Since Drew

by J. Nathan

  I couldn’t help the laughter that erupted from deep within me. Freedom felt near. I could practically taste it.

  “Hey, slow down before you fall,” Anthony called out amused.

  “I can’t,” I managed between laughter. “I feel so freeeeee.” That’s when I caught sight of Drew standing in the doorway with a small smile on his face. As soon as our gazes collided, his smile faded.

  The unexpected distraction caused me to falter on my crutches and nearly topple over. When I regained my balance, I glanced back to an empty doorway.

  I left Anthony a little while later still in my wheelchair. He worried I’d take off on my crutches and injure myself. And since he’d promised to discharge me after tomorrow’s session, and Doctor Fallon had already given her approval, I wouldn’t dare risk it.

  “Looked like you were having fun in there.”

  Like the previous day, Drew stood against the hallway wall. His eyes hid something I couldn’t quite decipher and his hands remained buried in his pockets. I wondered if he’d broken any fingers in his fit of rage.

  “What can I say?” I shrugged. “Anthony’s fun.” I kept rolling. When I didn’t hear footsteps, I breathed a sigh of relief. I stopped in front of the elevator, waiting for an older couple to step off. Once they did, I began to roll inside. But something stopped me from moving forward. Like literally stopped me from moving. My head flew over my shoulder. Drew gripped my chair, pulling me back and away from the elevator. “What the hell are you doing?”

  He said nothing.

  Anger boiled inside me as he pushed me through the lobby. There was only one reason I remained quiet and let him push me outside into the cloudy afternoon. I needed to see him. I needed to look into his cold eyes when I exploded on him.

  When he reached the closest bench, he stopped and sat down.

  “What do you want from me?” I spat.

  “Why don’t you ever laugh like that with me?”

  WTF?

  “Why?” I shook my head in utter disbelief. “Because you constantly act like a jerk.”

  He looked away, his eyes taking in everything but me. “Am I that bad to be around?”

  I stared at him dumbfounded. “Um, yeah. And add your split personalities to the mix, and you’re a damn nightmare.”

  His eyes cut back to mine. Darkness flashed in his expression.

  Bring it. I was so ready for him.

  He opened his mouth to respond.

  “Drew?” a woman called.

  Our eyes shot to the voice. Drew’s mother crossed the lawn, approaching us hesitantly. Once she stood in front of us, her words were timid. “I was hoping you’d like a visitor.”

  “Great,” I interrupted with a disingenuous smile. “I was just leaving.”

  Drew’s eyes flew to mine, pleading with me to stay.

  I leaned closer to him, whispering for only his ears. “Gotta earn a save.”

  I grasped my wheels, attempting a quick getaway, but Mrs. Slater’s voice stopped me.

  “How’s he doing?” She sat down beside him on the bench.

  I shrugged. “You’ll have to be the judge of that. I barely know your son.” With that, I rolled off, leaving them to work out their own issues.

  That’s if he decided to talk to her.

  * * *

  “You’re ready,” Anthony said as I made my way around the therapy room the following day.

  I stopped in my tracks, wiping the sweat from my face with my favorite green T-shirt. “Are you serious?”

  He nodded. “I see no reason to keep you here any longer.”

  My head fell back and I closed my eyes, elation sweeping over my entire body. “Oh, thank God.”

  “Elite Therapy is one of the best out-patient clinics in the state. Just promise me you’ll continue giving it your all.”

  My eyes popped open. “Absolutely.”

  A couple hours later, after filling out a stack of paperwork, I was discharged. Since Logan was in the middle of taking an exam, one of my nurses wheeled me down to the lobby to wait for a taxi. The reporters had finally departed. I wondered if it had been on their own accord or if they’d been escorted off the premises. Maybe Drew finally gave them the story they so desperately sought.

  My taxi pulled to the curb a few minutes later. I grabbed the plastic bag with my belongings from the floor beside me and hooked it onto the arm of the chair. I leaned down and grabbed my crutches, laying them across my lap. Tasting freedom, I grabbed the wheels and rolled forward only to be stopped by someone grasping my chair. Again.

