25. Chapter 25
Chapter 25
Remi
I t was a crisp November Sunday in Memphis, the kind where the sky was a clear, unfettered blue, and the air was just cold enough to make your breath visible.
Echo was wrapped in a thick wool scarf and a beanie that made her look irresistibly cute. We were both in need of an escape from our routines and the ghosts of our recent tensions.
I decided on Shelby Farms Park, knowing its vast expanses and scenic views would offer the harmony we sought. The drive was invigorating, the bike's engine a smooth, steady rumble beneath us, the open road a welcoming stretch of freedom. Echo held onto me, her chest against my back. I felt a comforting warmth with her wrapped around me despite the chill in the air.
"Remember our first hike?" I yelled back over the roar of the engine as we neared the park. It had been a destination for many of our school field trips.
Echo laughed, a light, infectious sound that I felt rather than heard, her chest vibrating against my back. "It was a great hike," she replied, her voice muffled against my jacket.
"Of course, because it was with me," I teased, guiding the Ducati smoothly into the park's entrance.
We parked near the lake, which reflected the autumn sky perfectly, a mirror image that made the horizon seem endless. After dismounting, I pulled out the thermos of hot cocoa stashed in a saddlebag, along with a couple of blankets.
We found a spot under an old oak tree and spread one blanket on the ground. The earth was cold, but the wool and our bodies provided plenty of insulation. I poured us each a cup of cocoa, the steam curling up into the air, mingling with the last leaves that clung stubbornly to the branches above.
Echo sighed contentedly, tucking her feet under close to my thighs under the blanket that I'd wrapped around us. "This is perfect, Remi. Thank you for bringing me here."
"It is perfect," I agreed, and her smile told me it had been exactly the right move.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Anything."
"How do you know I'm not just a challenge or guilt or I don't know, just somethin' you need to have because you lost it?"
Her question wounded me. These were her insecurities screaming aloud. No one had loved this girl—no one had shown her how amazing she was. My father had, but then he had been her aunt's boss and now hers.
"I love you, Echo."
She licked her lips nervously. "How many women have you loved?"
This was my ace in the hole. "Just you."
If her eyes could get any wider, they would have. "You don't mean that," she whispered, frightened out of her mind.
"I do."
She shook her head. "Remi. You feel bad about what I heard you saying. That's all this is."
"You don't believe that, Doll."
I wanted so badly to touch her, but that would be cheating. I could get her so hot that she'd sleep with me; she'd agree to anything—I figured that out last night, or maybe I'd always known. But I wanted her warm and willing, consciously walking into this relationship.
"You were really going to tell your mother and everyone else that we were together last night?"
"Yes."
"I'm sorry."
"Why, Doll?"
She shrugged as if suddenly tired. She set the plastic cup she'd drunk her hot chocolate from on the blanket. "Your mother hates me, Remi."
"No, she doesn't."
She scoffed. "Do you know the things she has said to me?"
I didn't, but I could imagine. Maybe Dad was right; I had to confront Mama first and understand why she had such a problem with Echo. Why she let her sleep in a sleeping bag? Why didn't she insist that Fern get Echo a bed? Small things that would cost Mama nothing. And, yet, she'd seen fit to make a little girl who'd lost her mother feel more desolate.
I loved my Mama. I did. But I also knew she was, in many ways, selfish and stuck up. She'd taught both Lani and me that we were Drakes, and that meant everything . We should have friends who are at the same social level as us—and we should date only the right people.
The Spaldings were wealthy and had been for generations. That was why Mama approved of Lani dating Tommy, though, to be fair, any mother would've asked her daughter to dump the cheating asshole. This living for society was making Mama a bad mother for Lani.
"Tell me," I urged.
She shook her head. "You love your mother, Remi, and I don't want to cause trouble."
"No matter what you say, Echo, I won't stop loving Mama."
"Maybe you'll stop loving me then," she whispered.
Fuck! Of course, she thought that.
"Not that either."
I sat up and pulled her onto my lap. "What did she say to you?"
Echo sniffled. "She told me I was worthless. You're the daughter of a crack whore. Just a waste of space ."
"How old were you?" My heart bled for the little girl she was.
"That was when I first came to stay with Aunt Fern. So, I was about eleven."
Okay, so it made it a little harder to love my mother right now. Why would she say something so ugly to a child?
"Whenever she'd see me with Lani, she'd tell me how she didn't want Lani to be influenced by my filth. She'd tell me that my crack whore mother's blood was running through my veins and I'd end up just like her."
It sounded like Mama had a problem with Echo's mother.
"Did Mama know your mother?"
"I don't know. I don't think so. Why would they know each other?"
"It just sounds so," I tried to think of the right word and finally did, " personal ."
"You think so?" Echo ruminated and then nodded. "Could be. I don't know, Remi. But it went on and on. You saw how she talked to me last night. That was polite since your father and you were there. Trust me. You can ask Lani; she was there some of the times. Once your mother slapped me when she accused me of stealing Lani's earrings. Lani found them under her pillow. She apologized. Your mama didn't."
I clutched at Echo. A part of me wanted to beg her to stop because, fuck , my mother sounded like a goddamn monster. But the part that loved her knew I needed to know.
