Drew nodded, not sure what he should say in response. Needless to say, Mitch coming around and even giving his blessing, so to speak, would be the best-case scenario. But the entire family seemed to have hopped on some kind of relationship express train while he and Liz were still at the station, trying to figure out their destination.
“What’s going on?” Mitch’s eyebrows furrowed, making him look even more serious. “Is there a problem with Liz?”
“No, there’s no problem. I don’t know how to explain it. Some of your family has looked at us and decided it’s a done deal. There’s even been talk of kids. But it’s not like Liz and I have been together since your wedding. She went back to New Mexico and we had no contact at all until she moved back to town.”
“So what are you trying to say?”
“Just that it’s new. And, like any relationship, we’re getting to know each other and figure out if we have a future and...we’re not at the point you all seem to think we are. And that worries me because what if we don’t get there?”
Mitch shrugged. “Right now you’re in a goldfish bowl. Not only is her entire family here, but she’s single while everybody else is doing the love and kids thing. That puts a big spotlight on your relationship. Once you guys are home, you’ll only have half the family, so it’ll only be half as bad.”
Drew laughed. “It’s not bad, really. I’m just afraid if we start getting to spend time together and realize we’re not meant to be, I’m the asshole.”
“And that would be different how?” When Drew looked sideways at him, Mitch laughed. A real laugh. “Sorry. My concern is that I know where you are in life. Mal did a number on you and now I get the impression you feel like you’re running behind. You want a wife and kids, like, yesterday. I don’t know quite where Liz is, but I don’t think she’s there.”
“I don’t think so, either,” Drew agreed quietly. “And no, not yesterday, but kids aren’t a someday, maybe thing for me anymore, either.”
“None of us liked Darren. You know that. Maybe most of it was the fact he talked her into moving to New Mexico, but part of it was how his needs were what mattered in their relationship. Liz is putting herself first now and none of us want that to change.” Mitch stole his water again. “If she decides she wants to explore her options and doesn’t see having kids for another five years, what are you gonna do?”
“I don’t know.” He wished he could give Mitch some reassuring speech on how Liz was more important to him than anything, even his desire to have children, but he’d be full of shit.
His marriage to the woman he’d loved since high school hadn’t survived his need to be a dad. Granted, that had the double whammy of her lying about having kids someday for their entire relationship, but if she’d changed her mind and told him she’d have a baby, he might have stayed. If Liz didn’t want to have kids anytime soon, it would be a big deal.
“Talk about it before you get in too much deeper,” Mitch said. “Your dad and our Rosie are together now, which means a whole lot of family time in your future. The less painful things end between you, if they do, the better it is for everybody.”
“Hey, Doctor Phil, you gonna ride or what?” Ryan said. “Tire’s good to go. Maybe.”
Mitch handed Drew his water back. “For what it’s worth, it’s still weird, but I hope it doesn’t go south.”
“Thanks.” After stowing what remained of his water and the uneaten candy bar back in the box, Drew grabbed his gear.
“I don’t know what he hit, but he wiped out half my plugs,” Joe said as he put his tools away. “I think it’ll hold until we get back, but that tire’s shot.”
“It’ll be fine,” Kevin said.
“Maybe we should put you in the back.”
Kevin buckled his helmet. “I could have four flat tires and you still couldn’t keep up with me.”
By the time Drew got his gear on, enough trash talk had been exchanged between Kevin and Joe that he knew it was going to be a wild ride back and plugged tire be damned.
He double-checked his helmet strap and adjusted his gloves before firing his engine. Then, one by one, they pulled back onto the trail in a spray of dust and gravel. Drew hit the throttle and prayed he didn’t die.
* * *
Liz had mixed feelings about going home. On the one hand, it was time to get back to the new life she’d put on pause to be here. On the other, the time with her family had been amazing and part of her wished they could stay just a little longer.
“They’re pathetic today,” Keri said from her station, which was frying more bacon than Liz had ever seen in her life. And she’d worked in truck stops. “They’re all sore and trying like hell not to show it.”
“They’re not hiding it well,” Paige said. She was beating a huge bowl of scrambled eggs, which would be the first of several batches.
Liz rolled her eyes. “Drew told me he’s never ridden that fast through the woods in his life. And Kevin knows these trails really well, so I guess he was moving right along.”
“Don’t tell anybody,” Keri said, “but Joe asked me to tie his sneakers this morning.”
The women all laughed and Liz glanced over at Drew. He was sitting in one of the chairs, balancing a mug of coffee on the arm. When he saw her looking, he gave her a pretty feeble thumbs-up.
“I don’t think Drew can actually lift that coffee up to his mouth,” Liz said. “Maybe we should give them straws.”
Aunt Mary slapped a stack of paper plates on the table. “Or maybe they shouldn’t go out there and try to act like they’re seventeen anymore.”
“Hey, Gram,” Joey said. “I don’t ride like that.”
“Only because you’re behind slower riders,” Lisa said. Her oldest son gave her his most charming Kowalski grin before taking off with a cup of orange juice. “They think I don’t know what goes on when they go out with just dad and no mom. Last week, Danny had mud down his pants and leaves in his helmet.”
