Drew Read online

  Drew scoffed at Sebastian. “What? You have something to say? Save it. What’s the saying? With friends like that, who needs enemies?” He glared at Sebastian before turning and taking off across the lawn to his house for the second time that week.

  Sebastian guided me back into the house and over to the couch. “I’ll go talk to him. Just stay here and…well, just stay here. I’ll see if I can fix this.”

  I nodded, not knowing what else to say. I dropped my head down into my hands and prayed that Sebastian would be able to fix this.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  Drew

  I should have known better. I should have fucking known that I couldn’t trust her. Everything about her screamed that she was hiding shit. I had gone over there to apologize for not giving her the time she needed. After all, it took me six years to tell anyone about Iris. I hadn’t expected to see a truck on her side of the driveway and I was even more shocked to see Sebastian inside with her, holding her.

  It’s not like Sebastian and I were close friends. In fact, I only saw him when he was hanging out with everyone else. I hadn’t exactly been the most friendly person since I moved to town and I doubt we would be friends if it weren’t for Harper and Jack. I liked everyone well enough. They were a great group of friends, but that had been the furthest thing on my mind when I moved here. Now I could see that I had been stupid. Refusing to talk about Iris and keeping her all to myself hadn’t helped me hold on to her. It had only kept me from getting attached to this place. Maybe subconsciously that’s what I had been doing. I knew that it would be hard to leave Harper, but everyone else would have just been people I had met along the way.

  A loud banging at the door interrupted my thoughts and I had a pretty good idea of who was on the other side. I flung the door open and glared at Sebastian.

  “Calm the fuck down.” His tone was icy as he pushed past me into my house. “You were out of line back there. You had no right speaking to her like that.”

  “What the fuck do you know about it?”

  He fisted the front of my shirt and slammed me up against the wall. He was a big fucker. He easily was the same size as me, if not slightly larger. I took a swing at him, but he easily dodged my fist and took a few shots of his own. I tried to fight back against him, but I only got one hit in before he had me down on the ground on my stomach with my arm torqued behind my back. I was generally a good fighter, but even I knew I was no match for Sebastian. He had been in the military and though I didn’t know a lot about his service, I knew he was badass. I had heard stories from some of the guys he worked with and the man they described was nothing short of lethal.

  “Are you done, shithead?”

  I gave up on my struggle and relaxed. He finally released me somewhat hesitantly and stood. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he kicked me, but Sebastian let his shear size and death glare intimidate people into thinking twice before taking him on.

  I rolled over and stood up, facing the beast that was currently shooting daggers at me. “You’ve done enough. Leave.”

  “You don’t know what you saw. Just shut up and listen for a minute.”

  I didn’t really want to hear what he had to say, but if letting him spew his garbage expedited his departure, I could deal with it.

  “Fine. Talk.”

  “Sarah was upset and needed someone to talk to. There are things I know that I’m not supposed to know. I told her to call me if she ever needed me. That’s all that was. There’s nothing going on between us.”

  “So she trusts you and opens up to you, but won’t trust me.” I huffed in exasperation. It didn’t matter what he said. It came down to trust and she didn’t trust me.

  “You want to talk about trust? How about we talk about your wife?”

  My head snapped to his. “What did you say to me?”

  “How long have you lived here, Drew? All of us have given you time to talk to us about what’s going on with you and you don’t say a damn thing. You’ve been here for a year and half and you hang out with us every week, but you don’t say shit to any of us. Ryan and Logan gave you a job when you moved to town based solely on Harper’s word. Jack trusts you with her more than anyone else and yet you still don’t say jack shit.”

  “How did you find out about my wife?” I roared. He stepped right up to my face and jabbed his finger into my chest accusingly.

  “It doesn’t matter. I didn’t find out from you, so stop your self-righteous bullshit and man up.”

  I stepped back from him, knowing that he was right. It didn’t matter what was going on with Sarah. I hadn’t been honest with the rest of my friends and I was accusing Sarah of being untrustworthy. I had done nothing to earn their trust, yet they treated me as one of them. When I came here, the only thing I said was that I had to leave where I was living and I had been traveling around the country for five years. That could have meant anything. I could have been a murderer and they wouldn’t have known. God, I was a jackass.

  Not willing to totally bare myself to Sebastian just yet, I gave him what I could at the moment.

  “I was married for close to two years when my wife died of cancer. I couldn’t deal with it, so I sold everything and left. That’s the gist of it.”

  “But not all there is to it.”

  “That’s all I’m willing to share at the moment.”

  “What was her name?”

  That wasn’t at all what I had expected and I looked at him suspiciously for a second. “Iris.”

  “Beautiful name.” I nodded. “When you’re ready, you’ll tell us the rest.”

  We stood there in silence as I tried to decide where to go from here. I was uncomfortable with sharing even that little bit of myself with someone. It had been different with Sarah because I knew she was suffering the same as I was. It might have had something to do with the fact that she was a girl and I didn’t feel like such a pussy for telling her.

