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“You don’t have to worry about fighting me,” London said. “You’re more than welcome to always pick up the check.”
“Does that mean you’re finally going to let me take you to dinner?”
She pointed back toward the bistro. “Hey, we just had lunch.”
“Not the same,” Drew said. “We’re going out for dinner when we get back to Austin. A real dinner, at a place with cloth napkins and dishes neither of us can pronounce.”
Now it was her turn to laugh.
“Something tells me that you’ll be just fine going to a place where we actually know what we’re eating,” she said. “You’re refreshingly down to earth for someone with your kind of money.”
“Money shouldn’t change anyone,” Drew said. “Don’t get me wrong, there are some things that I will gladly pay to have done for me—”
“Like grocery shopping.”
“Definitely. I haven’t seen the inside of a grocery store in years. But I also won’t forget my humble beginnings. Even if I do reach the point where I decide to buy my own jet, I won’t forget what it was like to hitchhike from Alabama to Arkansas as a five-year-old with my mom and uncle.”
It was becoming harder for London to reconcile the cocky, most popular boy in school she absolutely despised with the kind, thoughtful man walking alongside her. She was slowly coming to the realization that she’d known hardly anything about Drew. She hadn’t taken the time to get to know him. Once she learned that he’d arrived with an academic record that would put her chances at being the top student at risk, she’d made her own assumptions and decided he was the enemy.
She’d been so unfair to him.
“I’m sorry,” London said.
He shook his head. “Don’t be. The hitchhiking wasn’t that bad. My mom and uncle would tell me that we were going on a fun adventure.”
“No, not about that,” London said. “Although I am sorry you had to endure so much while you were growing up. It couldn’t have been easy, no matter how fun your mom tried to make it for you.”
She stopped walking and turned to face him. “I’m sorry for hating you all these years when you gave me no reason to. Not that you cared how I felt about you all this time, but I’m sorry that I lost out on fifteen years of being your friend. And maybe?” She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. Maybe something more.”
“Don’t,” he said. He cupped her jaw in his hand. “Don’t think that it wouldn’t have made a difference to me. London, I would have given anything to have had you as a friend all these years. And to have beenmorethan friends?” He shook his head. “The list of things that I wouldn’t have done to make that happen is so short it’s barely detectable.”
He brought his other hand up to her face and held her steady as he looked into her eyes with an intense stare. “The last fifteen years are over and done. I want to focus on the next fifteen. And the fifteen after that. And the fifteen after that. I’m not asking for more than you’re ready to give, London. I’m just asking that you’ll be open to giving me more than just your body. We don’t have to figure it out yet, but can we both agree that this is more than just a casual hookup?”
“It became more than just a casual hookup when you convinced me to dance with you on the sidewalk,” she said. She tipped her head up and pressed a quick kiss to his lips, then whispered, “I think this means we’re going steady.”
“Finally,” Drew said. “Only took fifteen years.”
27
Typically, when Drew climbed onto a massage therapist’s table, he was prepared to feel his most relaxed. That was the point of the experience.
But his typical massage didn’t involve lying two feet away from a seminude London Kelley emitting low, sexy little sounds every five minutes. Her satisfied moans accounted for the excited current that continued to streak through Drew’s veins and wouldn’t allow for his body to loosen up—despite the massage therapist’s skillful hands. How could he relax when all he wanted was to banish both of the day spa’s employees from the room and strip London out of the single piece of clothing she wore? He could not be thinking about her pair of barely there silky underwear right now if he didn’t want this massage to get hella awkward, hella quick.
He concentrated on reciting nursery rhymes in his head in an effort to hoist his mind out of the filthy gutter where it was currently stuck. He’d booked a room at the boutique hotel attached to the day spa, so he’d have the chance to get down and dirty with London soon enough.
He would havemanychances, if their discussion back at the vineyard was any indication. Somehow he’d finally managed to win over the girl of his dreams.
Drew thought about all that time he’d spent—well into his early twenties—considering what it would have been like if London had shown him even a hint of the attention he’d sought from her in high school. If she’d smiled at him instead of always rolling her eyes, or worse, ignoring him altogether. If she had been his friend instead of his foe. He wouldn’t have been totally satisfied with being only friends, but he would have gladly taken it if that’s all she’d offered him back then.
But she wanted more than friendship now. She wanted more than just a few hours in his bed in the evenings. He didn’t know what she envisioned thatmoreto be, but when the time was right, Drew was all too ready to share his opinions.
He wouldn’t allow himself to think too far ahead. But at least he could breathe a little easier, knowing that their time together wouldn’t end when Trident wrapped up its work at County.
The massage therapist drove the heels of her hands up Drew’s spine, then around his shoulder blades, ending with a delicate pat down the length of his arms.
“There you go,” she spoke in a soft voice. “Take your time getting up.”
London’s massage therapist did the same, and a minute later, both were gone from the room.