They served breakfast and, after everybody had eaten their fill, the women sat and drank their coffee while the men tried to hobble their way through cleanup without moaning or groaning. They were horrible actors, but that just made the show all the more fun.
“I wish you didn’t have to go home today, Liz,” Aunt Mary said. “I mean, I wish nobody had to go home today, but especially you.”
“I know, but I’m closer now. We’ll see each other a hundred times more than we have in the past. You’ll probably get sick of me.”
“Never. Mitch said something about leaving about four so you guys could have dinner on the road and still be home early enough to take showers and unpack the truck before bed, right?”
“Actually, I’m going to ride home with Drew and he has to work tomorrow, so we’re leaving a little earlier.” That got the attention of all the women sitting around them. There was some speculative noises dripping with innuendo and Liz felt her cheeks heat up. “Have you guys ever ridden in the backseat of Mitch’s truck? If you were as tall as me, you’d ride with Drew, too.”
“I wonder if he’ll walk you to the door,” Emma said, giving her an exaggerated wink.
“He’s going to walk to my door several times since I’m going to make him carry stuff in.” Then she intended to drag him into the shower and then into her bed, but she was sure they could fill in those blanks without specifics.
“We’re done,” one of the men declared, preempting what Liz knew was going to be a heap of teasing from the women.
“Where are the kids?” Drew asked.
“Quiet, isn’t it?” Lisa sighed happily. “Leo took them down to the pond to do some fishing.”
“Damn. I want to offer them money to break down my camp and pack it up.”
Liz shook her head. “That’s pretty lame, you know.”
“You sho
uld know ahead of time my kids are brutal negotiators,” Lisa said. “You might be surprised how much it’ll cost you.”
“I’ll help you,” Liz said. “I have to do mine, too.”
It sounded like a decent plan, but an hour later she was hot, tired and ready to kill her tent with fire. “It came out of this bag, so it should go back in the same damn bag.”
Drew laughing at her wasn’t helping. “They never fit back in the way they came out.”
“It’s a scrap of nylon and some flimsy poles.”
“You could always throw it in the Dumpster.”
She put her hands on her hips and glared at the tent. “Then I’ll have to buy another one for next time, because you know Rose and Aunt Mary are going to try to drag us back every year now that we gave in once.”
“If we come back next year, we’re coming in an RV. I don’t care if I have to beg, borrow or steal one, but we’ll have a bed, air-conditioning and a lock on the door.”
Liz looked sideways at him, but he wasn’t paying any attention to her. He was in the process of rerolling her sleeping bag because the way she’d done it, it wouldn’t fit back in its zippered cover, and he didn’t seem to be aware of the assumption he’d just made.
Rather than feeling uneasy, the idea Drew took for granted they’d be together next summer made Liz feel warm and fuzzy inside. Obviously he was easing up on his urgent mission to acquire a mom for his kids and relaxing a little.
He tossed the zipped-up sleeping bag in the back of his SUV and then groaned. “That hurt. Everything hurts. Remind me never to ride with your cousins again.”
“We haven’t even started on your tent yet.”
“If we had an RV, we could just pile all the crap in it and shut the door. Then I could stretch out on the bed and take a nap while you drove home.”
She snorted and tossed her duffel bag to him, laughing when it almost knocked him off his feet. “Maybe instead of an RV you should buy a four-wheeler with power steering and a good suspension so you don’t hobble around like a ninety-year-old man after a ride.”
His eyes lit up, of course, at the mention of new toys. “Hey, maybe we can do both. You should get one, too. Or I could get a two-up so you’d be more comfortable on the back. Longer wheelbase, though.”
“You’d play hell trying to keep up in the rugged stuff with the other guys.”
He started rambling about the pros and cons of different machines, so Liz turned her attention back to her tent. It was tempting to toss the entire thing in the back of his SUV and worry about repacking it later, but she didn’t want it to get torn. Plus, it had become personal. The tent would fit in the bag, period.
Chapter Sixteen
Drew hadn’t thought they’d ever get on the road. The gauntlet of hugs, kisses and goodbyes alone had taken almost an hour, but he’d finally herded Liz in the SUV and driven away to waves and blown kisses.
Once they were on the road, she sighed and rested her head against the seat. “That was intense.”
“I thought I was going to have to throw you over my shoulder and toss you in the truck.”
“How very caveman of you. So it seemed like you and Mitch are doing okay.”
Drew put his left hand on the wheel so he could hold her hand with his right. “I don’t know about okay. There’s still some strain, but we’ll get there eventually.”
“I still feel bad he hit you.”
“That’s between him and me. I don’t want you feeling like you were in the middle of that.”
She gave a humorless laugh. “How can I not feel like I was the cause?”
“Because shock was one thing, but that anger came from me lying to him.”
She sighed, turning her head to look out the window. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s behind us now.”
And he was happy to leave it there. “It’s going to feel unreal to go back to work tomorrow. I’ll be adding of doom to everything.”
