“Stag?”
Uh-oh.
Piper pushed my hand off her hip and took a step back.
“Piper, it’s not what you think-”
“Really, Drew? Isn’t it? Because it sounds like you didn’t tell your parents about us. It sounds like they don’t know I’m your girlfriend or that I’m your date. Or I was.” Piper backed away another step, her hurt gaze flicking back and forth between Blair and me. And I knew exactly what she saw in Blair- someone who was so completely the opposite of Piper herself, I couldn’t have hand-picked anyone to be more different.
“I’ll see if I can get a ride home with Luke.” And with that, she spun on her heel and practically ran inside.
Whirling, I turned on Blair. Perfect, tiny, brunette, perky, little Blair. Damn.
“What are you doing here?” I roared.
She took a step back, her smile faltering for the first time. “Andrew, what are you talking about? We were just taking a break, remember? We just were taking a break while you figured out what you were doing.”
Eyes narrowing, I took a threatening step toward her. She leaned back but otherwise didn’t move.
“A break? That’s what you think happened? You stomped on my heart because I wasn’t going to Mr. Basketball-” I sneered at the very words.
“Your mom said you’re playing again! Everything can go back to normal, now.” Her smile was back, but not quite as confident as it had been before.
“Is that what you think? Are you insane?” I was going to wring my mother’s neck! “How did you get here?”
She blinked. “Wh- I flew in this afternoon-”
“No, Blair,” I interrupted. “How did you get here?” I pointed to the ground at my feet.
“Oh, well, your mom dropped me off-”
“Of course, she did.” Throwing my hands in the air, I began pacing. Mom had probably put her in a hotel until it was time for the dance. Dad probably had no idea what she was up to. I knew Kittie didn’t, she hated Blair and would have warned me before things got this far if she’d known.
Stopping in front of her, I said, “Okay, so here’s what you’re going to do. You are going to call my mom and tell her to get back over here and pick you up and take you right back where you came from-”
“But Andrew-”
I interrupted her again. “And you are going to forget all about me because I’m in love with Piper.” I pointed in the direction Piper had run.
A confused look crossed Blair’s face. “She’s as tall as the Eiffel Tower.”
I had to get out of there. Or I was going to hit her. And I couldn’t hit a girl. “I’m leaving, Blair. And while I wish you all the best, I also hope I never see you again. Goodnight.”
And then, without ever looking back, I sprinted back into the gym to find Piper.
Chapter 32
Piper
I couldn’t believe this was happening. How could this be happening? Drew lied to me- again! And he hid me from his family! He had a girlfriend?
It was just like I’d always thought, no one could ever want to be with me. Not for real. Drew hadn’t changed a bit since this summer. He was still the same player that wanted kisses with no commitment. Well, I wasn’t going to be that girl ever again.
I headed into the restroom first. I needed to find Luke, but I was a mess. After locking myself into a stall, I let the tears fall. It hurt so much! I thought I finally found something with Drew. He was perfect for me. Tall, handsome, and he smelled so good. He was nice, he’s taken care of me in a way I never knew I needed or wanted someone to care for me. And- and I thought he was so much more.
But it was all a joke.
Another big, fat joke on Piper.
It was a solid five minutes before I left the bathroom after mopping the tears and streaks of mascara off my face. Keeping my head down, I went in search of my brother.
“Piper! What’s wrong?” Noah stopped me as I tried to race past him on my way out the other side of the gym.
I shook my head. “Nothing. Nothing’s wrong. I just need to find Luke.”
“Luke’s not here. Trinity’s mom was in a car accident and he took her over to the hospital. They left about ten minutes ago. I was actually just looking for you to let you know.” Noah put a tentative hand on my arm. “What’s wrong? Where’s Drew?”
I stomped my foot. “I don’t care about Drew! I just need to go home.” I glanced around us not even knowing what I was looking for.
“Well, I can take you. I came stag, so I can leave whenever,” he offered with a shrug.
“I would be so glad if you could take me home. Thank you!” We didn’t waste any time making our way out of the gym.
“Sure you don’t want to talk about it?” Noah asked, watching me out of the corner of his eye.
“Nope.” My emotions churned as we walked. “Drew is just a big jerk.”
“Really? He seems like a stand-up guy to me. What did he do?” I knew what Noah was doing. He was digging. And mad as I was, I let him. Even though I didn’t want to. Where was Dannika when I needed her? Oh, right, she was at home binge watching Hallmark movies. Why did I ever agree to go to this stupid dance in the first place.
“A better question would be what didn’t he do?” Like tell me he had a girlfriend in another state.
“Okay, what didn’t he do?” We were almost to Noah’s car. My feet hurt and I couldn’t wait to sit down.
“He didn’t tell his family we were dating, first of all. Or that we were going to this dance together.” I waited with my hands on my hips for Noah to unlock the door.
“Why would he do that?” Noah asked, frowning over my shoulder.
“Because, my parents are jerks and I didn’t want to expose Piper to them,” Drew’s voice interrupted before I could question Noah about what he was looking at.
