Drake (The Powers That Be, Book 5)

by Harper Bentley

  I sat down across from him. “See? My impatience ruins everything.”

  “Hey,” he called making me look at him. “If a guy can’t accept you the way you are then fuck him.”

  I frowned because that didn’t help at all.

  “On,” he addressed me again. I raised my eyebrows at him. “You’re the best person I know. And if he can’t see that, then, seriously, fuck him.”

  Still not helping. I sighed.

  “Want me to beat the shit outta him?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yes, because that would solve everything. No, my need to know everything ruined it. But I’ll be fine. As Krys says, he’s one in a billion guys and I don’t need him to make me happy.”

  “She said that?”

  I nodded. “She’s pretty shrewd, Vic. You need to hold onto her this time.”

  “Damn. I better be on my game then if I’m just one in a billion who can only try making her happy.” He grinned, cocky as ever, and I knew he wasn’t the least bit afraid of the other nine hundred ninety-nine million nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine men out there.

  “Remember, she deserves the best,” I said before getting up. As I grabbed my brother some cookies from the jar, I commented, “So don’t fuck it up.”

  “I’ll try not to,” he declared with a laugh.

  “I’m going to the grocery store. Need me to pick you up anything?” I asked setting the snickerdoodles on the table.

  “Yeah, shampoo, floss and shaving cream.”

  Grabbing my phone, I pulled up the notes and added his items to my list. “Got it. What time is Krys coming over again?”

  “Around four.”

  “I’ll be home in an hour which will give me enough time to make cherry cheesecake. Sound good?”

  “Hell yes,” he mumbled, holding the soup bowl up to his mouth and slurping the last of it down.

  “Just make sure you don’t do that at the restaurant tonight, or those other billion minus one guys might start looking good to Krys,” I teased before leaving.

  ~*~*~*~*~

  As I was checking out at the store, my phone rang. Great. Vic needed something else and I’d have to go back and get it.

  I answered, not bothering to look at the screen. “What’d you forget?”

  I heard a deep chuckle. Drake. Shit. “Not you.” Yeah, right. We hadn’t talked in days. He’d totally forgotten me. When I remained quiet, he asked, “Where are you?”

  “Grocery store. Can I call you back?”

  “I wanted to know if you had time to get a cup of coffee so we can talk?”

  I looked at the time seeing it was just past one-thirty. “Sure. Where?”

  He gave me the name and address of a little restaurant that I knew of and asked me to meet him there in an hour. We hung up and I finished checking out then loaded the bags into the back of Betsy, the whole time wondering what it could be he wanted to talk about.

  On the way home, I called Krystal to see if she might have an idea but she didn’t answer, so I was left to my own devices. But I must’ve channeled Krystal, because I told myself that whatever happened, happened, and I’d be fine no matter the outcome and I believed it. I might’ve loved Drake, but I knew I’d survive if things ended between us today.

  Back at the house as I put everything away, Vic texted saying he’d gone to the gym the same time Krystal texted to let me know she was in a yoga class but would see me later and I had to chuckle at how in sync they were. I really hoped they worked out this time, but knew that if they didn’t, they’d be okay too.

  Wow. Look at me, all mature and enlightened. I was growing and that was a good thing. Krystal would’ve been proud of me right then.

  I showered and got ready then went to meet Drake who was already at a table for two when I walked into the tiny place.

  “Hey,” he said, standing when he saw me approaching.

  “Hi,” I answered, wrapping my arms around his waist when he hugged me.

  He drew back and looked down at me, his arms still around me. Smiling, he said, “Fucking sight for sore eyes, babe.”

  “You are too,” I responded, giving him a small smile of my own then sat in the chair he pulled out for me. I ordered a soda when the waitress stopped at our table, seeing how he was drinking a beer. “Not really a coffee kind of day, huh?”

  He chuckled. “No, I guess not.”

  We sat in what I felt was almost an uncomfortable silence waiting for the waitress to bring my drink. He was fidgety, messing with the salt and pepper shakers and I realized he was nervous.

