Wrapped in Lace (20 page)

“We’ve got plenty,” Matt said, pointing to a half-eaten pepperoni pizza and some breadsticks.

Piper and I scooted into the booth across from Sabrina and Matt. This was the same booth we sat in as teenagers. Things here never seemed to change. The place looked exactly the same, from the red vinyl on the booths to the black and white checked floor. I put three slices of pepperoni pizza and two breadsticks on a plate and placed it down in front of Piper. “Start with that.”

“I can’t eat all that,” she said, transferring two slices and one breadstick onto a plate for me.

I moved it back to her plate. “I want to see you eat all of that.” I knew my voice sounded short, but I couldn’t help it. I never acted like this before, but something was nagging at me. Piper simply rolled her eyes, smiling at me.

“This is just like old times,” Matt said. “How many nights did we spend in this place?”

I smiled, seeing Piper sprinkling her slice with Parmesan then taking a huge bite. “Too many.”

“You know your high score still stands on that old PacMan machine in the back,” Matt said.

“No shit?” I said, holding my hand up for the waitress and ordering a pitcher of beer. I turned to Piper. “Blue Moon, right?”

Piper held her hand over her mouth, still chewing. “Just bring some water for me, please.”

Sabrina and Piper caught up on the latest school gossip while Matt and I continued to relive our high school days. It wasn’t nearly as painful as I thought it would be. And he was kind enough to leave Ellie’s name out of it, bringing up mostly times that we shared playing football, or just guys hanging out. I forgot how much I missed this place, missed Matt. And it suddenly felt so good to be back here, but this time with Piper by my side. I stole a glance at her, and she flashed me a smile. I took her hand and lifted it to my lips.

“Why don’t you do things like that anymore,” Sabrina said, elbowing Matt in the side.

He held up her ring finger. “I married you so I don’t have to do that sappy shit anymore.” But then he lifted up her hand and kissed it. They looked so disgustingly happy, and I wondered if Piper and I looked that way to outsiders. I guess we probably did by the way my parents were always smiling at us.

I wasn’t sure how much time passed as we laughed and carried on, but it was long enough for Piper to clean her plate, which made me happy. We were having so much fun that I didn’t notice we had company until Piper elbowed me gently. I looked up, finding Ellie’s brown eyes looking down at us.

“This looks familiar,” Ellie said as Matt got up and kissed her cheek.

Sabrina gave a little wave. “I hear it’s twins. That’s so great.”

“Thanks,” Ellie said, but her eyes stayed right on mine. “Can we talk a minute?”

Sabrina scooted out of the booth. “We were just leaving.” She leaned over and kissed Piper on the cheek and Matt did, too. “See you later.”

The counter boy yelled that Ellie’s pizza was ready, but she motioned she needed a minute. “Should you be eating pizza?” I asked Ellie. “Mom told me you were sick or something.”

She gave me a little smile, and I realized that sounded like I cared. Shit, I didn’t want Piper to think I gave a damn about Ellie. My only concern was for the babies. If anything happened to them, I knew my parents would be crushed. I hope Piper knew that was the only reason I asked. “It’s for Jack and Rob.” She turned her eyes to Piper. “Would you mind giving me a minute with Drew?”

How dare Ellie dismiss Piper like that! No fucking way was that going to happen. I didn’t want Piper to think I was keeping anything from her, but I didn’t have to say a word. Piper flashed a wicked smile, saying, “I absolutely would mind.” That’s my girl!

“Piper, I just need a minute of his time,” Ellie said, rubbing her belly. She was playing the pregnancy card. “Surely you can give me that?”

“Drew’s only here for a few days, so his minutes are precious, and frankly, you’re wasting them.”

Holy hell, Piper was ready to do battle. I wanted to lean back and watch the show. Too bad there wasn’t popcorn. Have to say, two women fighting over me wasn’t hurting my ego any, but my money was definitely on Piper.

“Rob told me what happened to his face.” Ellie narrowed her eyes. “Maybe Drew would make some time for me if my legs were spread open on the bar.”

I would kill Rob for telling her. I darted up, but Piper put her hand on my thigh, giving me a little head shake. “I guess when you screwed Rob it wasn’t on the bar. The bathroom stall, maybe?” she said.

“How dare you!” Ellie started.

“Oh, excuse me,” Piper said snidely. “I forgot you are probably the world’s biggest prude. Only in bed, with Rob on top, after you’ve both showered. And you probably only screw him once a month or so, or on the holidays, the good girl that you are!”

Ellie’s mouth dropped open. She really had no idea who she was messing with when she picked a fight with Piper. “Are you really going to let her talk to me like that?” Ellie asked me.

“You started this, Ellie,” I said. “But you obviously aren’t going to leave us alone, so just say what you need to or move on. I have plans for Piper this afternoon.”

Piper smiled at me. “Can’t wait.”

“Disgusting,” Ellie said, rolling her eyes. “This is so sad, Drew. Really! We are adults.”

“I don’t know what the hell you are talking about.”

She motioned between Piper and me. “This! You’re better than this.”

“Excuse me,” Piper said.

“Ellie, I think you better stop,” I said. I’d be damned if I let Ellie insult Piper.

“No, you should stop. Stop using Piper to ease your pain, distract you from dealing with your family, using her to try to get to me.”

I saw Piper’s eyes cast down, hinting that she’d wondered about that herself. “I don’t know why you think this is any of your business, but Piper is my girlfriend, and I’d never use her.”

“I was your girlfriend for four years, and you walked away without a thought.”

“You screwed his brother,” Piper said, throwing her hands up.

