Chapter Seventeen

Matt turned in the driver’s seat of his BMW coupe and stared at her. “Why are you doing this? What’s going on?”

Gabby stared out the passenger window at the drops of water trailing their way down the glass. The rain had started not long after she’d called the real estate office. It matched her mood perfectly.

“Nothing.”

“That’s crap. You were fine last night, and I come to pick you up and you tell me you’re moving—today! Why the hurry? I thought you were moving next week sometime.”

Gabby sighed heavily. “It came through early, so I figured that I may as well take advantage of it and get out of Taka’s way. He needs his privacy.”

Matt swore, the words loud in the insulated confines of his car. “Why don’t I believe you? He needs privacy like he needs a hole in the head. He likes having you there. He told me himself. Does he know you’ve gone?”

Gabby swung around on her son. She wasn’t answering his questions truthfully no matter how much he pushed. He could think what he damn well liked. She wasn’t talking about Taka, and she sure as hell wasn’t talking about Peter Marsden to her son. He already felt bad about the car accident, since it was his biological father who’d hurt her—again. If he knew about this, he’d feel even worse.

“Yes, I left him a message on his cell phone. He’s in surgery, so he was kind of busy. I wanted to move into my new home, Matthew. Simple as that. You don’t have to stay if you have somewhere else you need to be. I am quite capable of walking up my own front steps.”

She shoved the car door open and climbed out into the heavy rain hoping the deluge would cover her stinging eyes. She didn’t need him questioning her. If he probed too deep, she’d fall apart, and he’d only want to know why, and that would be disastrous. The first person he’d tell would be Taka.

There was no way she was going to tell her son she was in love with his best friend. A man who didn’t want her. All she ever seemed to do was push Taka away, supposedly for his own good. This time for his safety, the last time for his education. Would she ever be given a chance for the right time?

Gabby hurried up the steps to the real estate agent standing on the stoop. Her stoop. The agent held the keys out to her and Gabby slipped one into the keyhole.

It was hers.

They ducked inside, out of the pelting rain.