14
“Look at him. He’s like a lost puppy.”
Drew narrowed his eyes at the tip of his cue stick, determined not to let his sister break his concentration.
“He’s had a girlfriend for four whole weeks, and he still can’t stand to be without her.
Isn’t it adorable?” Brooklyn taunted, and Drew tightened his grip on the wood.
She would do anything she could to rattle him.
He smacked the cue ball, which rolled across the table and tipped the solid red ball into a side pocket.
Too bad he was stripes.
“Why didn’t she come to Thanksgiving yesterday? You did invite her, right?” Jonah demanded from his spot on the couch, where he was stuffing himself with food, as usual.
“Yes, I invited her,” Drew grumbled. “I’m not a complete idiot. She got caught up at work.”
“All day?”
“Yeah, they had some kind of kennel situation. I took her a plate afterward, and she said she’d come over tonight once she gets all the boarders sorted out.”
“Good,” Brooklyn answered. She circled the pool table once before setting up a new shot.
“Too bad she wasn’t here last year,” Jonah said around a mouthful of food. “It was a lot more exciting.”
Drew glared at his cousin, who met his gaze with an expression full of false innocence.
Last year, Drew, in a fit of jealousy, had sent their other cousin Jake’s then-brand-new-girlfriend Lexie into a panic attack, which had caused her to break up with Jake in the front yard and leave the family dinner early, which had prompted Jake to turn on Drew with both fists, which had then led to an all-out brawl in the driveway and .
. . yeah. Suffice to say, it had not been Drew’s finest moment.
“Let’s just all be grateful she’s here now,” Ashlyn said, cutting in. She turned away from the kitchenette with a plate full of holiday leftovers and made her way toward the card table they’d set up in one corner of Drew’s parents’ basement.
“Your turn,” Brooklyn sang happily.
Drew frowned down at the pool table and discovered his sister had managed to sink two more balls while he wasn’t looking. Then he leaned across the table and took another shot, which bounced uselessly off the side rail.
“Drew’s dating someone?” Lexie asked from her place atop a giant beanbag. She and Jake had come home for Thanksgiving—their first visit since their wedding—so obviously Drew’s meddling hadn’t done any permanent damage.
Brooklyn leaned across the green felt and expertly spun the cue ball into a cluster of colored balls, somehow dislodging the only solid. It dropped neatly into a corner pocket, and Drew shook his head in disbelief.
“Yeah. Jake, do you remember Savannah Reynolds? She’s back in town,” Brooklyn said, as if this weren’t monumental news given present company.
Drew stiffened, and his gaze darted toward where Jake was sitting. His eyes met his cousin’s for a moment, just long enough for an unspoken conversation to flash between them.
Really? Jake’s expression asked.
Drew shrugged. Yeah, he answered.
Jake gave a quick nod, and a soft smile spread across his face. Then his attention moved back to Brooklyn. “You’re kidding!” he said out loud. “I always thought they’d make a good couple.”
Drew relaxed somewhat. It wasn’t like he’d expected Jake to resurrect any old claims or anything—especially not with his arm around his new wife—but still, it was comforting to know that the water under the bridge would remain undisturbed.
“What’s she like?” Lexie asked.
“Well,” Jonah piped up, “if she’s not talking, she’s singing. And if she’s not doing either of those things, you’re gonna want to check on her because she might be dead.”
Brooklyn laughed. “She’s basically Drew’s opposite in every way. She’s funny and friendly and smart—”
“Hey!” Drew blurted.
“Well, she is!” his sister said defensively.
Drew glared at her, though he had nothing to say in rebuttal. She was right, and everybody knew it. He leaned forward again before drawing his cue back between his fingers. But just as he was about to shoot, Brooklyn spoke again.
“I can’t wait ‘til you marry her.”
Clunk.
Drew’s shot went wild, skating against the side of the cue ball and sending it straight into the closest pocket.
He felt heat rush up the back of his neck and into his face as his cousins chuckled.
“Minus fifty points for being a pest,” he declared, pointing toward a large whiteboard on the wall.
It was tradition for Tanner cousin game nights to include point values either earned or deducted for arbitrary reasons, and the person with the lowest score at the end of the night had to catch and kiss one of the ducks Drew and Brooklyn’s mother kept in a pen near the pond.
Lexie jumped to her feet and rushed to the board to subtract fifty points from Brooklyn’s current total, leaving her with 679.
The younger girl only shook her head, unconcerned. “You’re just scared of the M-word,” she teased.
