Our Little Secret (38 page)

“AGAs,” she told the senator’s secretary with a wink. “You just have to know how to handle them.”

By the time Chapman, Renke, and Gerald left at 3:00 a.m., Lauren was physically exhausted and emotionally drained.

She didn’t give much thought to the fact that Drew became more quiet and introspective with each rehashing of events. He’d been up a full forty-eight hours by then—no wonder he seemed so pensive.

“You’re going to bed,” she ordered.

“Shower first,” he corrected. “Then bed.” He pulled her against him, thoughtfully touching her cheeks and tracing the shape of her eyebrow. “I hope you’ll take this the right way, Lauren, when I say you’re looking awfully dirty.”

She figured it sounded good either way she took it. “You think I need a shower?”

“Desperately.” He kissed her.

She hadn’t thought he’d have enough energy left for a session of hot, steamy sex in the shower, and he didn’t. But slow and tender lovemaking, pressed against a cold shower wall, turned out to be just as
good. When he pulled her into his bedroom afterward, Lauren was so satiated she fell asleep within moments of curling against his body, a deep dreamless sleep that she woke from to the sound of pounding on the bedroom door.

She squinted at the bright sunlight blasting through the window, then at Drew as he propped himself up beside her with the same disoriented expression.

The door vibrated again under four hard knocks. “Andrew! Wake up!” Gerald’s voice continued in lower tones to someone in the hallway, a half-whispered, urgent conversation. As they listened, it grew more agitated.

“I said I’d get him,” Gerald hissed. “Wait downstairs.”

Lauren and Drew exchanged confused glances.

The other voice, female and just as agitated, protested his order in words Lauren couldn’t make out.

“Andrew!” Gerald pounded on the door again. “It’s past noon, for Pete’s sake. Open the door.”

“Let me.” She heard the woman’s suspiciously familiar voice, along with the unmistakable sounds of a scuffle.

Lauren turned alarmed eyes on Drew. “Is it locked?”

“Yes.” He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “But it doesn’t sound like they’re going to go away.” Grabbing a wool throw off the chest at the foot of the bed, he wrapped it around his waist and walked to the door.

“Hang on,” Drew grumbled. Turning the lock, he cracked the door open. “Gerald. Why aren’t you home sleeping?”

Lauren couldn’t see Gerald, but she heard him clearly. “Because your father called me when no one answered the phone here.”

Drew straightened. “He’s back? I never heard the phone.”

“Obviously,” came the dry response.

“Where’s Lauren?” the woman’s voice demanded.

“Who are—” Drew’s voice cut off, apparently having realized the answer to his question.

Stunned, so did Lauren.

“You must be—” Drew began.

The door banged open as she barged past him into the bedroom.

“Meg!” Lauren held the blanket to her chin and stared at her sister.

Meg stopped dead. “Lauren?” She stared, incredulous.

Lauren gave her a sheepish smile. “I broke up with Jeff.”

“Obviously.” Meg looked from Lauren to Drew, then back to Lauren. “I’d say we have some catching up to do. I’ll be downstairs.” Turning toward the door, she looked Drew over. “You’re Drew, huh? I should have guessed.”

Drew smiled pleasantly. “Hi, Mom.”

Meg narrowed her eyes at him while Lauren groaned and ducked her face into the blanket. She’d run through several happy scenarios for her reunion with Meg. This hadn’t been one of them.

Wearing only the wool wrap at his waist and a smirk, Drew held the door as Meg turned to leave. He’d nearly closed it behind her when she turned around.

Braced for a caustic comment, Lauren was relieved when Meg gave her a wry smile. “Thanks for coming, Rennie.” She winked. “Nice haircut.”

Lauren and Meg lay in lounge chairs on Senator Creighton’s secluded back yard patio, talking and soaking up the last rays of a beautiful spring day.

Drew frowned at them from the kitchen window.

“How long you going to stare out that window? You look like a peeping tom,” Harlan said, stirring the large pot of chili on the stove. “Why don’t you slice some of that bread to go with the chili, and leave the girls alone.”

