Computer. Keys. Purse. Jacket…Phone?
Anna searched the living room frantically. She needed to be on the road already for her two-hour drive to a Yoakum Ridge progress meeting. But her phone had mysteriously disappeared in the last five minutes. A buzzing sound caught her attention, and she found it hiding under a dishtowel in the kitchen. The phone landed in her purse with a thud; she’d return her sister’s message later.
Coffee in hand, Anna rushed through the front door.
“Good morning, Sunshine.” Drew stood from the porch swing. The pre-dawn light shone behind him, and she jumped, spilling her entire tumbler of coffee on the porch. Thankfully, not a drop touched her clothes.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He chuckled. “I brought coffee and blueberry scones for breakfast.”
He held the cup with a Joan’s Bakery logo on the front in one hand, a white paper bag in the other. His gaze, the gold flashing bright with its intensity, never left Anna’s as he put the items on the little table.
“Joan’s isn’t even open yet,” she said.
A bright crooked smile lit his face as he took slow steps toward her. “I have connections.”
He was dressed in a light gray suit, crisp white shirt, and green tie. She breathed in his unique, spicy-clean Drew scent as he stood with his brown dress shoes toe-to-toe with her red patent heels.
“Those scones are my favorite, but I’m—”
Drew’s hands moved tentatively toward her waist, cutting off her protest. His eyes closed briefly when his fingers dug into her hips. That simple touch brought back so many feelings that Anna was still afraid to let herself explore.
One hand moved to hers, intertwining their fingers. The other brushed the side of her neck and into her hair, pulling her face inches from his. Every hard line of his body leaned delicious weight into her soft curves as his gaze silently asked for her permission. She smiled, and he matched it with a dimpled one of his own. Their bodies had changed, but the way they fit together still struck every part of her on fire.
Drew examined every inch of her face torturously slow, like he was seeing her for the very first time. Anna’s eyes fluttered closed, and Drew’s breath hitched as warm, familiar lips pressed breathtaking softness into hers. His kiss was the same incredible combination of slow and teasing but strong and demanding that made her knees weak from the very first time in that tree house. Everything in her arms hit the porch floor, and her hands brushed up his neck into his hair.
Drew’s tongue traced the seam of her lips, causing a hum from the back of his throat as she welcomed him in. Tender hands skimmed down her body, landing where they started on her hips and squeezing tight. Anna cupped his neck, pulling him closer, as his lips softened against hers with a single last lingering touch.
“Second date, complete,” he whispered, the spearmint scent of his breath pulling her under as his forehead pressed against hers. “I couldn’t wait until tonight. I’ve wanted to do that for way too long.”
Leaning against the door, she smiled up at him, tracing a thumb over his bottom lip. “So you expect me to get in my car and drive to work? After that?”
“Maybe I didn’t quite think that part through.” He raised an eyebrow, fingers drifting under her suit jacket to the small of her back.
Drew held her gaze, all the emotions she couldn’t yet acknowledge simmering between them. His hands moved to cup her face like he held something precious and fragile. Eyes squeezed tight, he leaned in, and the tenderness of his second kiss left those feelings she’d been holding back raw and exposed.
“Second kiss, pretty good too,” she murmured. Her hands smoothed his jacket where she’d been clutching it for dear life. “You know, I really do have to leave for work.”
A wicked grin played across his lips as he stepped back, and his eyes scanned slowly down Anna’s body. “And you look sexy as hell in this black suit. The fancy red shoes are doing crazy things to my brain. Are you sure you have to leave?”
She ran her hands though the softness at the base of his neck one more time and leaned away. “As much as I’d love to stay right here, I’m already going to be late.”
“Okay, I’ll go.” Drew held his hands up in surrender, then picked up her computer bag and purse, placing them in her hands. “You get to work, and don’t forget your scones.”
“Thank you.”
He hopped in his truck, rolling down the window. “I’ll see you tonight.”
She waved as he drove away, brushing her lips still tingling from his kiss. The sensation had somehow become more commanding with the years they’d spent apart.
