Page 67 of Meant to be Mine

“Can I ask you something?” he said.

“Mm.”

“Have you ever thought about moving back?”

I didn’t answer right away. “Yeah,” I said finally. “I’ve thought about it.”

His fingers kept moving. “But?”

“But I love my job.” I shifted slightly, looking out at the water. “I know that sounds like an excuse. But I really do. I love the kids. Some of them come in on the first day of school and you can already see it. The ones that nobody’s paying attention to. The ones eating lunch alone.” I paused. “I know what that feels like.”

“I know you do.”

“And I feel like I’m doing something real there. I’m not curing cancer. But I’m showing up every day for kids who need someone to show up. I’ve had students come back two, three years later and tell me I helped them.” I shook my head. “That’s not nothing.”

“It’s not nothing,” he agreed. “That’s everything.”

I stared at the horizon for a moment. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Have you ever thought about the east coast? New York is right there. Half your family is in New York.”

He was quiet for a beat. “I mean. I’ve thought about it.”

I turned my head to look up at him. “Really?”

“I’m not against it in principle,” he said. “I’ve spent enough time in New York that I know I could live there. It’s a good city. The cousins make it easy.” He looked down at me. “But.”

“But?”

He gestured loosely toward the water below us. “I can’t do it. I need the ocean. Not the Atlantic. This ocean. I tried to explain that to Sebastian once and he looked at me like I’d told him I wanted to buy a unicorn.”

I laughed softly. “He’s a New Yorker. He doesn’t understand.”

“He really doesn’t.” Drew looked back out at the water. “And now with the store, I’m pretty well anchored anyway. I can’t exactly manage a Beverly Hills shop from a brownstone in Manhattan.”

“You really like that job,” I said.

He considered that. “I like that I’m building something with my family, yeah.”

“I never expected that,” I said honestly. “No offense.”

“None taken. I didn’t expect it either.”

I sat up slightly, resting my weight on one elbow so I could see his face better. “Seriously though. You. Managing a store. When we were seventeen and you were talking about making your own way, I don’t think either of us pictured you behind a desk signing off on vendor invoices.”

He laughed. “God, no. But after I made a few good investments after high school, I built a fortune that could last three lifetimes. Once I accomplished that, I just drifted around.”

“Oh, I remember all the pics you would send me on your yacht. Living a life of leisure.”

He nodded. “It was fun for a while, but I needed something to do with my time, something that felt productive. Callum was overseeing the construction on the store and I just jumped in to help here and there. And it felt good, you know?”

“I do,” I said. “It’s nice to feel like you’re making a difference, even if it’s just lending your brother a hand.”

“Yeah. So, it’s not that I dreamed about managing a store my whole life. But it turns out I like building something with family. Which is crazy since Dad would love for me to work with him at the studio. This is different for me. I don’t know. I just like watching the store do well because of decisions I made.”

The sun was dropping lower now. I was suddenly aware of how quickly time was passing. Another sunset. Another day of summer gone. Another day closer to having to leave him.