Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CAITLIN
“Drew!”
The second Drew and I step out of his truck in the parking lot of one of the local high schools, a chaotic blur of blonde hair and electric energy comes running over and throws herself at Drew.
He catches her on the fly, wrapping his arms around her.
She does the same, and when his eyes meet mine over the top of her head, the look on his face is longing and regret mixed with a kind of joy that makes my chest ache.
I thought I understood how much having his sister back in his life after all these years meant to him, but it turns out I didn’t have a clue.
When Drew eases back, he leans in and kisses her cheek. “Happy to see you, Aves. I brought someone for you to meet.”
With a squeal, Avery whips around, and when she sees me, she launches herself at me too, wrapping her arms around my neck in a tight hug. “Holy shit, you’re Caitlin,” she shrieks. “You look exactly the way he described you.”
Laughing, I pull back and glance over at Drew, who’s looking at us with a giant grin. “Have you been talking about me, Pretty Boy?”
“He mentions you every time I talk to him,” Avery says, linking her arm through Drew’s and grinning up at him. “But he seems hellbent on keeping you from me, so I pretty much assumed he made you up.”
“I just felt like maybe it wasn’t right to subject her to your particular brand of chaos so soon.” Drew winks at me. “She’s my girlfriend now, so I want to keep her.”
“Oh my god,” Avery says dramatically. “Your girlfriend! Have you ever even had one of those or have you spent too much time posting thirst traps on social media and sleeping your way through the cleat chasers of the National Football League?” She winces, turning to me.
“Ugh, sorry, I tend not to have any kind of filter, ever. I guess maybe it’s not proper etiquette or whatever to mention Drew’s former conquests to his current girlfriend. ”
I slide my eyes to Drew, giving him a sly smile. “It doesn’t bother me. I know what he was like.”
Drew shrugs, and with a lazy grin, drapes his arm around my shoulder. “Was being the operative word, Aves. I’m a one-woman kind of guy now.”
Despite the fact that we just had the what are we conversation ten minutes ago, my heart almost gives out at the easy confession from the man who’s spent most of his adult life closed off to anything resembling commitment, and Avery presses a hand to her chest in an exaggerated swoon.
“Oh my god. Who knew a guy who throws a football and gets mowed down by giant men for a living could be so freaking romantic?”
I watch as the two of them banter back and forth, the ease between them so palpable I would never guess they only spent a year together when they were young and then were apart for so long.
That she only came back into his life eight months ago and they’re still getting to know each other again.
I’m not surprised though. No one understands the mysterious, ineffable ties of family both born and found the way mine does, and it’s so obvious Drew is searching for the kind of permanence a family can provide, even if he can’t quite see it yet.
I hope, when the time is right, he can share mine. And maybe Avery can too.
It’s probably too early for these kinds of thoughts, but there they are anyway. There’s more of my grandma and my parents in me than I thought because these two are mine now, and I never want to let them go.
“So, are you guys just stopping by to say hi or are you hanging for the main event? You at least have to wait until we get our trunk set up.” Avery looks at me. “The kids are all under twelve, so we’re doing a whole Toy Story situation. It’s going to be so badass.”
I notice for the first time she’s dressed in a white button-down shirt with yellow cuffs and cow-printed pants layered under denim shorts, her long hair braided down her back and secured with a yellow bow. “You make an amazing Jessie.”
Avery beams at me. “Right? Except I’m missing my partner in crime. The guy who was supposed to play Woody and a whole bunch of other people have the flu, so we’re down some of our toys, which totally sucks.”
“You sure about that?” Drew asks, his voice full of mischief. Completely sexy.
Avery whirls on him. “What did you do?”
Drew smirks at her. “Why do you assume I did something?”
She rolls her eyes, and the look is so exasperated teenager I can’t help but laugh.
“Over the past eight months, you’ve delivered different flavors of homemade sourdough to my door twice a week, given me a limited edition version of the most popular phone on the planet because your friend’s dad invented it and you asked for an extra one for me, sent me more Renegades gear with your name and number on it than any person should reasonably own, took me shopping for a new computer when I mentioned briefly mine was acting up, sent me a math tutor because calculus is a bitch and I suck at it, and offered to take me to look at colleges when I told you I hadn’t yet.
You always do something. You live to do something. ”
I’m listening to Avery, but my eyes are on Drew, so I watch as his face goes a little red, like he’s embarrassed to have done all these things.
Like he didn’t mean for anyone else to find out about it.
Maddy was right when she said Drew is a caretaker right down to his bones, and as I look at Avery and see her looking at Drew like he hung the moon, I think how lucky we both are that we get to be cared for by him.
“Okay, fine, I definitely did a thing.” Drew opens the back door of his truck and takes out one of the bags stashed there, opening it to show Avery. I glance in too and catch a glimpse of what looks like a yellow and red plaid shirt. “One cowboy sidekick, at your service.”
