Rush by Maya Banks Page B

burnt-auburn hair that had varying shades of red and gold under sunlight. Add rich
     brown eyes that twinkled with warmth and the result was a beautiful woman with a sunny
     personality that endeared her to everyone she met.
    “The problem is finding the
right
guy,” Caroline said wistfully.
    Mia cringed, regretful of her careless words. No, Caroline didn’t have any problems
     in the guy department as far as attracting them. But the last man she’d attracted
     had been bad news.
    She held up her wineglass in an effort to smooth over her faux pas and said, “I’ll
     drink to that.”
    • • •
    Gabe’s office phone rang, but he let it ring and continued typing the memo he was
     working on. It was after hours. No one should be calling his office.
    The room went silent, and then just a few seconds later, his cell phone rang. A quick
     glance at the incoming contact and he briefly contemplated letting it go to voice
     mail. With a sigh, he picked up his phone to hit Receive. He couldn’t ignore his mother
     even if he already knew why she was calling.
    “Hello,” he said.
    “Gabe. There you are. I thought you might still be at the office. You work such long
     hours these days. Aren’t you ever going to take a vacation?”
    He had to admit the idea had merit. Even more appealing was the idea of taking Mia
     with him. Several days away from the world in order to initiate her into his world?
     Definitely something to consider.
    “Hello, Mom. How are you?”
    It was a question he’d learned better than to ask, and yet he always did. The problem
     with asking his mother how she was doing was that she never took the polite way out
     and said
fine
like most people did, regardless of whether they were really fine or not.
    “I can’t believe what he’s doing,” she said in clear agitation. “He’s making a fool
     of himself and of me.”
    Gabe sighed. After nearly forty years of marriage, his father had moved out, served
     his mother with divorce papers and seemed determined to run through as many newer,
     younger models as quickly as possible. His mother wasn’t taking it well, as could
     be expected. And unfortunately, Gabe was her sounding board.
    He loved his father, but he was being a huge dick. Gabe didn’t understand it. How
     could you be with someone for that many years and then wake up one morning and decide
     to walk away?
    He wasn’t certain that he would have gotten to the point of asking Lisa for a divorce.
     She’d been the one to leave him. It may not have been the right thing to do, remain
     in a relationship where it was obvious there was no love or true affection any longer,
     but he would have spared her the pain and humiliation of a divorce. She, however,
     didn’t feel the same about sparing him. And he didn’t hold the divorce against her.
     Maybe he should have done something before allowing it to get to the point it had.
     But he hadn’t realized that Lisa was so desperately unhappy. What he held against
     her was the way she went about divorcing him.
    “It’s disgraceful, Gabe. Did you see the papers this morning? He had a woman on each
     arm! Now what would he do with two women?”
    No way Gabe was answering
that
question. He shuddered even imagining his father…No, he wasn’t even going there.
    “Mom, stop reading the society pages,” Gabe said patiently. “You know it’s just going
     to upset you.”
    “He’s doing it on purpose to punish me,” she railed.
    “Why would he punish you? What could you have possibly done to him?”
    “He’s showing me that while I’m sitting at home grieving over the death of my marriage,
     he’s out having the time of his life. He’s telling me with more than words that he’s
     moved on and that I no longer have any place in his heart.”
    “I’m sorry, Mom,” Gabe said gently. “I know this hurts you. I wish you would get out
     and do something. You have friends. You have plenty of pet causes that you donate
     to and volunteer