted as she was to him, he scared her.

“Like I said, I want you to trust me,” he whispered against her mouth.

She closed her eyes and fought the urge to kiss him again. “I still don’t.”

Gabe laughed and continued toward the noisy dog. “Yeah, you do. You might not want to, but you do.”