Chapter 31
EMILIA
Winston and I waited in line at my veterinarian’s front desk behind a very curious puppy who kept craning his neck up towards Winston’s soft travel bag.
“You’ve never smelled anything like this, have you?” I asked the little coffee-colored pup.
His person turned around. The young woman smiled at me and nodded towards the bag. “Oh, do you have a kitten in there?”
I laughed. “Not quite, but my buddy is very friendly. Is it okay if they meet?”
“Of course, this is a well-puppy visit, and I’m all for socialization,” she said. “The more new and positive experiences, the better!”
I unzipped the bag and placed Winston on the ground in front of the puppy, who leapt backwards in shock when Win poked his head out of his shell.
“Oh my gosh, a turtle! Bailey, what do you think of that?”
I didn’t bother correcting her. The puppy jumped and twisted in front of a typically watchful Winston until the receptionist called my name.
“That’s us,” I said as I tucked Win back in his bag. “Good luck, Bailey.”
“Hi, Emilia, just wanted to give you a print out of your invoice,” the receptionist said as she slid the paper across the desk towards me.
I frowned at the ‘paid’ stamp on it. The invoice was for three hundred seventy five dollars that I absolutely had not paid them. At least… I didn’t think I had?
“Hold on. Do you have my card on file or something?”
She shook her head. “We do not. Your friend told us that he’s sponsoring Winston’s care from this point on, so you won’t have to worry about it. He also mentioned that he’s setting Winston up with insurance, but that’s not fully processed yet.”
My heart thumped in my chest even as I tried to talk myself out of getting excited about what she meant. “My friend?”
“Uh-huh,” she tapped on the keyboard in front of her and squinted at the screen. “A Mr. Ashford?”
My mouth dropped open but I had to play it off. “Oh, okay. That’s uh … that’s nice.”
“Sure is,” she paused to look up at me. “The older Winston gets the more expensive his care is going to become. This friend of yours seemed very committed to making sure your old man gets the best possible treatment for the rest of his life.”
“Yup, it’s great,” I said simply, because I was so shocked that I couldn’t come up with anything else.
I walked outside in a daze and got into my hot car, not even bothering to crank the AC because I was having an out-of-body experience.
Win probably preferred the warmth anyway.
I needed to call Drew and thank him for his generosity before I did anything else, but also to let him know that it wasn’t necessary and that it didn’t change anything between us.
He couldn’t gift his way back into my life. Granted, this was a creative attempt, but using Winston as an onramp to my life wasn’t going to work with me.
“Wish me luck,” I said to Win as I dialed Drew’s number.
He picked up the call immediately. “Hi, Emilia.”
The warmth in his voice triggered a Pavlovian response in me, a jolt of joy to my heart like none of the bullshit had happened between us. My body might want to betray me but my brain knew better.
Offering to take care of Winston was a lovely gesture but nothing had changed between us.
“Hi. Sorry to bother you but I wanted to thank you for what you did for Winston. That’s very generous. So much so that I don’t feel comfortable taking it.”
“What? Why wouldn’t you—”
“Thanks to all my new clients, I can afford his care,” I said quickly.
I needed to get off the phone quickly, because the longer I was in his orbit the weaker I felt. I turned on the AC.
“Emilia, no, I didn’t mean it as any kind of slight on you. I know you’d do anything for Winston,” he stammered. “It’s just that I wanted to do something for him, for both of you, to show that I’m invested in his wellbeing.”
“We appreciate it, but it’s not necessary.”
He sighed. “I understand that. But I wanted to do it. I really came to care for that guy, so if I’m not allowed to be an active participant in his life at the very least I can try to make sure he has everything he needs to be comfortable. Please, Emilia. Let me do this for him.”
“What do you mean ‘not allowed’?” I asked sharply. “Are you trying to reframe what happened between us to make me the bad guy?”
Drew sighed harder. “No, not at all, I misspoke. It’s just that I’m so damn nervous talking to you right now.”
I made a surprised noise. Drew Ashford, nervous?
“I know that you hate me,” he said softly. “I get it.”
“Stop. I don’t hate anyone.”
“Even Dorian?”
I laughed despite myself. “Not even him. Strongly dislike, maybe—but that’s as far as I’ll go. Especially since he really did turn out a solid show.”
“Yeah, we never got the chance to talk about it,” Drew replied. “It was good, huh? Made the resort look incredible.” He paused. “And us.”
