Chapter 21
twenty-one
GEORGIE
From the moment Drew opened the door yesterday I’ve been on tenterhooks.
After he loved me hard enough to rattle both our bones, he left for work, and I stayed curled up in his bed, surrounded by his scent, until he got home in the early hours of this morning.
And when he slipped into bed behind me, cold from being outside for the last few hours of his shift, I rolled over and loved him back just as hard.
Three orgasms for me, two for him, and the worry I’d lived with before finding him yesterday, dropped me into an exhausted sleep.
Except sleeping like the dead didn’t help soothe my anxiety.
This morning my nerves were so frazzled I woke with a churning belly and I couldn’t stand the thought of eating. But I swallowed back the bile along with a few bites of the delicious breakfast burritos Drew made us anyway, because I didn’t want him to worry.
Well, no more than he already is about what Haynes wants to talk to him about.
And he knows I know some of it.
I haven’t said anything.
I wanted to.
Wanted to tell him his greatest wish may already be a reality except I didn’t want to overstep and like I told him, I don’t have all the information. Telling half the story isn’t good when it comes to this.
He hasn’t pushed for what I know and I’m grateful for that. Because if he’d asked me to tell him the truth, I would have. In a heartbeat.
“You doing okay?” Drew frowns over at me.
He’s driving toward my place. Marnie is meeting us there. She’s bringing her full arsenal of jewelry making supplies and will stay at the house with Lily while we talk with Haynes.
“I’m okay. Worried about you more than anything.”
Which is true. I don’t know how he’ll react and I don’t know if I should reassure him now, tell him nothing he learns today changes the way I feel. Or what I want for our future.
“I love that you care enough to be worried about me, but I’d prefer it if it didn’t put you off your food.”
A smile tugs at my lips. “You noticed that, huh?”
“Yeah.” He doesn’t look at me again, his focus on the road in front of us. “So how’s this going to go? You didn’t tell me what you organized.”
“Marnie is going to come over to Granny’s house to hang out with Lily while you talk?—”
“We.”
“What?”
“We’re talking to him. You said yes, so we’re a package deal now.”
I press my lips together to keep from blurting out he could be a package deal without me. It’s been so hard to keep this from him. I know neither he, nor Haynes, would be upset if I spilled the beans but I don’t think it’s my place.
“Georgie?”
“Yes. Okay. We. Marnie will hang with Lily while we talk to Haynes.”
“Then we’ll go to the courthouse to find out what we need to do to get married.”
A smile doesn’t just pull at my lips now, it stretches them wide. “Yes.”
“After we do that, I want to check in with Dennis, see how Sydney is doing after that tourist threw his coffee at her yesterday.”
“I messaged Ann earlier to see if she knew about what happened. She sent a reply when you were in the shower. Apparently she’s well informed because she said Doc saw Sydney and she’ll be okay. It could have been a lot worse.”
“I’ll still give him a call.”
“Ask him if they need us to do anything for them. Get groceries or cook some easy reheat meals.”
“Great minds think alike.” He shoots me a grin.
For the next couple of turns we’re quiet. The streets around the center of town are busy with tourists and locals and instead of talking I admire the town I never want to leave. The one I’m going to live in with my husband .
My thoughts have me looking at Drew. Watching the way he handles the truck, his hands firm on the wheel, his eyes moving quickly to take in everything around him.
I’ve gone back to looking out the passenger window when his voice has my head whipping back around.
“Is it bad that I want to turn the truck around and go home? Pretend he never showed up in Evergreen Lake?”
“No.”
“Am I going to want to do it the second he finishes talking?”
“I don’t know.”
“Would you want to leave if it was you?”
I open my mouth to speak but think better of it. His question deserves serious consideration and I won’t short-change him in this situation. It’s far too important.
“Never mind. We’re here.”
He pulls up to the curb in front of Granny’s house and puts the truck in park. He takes his time switching off the engine and I take my cues from him. This is his situation, I’m here to support him but he needs to take the lead.
His hands flex, grip the wheel tightly, his knuckles bleeding of their normal color.
Reaching over, I place my hand on the forearm closest to me. “It’ll be okay. Whatever happens, I’ll be right beside you. And I don’t know what I would do if I were in your position. But however you react, whatever emotions you have, are yours, and valid whatever they are. Even if you walk away, I know you won’t stay away.”
His gaze meets mine. “How can you be sure?”
I shrug. “I just am.”
“Marnie’s already here.”
I turn toward the house. Sure enough, Marnie is on the front porch, Lily’s hand in hers. “Oh, I think they’re leaving,” I murmur with a frown.
Unbuckling my belt, I pop the door and hop out. Putting on what I hope is my brightest smile because I don’t want Lily to think anything is wrong, I walk up the path to meet them.
“Where are you two off to?”
