Chapter 16 Drew
DREW
I’m fussing in the barn, clearing up my stuff, finding new places for my paint brushes and palette, and checking the painting in its half-finished form.
I don’t want to go back to the Lodge, but I don’t really have a choice.
My bag is there. In my office.
I’m not going to be lucky twice in a row.
But I can’t just hide out here forever. Gathering my courage, I stomp out into the snow, it’s not that deep today, and charge inside.
I immediately see Gabe, pacing by the front desk.
My heart kicks at my breastbone as hot and cold war with each other in my gut.
He turns and catches my gaze, and I want to freeze but don’t. The plan is to breeze by him without giving the time of day.
It doesn’t work.
He’s on my heels, hand catching my elbow and stopping me in the hallway to our offices.
His touch makes my heart beat even faster with anger, rejection, and desire. I hate it.
“Stop pretending you’re not mad.”
“I’m not pretending anything.” I can barely bite the words out. Energy vibrates inside me so hard that I can barely contain myself.
“You’re breathing like you want to scream at me.” His voice is in my ear. Low. Intimate. Flashing me back to how his mouth had been on mine, his hand titling my face to kiss me deeper.
I spin on him, glaring. I have to stack my walls higher, unused to needing them with him. “Leave me alone, Gabe.”
“That’s not what you actually want.”
“Yeah? You think you’re such an expert on what I want. But you still think I’m a kid. The perfect princess of Pinebrook. But I’m not her anymore. And it’s not right for you to try to make me her again.”
Pulling free of him, I dip into my office and grab my things.
Gabe stands in the door silently watching me. I hate how gorgeous he is, even with the sad tilt to his features.
Golden-brown eyes, the same ones I’ve confessed to a million times.
When I’m back at the door, ready to push past him, he bows his head. “I never thought of you that way. Not even back then.”
The makeshift armor I hastily strapped on cracks so easily at his words. I struggle to hold it in place.
Gabe shifts and catches my eyes.
“Maybe you’re not the one who really knows me.” With that he ambles away, head down, shoulders hunched, and it tears at my heart more than it makes me mad.
It takes me a second to catch my breath, but I shake it off and head home to gather myself completely before Adam comes to pick me up for our date.
My sister’s home when I walk through the front door. Her dark hair is up in two spiky buns that remind me of the ears she used to wear as a pre-teen.
The ones I stole and broke by accident, prompting her five-day campaign for a lock on her bedroom door.
“More rumors going around about you.” Daisy crosses her arms and gives me a pointed look. “Adam. Greyson. And Gabe? Got a thing for older dudes, don’t you?”
A blush fires in my cheeks as I look around for Mom and Dad.
Daisy rolls her eyes. “They’re not home.”
Sucking in a big breath, I blow it out.
Her raised brow and meaningful look has me cracking.
The pressure to confess what’s going on to someone breaks me down. Because if anyone will understand, it’s my big sister. She’s had far more rebellions than I ever did.
“I don’t know what everyone’s saying, but it’s true. Adam, Greyson, and Gabe. Kind of.”
“Kind of? How is it kind of?”
I tell her what he said, how I stormed out, and the guilt trip he laid on me before he walked away just twenty minutes ago.
The softening of her eyes has me turning away.
I just can’t deal with my feelings for him right now.
“I have a date with Adam tonight…”
“And you didn’t start there?”
Huffing, I plant my hands on my hips. “Don’t even. You know you wanted to hear about Gabe first.”
Daisy tilts her head to the side and smiles. “Of course, I did. Come on. I’m helping.”
She takes my hand and drags me upstairs to my room, opening my closet and ruffling through the clothes I’ve hastily thrown in there.
I didn’t pack everything from the apartment I rented in the city, but I would have to decide if I want to go get the rest of my things before the new year.
“I’m going to dress you, and you’re going to talk. Because honestly, Adam I can see. He’s totally the kind of man I can see being interested in you and your newfound confidence, but Greyson? Wasn’t he your coach? How did that happen?”
So, I tell her. All of it since I’ve returned to Pinebrook amongst trying things on and having her reject them.
When she sprints off to her room and returns with her own things to try on, I feel like a little girl again. I’d always wanted to be more like Daisy when we were kids.
Finally, when she’s chosen a pair of my tight jeans and one of her tops, she has me sit so that she can brush powders across my skin.
“Now, tell me about why you came home.”
The sigh puffing up my chest hurts, and she must notice because she crouches down in front of me and grabs my hands.
“Don’t let the man defeat you. Or the town. You have a right to tell the story from your perspective.”
