I yelled out and moved around Drew, toward the front door, hot on my parents’ tail. I had no interest in going where they were, but I also didn’t want to stay here with Drew by myself.
Before I could make it to them, though, a hand grabbed for my arm and halted me to a stop. I turned around to look Drew in the eyes. They were eyes I had stared into long ago and had drowned myself in. Eyes that had filled an entire notebook on nights when I couldn’t forget about him.
“Go to lunch with me.” It wasn’t a question coming from his mouth, but a demand.
I was feeling the soft touch of Drew against my arm, but I was hearing the domineering Drew who had first caught my attention in a dive bar. That Drew was the troublemaker who made me wet with need and with my hormones at an all-time high, I didn’t need a repeating act of the night I got pregnant.
At least, not yet.
“That’s a great idea.” My mother spoke up instead of letting me answer Drew.
“Let’s go, Addison. Stop meddling.” My father snapped, but my mother didn’t pay him any mind. If there was anything that she loved more than events, it was matchmaking. Especially when it came to me. She always tried to set me up, but I had no care to follow through.
“Shush,” she scolded him and I knew I wasn’t going to be leaving with them by the look in my mother’s eyes. She was on a mission and not even my father could get her to change her mind. “You’re going to go to lunch with this young man.”
It was a demand, but the difference between hers and Drew’s was that I didn’t want to listen to my mother. I wanted to defy her because I didn’t want her to see me bend to her whims. Especially when it wasn’t because of her that I wanted to go to lunch with Drew. I didn’t want her to have that kind of satisfaction.
“I’m sure she can answer me on her own, ma’am,” Drew spoke up and I looked back at him. His whole focus was on me and it was like my parents didn’t exist for once, even though they were standing there in the room. “Lunch?”
Drew’s question was soft this time and only meant for me. I wanted to lean into him and remember what it felt like to be in his arms, but I kept my distance and nodded.
It was clearly enough for my mother as she clapped her hands together and said a quick goodbye before I could even turn around to see them leave the house. Now I was standing there with Drew, alone, and the last place I wanted to be. Even though I had said yes to going to lunch with him, didn’t mean I felt any more at ease with being with him.
I’d left him in the dust months ago and we’d only known each other’s first names, so how was he here right now?
I crossed my arms in front of my chest and started the interrogation.
“How did you find me, Drew?”
His shoulder rose in a shrug and his signature smirk formed on his face. I shook my head and rolled my eyes at how nonchalant he was being about all of this. His smirk, though, changed to a sincere smile and he took a step toward me and reached out and grabbed for my arms, unfolding them. At his touch, I let him take the lead as he pulled me into him and leaned toward me.
I didn’t pull away as his lips met my cheek. Instead, I leaned farther into him, remembering how it felt when Drew first kissed me at the bar and how my body had instantly reacted to him then. It was like no time had passed between us.
“Go to lunch with me and I’ll tell you everything.”
I knew what Drew was doing. He was asking me in our own moment and not with the pressure of my parents behind me. He was leaving it all up to me and I did want to go, not just because I wanted to know why Drew was here or how he had found me.
But because I wasn’t ready to let Drew go just yet and I hoped he’d let me explain why I’d left him as well.
Because if there was one thing clear right now, we both had our secrets and we needed to get them aired our.
Not just for ours sakes.
But for the baby’s.
