When It Was Us

by Larissa Weatherall

  They grabbed lawn chairs from the garage, choosing a walk by the river in the unseasonably cool temps. The water flowed calmly beside them as Mason intertwined their fingers.

  “Would you want to move here someday?” Mason asked.

  Anna stopped, staring at him. “Really? I thought you'd always wanted to live in the city.”

  He held her gaze with a smile. “Maybe I could be persuaded, especially when we have kids.”

  “Kids, huh?”

  “You can't tell me holding little Elise today didn't make you want one?” he teased, tickling her ribs. “The baby fever was all over your face.”

  “Maybe.” Her new baby niece absolutely made Anna ache to be pregnant, but she wasn’t sure he was ready.

  “I tried to get you to stay home and work on that,” he said with a wink.

  Was he serious or teasing? She held his face in her hands investigating the emotions there. “Really?”

  “Really.” His hands moved slowly down Anna’s back, pulling her in close. But their gaze stayed locked together. “Let’s have a baby.”

  Anna threw her hands around his neck and kissed him.

  A baby…

  Country music from a local cover band filled the air as they approached Sage Hill’s town square. A huge American flag swayed in the breeze above the musicians, the lawn already filled with chairs. Red, white, and blue decorations hung all across the pavilion where people hurried around making food and keeping up with the ice cream demand.

  Anna ordered chocolate while Mason got his favorite peach and a piece of Rose’s apple pie. He moved to set up their lawn chairs while Anna waited for the bowls to be filled. Day had turned to dusk, and she struggled to find him in the dim lighting.

  Rounding the pavilion for a better view, she smashed right into a hard wall of chest, falling flat on her butt.

  “I'm so sorry,” a familiar voice said, helping Anna to her feet.

  She saw Mason rushing over in her peripheral vision. “Baby, are you okay?”

  “I'm fine. Embarrassed, but fine.” She brushed the grass from her backside.

  “Anna?”

  “Luke?” she squinted, trying to make out his features in the darkness.

  “Hey!” He grabbed her, squeezing the life out of her in one of his bear hugs. Mason instantly tensed beside them.

  This couldn’t be more uncomfortable, but Luke didn’t do uncomfortable.

  “Mason, this is Luke,” she said.

  “Great to meet you.” Luke held out his hand to shake.

  There was a brief moment of hesitation on Mason's face, but he covered it quickly returning the gesture. “Nice to meet you, man. Anna doesn’t seem to have a single childhood memory that doesn’t include you.”

  Luke shoved her playfully. “What are you guys doing over here with the old folks? I mean, you are married now, but you can still hang out with the cool kids.”

  He raised a challenging brow, but she waited for Mason to answer.

  “We've got the bonfire and cold beer,” Luke urged.

  Mason shrugged. “I could use a beer.”

  Luke clapped his hands together like he’d struck the deal of a lifetime. “Great! I'll grab you some more ice cream. Why don't you head over? Anna knows the way.”

  “You don't have to. I can…” Anna started.

  “You’ve always been a little klutzy. Why don't you let me get the ice cream?” He winked, causing Mason to laugh. At least they could bond over her lack of balance.

  She led Mason in the direction of the bonfire, an Independence Day tradition that started when they were fifteen. But she hadn’t been to one in years. Since…she was with Drew.

  Luke caught up before they reached the group, no doubt charming one of the girls into letting him move to the front of the line. His signature smile always could charm any woman, just like…

  “Drew, look who I found,” Luke yelled, slicing right into the awkward, no anesthetic.

  Drew stood from the back of his truck, turning in the direction of Luke’s voice. His gaze immediately locked onto Anna’s like a magnet, wide and full of shock. He shook his head slightly before he jumped from the truck and moved toward them. He extended a hand to Mason the same as Luke had. “Nice to see you guys. Are you here to meet Elise?”

  Anna watched them shake hands in greeting, her two worlds colliding into each other while her heart went on strike and refused to beat in her chest. She sucked in a breath, mentally slapping herself to pull it together and act like a freaking adult. “How’d you know?”