“We’re going to walk to town and visit Santa’s Closet. Lily hasn’t been yet, and I told her I’d love to go with her.”
Marnie’s smile is genuine, and I don’t know what it is, but she seems older somehow, more mature. I push those thoughts aside and focus on Lily.
“You’ll have a great time at Santa’s Closet.”
“I know. Marnie said we can go to her favorite place to get hot chocolate to drink on the walk back. Then she’s going to show me how to make a necklace.”
“I love hot chocolate! And making a necklace sounds like fun.”
“Come on, Lily. If we hurry, we’ll have time to check out the town Christmas tree too.” Marnie offers me and Drew a sympathetic smile before leading Lily toward the street explaining about the hand-painted balls that mysteriously turn up on the tree each year.
I know there are three balls now. There was quite a bit of chatter about them yesterday morning in the library. This one is of last year’s tree and several of the town’s male residents being trapped under it when they tried to take it down.
I remember laughing so hard when it happened. There’s even a video of it on the internet. I’m not surprised it ended up being featured on a Christmas ball.
Marnie and Lily are almost out of sight now and I know there’s no more stalling. It’s time for Drew to learn the truth. And it’s time for me to pull on my big girl panties and be there for him when he does.
I have to force myself to turn to Drew because I’m dreading the next few minutes, but I do and offer him a smile I hope is reassuring—supportive.
“Let’s get this over with,” he growls as he marches past me and up the porch steps.
Taking a deep breath, I follow to find Haynes holding the door open for us. “Thanks for coming,” he says, a strained smile on his face.
Drew grunts his reply and all I can do is offer a small smile. The manners my parents and Granny instilled in me forgotten in the face of my wish to be somewhere else, anywhere but here right now.
And if I don’t really want to be here, how does Drew feel?
Although currently he’s in blissful ignorance as to the reason for our visit, and I can’t imagine how much worse it might get when he discovers the why of this meeting.
Once inside, I can’t decide where to go.
This is Granny’s house—my home—and yet I’m a visitor. Haynes is our host.
“I’ve got coffee on in the kitchen. Cold drinks in the fridge. We can sit wherever you want to after.” Haynes passes us and leads the way.
I glance at Drew. His face lacks emotion, his scowl the one I’ve seen him use when he deals with a possible law breaker. I want to hold him, wrap my arms around him and grip him tight while Haynes explains why he’s come to Evergreen Lake.
Drew places a hand on my lower back and urges me to follow Haynes. With another fortifying breath, I head for the kitchen, each step heavy with dread.
Haynes has mugs and glasses out on the counter beside a coffee machine I’ve never seen.
He must see me looking because he says, “I brought it with me. There’s no way I can make it through the day without coffee when Lily has us up before six.”
At the mention of his daughter Drew jerks to a stop. He stares at Haynes for a few seconds before asking a question I didn’t think he cared about.
“What happened to Jen?”
“She’s dead.”
“I heard. How?”
Haynes looks at his feet and blows out a harsh breath. “Overdose.”
“What the fuck!”
Haynes shrugs then brings his head up; the rage in his eyes has me taking as step back, bumping into Drew.
“I don’t know when she started using, if she’d always done it or if having a child she didn’t want had her looking for an escape. The first time I found her drugged out of her head, I took Lily and left.”
He swallows hard, his fists clenching at his sides.
“She promised it was a once off, she wouldn’t do it again.” He shakes his head. “She just got better at hiding it after that.”
“How long ago did she die?” Drew asks, sliding his arm around my waist and pulling me tighter against him, almost like a shield from Haynes’s words.
“Just over a year ago. Although I’ve had sole custody of Lily since she was three.”
“How old is she now?” I ask before I can stop myself.
“Eight going on eighteen.” Haynes laughs. “Some days I think she’s smarter than me.”
He sounds so proud of her. His love for a child I know isn’t his biological child blazing in his eyes.
“Why are you here?” Drew’s blunt tone has me and Haynes straightening.
Me because I’m dreading Drew’s reaction to the news he’s about to receive.
And Haynes because I’m sure he’s scared he’s going to lose Lily.
“Jen lied about Lily.”
The kitchen is silent except for the hum of the refrigerator.
When Haynes doesn’t add any more information, I have the urge to reach out and slap him upside the head.
“In my experience she lied about most things. What about Lily did she lie about?”
I wrap my arms around my middle, covering the arm Drew has around me. If he bolts, I’m ready to stop him. Well, attempt to at least.
“I’m not Lily’s biological father.”
I feel Drew shake his head. “I don’t see why I need to know that.”
“I think she’s yours.”
Drew goes statue still for almost a minute and I hold my breath. Brace for whatever he does.
But what he does has me wondering if the news that he could be a father has broken him.
He jerks against me and a burst of hysterical laughter rattles through my back, blasts past my ear, and fills the room.