Chapter 12
TWELVE
ALLY
Drew rings the doorbell, and it’s answered by a perky blonde wearing a pink T-shirt and jeans. This must be Nina’s mother.
“Hi, Drew,” she says brightly. “And you must be Alexandra, I’m so glad you could come. I’m Danielle Tate.”
Danielle’s smile looks genuine, and I return it. “Thanks for inviting me, Mrs. Tate,” I say.
“Oh, call me Danielle,” she says easily. “Come on in, guys. Oh, these look delicious,” she says when Drew hands her the box of chocolates.
Peter Tate materializes at Danielle’s side, and greets us as warmly as she did. He’s dressed casually too, in jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. Maybe this dinner won’t be so bad.
The inside of the cottage is both elegant and cozy. There are plenty of windows, and the last of the daylight gleams on hardwood floors dotted with colorful rugs. A huge stone fireplace dominates one wall.
The Tates lead us to a pair of overstuffed leather sofas facing the lake. I sit down first, and Drew is careful to keep a foot of space between us when he sits next to me.
“Something to drink?” Peter offers. “We have white or red wine, sparkling water, beer, diet Coke . . .”
“Sparkling water, please.” I need to keep my wits about me tonight.
“Same for me,” Drew says.
“You have a beautiful view,” I tell Danielle. The sun looks like it’s falling into the lake through a pillow of orange clouds.
“Thanks, honey. So, Drew,” Danielle says in a teasing tone. “You’ve been keeping Alexandra a secret, huh?”
“Well, you know how it is,” he says, meeting my eye with a wink. “I wanted to keep her to myself for a little bit.”
I feel a rush of heat spread across my cheeks. I wouldn’t have thought Drew Malone was the winking type, but it’s pretty hot.
And from the way Danielle’s grinning, I can tell she thinks so too. If Drew’s not careful, Nina won’t be the only Tate with a crush on him, and then we’ll really have a problem.
Peter returns with our drinks. “Is Nina upstairs?” he asks Danielle. “Should I let her know our guests are here?”
But at that moment, a side door opens and Nina makes an entrance.
And what an entrance it is. She’s wearing a pink bikini, and even though she’s dripping wet, there’s no towel in sight.
“Oh!” she says, feigning surprise at the sight of Drew and me. She starts toward us, leaving wet footprints on the hardwood floor. “Drew! I’m so sorry, I was in the hot tub and I guess I lost track of time. I didn’t realize it was so late.”
As she gets closer, I can see that she’s dry from the neck up. Her glossy dark hair has been artfully piled on top of her head, and her makeup is impeccable.
Lost track of time, my ass. I catch Peter and Danielle Tate exchanging a look, and I can tell they don’t believe it either.
“I’ll get changed super-quick, I promise.” Nina turns and prances up the stairs, and a moment later, I hear a shower go on.
“We should have told you to bring bathing suits,” Danielle says to Drew and me. “You two could have tried the hot tub.”
“Next time,” Peter says hospitably.
“Sure,” Drew says.
I nod, although I know it will never happen. The next time they invite Drew to dinner, our relationship will probably be long over. And even if it isn’t, I’ll conveniently forget my bathing suit.
I’m far too aware of Drew when he’s sitting a foot away from me, fully clothed. Sharing a hot tub with him would be a mistake.
“So, Alexandra,” Danielle says. “Tell us how you and Drew met. Peter mentioned you work together?”
I glance at Drew, and remember what he said about sticking close to the truth. “Yes, we both work at the hospital,” I say. “I first noticed Drew in line at the coffee shop. I didn’t know who he was, but I guessed he was a doctor, because he had that energy, you know?”
“Big Doctor Energy,” Danielle says with a giggle.
“Something like that,” I agree, and Drew rolls his eyes. “So then . . .”
I trail off as Nina reappears, wearing skinny jeans and a low-cut purple top. She sits on the sofa on the other side of Drew, so close that their thighs are touching, and I get a whiff of her perfume. It’s something sultry, maybe Chanel, and she’s wearing a good amount of it.
Drew scoots toward me to give her space, and now there are only six inches between us.
“Don’t let me interrupt, Allison,” Nina says brightly. “Were you telling a story?”
“It’s Alexandra,” Drew corrects, and Danielle frowns at Nina.