Avery tosses back her head and cackles. “You’re going to be the Woody to my Jessie to hand out candy to kids?”
He shrugs like it’s no big deal. “Sure. I love kids. I brought you a Bo Peep too,” he says, tossing me a grin.
He looks so satisfied with himself I laugh again.
Six-months-ago Caitlin would never even consider dressing up like a toy in a parking lot full of high schoolers, but today Caitlin is wondering where the best place is to change.
I think I like today Caitlin. I hope she can stick around for a while.
I glance at Drew and raise an eyebrow. “Please tell me it’s Bo Peep circa Toy Story 4. ”
He scoffs. “Like you would be any Bo Peep except for the fearless and capable leader version of her.” He glances down at the Woody costume in his hands and then back to me, his expression going suddenly serious.
“The version of her who helps Woody reconsider who he is at his core. Who makes him understand the way he’s been living isn’t the only way to be.
That there can be happiness on the other side. ”
Drew’s brown eyes lock on mine, and for a second, the rest of the parking lot disappears and it’s only us. Just him and me and my body buzzing with the inextricable, delicious pull between us that started in the car and has just gotten stronger.
I want this man, I think. And not just now.
Always. It feels like I’ve been searching for years, and I’ve finally found my place to be.
Like he can read my mind, Drew’s eyes go dark and a little intense, swirling with heat and longing and purpose, like his only goal in life is to make me his, and god, I want that.
I want it so much. A month is such a long time, and I’m buzzing with need for him.
He takes a step towards me and then another, and I’m drawn to him, like he’s my true north, the fixed point to which I will always return, no matter how far I stray.
Although, I suspect he won’t let me stray very far at all, and I find I’m okay with that.
Really, really okay. We’re less than a foot apart now and I can already practically taste him, feel his lips on mine.
“Who’s wearing all the other costumes?”
Avery’s voice yanks us both out of our lust haze, and I blink with the effort of pulling myself back to the moment and my mind out of a place that involves a bed and tangled sheets and moans and pants and whispered confessions in the dark.
“What?” Drew asks, his voice a little breathy, like he’s having trouble coming back to earth too, and something about that delights me.
“The costumes,” Avery says slowly with a what the fuck is wrong with you tone in her voice, giving him the kind of attitude-filled eyeroll only a seventeen-year-old girl can properly muster. “You have like six of them, but there are only three of us and I already have a costume.”
Drew reaches out and takes my hand like he needs the connection to steady himself after whatever that just was and turns to Avery, pasting on an easy expression. “You said your crew was decimated by the flu, so I called in some reinforcements.”
Avery narrows her eyes at him. “What kind of reinforcements?”
The words are barely out of her mouth when three cars turn into the lot and aim right for us, parking in the spots next to Drew’s truck. All the doors open, and in an instant, what looks like half the Renegades roster and assorted other people pile out.
“Please tell me no one claimed Buzz Lightyear yet!” Tyler comes bounding over to us with a grin. “His costume is so fucking cool. I need it. Hey, Cait.” He wraps an arm around me and squeezes, and if he’s surprised to see me here, he definitely doesn’t show it.
“I really think I should get to be Buzz Lightyear.” Cam saunters over, hands in his pockets, giving Tyler a once-over. “You’re way more Slinky Dog than courageous and loyal space ranger.”
“You brought your football team?” Avery’s eyes are wide as she looks between Tyler and Cam, then to the rest of the enormous men standing around debating which Toy Story character is their most authentic personality. “To my school trunk-or-treat?”
Drew shrugs like it’s no big deal that a bunch of the most famous athletes in the city are now milling around the parking lot laughing and joking and generally acting like overgrown versions of the kids we’re about to hand out candy to.
“You said you needed help. I brought help. Hey, guys?” The note of hesitation in Drew’s voice has Tyler and Cam immediately turning to flank him, as the rest of the players give him their full attention.
“This is my…um…” He looks at Avery and then back at his friends, hesitating like he’s not sure what to call her.
“His sister,” Avery says, voice confident and sure, and a wave of emotion crosses Drew’s expression. Settles there, and he grips my hand even tighter.
If Tyler and Cam are surprised to meet a sister Drew’s never mentioned and who they didn’t know existed until this very second, they don’t show it.
They greet her like she’s their own, gushing over the replica of Andy’s room she and her friends recreated in one of their trunks, and donning the costumes Drew brought with enthusiasm and downright glee.
In the midst of the chaos, Drew finds me, sliding his arms around my shoulders and tugging my body to his, burying his face in my hair. “I really love this day,” he says, his voice thick with feeling.
I really love you.
Resting my head on his chest, I listen to the strong beat of his heart, feeling the matching rhythm in my own. “It’s a really good day.”
Drew lets out a happy little sigh, pulling me closer. “Every day I get to be with you is a really good day.”