Fine with Gavin, because in his current mood there was no telling what would happen between the two of them. And birthday or not, he’d had just enough of his brother telling him how to live his life. He hadn’t asked for advice on who to choose to date, and he sure as hell wasn’t taking unsolicited advice from Mick.
Now he just had to go find Elizabeth before any more trouble stirred up.
Like her running into Tara.
ELIZABETH LOVED KATHLEEN. SHE WAS THE CLOSEST thing to a mother she had, and Kathleen had always made her feel welcome in the Riley home.
That of course changed when Elizabeth screwed up and Mick fired her.
Losing Kathleen and Jimmy Riley had been harder on her than losing Mick as a client.
She’d missed spending the holidays with the Rileys. Over the past few years it had become habit for her to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas at the Riley home.
Last year had been brutal. She’d spent the holidays alone.
She’d never felt more alone, had never realized how much she’d come to think of Mick and Gavin’s family as her family until she didn’t have them anymore.
Stupid. And what had she gone and done? Started sleeping with Gavin, which would only end up permanently severing her relationship with the Riley family when things ended with Gavin.
Kathleen had pulled her upstairs, away from the crowds, and took her into the master bedroom, sat her in one of the two old chairs nestled into the corner of the crowded room.
“Now that it’s just the two of us, why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”
“You mean what went on with Mick?”
Kathleen waved her hand. “No. I think what happened there is clear. You made a critical business error, and you paid a very dear price for it. You lost Michael’s business. I trust you’re smart enough to have learned something from that.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Kathleen had the ability to say very little and mean a lot when she said it. Elizabeth felt about two inches tall at the moment. “I’m very sorry I hurt Mick, Tara, and Nathan.”
Kathleen took her hand. “I know you are. But you had to suffer the consequences for what you did, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did. Mick wasn’t only my client. He was my friend. And I lost his friendship, too.”
“Well, I hope not forever. My son is a stubborn mule, but he’ll come around soon.”
“I hope so. I need to make amends with him. And with Tara.”
Kathleen nodded. “That you do. But I mean what’s going on with you and Gavin?”
She swallowed. “Oh. That.”
Kathleen leveled very wise eyes on her. “Yes. That. I never realized you and Gavin had a thing for each other.”
Oh, Lord. “Well, it just sort of happened. We’re casually dating, really. It’s nothing serious, Kathleen.”
“Really.”
“Yes.”
“So you don’t care about him.”
She laid her head in her hands, then turned it to the side. “You’d make a great prosecutor, you know that? You really know how to put a girl on the spot.”
Kathleen laughed and patted her hand. “Come on. You know I’m joking with you. It just took me by surprise is all. You’re like a daughter to me. I was shocked to find out you and Gavin were together.”
“It kind of hit me by surprise, too.”
“Not me. I saw it the first night I met you. I knew you were in love with Gavin.”
Elizabeth whirled around and saw Tara leaning in the doorway, Gavin’s sister, Jenna, next to her.
“What?”
“Come in, you two. Did you know that Elizabeth and Gavin were dating?”
Tara took a seat on the edge of the bed. “I didn’t until Gavin told me. But like I said, it doesn’t surprise me. I saw the sparks that night in the bar when I first came to town and met all of you.”
“Sparks? What sparks?”
Tara turned her gaze on Elizabeth. Elizabeth expected animosity, hatred even. But what she saw was just . . . interest. “I saw the way you looked at him. I could see right away that you were in love with him.”
She remembered Tara mentioning it before, but she’d brushed her off, thought she’d minimized it. She thought she’d hid it so well. “In love—oh. No, really. I’m not.”
Jenna snorted. “You’re in love with Gavin?” She twirled some of the many earrings in her ear and flopped belly-first on the bed. “Now this is getting interesting.”
“I’m not in love with Gavin.”
Tara laughed. “Yes, you are. And I’ll bet you have been for some time.”
“Is this true, Elizabeth?” Kathleen asked. “Are you in love with Gavin?”
She looked from Kathleen to Jenna to Tara, and for the first time in her life she had no idea what to do. The room closed in on her, and she found it hard to breathe. This was why she didn’t have female friends. With guys she could bullshit her way out of anything.
Women were tougher. They bore down on her with their steely gazes, and there was no way out. Dizziness made her breathing quicken, and she sucked in air faster and faster, which only made it hotter in there.
“I don’t feel very good,” she said, raising a shaky hand to her sweaty brow.