“Oh, of course, Alexandra,” Nina says.
“She was telling us how she met Drew,” Danielle puts in. “They were in a coffee line . . .”
“Right,” I say. “Then he told me my purse was too big.”
Both Peter and Danielle laugh. “I haven’t heard that line before,” Peter says. “Any excuse to talk to her, huh, Drew?”
“Well, yes,” he admits, and there’s a hint of pink across his cheekbones. “And the purse was putting stress on her cervical spine.”
“And then he paid for my latte,” I continue, conveniently omitting to explain that I couldn’t find my wallet. “But he didn’t ask for my number. I even asked him for his contact information, but he didn’t want to give it to me.”
“He was playing hard to get,” Danielle says.
“He must have been,” I agree. “So I didn’t expect to see him again. But later that morning, I was assigned to work as his admin assistant.”
“It was fate!” Danielle exclaims. She’s really getting into this story. “I love it.”
“Well, yes,” I say. “But if you can believe it, Drew tried to tell me he didn’t need an admin assistant.”
“He was probably already planning to ask you out,” Danielle says. “And he knew it would be against HR policy if you worked for him. Right, Drew?”
“Something like that,” he agrees.
Nina inches toward Drew, and he scoots a little closer to me. There’s only an inch between us now, and I can feel the heat radiating off his thigh.
“Anyway,” I continue, “I really needed the job, and I convinced him to give me a shot. I think I did an okay job.”
“You did,” Drew puts in.
“Didn’t you make a cheese tray, Mom?” Nina interrupts.
“Oh, yes, it’s in the fridge,” Danielle says. “Can you grab it, Nina?”
“Of course,” Nina says. “Drew, can I get you another drink? We’ve got an open bottle of Sauvignon Blanc in the fridge.”
“I’m good, thanks.”
Nina gets up to go to the kitchen, and I half expect Drew to move away from me, but he doesn’t. There’s barely an inch between us now, and the leather sofa is slippery. It feels like the furniture is trying to dump me into his lap.
I brace my feet on the floor to keep from sliding into him, and Drew notices. He leans in, and his breath is warm against my ear.
“I won’t bite if you don’t,” he whispers. “Okay if I put my arm around you?”
When I nod, he drapes his arm around my shoulder and pulls me into him. Now my entire left side is pressed against his right, shoulder to knee, and it’s doing funny things to my brain. He smells musky—a hint of woodsy cologne and clean male sweat.
Nina returns with a tray of crackers and cheese, and her face falls when she sees Drew’s arm around me. I feel a little guilty, which is completely irrational. After all, Drew told her I was his girlfriend, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Nina sets the cheese tray down on the coffee table and resumes her place on Drew’s other side. I feel him tense, and he shifts even closer to me.
And Danielle notices. “Nina, can you check the lasagna, please?” she asks. Both she and Peter look embarrassed on their daughter’s behalf, and with good reason. When you invite a couple for dinner, it’s bad manners to make a play for the man. Nina’s behaving like a lovesick teenager.
But she reluctantly gets up and heads back to the kitchen, and I feel Drew relax.
“Still five minutes on the timer,” Nina calls out. “But the garlic rolls look done.”
“Pull them out, I’ll have a look,” Danielle says, getting up to join her daughter in the kitchen.
Peter stands too. “We might as well go to the table.”
“It smells delicious, Danielle,” Drew remarks as we take our seats.
“Hopefully it’ll be good,” Danielle says modestly as she carries a steaming pan of lasagna to the table.
The dinner is very good. There’s a Caesar salad to go with the garlic rolls and lasagna, and it’s one of the best meals I’ve eaten in a long time.
“So, Nina,” I say, in an effort at politeness. “Drew mentioned you study fish?”
“That’s right,” she says, swallowing a bite of her garlic roll. “Do you have a science background at all?”
“Not at all,” I admit. “You’ll have to give me the simplified version.”
“No problem,” Nina says, before launching into a highly technical description of her current project. As best I can tell, she’s assessing the effects of chemicals on fish reproduction in Lake Ontario.
“I think you need to go a little simpler than that, sweetie,” Peter puts in. “I’m afraid you lost me there.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she exclaims. “I guess I’m just so used to talking to other scientists that I forgot.” She turns to Drew. “You know what that’s like, right, Drew?”
