Chapter 4 #2
“I just wanted to see what time you were picking me up for the wedding.” Lisa all but whispered her reply, keeping in character as the jilted ex-girlfriend.
Drew shook his head. “Lisa, we are not going to the wedding together. I never asked you to go with me. I am going with Karlie.”
Lisa turned her attention to Karlie; her expression was mean.
“Karlie, as in Jenna’s sister?” Lisa’s eyes widened in understanding.
“Oh, so you are duty-bound, as best man, to escort the bride’s sister to the wedding.
” She slipped across the floor, cuddling up to Drew’s side, and Karlie cleared her throat.
“I am the bride’s sister,” Karlie all but growled at Lisa, “but I don’t need a pity escort to her wedding.
” She walked over to stand by him and Lisa, who was still trying to climb him like a tree.
This was not going to end well for him. He didn’t care what Lisa thought; he did care that she remembered that they were over and that he was with Karlie now.
He didn’t like the sadness and suspicion on Karlie’s face.
She looked pale and ready to burst into tears.
He would never want to cause her pain—Drew would never do what Jake did to her.
He needed to put a stop to Lisa’s game. Lisa hissed as he removed her, rather forcefully, from his body.
“What you need to understand, Lisa,” he said, “is that we are no longer together. We haven’t been together for a while now. You need to move on because I have.”
Lisa stepped back, glaring at Karlie. “Yes, I see that you have moved on. Seems your tastes have dropped some, darling.” He couldn’t help but look at Karlie, worried about her reaction to Lisa’s nasty comments.
Karlie was looking down at her bare feet—hurt and upset by the whole scene.
He wouldn’t let Lisa do that to her. Hell, he wouldn’t let anyone do that to her.
He stepped in front of Karlie, turning his back on Lisa. “Baby, look at me.” He lifted her chin and forced her to look him in the eyes. “Lisa’s wrong. She’s nothing.”
Lisa gasped from behind them. “Nothing,” she whispered.
“Nothing? I’ll have you know that I have moved on, Drew Jackson.
I don’t need you to take me to the stupid wedding.
I already have a date and he’s everything you’re not.
” Drew didn’t even bother to turn back around.
He focused on Karlie and the pain he saw staring back at him in her eyes.
How had this morning gone so wrong? Another few minutes passed, and then he heard Lisa’s heels clicking on her way out the door.
She let it slam shut behind her, and he huffed out his breath.
With Lisa’s craziness out of the way, he could concentrate on Karlie.
She blew out the breath that she seemed to be holding and deflated right in front of him.
He brushed her adorable bed hair out of her eyes and tucked the loose strands behind her ear.
“You okay, baby?” He waited her out when she didn’t answer.
A few minutes passed before she turned and walked back into his kitchen.
She started washing the dishes that now held their cold, uneaten breakfast. “Baby, please—” Standing behind her, Drew wrapped his arms around her middle.
He kissed the top of her head and nuzzled her neck.
“You don’t need to do the dishes,” he said.
“Just leave them. We can go out for breakfast. Just leave it all,” he begged.
“I just need to know that you’re okay, Karlie. Please tell me what you’re thinking.”
“I’m thinking that you were involved with that bitch.
I am thinking that she didn’t know it was over between the two of you.
Did you end it with her? Why did she think that you were taking her to the wedding?
You made me feel like the other woman. I feel bad for her because I was her.
I was the one who walked in to find her boyfriend and sister in bed together.
That poor woman,” Karlie sobbed. He spun Karlie around, needing to see her face and look her in the eyes.
“We dated, had sex, and I broke it off with her long ago. It’s been almost a year, but she can’t accept the fact that it’s over.
It never began. I never wanted what she wanted.
I told her from the start that I didn’t want a relationship.
She knew the score, but she wanted to change the rules.
Baby, she was nothing, and I have no idea why she thought we were going to Jenna’s wedding together.
Please, Karlie, I would never start anything with you if I was with anyone else.
It’s just not who I am.” He bent to look eye level with her, silently pleading for her to believe him.
He could see her thinking through everything that had just happened.
Finally, she nodded. “I know that you wouldn’t do that to me or her. I just—I guess I was just reminded of what happened to me and took it too far. I’m sorry.”
“No, you have nothing to be sorry for. I’m sorry that you had to go through that.
I’m sorry that Lisa thought that it would be all right to act like that and make you feel that way.
” He was rubbing her back, holding her. “Why don’t we take a shower and get dressed?
I’d like to take you out for breakfast. Your car is fixed, and it’s at my shop.
I had a friend of mine tow it in and change your tire.
I had him put four new tires on. The others didn’t look like they’d last too much longer.
We can pick up your car on the way back from breakfast. Sound good? ”
She nodded. “You didn’t have to do all of that. My dad said that he would take care of it today. I’ll pay you back for the tires and everything. It will just take me a while. I kind of wiped out my savings coming back here for the wedding.”
“I already talked to your dad and told him it was done. He had enough on his plate with your sister’s wedding. As for paying me back, I thought that we could work that out.”
She hesitated. “What exactly do you have planned?”
“Well, I thought maybe you’d come to work for me. I own a nice auto shop, Jackson’s Auto.”
She nodded. “Yes, I remember your uncle owned it when we were kids.”
“Yeah, he retired a few years back, and I bought his shop. I have been doing all the shop work, as the only mechanic on staff. I am also doing the bookkeeping and office work. I know that’s what you do in Atlanta, and I could use someone like you.”
“Wait. You know that I work in an office in Atlanta?” she asked, surprised. “How did you find that out?”
“Yeah, well.” He cleared his throat nervously.
“Your mom told me when I asked her where you went, you know, after you found Jenna and Jake.” He could feel his ears and cheeks heat.
“I just want to give you options, baby. I don’t know if you are happy in Atlanta, but I was thinking maybe you could be happy here too—with me.
” Drew didn’t know what else to say—he seemed to be screwing up every time he opened his mouth.
“I think we should go to breakfast and get my car,” she said quietly.
“We can talk about the job offer later. I just need time to process everything,” she said.
He couldn’t help but feel like some of the closeness they had come to experience over the past 24 hours was gone.
He wished that he could take back the whole morning and start over, with Karlie in his bed—naked.
He’d just have to find a way to salvage the rest of the weekend because letting her go back to Atlanta was out of the question.