I closed my eyes, defeated. I didn’t want to deal with this confrontation right now.
“Piper, please.” Drew’s hand landed on my shoulder, touching my bare skin. My traitorous body shivered.
Whirling away from his touch, I asked, “And what about Blair?”
“Who’s Blair?” Noah asked, bewildered.
“His girlfriend,” I answered at the same time Drew said, “Nobody.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Nobody? Is that what you tell your parents about all your girlfriends? They’re nobody?”
I turned back to Noah, pleading. “Can you please take me home.”
He opened his mouth to answer but Drew was right there.
“No! Piper, we have to talk. Please don’t do this.” His hands were on my shoulders again, but he turned to Noah. “Dude, I promise I got this. She will be safe with me.”
Noah glanced between us uncertain.
“Baby, I can explain everything,” Drew hurried to say, his blue eyes desperate. “Blair is my ex-girlfriend. It was all a misunderstanding with my mom. I’ll tell you anything you want to know. Please, come with me.”
“Piper?” Noah still stood with his hand on the door of his car, waiting to take me away from this hurt.
“Please.” Drew took another step toward me and my resolve waivered. I glanced at Noah. He nodded.
“Okay, but this better be good and you take me home when I ask you to.” I jabbed my finger in the center of his chest.
“Okay,” he hugged my unresponsive body, okay that was a lie, my body responded, but I didn’t let him know that. “I’ll take you home if you still want to go.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Don’t get cocky.”
Drew grinned. “Thanks, Noah. See you later.”
Noah watched as Drew led me toward his car. “Call me if you need me, Piper.”
“Freaking traitor, Jacobs!” Drew called over his shoulder.
Drew
Honestly, I was glad Noah was such a good friend to both of us. And really glad Piper had never had any romantic feelings about the guy- I’d asked her one time. However, I was happy to walk away from him
with Piper at my side and not by myself as she drove off with him, which had almost happened and I’d had to race across the parking lot to catch them.
I waited until we were both seated in my car and I’d exited the parking lot before talking.
“First of all, I have to say how sorry I am. Tonight, before Blair,” I cringed saying her name, “Before she showed up, tonight was one of the best nights of my life.”
Piper crossed her arms over her chest- bad, but her shoulders seemed to relax a little- good. I took a deep breath. I hated having to explain myself and if it were anyone other than Piper, I’d tell them to take a flying leap, but this was what happened when you let people into your life and I wanted Piper in my life.
“Okay, so Blair. Blair and I dated for the last half of freshman year and all of my sophomore year. You know about the Mr. Basketball bull crap, I shouldn’t say that, Mr. Basketball is a cool thing and I’m proud of that, but I hated all the hype. I wanted to play basketball and go to school and hang out with friends, but I couldn’t do any of that without all the attention.”
I paused thinking about how the last couple of years had been. “I work hard on my game. Dad taught me how to practice, how to play, how to bulk up. He taught me the game inside and out and I loved every second of it. I really do love basketball.”
Piper finally looked at me, her eyes filled with interest. “I want to hear the rest, but where are we going?”
“My house. I’ll tell you anything you want to know and then I’ll take you to meet my parents. Deal?”
“Yeah, okay. Deal.” She finally uncrossed her arms and laid her hands in her lap.
I was so relieved she was with me, that she was willing to hear me out, I had to reach out for her. I covered her hands with one of mine.
“Piper, I’m so sorry.” We were stopped at a red light, so I looked into her eyes. “I never want to hurt you.”
Her eyes filled with tears, but she nodded, threading her fingers through mine. I gently squeezed her hand as relief filled me. I just knew I could make her understand. I drove the rest of the way to my house and then parked at the end of the drive and turned the car off. I hated talking about all of this stuff, but she needed to know.
“Do you remember that night? When we played basketball this summer and you told me about your mom and the sperm donor?” She nodded. “Well, I asked you about your dad because I wondered if you could understand where I was coming from if I told you about mine.” I cleared my throat and thought about where to begin. “I was born in Germany. Dad was playing basketball and he and Mom had only been married for a little while. He came from a wealthy family and played decent ball. Mom came from a poor family but she was beautiful and she was popular in school. She went to college on a cheerleading scholarship, that’s how they met.”
“She was sweet back then. But Dad was making it big and traveling a lot. She was stuck in a strange country with two little kids and it was hard on her. She began getting involved with the other wives and things just changed. She started drinking and worrying about money and status and all that bull shit that doesn’t mean anything.”
“How long were you guys there?” Piper asked. She’d turned in her seat, engrossed in the story I told.
“Five years. Until he retired.” I waited for her to ask.
“Why’d he retire?”
“Well, because Mom had heard rumors about him cheating on her with groupies that follow the teams around. She left us with a friend while she went to an out of town game to surprise him and she got the surprise. Mom gave him an ultimatum, retire and be done with all that or she wanted a divorce. He chose to retire. We moved to Colorado and Dad started working for the family company.”
“Wow.”