“I guess so,” Drew says.
Nina nods, but it’s clear she was expecting more sympathy from her fellow scientist. She launches back into her explanation of her fish project, but doesn’t cut back on the jargon.
“And the p-value for the two datasets was 0.06!” she says. “So frustrating, and I think the trial was underpowered. If I had more time, I’d repeat it with a bigger sample size, but at this point, I just want this PhD to be done.”
“You’ve worked really hard, sweetie,” Peter says. “We’re proud of you.”
Danielle turns to me. “So, Alexandra,” she says. “I think we need to hear the rest of your story. How did you and Drew finally get together?”
She keeps coming back to this, like she’s trying to make it clear to Nina that Drew and I are an item.
I swallow a bite of lasagna and wipe my mouth with my napkin. “He challenged me to a tennis match,” I explain. “And he was pretty persistent, so I agreed.”
“Who won?” Peter asks.
“Alexandra did,” Drew says. There’s a soft look in his eyes, almost like he’s proud of me. “She’s a spectacular tennis player.”
“You didn’t stand a chance, huh?” Peter says. I can tell he assumes Drew let me win.
“She plays a great game,” Drew says, but to my relief, he doesn’t elaborate on my tennis history. “I’m hoping she’ll give me a rematch sometime.”
“If you’re very nice to me, I might consider it,” I say with a grin.
“And are you still working as Drew’s assistant?” Nina asks.
“Oh, no,” Drew says. “Alexandra reports to Heather Larkin, the Director of Surgical Services. She was helping me out for a while, but now that we’re in a relationship, she’s just working for Heather. I miss seeing her during the day, obviously, but overall, it’s definitely worth it.”
Wow. He’s laying it on so thick, I’m amazed none of the Tates have burst out laughing. But Peter and Danielle seem to be eating it up.
“Aw, I’m so happy for you two,” Danielle says. “You’re clearly perfect for each other, it’s so nice to see.” She giggles a little. “If I’d been thinking, I wouldn’t have cooked such a garlicky dinner.”
“Well, we’re not vampires,” I quip. “And if we both have garlic breath there won’t be an issue, right Honeybun?”
Drew’s eyes widen, and for a second he looks like he’s going to choke on his bite of lasagna. I’m not sure if it’s the idea of kissing me with garlic breath, or just of kissing me, period.
Or maybe it was the name Honeybun that did him in.
Fortunately, he collects himself quickly. “Right,” he says. “No issue.”
“Honeybun,” Danielle repeats thoughtfully. “That’s cute. What about you, Drew? Do you have a pet name for Alexandra?”
Everyone stares at Drew, who doesn’t reply right away. I’m about to jump in and answer for him when he finally speaks.
“Sure,” he says. “I call her my star.”
“Your star,” Danielle echoes. “That’s sweet.”
But it’s clear that she’s underwhelmed by it, as is everyone else at the table. As pet names go, star isn’t particularly cute or romantic; it sounds like something you’d call an employee who’s agreed to work overtime.
“Like the North Star?” Peter asks.
“No,” Drew says. “That would be romantic, but it’s not what I was thinking.”
“Well, why then?” Danielle asks.
Yes, why, Drew? Since he rejected the North Star explanation, he’d better think of something good.
Drew turns to me, and there’s a warm glow in his dark eyes. “It’s because of a line from Shakespeare, actually,” he says. “That I should love a bright particular star. Because Alexandra’s luminous, and when we first met, I thought she was out of my reach.”
There’s a beat of silence. Drew did that so well, he almost has me believing it.
“Is it from As You Like It?” Nina finally asks. Of course, she would know the play.
But Drew shakes his head. “All’s Well That Ends Well. Helena says it about Bertram. It’s a pretty messed up play, but I’ve always liked that line.”
“And it ends well, right?” Peter jokes. “They end up together?”
Drew’s lips twitch. “They do.”
“That’s really sweet,” Danielle says.
In my opinion, sweet isn’t the right word. Honeybun is sweet, but Drew Malone quoting Shakespeare with that soft look in his eyes? Probably the most romantic thing I’ve ever seen.
Danielle brings out a decadent tiramisu for dessert, but I have a hard time focusing on my plate. My mind keeps straying to Drew, and the look in his eyes when he said I was luminous.