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"Then what's holding you back?"
"Six weeks is a long time to be away."
“That’s just an excuse.”
One dark brow arched. "You think?"
"You know it is." Hope tore off a small piece of her sandwich. "Aside from emergencies, this is a slow time in the horse business. The rest of us at the clinic can handle everything in your absence." She met his gaze. "So go. Enjoy this time with your family, Drew. Because once it's gone, it's not something you can ever get back.”
"What about the baby?"
"I'll still be pregnant after the holidays." A sharp pang shot through her. The holidays. Good heavens, how was she ever going to make it through the holidays without Sam?
Or Drew.
Though she'd valiantly tried to resist, Hope had come to rely on Drew being there for her these past few months. She'd grown accustomed to having him around to watch out for her. Making sure she ate and got enough rest. Insisting she take precautions and didn't overdo anything.
Still, going home as his grandfather wanted was definitely something Drew needed to do.
"You could come with me."
Hope blinked her surprise. "What?" She must have misheard him.
"You could come to Lone Oaks with me."
"Have you lost your mind?" What other explanation was there?
"No." He shook his head, emphasizing his point. "Think about it. Earlier, you said you'd like to put all this stuff with your father's finances out of your mind for a little while. This would give you the perfect opportunity to do that. Plus, the first holiday season without a loved one is usually the hardest. With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming so close to Sam's passing, everything will be magnified and more difficult. If you come home with me, you won't have reminders everywhere you turn, and it'll give you time to get your bearings and make a plan for how to handle everything after the new year.”
Drew smiled, adding, “Besides that, we’d have time to figure things out where the baby is concerned without being under the watchful eye of everyone we know and work with here.”
"Just your family's watchful eyes."
"But they wouldn't know."
"No one here knows," Hope pointed out.
"But they will," he countered. "It's not something we can keep hidden for very much longer."
He was right about that. Each day her jeans were getting more difficult to fasten and more uncomfortable to wear.
"I don't know." Although his points were valid, Hope still harbored quite a few reservations.
"By coming along, you'd also be saving me from my mother and grandmother's relentless matchmaking. With you there, maybe they won't feel so compelled to focus on hooking me up with every unattached female in a fifty-mile radius."
"Likely because they'll assumewe'vealready hooked up."
His grin was quick. And lethal. "Well, we kind of have."
True. "It's not exactly the same."
"It's not all that different either." His expression grew serious, and his next words clutched at something deep inside her. "I want you to come with me, Hope. We can enjoy the holidays, gather our thoughts, and take things one day at a time while we make some pretty important decisions about the future."
If only it were that easy. "That all sounds very nice, Drew, but there's one important component you haven't considered."
His dark brows knitted together. "What's that?"
“My job. Not only do I have my own bills to pay, but now, I also have my father’s debts to contend with. Don’t you think it would be rather careless and irresponsible of me to take a month off work while all the debt continues piling up?”