“You can give speeding tickets of doom. Those are way more fun than regular speeding tickets.”
He squeezed her hand. “As long as none of them have your name on them.”
They opted for an early, drive-through dinner since they’d both need groceries after being gone a week. He laughed when she ordered one of the bottles of milk that came with a kids’ meal.
“For my coffee tomorrow morning,” she said, ignoring his mocking.
When he reached her house, he backed the SUV into her driveway to make it easier to unload her stuff and then killed the engine. “Wonder how long it’ll be before this picture’s on Facebook.”
“Well, now it doesn’t matter, does it? No more secrets.”
He grinned and leaned across the center console to kiss her. “I like that.”
After pulling a small stack of mail out of her mailbox, she grabbed a bag and went to unlock the door. He took her laundry bag and a bag of badly depleted snacks and followed her, going straight into the kitchen. She set the bag down, then dumped the mail on the counter.
“It’s safer if you have your mail held at the post office when you’re going to be away. When it piles up, it’s obvious you’re not home.”
“Thank you, Officer Miller.”
He pinched her ass. “Chief.”
“Since I haven’t been here very long, I’m not exactly rolling in mail.”
“Don’t call me if you go away somewhere and your house gets robbed while you’re gone.” She raised her eyebrow, and he chuckled. “Okay, I guess you do call me. But don’t whine about it, or I will tell you I told you so.”
He went to grab another load, but got sidetracked by his first view of her living room. It was filled with inflatable lounge chairs. The kind you blew up and used in the pool if it wasn’t full of Kowalski kids.
“What the hell is this?”
A few seconds later, Liz appeared, her eyes wide. “What? What happened?”
He waved his hand at the inflatable chairs, surprised he had to specify those were what he was referring to. “Pool party?”
“Oh, those.” Liz gave a breathless laugh, her hand to her chest. “I thought something horrible had happened. Busted pipes so the ceiling collapsed kind of horrible. Those are my chairs.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I got suckered into hosting movie night, but I only have the futon. Paige and Hailey brought those and we had umbrella drinks and watched How Stella Got Her Groove Back. It was very tropical.”
“And now?”
“Now I have to give them more air every once in a while, but I like them. They’re fun.”
He wasn’t sure about fun, but he was pretty sure if he sat in one, it would be a long time before he could get up again. “You don’t have a pool float for a bed, do you?”
“Keep making fun of my furniture and you won’t ever find out.” She slapped him on the ass as she walked back to the door.
Furniture. Shaking his head, he followed her out for another trip. It only took a few more to get her stuff out of his truck and he closed the hatch. Then he shoved his hands in his pockets and wondered what he was supposed to do next.
Liz was inside and he couldn’t leave without saying goodbye, so either she was planning to come back out or she just assumed he would go back in. And, if he went back in, was she assuming he’d stay for a while?
When she didn’t make an appearance after another minute, he locked the truck and went inside. She was in the kitchen, frowning at the pile of camping debris.
“I think I own more camping stuff than I do house stuff,” she said.
“Depends on how you classify those chairs in the living room.”
“Funny. You want a drink?”
So he was staying for a while. “What do you have?”
&
nbsp; She thought about it for a few seconds. “Water?”
“Sounds good.”
She grabbed a bottle from the fridge and handed it to him. “I’m glad I don’t have to work tomorrow. I’m not ready to face four-thirty yet.”
“I don’t have to get up at four-thirty, but I do have to work tomorrow. And between now and then, I have to empty my truck, do a shitload of laundry, shower and sleep.”
She leaned back against her counter, a naughty smile tilting the corners of her mouth. “You can save time and shower here if you want.”
Oh, yeah. He most definitely wanted.
* * *
Liz took her time soaping Drew down. It was a novelty, having all the time she wanted in the privacy of her own home, and she intended to enjoy every second she had him.
She started with his hair and he moaned, eyes closed, as she worked up a lather and massaged his scalp. The spot at the base of his neck made him suck in his breath, so she returned to it again and again, rubbing it with the tips of her fingers. When she tipped his head back under the stream, he let out a sigh of pleasure as the water washed the shampoo away.
Then she picked up the bar of soap and turned it over and over in her hands. Once they were lathered, she ran them over his shoulders and his chest before moving down to his abdomen. His muscles twitched under her slick touch, and his breathing grew rough as she made her way slowly and deliberately down his body.
Stepping very close to him, she put her hands behind him and soaped his back before running them over the firm mound of his ass. Her breasts rubbed his chest and his hands grasped her hips, holding her to him.
“You feel so good,” he said in a raspy voice against her hair. “Is it my turn?”
“I’m not through with you yet.” She wasn’t sure she ever would be through with wanting to touch him.
When he growled his impatience, she chuckled and re-soaped her hands. She did each leg next, enjoying the way he froze when her fingertips lingered near the tops of his thighs. Finally, she wrapped her hand around the hard length of him and stroked gently. Drew groaned and moved his hips toward her, urging her on.
Love a Little Sideways Page 18
