“What happened?” I ask.
“He wanted to go to work. Couldn’t find his keys. Couldn’t find his boots. He kept yelling for you, thinking you’d taken them or hidden them or something. I don’t know. And I just … I’m tired, Drake. I’m drained.”
I pull the screen back and look at the time. Then I glance up at Gianna. She’s watching me, a worried look on her pretty face.
The last thing I want to do is leave—especially tonight. But I can hear the exhaustion in my mom’s voice and … I don’t know what to do.
“I’m not bothering you, am I?” Mom asks.
“No. I’m at my girlfriend’s house. Just got back from a date.”
Gianna grins.
“Mom? Can you hang on?” I ask.
“Sure, honey.”
I mute her. “I know we had plans, but?—”
“Go.” She nods her head. “You gotta go. If I had a mom like yours, I’d go.”
A wild idea pops into my head, and I probably shouldn’t even bring it up, but the thought of leaving Gianna behind tonight isn’t one that I can stomach. I must try, at least.
“Would you be interested in going with me?” I ask.
Her eyes fly open.
“It’s not a big deal,” I say. “It’s about a forty-five-minute drive out of the city. We can grab a terrible drive-thru sandwich,and you can control the radio. I know it might be a little uncomfortable, so if you don’t want to, I understand. But Mom just needs someone to hang out with her for a while and I think we’d be a good distraction.”
She shifts on the counter. “If she’s sad, would it be a good idea to bring me? I mean, I don’t like to be sad in front of anyone, least of all someone I’m meeting for the first time.”
“I get that. But when it comes to my mom, if she sees her kids happy, she’s happy. And you, my little pyromaniac, are making me very happy lately.”
Her eyes twinkle as she looks into my eyes. The shield that used to be there, at least partially, is almost gone. That alone—even if she doesn’t accompany me tonight—makes me so damn happy.
“You really want me to go?” she asks curiously.
“I wouldn’t have asked you if I didn’t.”
She takes a deep breath, then smiles from ear to ear. “Then yes. I will go with you. But I control the radio. No takebacks.”
I pull Gianna into a hug as I unmute my mother. “Mom, I’ll be there in a bit … with my girlfriend.”
Who I think I just fell in love with.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
Gianna
“We’re here,” Drake says, making a right turn onto a gravel driveway. Tall pine trees line the road, shielding the house beyond it from the noise and nosiness of traffic. “This is home.”
A two-story white house comes into view. Whiskey barrels and a swing adorn the front porch, the swing swaying in the gentle night breeze. I can imagine curling up there on lazy weekend mornings with a cup of coffee and a book. It’s so peaceful.
Drake and I talked all the way here. We ate trash burgers from a drive-thru and traded stories about our lives. He’s lived such a life full of people, places, and memories. I could listen to him share things for hours. It’s fascinating because most of it, I can’t relate to. We didn’t have family dinners or homemade chicken noodle soup when we were sick, and my dad certainly didn’t teach me to drive on backroads heading to the fishing hole when I was twelve.
But now we’re here, and the confidence I had when we left my house an hour ago must’ve fallen out of the car a few milesback. Because all I can think of now is that I’m way in over my head.