Anna arrived only five minutes late for her meeting. Carole was very impressed with the Yoakum project and all but promised her the promotion she’d been dreaming about for years.
The familiarity of her office greeted her, as did a visitor waiting in the leather chair behind her desk. Layla’s eyes flew wide with excitement as Anna leaned on the desk next to her.
“Tell me everything about the date!” Layla squealed. “I need details, right now.”
“It went great. We had dinner, and then we sat and talked.”
“So you’re not going to give me details?” Layla pouted, eyes rolling.
The events of the evening hadn’t been incredibly remarkable, but being with Drew again, being in his arms—the evening’s significance to her heart was monumental. “I promise there weren’t any more details, not really. We had a great night together, and then this morning…”
“This morning!” she screamed. “You two were together this morning. So much for no more details.”
“No, not still together this morning. He showed up on my parents’ porch at the crack of dawn with scones and coffee. The coffee was exactly the way I take it, I might add. And…he kissed me, Layla, and it was…perfect.”
“Ahhhhhh! I love it!”
“He’s making me dinner tonight.”
Layla’s gaze drifted to the bookcase behind Anna, a clear tell she had something else to add.
“Spill it, bestie. What aren’t you saying?” Anna asked.
Layla shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “Oh, nothing. I was just hoping you might stay for dinner tonight. That’s all.”
Still no eye contact. Anna pressed further. “What aren’t you saying?”
“It’s just…you’ve been hurt so much, and you’re finally in a good place. I don’t want…I just want you to be happy.”
Anna plastered on an over-exaggerated smile. “So I’m happy.”
They laughed, and Layla grabbed her hand. “Okay, so here’s my only thought. And maybe I don’t even know what I’m talking about, but I keep remembering when you came back to school, broken to pieces after he left you over Thanksgiving. I walked into our dorm room and found you curled into a ball on the floor sobbing, and it didn’t stop for weeks, months after that. Even when you tried to hide it, I heard you crying yourself to sleep. I literally had to force you to get out of bed and go to class, Anna. I’m just worried about you. After what Mason did…you deserve happiness more than anyone I know.”
Anna moved around her desk and pulled Layla into a tight hug, tears threatening. What would she have done the last year without her?
“Say something,” Layla said. “You’re killing me here.”
“Of course, that thought has crossed my mind,” Anna whispered. “And why does he want me now? What’s different after all this time? I’m incredibly happy and incredibly terrified all at the same time.”
Layla squeezed Anna’s hand with the encouraging smile that always pulled her back from panic and doubt. “I didn’t mean to make you doubt his sincerity.”
“After what happened with Mason, all I have are doubts…about everything. And Carole practically gave me the promotion in that meeting. My life is here. His life is there. How is that supposed to ever work?”
Layla walked to the door and turned. “Life’s not perfect, Sugs. It’s messy. You know that, but it doesn’t mean this won’t work out, that you can’t find a way to make it work. He sounds genuine in his feelings. I’m sorry I brought it up.”
“Layla, he’s been nothing but genuine and sweet and sincere, but he doesn’t know everything. You know there are things he would…”
“It’s in the past, Anna. Leave it there and start fresh.”
“I’m not sure how to deal with it all. I hate how much I already feel for him. How afraid I am to tell him. How much I doubt he really loves me. But most of all, I hate feeling like at any moment, it might end.”
***
Drew
Dinner ready, table set. A pan of garlic bread warming in the oven. All Drew needed was his date. He’d obsessed over the perfect dinner all day, begged Ruby to come help him make Anna’s favorite lasagna, then threatened to kick his sister out when she wouldn’t leave.
The doorbell rang, and the way Drew threw down his oven mitts and rushed toward it was nowhere near manly, but hell if he was anywhere close to giving a damn.
He yanked the door open, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her inside. They spun in the entryway, his boot kicking the door shut behind them.
“Well, hello there.” She giggled.
“I missed you today.” Drew’s lips brushed her neck to her ear. He kissed his way back to her mouth, walking them backward until they hit the wall. He pinned her there, and the fierce way she returned his kiss turned him inside out, consumed him just as she always had. When the oven started to beep, he groaned and forced himself to pull away from her.