  “I told Sarah about her. More than I ever told anyone.”

  “There are things she can’t tell you.”

  “What do you mean she can’t tell me? If she wanted to she would.”

  “She can’t tell you.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  “Drew, listen to me. I mean really listen to what I’m saying. She. Can’t. Tell. You.”

  I looked at him, trying to decipher what he was saying, but I couldn’t think of a single reason that she was not able to tell me about herself. Unless…

  “Is she in trouble?”

  Sebastian weighed the question for a minute, no doubt trying to figure out how to answer the question. “Not at the moment.”

  “Not at the moment? What the hell does that mean?”

  “Like I said, she can’t tell you. You’re gonna have to either trust her knowing that you’ll probably never know her secrets or you walk away from her. I’m telling you though, she’s a good person that deserves your faith in her.”

  “How do you know her secrets?”

  “Let’s just say I came across them unintentionally and I let her know I knew.”

  “The day of the barbecue.”

  “Yeah. I wanted her to know that she could talk to me if she needed to.”

  “So, are you protecting her?”

  “No. She doesn’t need it, but if a situation comes up, she has my number.”

  “Can you let me know if she is in trouble?”

  “I can’t promise that.”

  I nodded. I figured that was about all I was going to get out of him, so I let it drop. I held out my hand to him and he gripped it with a firm squeeze. “Don’t fuck this up.” He walked out the door and back to his truck. When he left, I made my way back over to Sarah’s to apologize for being the ass I was.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  Sarah

  I watched as Sebastian pulled away a half hour later and then heard his footsteps on my porch. I wasn’t sure if he was coming in a friendly capacity or to tear into me some more now that Sebas
tian was gone. The knock on my door seemed to echo all around me and I found myself slightly scared of Drew. Not that he would hurt me, but that he would continue his tirade against me. I didn’t have any fight left in me. There was nothing more to say to defend myself to him. I wished that I had asked Sebastian to stay, but logically I knew that he wouldn’t have left if he hadn’t gotten Drew under control.

  The knock came again and I willed my feet to take me closer to the door, but I didn’t open it.

  “Hello?”

  “Sarah, can I talk to you for a minute?”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Go away.” Damn, I hated that my voice was shaking.

  “I just want to apologize. Can I please come in?”

  Against my better judgement, I opened the door and stepped back when he started toward me. My whole body was shaking and I wasn’t sure why exactly, but I couldn’t help my response to him.

  He swore under his breath when he took in my state of distress. Then, he walked forward and placed his hands up in a placating gesture. “I won’t hurt you, Sarah. I’m so sorry I scared you.”

  I nodded several times, trying to make myself believe him. Deep down I knew the kind of man that Drew was, and while his anger scared me, I knew that he didn’t have it in him to ever lay a hand on me. I walked further into the room and sat down in an armchair after he sat on the couch. When he saw that I was still hesitant to be near him, shame washed over his face.

  “I’m so sorry I scared you. That was never my intention. I let my anger get the best of me and said some really shitty things.”

  “I know. I wish it was different, Drew, but there are things that I can’t tell you, not because I don’t want to, but because I can’t. I need you to accept that and know that if I can share something with you, I will. You said you wanted to make something with me. I’m not ready for that. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to try eventually, but I’m just not there yet. I need to focus on my babies. The next few months are going to be challenging and I don’t want to be worrying about a new relationship. It wouldn’t be fair to either of us.”

  He got up and walked to the window for a few minutes. “I used to be good at this stuff, with Iris, I mean. I never used to be this irritable. I think because she was so full of life, there was never any mystery to her. I never had to figure her out. She always told me what she was thinking.” He turned and looked at me and the sadness that was in his eyes the night he told me about Iris was back. “You’re the complete opposite of Iris, and I’m not trying to compare you, it’s just that you’re so different and I need to remember that. I know that you aren’t ready for anything and you may never want anything with me, especially after the things I said to you. But I can still be your friend. If something more comes eventually, that’s great, but if not, I’d be happy to have you as a friend. That is, if you’ll accept my apology.”

  I got up and walked over to him, my nerves having finally settled. I put my hand on his strong forearm and looked up into his handsome face.

  “Can we forget about this and move on? I just want to forget this day ever happened. Well, all but this morning.”

  I blushed as I remembered the steamy kiss he gave me. I hoped I wasn’t leading him on. The kiss was great even if I wasn’t ready for more. He leaned down and gave me a sweet kiss on the lips.

  “Now that that’s settled, I have some things to run past you.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Drew

  “OKAY. WHAT IS it you need help with?”

  I would do anything for her right now. After I royally fucked up today, she could ask me to trade houses with her and I would do it in a heartbeat. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t give to make her happy right now.

  “Um, I thought about what you were saying about me needing to have a plan for when I go back to work. I think you’re right. The best thing to do would be to hire a nanny to come stay with me.”

