“Baby, you’ll be the first to know,” Drake said, giving my hand a squeeze. He flashed me an incandescent grin, the wicked arch of his brows, the sparkle in his eyes only making him hotter. The term of endearment sent a flush right through me. “My message probably would’ve been left unread if you hadn’t asked Ethan.”
“He’s a great client,” I said with a shrug. “The piece we’re working on right now is a lot of fun.”
“Your specialty?” he asked.
“Yeah, it’s watercolor,” I responded, even though more questions bubbled up on my tongue that I swallowed down. Did he want this to be more as much as I did? Would he be okay telling Serena, even though we’d dated? Did he want me to stay?
The setting shifted around us, the trees interspersed by more and more jutting rock the farther down the trail we strolled. People walked by on either side, some coming, some going. A few were jogging, others moseying like we were. Being with Drake felt endless, like time stilled and we existed in this stasis, everything else melting away.
I’d fallen before, but never like this.
The way he moved with confidence and surety, how he looked forward rather than down—everything about him drew me in.
“Did Hannigan get pissy over the call?” I asked, needing to blurt out something that wasn’t all the feelings building inside me.
Drake let out a low whistle. “When isn’t he pissy? I don’t know what his damage is, if he’s in the wrong field or what, but yeah, in the year I’ve known him, he’s had like three good days.”
“Our resident grump isn’t really that way,” I said. “Cas is all teeth but no bite.”
“Seems like you have a close crew at Alchemy Ink.”
My chest squeezed tight. As much as Mom and Dad swore they’d found some great tattoo shops, I couldn’t imagine stumbling onto one like this. We were a puppy pile of misfits who scrambled all over each other, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Yeah, Owen keeps accumulating us,” I joked. “We’re a part of his collection.”
“Oh? Is there something…” Drake asked, his grip on my hand tightening.
I wrinkled my nose. “Something what?”
“Between you and Owen?”
The laugh burst out of me. “Oh god, no. He’s the sweetest guy on the planet, don’t get me wrong, but the relationships I have with the folks from work are more like family.”
Admitting that out loud settled something inside me I hadn’t realized had been cracked open. No wonder my current situation felt like a divorce. Because either choice I made, I’d be separated from family.
My phone buzzed, and I slipped it out to check—more texts from my parents. A sigh escaped me.
“Everything okay?” Drake asked.
“Gumdrops and butterflies,” I blurted out. Right, that was believable.
Drake arched an eyebrow, his steady glance on me giving enough pressure that I caved.
“Fine, so I know I mentioned my folks are selling their house, but they’re moving all the way down to Florida, and I hate it,” I admitted. Things between Drake and I were so tentative, so new, that I didn’t want to drop the fact they wanted me to come with them too. “They’re sending me pictures of the area.”
He squeezed my hand, a reminder ours were clasped, and warmth rippled through me. This was the support from a partner I’d craved my entire life, and I didn’t want to run away from it.
“Did it come out of nowhere?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I muttered. “Probably why I’m still struggling to process any of it.”
“I’d be thrown if any of my family were moving,” Drake said, broaching what had felt like an off-limits topic until now. That I’d dated his sister first had been something we’d carefully danced around.
“You guys are close, right?” Jealousy twisted my insides. As an only child, a part of me had always wanted a sibling, even though everyone I talked to about it swore there were pros and cons.
“We are,” Drake said, trailing off.
I squeezed his hand back. “Sounds real convincing there.”