"She hit you?"
"Several times."
"What?" I turned her face so I could look at her. "What?" I repeated inanely.
"She did. A smack here. A slap there. But your mom did that to a lot of the young help."
How did I not know this? Did my father? He wouldn't tolerate this shit. Would he? I fucking wouldn't.
"Remi, you know this shit happens in a lot of y'all rich people's houses, yeah?"
I was horrified. "No, I didn't know that."
"Sometimes, I feel like you're very na?ve."
I felt that way too. I had to talk to Lani, my father, and my mother. I could now understand better why Echo felt my words so strongly. It wasn't just what I said, it was her whole childhood being thrown back at her. It was as if no matter what she did, we Drake assholes would keep calling her names.
"I'm so sorry, Echo." I stroked her face. "Why did you keep being Lani's friend?"
"Dallas asked me to."
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "He hoped you'd be able to influence her into becoming a better person?"
"He didn't say that, but he wanted me to help her with her studies. And I know he told Lani that he wanted her to take care of me."
"Which she didn't do."
Echo leaned back against me. "She did for a while, which is why I didn't give up on her. But when we turned fourteen or fifteen, she started hanging out with Marina and Kate. She changed, became this new Lani—the one who's obsessed with what people think and looks down on others to feel better about herself."
"And I did the same thing." God ! I felt terrible. I'd let Echo down, but I'd let myself down as well. I thought I was self-made, better than the Lanis and Marinas of the world. I started my own business and was successful outside of my family…though it was my trust fund that helped me start my business. I didn't need to have two jobs like Echo when I was in university. No one ever looked at me and wondered if I was capable—they saw Echo's mixed race; they saw the African-American in her and immediately saw her as less. She had to fight harder and be better than others to make it to where she was. If anyone had a right to look down on Lani and me, it was Echo.
"No, Remi," she replied heatedly, "When we were together, we were equal. You treated me with respect."
"But then I snuck out of your house in the middle of the night, leaving you alone in bed."
"Apparently, you did that to all your women."
I rocked her in my arms. "But never again. I want to wake up every morning with you if you'll let me."
I couldn't even convince her to let me introduce her as a date to my mother, and here I was proposing marriage.
Yeah, that wasn't going to freak her out at all. She didn't just go stiff like a stone because she loved to hear my every morning statement.
I was a fucking idiot!
"Baby Doll, whenever you let me sleep over, I'd like to stay and have breakfast with you," I tried to fix my faux pas, but I didn't think it was a strong attempt.
"Your mama would rather see me dead than with you," she told me sharply.
She tried to move away, but I didn't let her. I was stronger, and I was going to take advantage of that.
"My mama is my problem, and I promise she won't be yours."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Now, she was frantically trying to get away from me.
"Stay put, Echo," I ordered, "And stop with the runnin'. I love you. I won't stop loving you. Because, Christ, if I could, I would've."
"And what happens when your mother starts to call me names again?" she demanded angrily.
"Then she loses her son and any children you and I will have."
Ah fuck! There I was with the forever crap again that she wasn't even remotely ready for.
This time, when she wanted to clamber off of me, I let her. She stood up and looked down at me, her hands on her waist. She didn't disappoint. She was madder than a wet hen.
"Are you out of your ever-lovin' mind, Remington Drake?"
"No, Doll. I'm in control of all my—"
"Your mama will kill me and then proceed to kill you, no matter how much she loves you if she finds out that you want to procreate with me."
I cocked an eyebrow because I was a moron who didn't know how to protect myself from a very angry woman.
"Procreate? You scientists talk funny."
"Remi," she yelled. "We haven't even dated properly, and you're weaving—"
"Wedding plans?"
I leaned back on the blanket and laid down. I opened my arms. "Come here, Doll."
"You're out of your mind," she snarled.
"I need some sugar, darlin'."
The look she gave me would've scared a lesser man. It only shrunk my balls by half.
"I love you, Echo. I'm fighting to keep you in my life for you to see me as a good man who is worthy of you. I'm baring my soul for you here, Doll; give me the fuckin' time of day, will ya?"
It took a good minute of her breathing hard, but ultimately, the universe threw me a bone, and she relented.
I held her again, and this time, when we talked, I felt some of the old barriers melt away.
We stopped talking about the serious stuff and shifted to our work lives—the funny things that happened to both of us. Echo laughed more frequently, her gaze lingered longer, and in those shared glances, I felt a connection rekindling, something I had feared was lost to us.
When the sun began its descent, casting long shadows over the grass, Echo leaned her head against my shoulder. "I missed this; missed when we used to sit on my porch swing," she murmured.
"I did, too," I confessed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Let's not ever stop doing this."
"I need time," she pleaded, her hand finding mine under the blanket, our fingers intertwining naturally.
"Take all the time you want; as long as you let me hold you through it, I won't be an ass about it."
"Okay," she whispered and burrowed into me.
We watched the sunset in silence; the sky painted with strokes of pink and orange, the day closing on a moment of simple joy and newfound promises. In the dwindling light, I felt hopeful, the kind of hope that feels like the first warm day after a long winter, promising new beginnings just on the horizon.