  “Will you have the money for that?”

  “I made some calls and it turns out that I’ll have plenty of money to take care of the twins and I. I could actually take time off if I wanted and stay home with the twins, but Hank has been training me for this manager’s position and I don’t want to lose that. I don’t know if another position like that would come around.”

  “I know you won’t accept, but you’re welcome to stay with me. I could help you with the babies.”

  “You’re right. I can’t accept. I appreciate the offer, but I need to do this on my own.”

  “Okay, so what can I do to help?”

  “Well, I need to put an addition on the house in case I find a nanny. I can’t hold off until I find someone because then there won’t be time.”

  “There’s not a lot of time now.”

  “I know.”

  “What do you have in mind for the addition?”

  “I guess a bedroom and bathroom. I want it spacious enough that whoever takes the position would feel comfortable here.”

  “Okay, well how about tomorrow you come by and talk to Ryan and Logan. We’ll see how fast we can get this going.”

  “Can it be done before the babies come?”

  “It’ll be cutting it close, but I think we could do it.”

  There was an awkward silence because I no longer knew what to say to her. I figured leaving would be the best thing to do. I’d done enough for one day.

  “Well, I’ll let you get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I walked back to my place feeling a little lighter, but generally still pretty shitty over everything that happened. I couldn’t get the words that I spoke to her out of my head. I had never spoken to any woman like that before, especially Iris. If she were here, she would be so disappointed in me. She’d probably kick my ass. I thought back to the most intense fight I ever had with Iris, if you could call it that.

  I had just walked in the door after a long day of work and I immediately took off my dirty clothes and tossed them into the hamper in the laundry room. Well, sort of. They were almost in the hamper, but after the day I’d had, I didn’t give a shit if they ended up outside. I took a quick shower, letting the grime of the day pour off me. The bottom of the tub was filled with dirt. I had been on a job when I had to tackle a fellow employee into a mud puddle after some idiot driving a forklift didn’t look where he was going. After getting out of the mud, I realized the guy I tackled was the newbie who thought he knew everything. Obviously paying attention to his surroundings wasn’t something he thought was necessary.

  After my shower, I headed to the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge, tossing the cap on the counter. I drank down the beer and then grabbed another. My feet were killing me, so I went to relax in the recliner with the second beer. I heard Iris come in and called over my shoulder to her.

  “Hey, baby. What’s for dinner tonight?”

  She didn’t respond right away, but I didn’t really notice because I was watching some show about fishing, something I rarely got a chance to do anymore. After about a half hour, I got up and went in search of Iris. I found her lying down in bed.

  “Baby, what’s going on?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Why are you in bed?”

  “Because I’m tired.”

  “Sooo, are you gonna make dinner or should I order in?”

  “Am I gonna make dinner? Seriously, Drew? I just told you that I’m tired and the first thing you ask is if I’m gonna make dinner?”

  “Baby, I’m sorry, I-”

  “Don’t you ‘baby’ me. Tell me, do I have maid stamped on my forehead?”

  Although I should have just said no, instead I walked closer and examined her forehead. “Well, I don’t see it, but should we put it there?”

  “I am not your fucking maid, Drew. I work too and my hours are longer than yours. It would be nice if for once I didn’t have to clean up your shit and cook all your meals. I swear, sometimes you are completely helpless.”

  “Hey now, let
’s not be too harsh. There are other things I’m good for.”

  I grinned at her, but she just scowled harder. I was still learning this whole marriage thing and so far I was fucking it up. She grabbed my hand and dragged me through the house. She picked up the towel I left on the ground and stomped over to the bathroom.

  “You see this hook here? It’s for hanging your towel on. Use it.” Pulling the shower curtain open, she pointed to the bottom of the tub. “Do you see all that dirt in the bottom, if you would rinse it down the drain, I wouldn’t have to scrub it out later when I want to take a shower.”

  Then she pulled me into the kitchen and grabbed the two bottle caps off the counter. “We also have this handy container called a garbage can where you can throw shit away so that we don’t look like we live in a dump.”

  She threw the caps away and then pulled me over to the sink. “Please tell me why you stack dishes in the sink with food still on them? You can scrape the food into the garbage and then rinse the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. It takes one minute. Instead, I end up having to stick my hands in the dirty sink and scrape out food with my hands. With my hands! It’s disgusting. So, you first scrape the food into the garbage and then you rinse the dishes and place them in the dishwasher that will magically give you clean dishes in the morning.”

  I rolled my eyes as she dragged me to the back hall where my laundry was laying half in the basket and half on the floor. “Do you see this basket? It’s called a laundry basket. The laundry goes IN the basket. Not half in.” She picked up the laundry and put it in the basket. “Do you see all the dirt that’s all over the floor now? Guess who has to clean that up? Me. That’s right. I do it. Almost every day I come home and clean up messes that you’ve left behind. Then I cook dinner and clean up the kitchen. For once, I would like to come home and not have to clean up after you.”