  My head whipped around.

  Drew stood staring down at me with an unfathomable expression. “You’re leaving?” He sounded appalled.

  My eyes dropped to his hands on my wheelchair. “Trying to.” I could feel both my voice and anger rising. “Let go of my chair.”

  He didn’t.

  “I swear to God—”

  Completely ignoring my potential rant, he pushed me outside.

  “You don’t make any sense!” I was exasperated and had lost all patience.

  He stopped at the taxi’s back door.

  “What’s wrong with you?” I shouted.

  He released my chair and raked his fingers through his hair. The look in his eyes was wild. Like his world was spiraling out of control. “You!” he shouted back.

  “Me?” I couldn’t tell if anger or shock laced my voice. Probably both.

  “I can’t stop fucking thinking about you!”

  All my breath left me in a giant whoosh. “What?”

  He dropped his hands and yanked open the taxi’s back door. He leaned in, saying something to the driver I couldn’t hear. Then he turned back to me, his eyes avoiding mine as he lifted my crutches and stood them up.

  That was it?

  He expected to admit something like that and then just send me on my way?

  I pushed myself to my feet, balancing on the crutches just enough to hobble into the taxi.

  Drew turned and grabbed my bag from my chair. Instead of handing it to me, he bent down and tried to get in.

  I didn’t move. “What are you doing?”

  “What’s it look like? I’m getting in.”

  “Why?”

  At that point, it was either be sat on or move over, so I moved over. He slid inside, and the taxi pulled away from the curb with the two of us seated inside.

  My heart began to pound in every part of my body. What in the world was he doing? I didn’t speak. I didn’t even look at him. This was all him. He was the one who jumped inside my taxi. The one who’d made the out-of-left-field declaration. The one who’d lost his mind.

  He turned his body toward me, breaking the awkward silence. “Do you trust me?”

  “Trust you? Why would I trust you? You’ve lost your freaking skull.”

  His eyes dropped to his lap. An internal war clearly raged within him as he worked to rein back his temper.

  That bought me time. Time to slow down the thoughts racing through my mind. Time to bite back the words teetering on the tip of my tongue. Had I totally misread everything between us? Had I created another fictional situation in my head? But how? Since he’d woken up, he’d made his feelings toward me blatantly clear—on more than one occasion.

  Drew’s eyes flashed up. “I want to take you somewhere.”

  “Take me somewhere? Are your meds making you crazy?”

  “I’m not on meds,” he answered matter-of-factly.

  “Is this about Anthony?”

  He shook his head. “This is about you and me.”

  “I didn’t realize there was a you and me.”

  “Then you haven’t been paying attention.”

  See? Split personalities.

  I huffed out my frustration. My confusion. My anger. “I’m disgusting. I need a shower.”

  A subtle smirk lifted the corners of his lips. “I might be able to help with that.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “My parents never sh
ow up here until after Memorial Day.” Drew unscrewed a bottle of soda and handed it to me on the patio lounge chair where he’d left me moments before.

  “You got any rum?” I needed something strong to get me through whatever this was.

  “That won’t help you on your crutches,” he advised, like the PT he endeavored to be.

  “I think you’re forgetting you left my crutches inside after kidnapping me.”

  He looked at me with a small smile on his face. “I didn’t kidnap you.”

  I glanced to my bare legs. “Taking my crutches and boot ensures I can’t go anywhere. That constitutes kidnapping.”

  His laughter was the only response I got.

  I looked out at his family’s private beach stretched out before us. The ocean air mixing with the sweet smell of sand brought me back to days when I could run along the coast truly consumed by it. Today, the waves crashed roughly on the shore with the impending storm. Much like the current state of my thrashing heart.

  Why was I here?