“Whether you like it or not, I’m your family now,” Ellie said to me. “And you are hurting your brother and. . . .”

I didn’t hear anything else she said because Piper turned to me and whispered, “She still loves you.”

Could Piper be right? It didn’t matter, but I’d never even considered it before. No way! She was pregnant with my brother’s babies. This had to just be hormones. I squeezed Piper’s hand and looked up at Ellie ranting. “Thank God I didn’t marry you,” I said. “I couldn’t stand to listen to you bitch every single day of my life. It almost makes me feel sorry for Rob. Almost!”

Ellie’s eyes welled up, and she turned to leave without getting her pizza. “God, I’m so sorry.” I said to Piper, but she was looking down, her hands resting on her belly. “Nothing she said is true.”

*

PIPER

I felt like
I could be sick. I’m sure it’s not morning sickness—too early for that. It’s that Ellie was such a bitch, and I was letting her into my head. But she made a good point. Drew had just left her without a single word after four years together. Why did I think our few days together would turn out any differently? “She still loves you,” I repeated.

“She married my brother. She doesn’t love me.”

“Have you listened to her at all? She still wishes it was you she’d married. I bet she’d leave Rob for you.”

“Now that’s just disgusting.”

I almost laughed at the way his body shivered at the mere thought of it, his reaction so honest it lifted my mood. “Disgusting?”

“Yeah, why would I want to be where my brother’s been?” He made a face like he just smelled poop. “Nasty, it would be like incest or something.”

This time I laughed out loud. “Still doesn’t change the fact that she’s carrying a torch for you.”

“That’s her problem. There’s not a single cell in my body that misses her, believe me!”

I nodded that I did and picked a pepperoni off my pizza slice. “What about the other stuff she said? About me just being a distraction?”

The flash of anger that went through his eyes scared me. “How can you ask me that after these past few days? You really think I’m using you?”

“At Landon’s that night when we were dancing, you said you were trying to avoid your family and. . . .”

“Look, in Hank’s that first night,” he said, taking my hand, “you were a distraction—a beautiful, wannabe ‘bad girl’ distraction. I won’t lie about that. And I’d planned on finding that girl and distracting myself the whole week.”

“Then Ellie was right?”

His eyes turned black, his fists clenched. I was waiting for his head to explode. “I also said I wanted you to come home to Raleigh with me. That I wanted to see where this goes. That we’d see each other every weekend. Have you heard none of that?”

*

I know I
was acting like a complete basket case, an emotional mess. It was pretty obvious. I looked over at Drew in his pickup truck. He was still so pissed off. He certainly didn’t like me questioning his motives, and I wasn’t used to him taking such an angry tone with me. But I knew he was right. I was focusing on one piece and not the whole puzzle. I wasn’t giving him credit for all the wonderful things he’d said to me.

He pulled his truck up to the workshop of his grandmother’s house, slamming his door as he got out. I felt myself jump slightly as he huffed around the truck to get my door. I could feel that our fight wasn’t over. He was just as worked up as he’d been at the pizza parlor. The drive home hadn’t helped to calm him down one bit.

We trudged through the snow towards the workshop. He stayed a couple steps ahead of me the whole time, which wasn’t like him. He always held my hand as I walked beside him or smacked my ass when I walked in front of him. I could feel the tension rolling off of him as I walked in his wake. This wasn’t going to be good. I knew his motives weren’t contrived and that he wasn’t using me, but I’d let Ellie get in my head again. And I’d let the potential baby scare me to death. He slid open the workshop door, waiting until I walked through then slammed it shut.

“Drew, I’m really sor. . . .”

His mouth landed on mine hard, his hands pinning me to the door. This was unexpected. “Hush,” he growled. “I don’t want to hear you’re sorry.”

“But. . . .” His eyes lifted, shutting me up. He didn’t need to pin me to the wall with his hands. His eyes could hold me there.

“Didn’t I make love to you yesterday morning?” he asked, his voice pained.

“Yes,” I answered softly.

“How can you think I’m using you?”

“I don’t,” I whispered.

“How about when I’ve fucked you hard?” he asked. “Am I using you then?”

“No, I like it hard sometimes.”

His blue eyes sparked. “Good, because I really don’t want to be gentle right now.”

My mouth dropped. “You want to have sex with me, right now?”

“Piper, I want to fuck you, screw you, bang you, nail you, make love to you every second of every day.”

“But you’re so angry?”

“Fighting with you makes me want to fuck you. I can’t help it.” I didn’t mean to laugh, but I did. “Besides, I’m not really angry.” He released my wrists and rested his head on my shoulder. “I’m more hurt.” I pulled him close and caressed his hair, hating that I’d hurt him.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“You don’t need to apologize, just stop letting her mess with what we have.” He lifted his head and took a few steps back, shoving his hands in his pockets.

I wish it was just
her
messing with my head, but I wasn’t ready to tell him that. “I will.”

“Good,” he said, but his face still looked tense.

“What is it?”

“You know, I’m always making love to you, right?” he asked. I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, and I’m sure my face gave away my confusion. “Whether it’s hard, soft, fast, or slow? Whether I call it fucking, screwing, nailing, or banging? With you, it’s always making love,” Drew said.

Oh, my God, bury me now. I could die a happy, happy woman. He was so sweet, such a charmer, and I believed every single syllable he uttered. “Wow.”

He took both my cheeks in his hands. “Please tell me you know that?” I couldn’t speak. My emotions had stolen my voice. A few warm tears rolled down my face, and he wiped them away. “You know?”