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"Wouldn't you like to know." I fought the smile taking shape on my face, but it came anyway. "You know, using my lip balm is almost like kissing me."
Drew grinned as he spread a thin layer over his lips. "It's like you can read my mind. I was about to say the same thing." He held the tube out to me. "You know that the next time you use this, it will be like you're kissing me back."
It really was like I was back in high school, testing the limits and trying to figure out whether Drew wanted to kiss me.
And Ireallywanted to figure it out. So I took the lip balm from him and slowly swiped it across my lips, smacking them together. "Mmmm, you're a pretty good kisser." I winked, hoping against all odds that I could keep the blush away. I'd been so good at flirting like this with Drew back in high school, but man, I was out of practice.
Drew just laughed. "I'm pretty sure the real thing is just a bit better though, right?"
Heat sparked through my body and I blushed all the way from my head to my toes. I fumbled for a witty response, but my mind was a jumble and I couldn't form anything into a coherent sentence.
Drew stepped closer. He bent down to whisper in my ear, "Cat got your tongue?"
Chills raced up my neck.
He was so close; his cologne wafted to my nose, smelling better than anyone had the right to.
I was about to say,No, but I wouldn't mind if you did,when footsteps sounded behind us.
I whipped my head around to find my mom. I instinctively smoothed my hair and stepped away from Drew, hoping my mom wouldn't notice how flustered I was. “H-hi, Mom. We just got the brownies in the oven."
Had my mom seen us standing close? Because I wouldn't be able to explain it, since I still wasn't allowed to even tell anyone that Drew was single.
My mom smiled. "Would you two mind carrying these boxes upstairs? Your dad can't lift much after his hernia surgery, and I'm just not up to going up and down the stairs so much today."
“Sure. Where would you like us to put them?" Drew asked.
"Oh, just set them on my bed. I can manage them from there," Mom said with the wave of a hand.
I didn't know whether to be grateful for the distraction or not, but I grabbed a box and led Drew up the gray carpeted staircase. I dropped one on the bed then told Drew I'd just meet him downstairs after a quick trip to the bathroom. But when I came out, I saw that Aiden's door had been opened. I peeked inside my older brother's room and found Drew standing with his back to me, looking at the collage of photos Aiden had stuck to his wall.
"It hasn't changed a bit since that night, has it?" Drew shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced back at me.
I went to stand beside him to look at the pictures.
"No." I sighed. "I don't know whether a psychologist would say it's healthy or not, but none of us can bring ourselves to box anything up." It would be like desecrating sacred ground.
Walking into this room was like walking into the past.
"Do you remember that night?" Drew pointed at a photo of the three of us at a bonfire on the beach.
It was the summer before Aiden died. Drew's hair was just shaggy enough that it curled around his ears, and he had a scruffy beard that had changed my opinion on facial hair.
My heart still beat like crazy every time I looked at that photo.
"That's the night Aiden tried jumping over the fire and ended up dropping his flip-flops in the flames."
"He was lucky only his flip-flops got burned."
"And lucky you were there to throw him in the ocean to stop him from trying it again."
"I don't recall him using the wordluckythat night." Drew winked.
"Yeah, and you got stuck driving his little sister home, so she wouldn’t be late for curfew."
Drew peeked at me and set his arm around my shoulders. "I'm pretty sure I felt pretty lucky that night as well."
"I always worried I was such a burden when you could have been flirting with all the other girls there."