  When my drink came and the waitress left, I took a sip just as he said, “I love you, Honor.”

  Next stop, Choke City, of course.

  “Wh-what?” I said between coughs, totally not what I thought he’d say.

  He leaned over the table. “I said, I love you.”

  “Then why haven’t I heard from you all week?” I blurted.

  He sat back with a laugh. “You don’t have to talk to someone all day every day to have feelings for them.”

  My brow came down. “I know that. But a text would’ve been nice.”

  He sighed. “Yeah.”

  Although it was thrilling to hear him say he loved me, I knew I couldn’t say it back until I got some answers first. It’d been his idea to meet and I hoped he’d finally come clean and open up to me. If not, I didn’t think there was much of a future for us. I took another sip waiting for him to go on.

  Then he started talking. Thank God.

  “Chanel pulls this shit every year. I just wanted to keep you out of it.”

  He paused as if waiting for me to say something but I wasn’t about to interrupt him. I needed to know everything.

  He let out a breath. “I told you I dropped out after my junior year when I got hurt in football.” I nodded. “Being hurt wasn’t the only reason. I quit to go to work.” He took a drink. “Chanel and I started dating in the fall of our sophomore year.” He scratched the side of his face looking a bit disconcerted. “The summer after our junior year, she got pregnant.”

  Oh, boy.

  “We were going to get married and start our family together. We moved into the house I live in now and I thought everything was going great.” He shrugged. “She hated being pregnant which made sense because she’d been modeling since she was sixteen and you know they have to look a certain way.” He looked annoyed as he took a drink. “So we decided to wait to get married since she wanted to lose her baby weight to look perfect in her wedding dress. Nine months later, when my son Will was born on March twelfth, it was the happiest day of my life.” The way his face lit up when he said that proved that it was his happiest day.

  I’d figured Will might’ve been his son. As I mentally counted back to March twelfth, I found it explained the weekend he’d told me had been personal. It also told me Will had turned three. But why Drake had felt the need to hide all this from me, I didn’t know.

  He took another drink and continued. “After Will was born, Chanel withdrew. She didn’t want to have anything to do with him. Or me, for that matter.” He lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “Her mom has been out of the picture for the past ten years, so she didn’t have anyone to help her. But my mom did all she could for her, helping with Will, talking with her, trying to get her to open up, babysitting so she could have time to herself. It just wasn’t enough. Chanel said she missed modeling and wanted to travel. I told her we could make that happen, but nothing I came up with seemed to make her happy.” He blew out a breath. “She finally told me she didn’t love me and didn’t want to marry me.”

  He held his beer mug up to the waitress who went to get him another. I sipped my soda staying silent not wanting him to stop talking.

  After his beer came, he took a drink then said, “I have to tell you I was devastated. I loved her. I wanted to spend my life with her.”

  I nodded because of course he had. He was a good guy and I knew when he loved, he loved hard
. I also knew Chanel was an idiot for letting him go.

  “When Will was two months old, Chanel moved out and took off for Europe to model. I didn’t hear from her for six months then she showed back up wanting to get back together. She moved back in that November and again we were happy I thought. But right after Will’s first birthday she took off again saying she couldn’t be with us, only to return six months later begging for another chance, which I foolishly gave. Right after Will turned two, she was gone again.”

  Well, shit. I knew he had trust issues because of something bad that’d happened but she’d pulled a frickin’ doozy on him.

  “Chanel’s dad is a higher up at Amazon, travels a lot, kind of a playboy. He didn’t have a lot to do with Will, I think he saw him twice, and he eventually ended up advising Chanel to sign over her parental rights. He pulled some strings with the court system and when Will was two and a half, I received the paperwork saying she’d terminated her rights. I guess the guilt got to her because she came back last September wanting to give it another go.

  “I wasn’t in love with her anymore, so I turned her down which pissed her off. She left the house and twenty minutes later, the police showed up and arrested me for domestic violence. I hadn’t laid a fucking hand on her.” The anger in his eyes was scary as he took another drink. “Thank God Mom was there when they arrived or they’d have taken Will and who knows where he’d have ended up. They cuffed me and took me in, fingerprinted me, mug shot, all that shit. Bad thing was, it was the Friday before Labor Day, so I spent the fucking weekend and Monday in jail waiting to go before the judge.