“I missed you too.” Anna’s legs wobbled, and he chuckled, steadying her hips with his hands.
“So I made lasagna for dinner. I hope it’s still your favorite.” He walked into the kitchen, and she followed, leaning against the island. “How was your day? Besides the exceptional kiss this morning.”
Anna smiled, and damn, did he love the way her entire face lit up when she really smiled at him.
“It was fine. I was five minutes late for my meeting this morning, thanks to someone.”
His hands caged her on either side as he leaned her into the counter top. “Was it worth it?”
Her fingers brushed up his t-shirt, gripping his arms. “I’d like to come up with some clever response here, but it’s difficult to think when you’re this close.”
“Oh yeah? I didn’t know I had that effect on you.”
“Of course you did.” She smirked, turning to grab the lasagna from the oven top. Drew noted a little extra sway in her hips as she made her way to the dinner table.
When they finished eating, Drew smacked her hand away as she tried to help clean up. Plates in the sink, he walked to the living room, where Anna stood by the fire. Her fingers stroked Roxy’s fur, but her gaze fixed on the mantle and each photo that lined its edge. His niece and nephews, his baby sister, a family photo from his parents’ anniversary party last year, and one of Luke and him at a fishing tournament they won.
Anna’s body stood stiff, her face showing signs of tension. She hadn’t even heard him join her. He wrapped his arms around her waist, her back to his chest. With small steps, he walked them backward, pulling her into his lap on the couch. Roxy snuggled into her bed by the fire.
She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder, but the tension didn’t leave her.
“You seem a little distracted, Sunshine. Everything okay?”
“I’m fine.” She slid next to Drew on the couch but didn’t look up at him.
“Something’s bothering you. Is it work?”
Silence.
Her hands fidgeted nervously in her lap as she sucked in a breath. Should he push her? Ten years ago, he would’ve pressed until she told him exactly what troubled her, but they were still getting to a place where she could trust him. He didn’t want to spook her no matter how much his protective instinct told him to take away her pain.
He stilled her hands, then nudged her chin in his direction. “Please tell me what you’re thinking about?”
“I need to understand why now?” The question was so quiet he almost didn’t hear it.
“Why now?” he asked.
“Why now? Why me?” The hurt in those green eyes that had dimmed in their last week together returned full force.
Did she really not get it? Had he hurt her so much that she couldn’t see it?
“Do you believe me when I tell you how much I regret ever losing you? If I could change one thing in my life, I’d never walk away from you that day.”
“Yes?” The question in her voice, the doubt, sliced through him. “The last memory I have of us is you telling me that you couldn’t see yourself marrying me.”
“I didn’t…that’s not what I said.” Standing, Drew paced in front of her. Every word he’d spoken that day was burned in his brain, but he never said he couldn’t see himself marrying her. He cried the entire way back to his parents’ house that day. Deep down, he knew it was mistake, but he was so afraid of it all. He ran away and lost the best thing in his life to another man.
“Anna, I hadn’t been able to get you out of my mind for weeks, to be honest, years, before I saw you at my sister’s wedding last month. When I looked in those gorgeous green eyes and saw you might still have feelings for me…it changed everything.”
She was right to question his sincerity. He’d have questioned it too if the roles were reversed. But how could he make her understand?
Drew watched her for several minutes as she examined her peach nail polish. He sat in front of her on the coffee table, her knees between his. “Do you remember Beth’s wedding?”
“Sure, I do. I was the maid of honor.”
“You were.” He pulled in a deep breath. This wasn’t something he wanted to relive, but maybe it would convince her. “And do you remember seeing me at the wedding?”
“Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?”
“I was so excited when Beth invited me, and for days before, all I could think about was what to say to you. It had been a little over a year since we’d broken up, and we’d barely spoken since then, but I missed you so much. I wanted to tell you.”
Drew’s hands covered her knees, and she finally met his gaze, tears shimmering behind those long lashes. “But you didn’t,” she whispered.