Drew grudgingly left the window but figured he was too preoccupied to be trusted with a knife. Slouching against the refrigerator, he brooded as he watched his dad add chili powder to the bubbling pot.

“Nice girl,” Harlan said.

“Who?” He looked at his father’s patient expression. “Oh, Lauren? Yeah, she is.”

“She seems to like you, too.”

“Hmm.” His father hadn’t been in the house when he and Lauren had gone downstairs, and Drew saw no reason to tell him about their sleeping arrangements. “She hated me at first. Thought I was a shiftless ski bum. And being your son wasn’t a point in my favor. “

“A discerning girl. It seems like she got over that.”

“Gradually.” With a few nudges from him. Not that he felt guilty about Lauren dropping her dud of a fiancé. That was something she should have done a long time ago.

“Guess you two got pretty well acquainted while I was gone.”

Drew reassessed his dad’s expression. Harlan Creighton didn’t usually take an interest in his son’s personal life. Drew didn’t know why his dad would be fishing for gossip now, but he wasn’t going to offer any. “I suppose.”

Harlan stirred the chili in silence, then said thoughtfully, “Gerald said they found Lauren in your bed. I’d call that well acquainted.”

Drew shot a threatening look toward the office where Gerald was working. “Aw, hell,” he muttered. “I didn’t want this to become an issue. Yes, we were sleeping together. So what? Believe me, Lauren and I are a lot better acquainted than some, no, most of the women you’ve been in bed with.”

Harlan raised an eyebrow at him, which was enough to make Drew regret his tone. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“Why? You’re right,” Harlan said. “But you’re not me, Drew. Grabbing every willing girl was never your style. So I want to know if you did this because, well, because her sister has a bit of a reputation, and God knows I do, and you thought we’d gotten married…”

Drew shook his head, brow furrowed in confusion. “What are you getting at, Dad?”

“I’m asking if you thought Lauren was an easy score, and maybe you wanted to get back at me by sleeping with Meg’s sister.”

Drew stared. “Hell, no!” He pushed off the refrigerator and paced a tight, frustrated circle, stopping to glare at his dad. “Yes, I thought the idea of you marrying Meg was ridiculous, but using that as an excuse to sleep with her sister would be…” He paused, searching for the right word. “I don’t know what, but it’d be
a whole lot worse. And Lauren is
not
easy. You have no right to—”

He broke off at his dad’s upraised hands.

“Hey, whoa. I didn’t imply that she was.” The corner of his dad’s lip quirked upward. “Looks like I hit a sensitive spot.”

Breathing hard, Drew let his temper subside. “Yeah,” he grumbled.

“Look, son, I asked because I have a lot of respect for Meg Sutherland, and after all we went through this past week it feels like Lauren practically
is
my sister-in-law.”

The irony of it struck Drew as absurd, and he startled his dad with a bitter laugh. “Your sister-in-law? Hell, Dad, if I had my way she’d be your daughter-in-law. I’m just not sure I can talk her into it.”

Harlan put the spoon down and turned his back on the chili. “Well, I’ll be damned, Gerald was right.”

Drew groaned. Was there anything that man didn’t know?

“So why aren’t you doing anything about it? She can’t agree to marry you if you’re standing in here with me.”

Drew cocked his head toward the window. “As I recall, you just told me to leave them alone.”

“Not if it’s keeping me from my future grandchildren. Get movin’, boy, I’m getting older by the minute.”

“Huh,” Drew gave an amused snort. “I wish Lauren were that easy to convince.”

“How do you know she’s not?”

“Because I was stupid enough to point out how regulated and dull her life was, and she bought it. She’s
decided to be more like her sister, and not tie herself to one man. Smart move on my part, eh?”

Harlan laughed. “Maybe smarter than you know. Meg’s so sick with love for that Romanian boyfriend of hers I think she’s about to get down on her knees and beg him to marry her.”

A smidgen of hope sparked to life inside him. “Yeah?”