  As if he hadn’t made a startling enough confession minutes before, he sat down on the chair beside me. I tried ignoring the questions itching to burst out of me by focusing on the waves, but when he reached over his shoulder and tugged his T-shirt over his head, the pull to peek at the deep ridges and ripples in his abs as he lay back overwhelmed me.

  Hey. He might’ve been an ass, but he was still drop dead gorgeous.

  I tried refocusing. “I can’t believe you don’t like coming here.”

  “Who said I don’t?”

  Shit.

  My eyes cut to his. “I just assumed…I mean, I’ve never seen you around here.”

  “If you knew my parents, you’d understand.”

  “Oh, I think I got a pretty good impression of them.”

  He snickered. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone stand up to my dad the way you did.”

  I sipped my soda behind a grin. “He should’ve been nice to you. Then he would’ve gotten the sweet Andi.”

  He grinned. “What fun would that have been?”

  I shrugged, trying not to be lured in by his killer smile. “So, has he always been like that?”

  “When business is doing well, he’s everyone’s best friend. When it’s not, you want to steer clear of him. I spent the majority of my life steering clear of him.”

  My lips twisted regrettably. Not everyone was lucky enough to have parents like mine.

  “You’re probably not going to believe this, but growing up, I was a real screw-up. A total loose cannon. If I wasn’t getting suspended for fights at school, I was being hauled in by the cops for disorderly conduct.”

  “Can’t say I’m really surprised.”

  I could hear his soft snicker before he continued. “I needed something. A way to let off steam. To get out the anger created by my father—a man whose pockets were never as fat as his desire to be wealthy. At any cost. But the very thing I never wanted to be—the bitter, careless, angry person I loathed—was the very thing I was becoming. I hated myself. I hated my father. I hated my mother for being weak and staying with him.”

  I didn’t know what to say, so I just sat there, listening to him shed some light on the enigma that he was.

  “That’s when I found football. It’s what I was good at. It’s what I became known for. And, like magic, all the stupid shit I’d done before was erased by my ability to throw a ball. It became my outlet. It let me shut out the rest of the world. Especially my parents.”

  What the hell? When he was real like that with me, I found it difficult to stay annoyed at him. “So, I take it they won’t be sending out the troops looking for you?”

  He shook his head. “I had myself discharged.”

  “You what?”

  “I feel fine. I look fine.” His eyes dropped to his bare chest before lifting with a devilish glint. “Besides, I was going out of my damn mind in there.”

  Join the club.

  “Is that why you came to taunt me at therapy?” I asked.

  “I wasn’t taunting you. I was keeping my eyes on him.”

  I ran my finger over the evaporation on my soda bottle. “Why?”

  “Because I know what he was thinking the second you walked through that door.”

  “I’ve got my work cut out for me?”

  He held my gaze and shook his head. The light green flecks in his eyes were so prominent under the overcast sky. God, he was pretty. But mean. I needed to remind myself he was mean, and had split personalities, and I didn’t need that nonsense in my life. A squawking seagull flew above us, snatching away Drew’s attention. “Looks like rain.”

  I nodded, releasing a quiet sigh.

  “There’s nothing like swimming in the rain.”

  “Yeah. Too bad I can barely walk.”

  “Oh, come on. Live a little.” He jumped to his feet, bending toward me.

  I grabbed hold of my chair, closed my eyes, and screamed bloody murder.

  Drew burst into a deep bellowing laugh. My eyes popped open. His head fell back and his shoulders shook as if his true self just burst free for all to see. As if the angry Drew had disappeared. As if he’d been holding back for far too long.

  And let me just say. It was a true sight to be seen.

  He dropped back into his chair and scrubbed his hands over his face. “Fuck, that felt good.” He lay back, smiling and shaking his head incredulously.

  “Glad I make you laugh.”

  “Sweetheart, you do a whole hell of a lot more than make me laugh.”

  His serious tone knocked my heartbeat into full gear. Or maybe it was his use of the word sweetheart and the slight southern drawl accompanying it. I looked back to the ocean. A couple strolled at the water’s edge hand in hand. I wondered if Drew ever had a real relationship. One with sweet moments like that. Not just insignificant hook-ups with groupies.