“I sat there before the ceremony, trying to work up the courage to say something, anything to you, and then I saw you walking down the aisle. You were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, and I couldn't get over what an idiot I was for ever letting you go. Then during the ceremony, you looked at me and smiled with that adorable dimple on your cheek, and I felt like it was all going to work out. You would walk up to me after the ceremony, and we’d talk and…”
“No…” She gasped, covering her mouth with both hands.
“You walked into the reception, and I knew it must be toward me, but it was into the arms of your date, Mason, and he hugged you, lifted you off the ground, and you kissed him, and I wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear.” In all honesty, he’d wanted to beat the piss out of a guy he’d never even met.
Her eyes were wide with shock. “I had no idea.”
“I waited too long, and you’d moved on. I was still determined to talk to you. I requested our song from the DJ and asked you to dance with me.”
“We did dance that night.” Her soft voice was thoughtful, as if she remembered the night as clearly as he had all these years.
“We did. I held you close, and I wanted so badly to tell you I missed you, but you looked so happy with him, and I chickened out.”
She laughed softly. “Mason was pretty pissed that I danced with you.”
“Yeah, it was the only good part about the entire night.” Drew winked, and she laughed again. “So why’d you do it? Why’d you dance with me?”
Her eyes filled with tears, holding his stare. “I missed you too.”
“I went on a few random dates after that, and you dated Mason, and at some point, I could tell things were getting serious between the two of you.” A lump formed in his throat. “Then you called me one day, out of the blue, well drunk dialed really, but hearing your voice…I had to try and win you back, even though you were with someone else. So I called you back, and I told you I missed you and…”
The tears in her eyes broke free, falling freely down her cheeks. “And I never called you back.”
“Yeah, you never called, so I decided you were over me and maybe I’d stepped over the line. The next time we talked, you were married.”
“I was.” She nodded, but the tears didn’t stop. If anything, they grew stronger, her expression full of torment.
Drew’s hands cupped her face, thumbs brushing away the falling tears. “You know I wanted to stop you.”
“Stop me?”
He looked away, embarrassment heating his face. “I tried to convince Luke you weren’t happy with Mason and I should stop you. I came to your wedding.”
“You did?”
“I did. I was so damn stupid. I stood in the back and watched. It was probably the worst moment of my life.” The stabbing pain returned to his chest as he remembered every second of watching her stand on that altar, telling another man she’d love him forever. “But you were the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen.”
Anna moved onto his lap, straddling him as she grabbed his face and kissed him hard.
He let out a surprised chuckle as she pulled away. “What was that for?”
“For being you, for loving me.” She leaned her forehead against his as more tears fell. “I’m so sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing? You have nothing to apologize for.”
Her brows knit together, eyes closed, and she held both his hands. “Drew, there are things you should know.”
He squeezed her in his arms. “We don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to tonight. I don’t even care about any of it as long as I have you.” He placed his hand on her cheek, forcing her to meet his eyes. “You asked why now.”
“I did.”
“Because it’s always been. It never ended, not for me, so it’s not restarting. Like you know those old movies? Before they had the fancy editing machines, they’d just cut and re-tape. I want to cut out all the middle stuff and re-tape to right now.”
She nodded in response, and he hugged her even closer, brushing her ear with his lips. “I know how much you’ve been hurt, that I’ve hurt you, but can you try? Can you please try and believe that I have wanted this for a very long time? I…I love you, Anna. I know you aren’t ready to say it back, and that’s okay, but I have loved you my entire life.”
“Yes,” she whispered, and he devoured her lips, pulling her flush against him as his hands threaded through her hair. The walls that had taken over his heart after losing her fell one by one as he held his Sunshine. She was the piece of his puzzle that finally fell into place where it always should have been.
“I need you to be honest with me, to tell me when something’s bothering you. I want to fix it because I want this to work for us. I don’t care what date we’re on or how long we’ve technically even been together. This is it for me. You are it for me.”
Drew leaned in slowly, teasing her bottom lip between his, hoping one day soon she really would believe the words I love you.