Drew took another thoughtful look out the window at Lauren and Meg. Both women sat in the strong spring sunshine, identical haircuts catching golden highlights. Anyone else might have said they looked alike, but Drew saw a big difference. Lauren had a sparkle, an aura around her that kept him entranced. It made her sister look ordinary in comparison.

“I think I’ll go outside for awhile.”

Lauren nibbled at the worn corner of her fingernail and considered Meg’s comment. “I don’t know, it sounds risky to come right out and say it.”

Meg shrugged. “What have you got to lose?”

Everything. She could lose Drew.

He’d upset her entire life, rearranged her priorities, and now she didn’t know how to go on without him.

But in one more day, she’d find out. She’d go home to Michigan. He’d go home to Colorado. She couldn’t afford a long-distance relationship. They would have to say good-bye.

“Hi.”

She hadn’t heard Drew come up behind them. She flashed the goofy smile she always had when she was around Drew. It probably looked as dorky as it felt.

He held up a nylon jacket. “I thought you might be chilly out here.”

“Thanks.” She took it gratefully.

“Just one, huh?” Meg exchanged smiles with Drew. “Then I guess I’ll be going inside.”

“’Bye.” Drew waited until she left, but didn’t claim her vacated chaise lounge. Instead, he straddled Lauren’s, forcing her to pull her knees up to make room. With Drew’s arms braced on either side of her, she was effectively trapped.

“I hope you weren’t talking about me,” he said.

“Why?”

“Because you’re biting your nails again, which means you’re nervous about something. You haven’t been doing that lately.”

“I haven’t?”

“Not even when we were shot at in Florida. Which means this must be pretty bad.”

“I guess only certain things worry me.” Like saying good-bye to Drew. Like wondering if saying she loved him would make a difference.

“Like seeing Jeff again?”

She blinked, startled. “No. I hadn’t even thought about him. But I doubt he’ll want to see me again. I’m sure he’s embarrassed about having to tell everyone we broke up.”

“Probably annoyed, too. You’ve ruined his vacation plans. Probably can’t even get a refund on his deposit.”

Lauren gave him a puzzled smile, unsure why Drew had been giving this any thought. “I’m sure you’re right.”

“Ruined
your
vacation, too,” he mused.

At least Drew appeared to be taking it well. “It doesn’t matter.”

“But now you have one more week off and no place to go.”

She suddenly saw a possible direction to this conversation, and tried not to quiver with a hope that could be dashed at any second. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

Drew pretended to think. “You know, you could come visit me. I have to work with the camp kids part of each day, but we’d still have plenty of time together.”

She couldn’t prevent the tiny smile that crept to her lips. He wanted to continue their relationship. Even if these two weeks of vacation were all she could have with Drew, she’d take it.

But she couldn’t appear too eager. “I don’t know. What’s it like at this place of yours?”

“My cottage is big, a house really. And there’s just me, so we’d have lots of… privacy.”

The lift in his eyebrow told her exactly what that meant, and she had to bite her cheek to keep from grinning.

“There’s a large fireplace, and a big dining room table, and a comfortable couch, and of course, a king-size bed.”

She felt a flush creep into her cheeks as she realized he was offering several unorthodox locations for making love. She cleared her throat. “That sounds nice.”

Seeing he had her interest, he leaned closer with a sly smile. “There’s a meadow out the back door that’s very pretty in the moonlight. Also very private. And
of course hundreds of acres of wilderness with no one around.”

Making love with Drew outside, with the open sky above and acres of wilderness around them—just the idea made her warm all over. “I’ve never, um, done that.”

“No?” His gaze held hers. “I could help you correct that oversight. The property also has a lake. Of course the water’s freezing cold this time of year, so you might want to come back in the summer.” He paused, watching her closely.

Her heart faltered. “Come back?”

“Or just stay. I close up for a couple weeks in the fall and let the entire staff have some time off. We’d have the whole lodge to ourselves then, just the two of us.”

It felt like her lungs had constricted, each breath catching in her throat. “Stay? Until fall?” she whispered.