  “I went in for a haircut last week. Knew it would be a while before Beth would be back,” he shrugged. “I stopped by the hospital to visit. She’s a cutie.”

  A wide grin spread across Anna’s face. “She really is.”

  Anna waited for the weirdness or panic-filled adrenaline rush to take over, but it didn’t come. She hadn’t seen Drew or Luke in so long, but the comfort of being next to them hadn’t changed. The only tension came from Mason’s bicep as she held his arm.

  There was a long pause in conversation while she pondered these things. Of course, Luke broke the silence. “Mason, come with me. I’ll show you to the beer.”

  Mason paused, with a quick look to Drew, then nodded and followed Luke behind the line of trucks.

  “So…” she and Drew both said in unison, causing them to laugh.

  “I hear you’re moving back home. Taking over your dad’s practice after you graduate?” she asked.

  “That’s the plan. Couldn’t stay away I guess.” His smile was bright, the joy clear on his face.

  They were very much in need of a subject change.

  “I was so sorry to hear about your grandma. She was one of the sweetest ladies I’ve ever known.” Anna touched his arm instinctively but pulled it back.

  A subject change to his grandma dying: that’s all she could come up with?

  “Yeah, it was hard. Thanks for coming to the service. It meant a lot. She really loved you.”

  The kindness in his eyes was too much, so she looked away. “Things are better between you and your dad?”

  “Yeah.” He shrugged. The relationship between Drew and his dad was a beautiful thing, and Anna hated the way it instantly crumbled when his parents separated. She realized in that moment it eventually crumbled them, too.

  “I’m glad.” Anna smiled, recovering from the rogue thought. “It’s great that he and your mom were able to work things out…that they found their way back to each other.”

  Drew nodded again, still staring at the water. “Isn’t it a beautiful night? Perfect.”

  She picked up a rock and skipped it across the water, staring until the ripples disappeared. “I love the breeze coming off the river. It’s still one of my favorite places.”

  From the corner of her eye, she caught Drew’s crooked grin at her mention of the river. Their river. Thankfully, Luke and Mason returned with beers in hand.

  They took their seats, and the night sky burst with breathtaking color. For a small town, Sage Hill put on one heck of a fireworks show. Anna watched the side of Mason’s face light up with reds and blues. He caught her stare and placed a tender kiss behind her ear.

  “I love you,” she whispered, lingering close to his lips.

  “Oh yeah? Well, I love you.”

  “Maybe my parents will be asleep by the time we get home.”

  A huge grin covered Mason’s face, one eyebrow arched in question.

  A chair crashed behind them. “I need another beer. Anyone else need another beer?” Drew asked the question but didn’t wait for an answer before disappearing behind his truck to the cooler.

  They enjoyed the rest of the show, sitting around the fire until it started to go out.

  Anna stood and stretched. “I think it’s time to go home.”

  “Already?” Drew and Luke said in unison.

  “Yeah, old and married, remember?”

  “How could we forget?” Drew muttered, stumbling
over and wrapping her in a tight hug. She hugged him back, or held him up might be more accurate.

  “Bye, Sunshine,” he whispered. “It was really great to see you.”

  Sunshine? She hadn’t heard that since the day they broke up a few miles down this very riverbank. His beer-glazed eyes fixed on hers for a brief second before Luke cut in.

  “Bye, girl.” Luke picked her up. “You guys don’t be strangers, okay? Come visit more often.”

  She nodded as Mason’s strained expression grew more obvious. He took her hand in his, leading her away from the fire. She gave a small wave over her shoulder, and Mason kissed their joined fingers as they disappeared into the moonlight. Her thoughts lingered on the river. She wondered if they always would.

  They snuck back into her parents’ completely black house like teenagers, falling into bed. Mason turned to lie on his side, fingers running down her face to her neck and along her arm.