Jake grinned from his seat. “Get used to it, Drew. The M-word is worth it.”
“What’s the M-word?”
Drew whirled toward the basement stairs to find Savannah coming down from the main floor.
“Mandarin!”
“Meatballs!”
“Management!”
Three voices rang out at once, and Drew was grateful for the cover-up, since his own vocal cords seemed to have stopped working.
Savannah had obviously been home to change out of her scrubs, and her usual braid had been abandoned in favor of a low ponytail that cascaded over one shoulder of her sweater.
Drew had only just seen her the night before, but he felt his mouth go dry despite himself, and he wondered if there would ever be a time when she didn’t take his breath away.
He sure hoped not.
“Hi,” he said, unable to think of any other coherent words.
Every molecule in his body was reaching for her, though his feet wouldn’t seem to move.
Please, please, please, please, his mind begged, both desperate to pull her closer and painfully aware of a half dozen eyes all waiting for him to do exactly that.
Thankfully, Savannah didn’t seem to read into his hesitation. Instead, she crossed to where he was standing and put her hands against his chest. “Hi, yourself,” she murmured, pushing up on her toes to kiss him on the cheek.
The effect of her touch was immediate. Drew felt himself melt—his shoulders came down, his arms drifted around her, and he turned automatically to brush his lips against her temple.
There. All is right with the world, he thought.
A loud wolf whistle split the air. “Alright, Andrew!” Jonah shouted obnoxiously, putting his fingers back into his mouth for another whistle. The girls joined in, either whistling or clapping as they laughed good-naturedly.
“Okay, okay, nothing to see here,” Savannah joked, waving one hand toward their audience. “Go back to your regularly scheduled programming.”
“Are you kidding? That was almost HBO in Drew’s book,” Jonah protested with a grin. “You might have to get a room.”
Brooklyn made a retching noise from the opposite side of the pool table, and Drew tossed his cue stick toward Jonah, who caught it easily in one hand. “Shut up and finish losing for me,” Drew said, though it was without his usual bite.
The other boy shook his head with a smile and a wink. “Yeah, yeah, you’re busy. Like a pretty face comes before family or something.”
Drew rolled his eyes and steered Savannah toward one of the long, empty couches—anxious to have her all to himself. Or, as much to himself as he could get with so many other people in the room.
“Wow, this place hasn’t changed a bit, has it?” she asked as they sank down onto the lumpy cushions that had not, in fact, changed at all since the last time she’d been in his parents’ basement.
Drew looked around, taking in the details he’d become accustomed to over the years: the aging pool table, where Brooklyn and Jonah were re-racking the balls; the bookcase full of board games spanning several decades; the dart board on the far wall over where Jake and Lexie were huddled together by the kitchenette.
He remembered being a kid on this same couch, watching a younger Savannah rock the karaoke machine and wishing he knew how to catch her attention.
And now he had it.
Finally.
“Well, some things are different, you know,” he replied, inching his hand across the gap between them and brushing the pad of his thumb over the knee of her jeans.
She wriggled closer and nestled against his side. “Yeah, and those things better kiss me properly later,” she whispered, her green eyes glinting with challenge.
Drew’s attention dropped to her lips, so close to his, and his rib cage tightened.
If he’d had the ability to somehow teleport them from that couch to his, in his own house without chance of interruption, he’d have done it in a heartbeat.
He felt the distance between them lessen, though he wasn’t sure if he’d moved or she had—or both. Then—
“See, aren’t they cute?” Brooklyn gushed, plopping onto the nearby love seat, and Lexie did the same seconds later.
Drew jerked back and scowled at the girls. Lexie at least had the grace to blush, but Brooklyn stared him down without fear before taking a very unladylike bite of a blueberry muffin she’d apparently grabbed from the snack table.
“So, Savannah, this is Lexie. Lexie, Savannah,” she said, making introductions as if she hadn’t just inserted herself where she wasn’t wanted.
“Hi! It’s great to meet you. I’ve seen wedding photos,” Savannah answered, leaning forward. “Your dress was beautiful!”
“Thanks! Jake’s grandmothers helped make it. It was sort of a hodge-podge . . .”
Later, while grabbing a drink from the minifridge, Drew found himself standing next to Jake—a place he’d often avoided over the last few years.
“You seem happy,” the older boy murmured, his voice low enough to keep the words between the two of them.
Drew bristled, more out of habit than anything else, and then forced himself to relax. “Yeah. We are, I think.”