Nodding, I finally find my voice. “His name is Nick. My…ex?”
“Yes. Whether he was married or not, he is still your ex.”
I laugh sadly. Yeah. Sure. “Well, I didn’t know he was married.”
“Obviously.” Daisy’s matter of fact response fills me with a much-needed absolution.
“He worked at the publishing company, the head of his department—not my department but an adjacent one. I’d see him around all the time, and he was…
good looking. There’s something about a man who can dress himself.
” Although now that I think of it, his wife probably dressed him.
“Nick was coy with me at first, sneaking glances, little exchanges, and they were always drenched in so much tension that even I couldn’t miss it. ”
Daisy’s smile reaffirms how oblivious I’ve been about guys for most of my life.
“It started with drinks with others from the office, and they all petered out long before the two of us were tired. Then it was drinks alone. Dinner. Nights at my place. But we had to be quiet about it at work for what I thought was to maintain professional boundaries.”
Daisy stops her ministrations on my face to send me a look. “Red flags flying all over the place in this story.”
“Well, it’s obvious why now, but I didn’t know at the time.”
My sister makes a neutral noise but goes back to her makeup case and instructs me to blink into her mascara wand.
I do before I tell her the hardest part of the story.
“My last day of work…we’d snuck into a janitor’s closet to make out. It’s the same one we used on occasion to sneak kisses and touches.”
“And you were caught.”
I nod.
“By who?”
This is the part that’s hard to get out because it’s the most embarrassing piece of the puzzle. “By his father-in-law, the CFO.”
“What? No.” Daisy’s utter and horrified shock brings back the echoes of those feelings. “The moment I heard daughter and wife, I was out of there. I bolted. Grabbed my stuff and simply ran out of the building. Packed my things. Came home with my tail between my legs.”
A heavy silence settles between us as tears threaten to ruin all of Daisy’s hard work.
“What an utter pig. You didn’t deserve that.”
Finally, I can agree with her. I wish I hadn’t been such a coward, but I didn’t know what else to do. God, what must our parents think of the whole thing? I couldn’t tell them any of it. Except that I didn’t know Nick was married when we started seeing each other.
“Alright. Listen. Fuck this Nick douchebag. Focus on Adam. From what you’ve told me, he’s not going to let you get away with running from him.”
I laugh. She’s hit that nail on the head.
“And I know he’s rich and all that, but he’s done a lot for this town. For the people who live here, not just his bottom line. So, give him a real chance.”
“Sure.”
“Sure?”
I shrug. “What about—”
I wave around me as if I can encapsulate all my worries with the gesture.
“What about the Kincaid brothers, you mean?”
A blush hits my cheeks with such ferocity that I don’t really need to answer that question. Daisy sighs, sits behind me, and grabs my hand in hers for a reassuring squeeze. “Just be honest with them, and the rest will shake out the way it’s supposed to. Go have fun.”
“Fun seems to get me in trouble.”
“No, people taking advantage of you gets you in trouble. None of this shit is your fault. Just like last time. Just because you’re not the innocent Pinebrook Princess anymore doesn’t mean you’re not good.”
I take that nugget with me—I’m still a good person even if I’m not perfect—when Adam arrives for our date. I meet him at the door before my parents can answer it.
His fine navy blue coat brings out the green in his eyes, which are twinkling at me in the dying sunshine. Adam’s smile is small but still dazzling. “Afraid to let me meet your parents?”
“I’m pretty sure you’ve already met my parents. And this is our first date, I’m not seventeen. Yeah? So let’s skip that part.”
Adam laughs. It’s big and booming and churns warmth low in my belly.
I bite my lip at him, and he extends his elbow. Taking it, I let him escort me out to his Mercedes Benz SUV, open my door for me, and hand me inside. He even buckles me in, which has him leaning across me and depositing his fresh scent in my space.
The sudden urge to sink my teeth into his skin hits me.
But he’s closing my door before I can act, and he climbs behind the wheel a few seconds later. After backing out of the driveway, he takes my hand and links our fingers together.
I like that he doesn’t push me to talk. I’ve always been a fan of quiet. The ability to settle without the need to fill the silence. To be content with that.
It’s a natural culmination from what Gabe and I built in my youth.
And the thought of him makes me bristle.
I shouldn’t be thinking about him while I’m on a date.
Adam squeezes my hand, a silent question. Am I alright?
“So, where are you taking me?”
His brilliant smile resurfaces. “To one of my favorite spots.”
“Cryptic.”