  “I love you,” he whispered with a soft kiss to her collarbone. “You are amazing, and I’m a damn lucky man to call you my wife. Let’s make a baby.”

  Then he kissed her with a fierce need she hadn’t felt from him before.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Drew

  “I’ll bring the firewood; you bring the cooler.” Luke lifted his tackle box from the boat and into his truck.

  Drew nodded. He stowed away his own fishing gear in the garage and turned back to Luke. Things between them had slowly gotten closer to normal over the last four months, mostly because Luke’s stubbornness refused to allow anything else.

  After giving Drew a week to cool off, Luke showed up with the boat and basically forced him into the truck. Not many words had passed between them that first morning as they sat out on the water, but it was a start. Then they spent some time together working on his truck and the deck out back that needed to be replaced. Luke and Anna still worked together every day, but the three of them hadn’t been together since Anna’s confession four months ago.

  Luke rolled his eyes. “You’re too quiet. It’s not going to be weird tonight, right? We’re past all that.”

  The three of them being together again felt awkward as hell in Drew’s mind, but he wanted to talk about it as much as he wanted to pull his fingernails off with a pair of pliers.

  It was July 4th and Sage Hill’s Independence Day Festival. At fifteen, Drew, Luke, Anna and Allison started a bonfire tradition down river from the festival for the fireworks.

  Drew slapped his best friend on the back and headed inside the house without a word. He wasn’t sure how he felt about tonight, but there was one thing he knew for certain. Six months had passed since he’d been given a second chance with Anna, and he thanked God every single day for it.

  He peeked around the corner of his living room where Anna sat tucked under a blanket, his dog Roxy cozied up on her lap. The morning sun shone through the blinds, glowing off her beautiful face. Leaning against the doorway, he watched as she read the book resting on her knees. He’d been hinting for weeks for her to move in, but she hadn’t yet agreed. Even on nights when she did go home, she’d be back at his house before breakfast just like today.

  She caught his stare, rewarding him with the gorgeous dimpled smile that could make him do pretty much anything she ever asked. That also extended to not doing things he knew she needed him to wait for, which was damn near impossible with her looking so tempting. But hell would freeze over before he broke another promise to her. Before he caused the fear to come back into her eyes and the doubt spiral that he would leave her again.

  He loved waking up next to her more than his physical need to brand her as his. It would always kill him that he hadn’t been her first, but he planned to make for damn sure he would be her last. She was in control of the base rounding for now, and when she was ready, he’d make it everything for her.

  Turning his favorite hat backward in preparation for a kiss, he shooed a grumpy Roxy out of the way and pushed Anna back into the couch.

  “Good morning, beautiful,” he whispered, staring into those emerald eyes.

  She lifted her head, her lips brushing the shell of his ear. “You smell like fish,” she whispered back.

  He kissed his way up her neck and across her jaw. “Do I smell bad enough that you want me to stop?”

  The hitch in her breath that was his kryptonite made him pull back when he got to her collarbone. He studied every angle of her face, the way her lashes fell over her eyes and she bit her lip under his examination. She’d never stop being the shy girl who was afraid to hold his hand in the sixth grade when feelings they didn’t yet understand had gotten tangled with their lifelong friendship.

  Drew leaned in slowly, watching her eyes fall closed as he kissed her. He tilted her head to deepen the kiss and reveled in the fact that no matter how many times he had kissed her over the last six months, it still felt like he was lucky she allowed him to be near her.

  She rolled to straddle him. “Go get in the shower. We’re going to be late for lunch with my family.”

  He stood, throwing her over his shoulder as he walked to his room.

  “Put me down,” she squealed.

  Drew tossed her on the bed with a wink as he closed the door to the bathroom.

  Showered, dressed, and ready, twenty minutes later, he watched as she touched up her makeup. The tubes and brushes lay strewn across her side of the bathroom cabinet. She’d become comfortable here with him. Now if only he could convince her to make the move home permanent, to share this house with him forever.