  “You annoy the hell out of me.” His voice cut through, grinding my thoughts to a stop.

  “Wow. You really know how to sweet talk a lady.”

  “Your damn persistence makes me angry as hell,” he continued.

  “Says the creepy stalker.”

  One side of his mouth lifted. “I wasn’t finished…You talk more than any girl I’ve ever met.”

  “Maybe that’s because you only spend time with girls like Betty.”

  He smiled. “You’re sarcastic and feisty.”

  “Feisty?”

  Holding my gaze, he nodded. I wondered if that was the look that made girls go home with him. The one that got them to cater to his every whim. “And you turn me on like nothing I’ve ever felt before.”

  Ummmm. Chin meet lap.

  “And the thought of you with your legs wrapped around another guy keeps me awake all damn night.”

  My response shot out before I could even think straight. “I didn’t realize you were into that sort of thing.”

  “Not seeing you with another guy. The thought of you with another guy. Fucking another guy. It makes my blood boil.”

  At that point, I’d stepped into the freaking twilight zone. My head spun and heat shot to the center of my core. “But why? You hate me.”

  “I don’t hate you. I hate what you make me feel.”

  I blinked. Hard. “Well, I hate you.”

  He laughed sardonically. “You should. I’ve messed up with you. I am messed up. More than you could possibly know.”

  I shook my head. “There’s no way you’re any worse than what I already think.”

  He laughed again, this time showing his straight white teeth all the way back to his molars. In that moment, I actually felt as if I’d gotten the old Drew back. He threw his legs off the side of the chair and faced me. His eyes swept over my face, his breathing staggered. “I need to touch you.”

  I suddenly understood that fine line between love and hate. Because both emotions fought for control within me as I sat there lost. Lost in his words. Lost in his eyes. Lost in the alternate reality where se
nse and logic disappeared and I didn’t even care. “I dare you.”

  The clouds chose that moment to open wide. Giant hard drops splattered down all around us. We both looked up and smiled as the rain showered over our faces, drenching us completely.

  In one quick motion, Drew jumped up and swept me into his arms.

  “What are you doing?” I linked my arms around his neck, hanging on to his wet skin for dear life.

  “Oh, you know exactly what I’m doing.” He charged off the patio, down the beach, and right into the ocean with me clutched to his solid chest. “You said you needed a shower.”

  Our laughter mixed with the melody of rain pelting the ocean’s surface. I threw back my head and closed my eyes as Drew spun me around. I extended my arms and envisioned myself flying like one of the many seagulls soaring through the sky. It had been so long since I felt that free. Free of my cast. Free of the hospital. Free of my anger. Free of my ever-changing emotions.

  “How do I make it so you don’t forget me?”

  My eyes flew open. “What?”

  Drew stopped spinning. He stared down at me with clumped eyelashes and raindrops running down his flushed cheeks. Our faces lingered mere inches apart. “I want more moments like this with you.”

  I swallowed down my surprise, blindsided yet again by this new side of Drew.

  But he didn’t wait for me to respond. Instead, his lips crashed down on mine. I had no time to react before his tongue plunged inside my mouth. My hands went to his soaked hair, digging in, pulling him closer. My entire body relaxed into his kiss. The swoop of his tongue. The pressure of his lips.

  He knew how to kiss. He knew how to possess with the force of his lips and the depth of his tongue stroking inside my mouth. It was a dance, a race even, and I willingly followed.

  He pulled back, his chest heaving in tandem with mine. The intensity of his stare set my body ablaze.

  “Okay,” I said breathless.

  “Okay?”

  I nodded. “I may be just as crazy as you, but I want more moments like this, too.”

  His eyes darkened—the complete opposite of what I expected. Was he angry I called him crazy? Turned off by my willingness to acquiesce? You just never knew with him.

  He turned us toward the beach, trudged through the water, and up the beach.