I cleared my throat. No. He wasn’t allowed to do a show recap with me like everything was normal.
“It was fine,” I said. “Anyway, thank you for your offer to look after Winston but I’ve got it from now on.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am. Thank you for taking care of today, but that’ll have to be it when it comes to Ashford favors.”
“The insurance package I picked out for him is already being processed,” he said.
“Cancel it,” I insisted. “We’re good, Drew, there’s no need to swoop in and be a white knight.”
“Well, hold on,” he said. “I hate to tell you, but there’s more.”
I fell back against the car seat. “What does that mean?”
“Are you planning to go to your house any time soon?”
“What business is it of yours?” I demanded.
“Whoa, stand down,” Drew replied quickly. “I was just curious.”
I suppose I was being a little snippy. But he deserved it.
“As a matter of fact, I was going to do a drive-by tomorrow to try to get a completion date out of the contractor. I think Nora is getting a little sick of having us underfoot.”
“Oh, okay,” Drew’s voice relaxed a little.
“Should I be worried?” I asked cautiously. “Did Arlo call you about a problem instead of me?”
“No, not at all.”
We both went silent, and even though the AC was now cranked up, I still felt feverish.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I finally asked.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” he replied cryptically. “I guess we’ll talk again at some point.”
And didn’t that sound fantastically ominous.
“Fine, if you’re not going to tell me what’s going on I’ll drive over now and find out for myself,” I huffed and disconnected the call.
I eased onto the road and could feel a furrow creasing my forehead.
“What the hell did he do now?” I muttered to Winston, my ever-attentive bestie. “He can’t just buy his way back into my life, you know? Sure, it was nice that he offered to be your hero, but we don’t need him. It’s you and me, kid.”
Even as I spoke the words I knew that I didn’t believe them.
“Okay, so I miss Drew, and hearing his voice has reopened the wound that was just starting to heal over.” I shook my head. “No, that was a lie, because I wasn’t even close to healing. But I am getting closer every day that he’s out of my life, and sooner or later, I will start to believe it.”
Which was why his attempt to butt back in had me talking to myself and gesturing wildly with one hand while the other gripped the steering wheel.
No, I was talking to Winston. “Talking to a pet is completely normal and not at all something a crazy lady would do. Right, Win?”
By the time we got to my part of town I’d worked my way out of my Drew-stress and felt totally fine.
Until I pulled up to the house.
“What the …”
It was my grandfather’s house, but I almost couldn’t recognize it with no blue tarp covering the left half of the roof and utter absence of stray wood and cinder block piles dotting the yard.
The driveway was blissfully empty—not a beat-up van or pick-up truck to be found—which meant that I could pull all the way up to the back door and without having to step over an abandoned table saw or random nails.
The house wasn’t just devoid of crews, it looked …
perfect. Like, ready for a party-perfect, with flawless emerald sod in the front yard instead of dirt, and new shrubs beneath the windows.
There was an overflowing planter I’d never seen on the front porch, bursting with orange and purple blooms. The front steps were in one piece – I wouldn’t have to worry about falling through them now – and the lower brick facade was pressure washed and restored to its original glory.
“Dude, you’ve gotta see this,” I said to Winston as I hurriedly unzipped his bag. I held him up and panned around the yard. “Can you believe it?”
Based on the phone call I knew exactly who I had to thank for the eye popping improvements, but I needed time to take them all in before hearing his voice again.
Because this gesture was a whopper.
I tucked Win against my body, fished out my key and opened the front door.
“Oh my god,” I sighed as I looked around the gleaming space. “How did he do this?”
It looked like a model home. The floor was installed and even more beautiful than I’d envisioned, and the walls were not only intact, they were painted the most perfect light sage.
“I know, right?” I said when I noticed Winston’s little head craning around the room. “It’s gorgeous!”
I walked through the space that was both familiar and foreign. Every change felt thoughtful, down to the drawer pulls on the kitchen cabinets. I’d been stuck between two choices and Drew had obviously been forced to make the final call in order to get the kitchen finished.
No surprise, he’d picked the one I was leaning towards.
I kept tiptoeing around the rooms, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.
The last time I’d been at the house there was so much work still to do that I got overwhelmed and left before I could even push for answers about a timeline.
During my prior visit the bathroom had literally been just a collection of beams and holes in the ground, yet now it was ready for a spread in House Beautiful.