  She caught him staring in the mirror as she painted her lashes. “Why are you staring at me today?”

  “Admiring the view.” He smiled, grabbing her around the waist from behind.

  Drew placed kisses from her ear all the way down her neck to her bare shoulder, running his finger gently under the strap of her red and white striped tank top. Her eyes closed with a sigh. “It’s really hard to get ready with you distracting me like this.”

  He spun her to face him, lifting her onto the counter. “I have something for you.”

  “Really?” Her eyes lit up. She loved surprises just as much as he did.

  His hands cupped her face, staring into her flickering green eyes. “Just a little something to say how happy I am and how much I love you.”

  He handed her the long white box from his back pocket. She slowly opened the blue bow, then stared from him to the bracelet.

  “It’s the same one,” he said as his fingers traced the charm bracelet he’d given her for her seventeenth birthday. The tiny sun at the beginning was the first he’d placed there. The heart, letter A, softball, Christmas tree, and graduation cap were also still there from before, but he’d added more. There was the sapphire promise ring she never took off until the day he walked away from her, his championship baseball pendant from when his college team won the conference tournament. The game he now knew she was at. He’d also included a half heart, because his had never been whole since he left.

  “Each one tells our story,” he whispered.

  She stared at him, tears glistening in her eyelids. “How did you do this?”

  “Your mom. The box labeled Drew and Anna under your bed was pretty helpful. I’m just glad you didn’t burn it.”

  “Me too,” she said. Her legs wrapped around him, pulling him to her. He fastened the bracelet on her wrist as she continued to examine it.

  She held the tiny rhinestone pendant between her fingers. “What’s this?”

  “It’s a piece of your homecoming crown. It fell off in my truck after the dance, and it’s been in there ever since. I may have moved it to the glove box of every vehicle I’ve ever owned. Traci shined it up a little before she added it.”

  “You’ve had it all this time?”

  “You’re not the only one who kept things.”

  “What’s this one?” She touched a smooth brown-speckled rock.

  “I picked it up at the river a few months ago when you sai
d you loved me.”

  “Wow…” She looked from the bracelet to him and back again. Drew’s heart threatened to pound right out of his ribcage from the emotions swimming in her eyes.

  He ran the back of his fingers over her cheek, slowly moving in for a tender kiss. Her mouth parted eagerly, and her hands went to his hair, thighs tightening around him.

  “We’re already late for lunch.” She giggled, fingers brushing the buttons of his red polo shirt. “I thought you were scared of Max.”

  Drew’s hands roamed a trail from her thighs, over her navy blue skirt, up to her hips with a squeeze. “I’m not scared of Max. I’m bigger now. I could probably get a few good punches in before he knocked me out.”

  She broke their kiss way too soon with a raised brow, and he growled, tickling her until she squealed.

  They loaded everything into his truck and pulled up to her parents’ house a few minutes later. From Drew’s peripheral vision, he caught Anna staring at the bracelet dangling from her wrist. Her head lifted, gaze meeting his with that mega-watt smile. She turned to face him, kneeling on the bench seat, and it took every ounce of will power he had not to grab her hips and pull her to straddle him.

  Drew leaned to kiss her, regardless of her family waiting in the backyard, but a tap on the window jerked him back.

  “Are you two getting out of the truck?” Beth asked, hand firmly on her hip. “We’re about to eat without you.”

  Anna gave her sister the go away now glare he’d seen so many times when Beth caught them tangled together, but instead of arguing, she grabbed her apple pie from the backseat. Drew followed her to the backyard. Kinley rushed immediately into Anna’s arms as she rounded the corner, her jabber almost unintelligible.

  Max was home for the holiday weekend and sat on the deck with Kevin. At least Drew had an ally if things went south.

  Charlotte jumped into Drew’s arms, but the little traitor was no help in making a buffer, squirming down as soon as she saw the tree house and waddle-running like toddlers do. A slide had been added to the massive wooden structure since his days spent up there kissing Anna.