Sighing, I sank back further in my seat. There was more to the story. “Things were better for a long time. But eventually they both got caught up in life. Mom was at the country club more than she was at home. Dad worked more and more. Mom’s drinking got out of hand. She’s been to rehab more than once. They’re a freaking mess.”
“And then I started getting good and there was all this new focus on me and basketball and my potential future in the game. Freshman year when I won Mr. Basketball, everything just exploded. Everything that was bad got really bad. But at the same time, especially for me, things that were good were amazing.”
I remembered it all. Girls falling all over me. Teachers and coaches congratulating me. I became the hometown hero. “I want to say I handled everything with grace, but I probably didn’t and sophomore year was out of control. Parties. Events with my parents. Dad introduced me to all of his old basketball friends. Anyway, one day Mom was out of town. She’d gone to some mom’s week with her friends. Kittie was at school and Dad was at work, so, uh, Blair and I skipped school to go make out at my house.”
“That’s just great.” Piper tried to pull her hand out of mine but I didn’t want her to.
“I’m sorry.” I brought her fingers up to my lips. “It was a long time ago.”
“I can’t really be mad about what happened before me, but I don’t really want to hear about it.” She sounded so disappointed and I regretted every kiss before kissing her.
“I know, baby, but there’s a reason I’m telling you all this, I promise.”
“Okay, well get to it then.”
I did. But I kept her hand by my lips. “We got to my house and snuck up to my room, but I heard something. I went to investigate, thinking someone had broken in or something, ugh, this sucks.” I hated talking about this. Hated how emotional it made me.
“It’s okay, Drew.” Piper’s brows dipped low over her eyes. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“I want to tell you. Or at least, I want you to know. I wish I didn’t have to tell you, though. Anyway, I went to see what the noise was and it turns out it was my dad. And his secretary.”
“Oh, Drew. I’m so sorry.” Piper took her hand from mine and reached up to frame my face.
“It’s okay. I mean, it’s not, but I’m okay. For the most part.”
“You don’t have to tell me anymore.” She brought our faces close until our cheeks touched.
“That’s the worst of it, mostly.” Thankful for the privacy my car offered and the safety I felt in our friendship, I knew I could tell Piper anything and it would be okay. She wouldn’t judge me, she wouldn’t hate my family except maybe for my sake. I brushed my lips along her cheekbone to her temple. “I didn’t want to hurt you,” I whispered.
Piper’s eyes glistened in the dim light inside the car. “I know that now.”
“Dad didn’t tell Mom and I didn’t, either. But everything came out between him and me. He explained how it was sometimes. Told me it was hard to have money and status and not get in trouble sometimes.” I snorted. “Like he couldn’t control himself or something. I vowed I would never be like him. I decided to give up playing ball for the school. The season was over but I wasn’t going to go back. I was just going to play street ball and have a normal career. Blair broke up with me when I told her I wouldn’t be playing with the traveling team and that I wasn’t going to play for the school team. She just couldn’t wrap her brain around why I decided to do that and said to let her know when I came to my senses.”
“What a wench,” Piper said disbelieving.
“At least she was honest and I saw her for what she really was- a groupie. But I was mad, too. At Blair. At my dad. My mom. I was mad at basketball for ruining my family.”
Piper shook her head, but I stopped her.
“I know. Really, I do. It wasn’t basketball’s fault. You helped me realize that.” I brought her fingers up to my lips again. “The problem is them. They are everything that is wrong with sports. I realized I didn’t have to be like them. I could just be me.”
Grinning, I kissed her lips. “I was a little worried about my principles, though, after I kissed you that first time.”
“You were worried,” she laughed, shaking her head.
“I haven’t talked to Blair in months. And not at all since we moved here.” She had to believe me about that.
“I believe you.”
The sick knot in my gut began to unwind. “Thank you.”
“And not telling your family about me? Us?” she asked.
“Can you blame me? You already know Kittie and she knows about us.” I brushed my lips across hers again.
“No way. I’m not going to let you distract me,” she laughed.
“Well, damn.”
Piper smacked my arm. “I’m serious, it would have saved us both a lot of heartache if you had just trusted me.”
“Piper, I absolutely trust you. It’s them! I was just trying to protect you from them.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but let’s just agree from here on out to not have secrets. Deal?”
“Deal. Now, I think we should just skip meeting my parents and stay right here and make out.” My chances were slim, but a guy could hope.
“Yeah, not happening. Let’s get this over with. We don’t want your mom digging up anymore old girlfriends and flying them out here.”
She had a point.
A brief ending
Piper
Meeting Drew’s parents went just about how I imagined. Drew did nothing to hide his animosity toward them or his protectiveness toward me. For their part, his parents were polite, yet standoffish and made no apology for Blair’s sudden appearance on our date that night. We made a quick getaway to his room to watch movies with Kittie (after Drew let me borrow some gym shorts and a t-shirt) and for the most part forgot their existence.
Life fell into a familiar and comfortable pattern filled with basketball and Drew.
“I love you, Piper,” he told me every chance he got and I let my kiss, sometimes an attack kiss, tell him just how much I loved him.
Dating: One on One: Eastridge Heights Basketball Book 1 Page 20