Page 54 of Married at Midnight

Ellie arched a brow. “Yes, and if that’s what she wants, who are we to stop her?”

“No idea about the bridegroom?”

She shook her head. “I suspect we’ll find out soon enough.” Ellie then filled him in about meeting the other Elvises and about what Viola had told her about each one.

“She’s in love with one of the Elvises?” Connor asked, surprised and a little baffled by these new men, or old men, who’d reappeared in his grandmother’s life.

“Seems so,” Ellie agreed.

“Viola is always full of surprises.”

“She’s not the only one . . . you surprised me when you defended me to your dad.”

Connor shrugged, trying to keep things light.

She studied him as if she was trying to figure him out. “You do believe in love, don’t you?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve seen little evidence that true love exists in my own friends and family.” He paused. “Well, except maybe with Max and Olivia. But for most people it’s an unattainable goal.”

“You don’t really believe that, do you?”

“What if I do?” he asked irritably.

When she reached for his hand, he dodged her touch.

Her face fell, and he knew he’d hurt her by pulling away. “No one knows what’s in your heart but you, though your actions over the past week tell me a story that doesn’t quite live up to your words.”

“And what story is that?”

“That you care about me more than you’re willing to admit.”

Connor had no answer for her. All he could do was return her steady gaze, fighting the turmoil inside him as he stared at her full, moist lips.

She broke eye contact with him. “When you’re ready to talk about that, you know where to find me.” She scooped up his ice pack and placed it in his hands before walking away.

Blood pounded through his veins as he watched her go, as did a craving for her that was hard to deny. She’d awakened something in him that he’d tried to ignore for years. The need for a home. For family. For love.

Ellie deserved those things, but not with him. He would only bring her heartache and pain when he couldn’t give her that part of himself he’d always kept hidden.

She could never be his.

When their agreement was over, she could go back to the family who loved her and to her old life, where she could find a man who would give her everything she needed to be happy.

He clenched his fists around the ice pack in his hands, as his heart suddenly hurt worse than his head.

The conversation with his father had thrown Connor off balance, bringing back memories of the first woman to hurt him—his mother.

Leaving Ellie behind, he stepped out the front door and headed down the street.

For the first time in a long while, Connor allowed his thoughts to turn to his mother without fighting the questions that were always there. What made a woman leave her husband and child? Had she been unhappy or unfulfilled? But how could that be, when every memory Connor had of his mother was of her smile, a true wrinkles-around-her-eyes, joy-reflecting-from-her-soul kind of smile?

He and his parents had spent every moment they could together: playing Frisbee in the backyard, taking long walks through the nearby park, and watching scary movies while huddled together as they tried to comfort each other during the really scary parts. His mother leaving behind what had seemed like a happy family had never made any sense to Connor, but he had accepted that she’d gone.

Connor suddenly understood that this was the difference between his father and himself. He had accepted his mother’s absence in his life. His father had not. Instead, he’d allowed himself to be engulfed by pain and loss. Those emotions poisoned his every interaction with anyone he cared about. That was why he objected to Connor’s marriage to Ellie. It was why he didn’t want Viola to remarry. He didn’t want his mother or son to have the same potential for pain.

Connor stopped walking at the realization. His father was afraid for them. But fear did not have to guide a person’s life. Suddenly Connor wondered what his father’s fear had prevented him from doing. Had his father tried to find Mary Grayson? Where was she now? Had she started a new family? Or was she as damaged and alone as Connor and Clark?

As the questions flooded his mind, Connor started walking again, changing his direction, heading toward the Twelfth Avenue police station. His friend Trevor, a detective with the Seattle Police Department, should be working. Trevor owed him more than one favor. Perhaps it was time to call one of those in.

Trevor was good at finding people who didn’t want to be found.

It was a long shot, locating a woman who’d vanished from their lives more than twenty years ago. But suddenly it felt like the right thing to do. Only time and a little investigative work would reveal the truth.