  “I had to hire an attorney to try to prove I hadn’t done anything to her. Of course, her dad has a shit ton of money, so she had her lawyers doing everything they could to drag things out, and other attorneys trying to get back her parental rights.”

  Good lord. She’d definitely put him through the wringer. I chewed the inside of my lip and reached a hand out to his, squeezing it then letting it go. “I’m so sorry, Drake.”

  He nodded slowly raising his eyebrows as if to say he was as well for ever being involved with her. “The case went to trial January of this year, and cost me almost twenty grand with court costs and attorney fees. The best part of it all was that once the trial started, the judge threw it out for lack of evidence, thank God. Of course, during all that time, Chanel was in and out of the country, living it up, not once asking to see Will. When her lawyers filed to get her parental rights back, she was turned down.”

  “Wow,” I murmured.

  Chanel had destroyed his faith in people. And even though I understood where he was coming from, still, it hurt my feelings that it seemed as if he’d lumped me in with her as not being trustworthy. Especially after getting to know me.

  He now took my hand and held it, looking me in the eye. “So I hope you can see she’s dangerous and why I have to be careful. There’s no telling what she’s capable of or to what extent she’d go if she knew I was seeing you, so I had to protect you. Since she came back about three weeks ago, she’s threatened me nonstop, telling me she’s going to find something she can hold against me and get Will back. That night when Jeremiah was parked down the street? Just as he took off another car did too and I found out she was having me fucking followed.”

  “Damn,” I muttered.

  “So I have to be careful of who I let into Will’s life because she’d have her people do a background check and if anything questionable showed up, she’d sue me for custody or whatever else she could. Does that make sense?” he asked.

  I narrowed my eyes wondering what she could find out about me, which I figured was next to nothing.

  “I had to tell her when we were at the restaurant that you were just a customer who had a thing for me.” He squeezed my hand hurrying to say, “I just didn’t want to drag you into the thick of it.” He next pulled me by my hand making me lean across the table where he too leaned in and brushed his lips against mine. “And I had to be sure you were someone I could trust.”

  I sat back, taking my hand from his and stared at him for a moment. “That’s a lot to take in, Drake.”

  “I agree.”

  “So when she shows up, you pretty much have to do whatever she says because you’re afraid she’ll press imaginary charges against you and whatever else to try to get Will.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And I couldn’t come to your house because her spies were watching you,” I said.

  “Yes. I didn’t want her to use it against me. She could say I had women staying over which was bad for Will, even though it would’ve only been you.”

  Huh. I stared at him for a moment. “What were you arguing about in the parking lot that morning?”

  “I usually let her see Will when she’s back, which I did, but she wanted more time even though she had him all day for two days.”

  “Is it supervised?”

  “Fuck yes. I wouldn’t put it past her to hop on a plane and take him where I’d never find him.”

  That would be terrifying. But I was still a bit unsettled. “And you told her I was just an infatuated customer,” I said.

  I saw the sides of his jaws tic and he swallowed before answering. “Well, yeah. I had to protect you. She would’ve had her people dig into who you are.”

  “Why’re you telling me all this now?” I asked.

  “She left last night to go back to Milan.”

  Okay. Now I was mad. Not so much about his portraying me as a stalker. I got that, kind of. And it was more than understandable that he wanted to protect his child. That was a given. I also knew he was justified in not fully trusting someone with the way she’d screwed him around. But I felt as if I’d shown him exactly who I was and that he had nothing to worry about. So for him to keep this all from me really pissed me off.

  “I appreciate your telling me everything. And while I understand you have to protect your son, what I don’t get is that you’re letting this woman dictate your life.”

  “Honor—” he interrupted.

  “Let me finish,” I said, raising my eyebrows asking for permission. When he conceded by breathing in through his nose and letting it out, I went on. “The fact that you felt you couldn’t trust me with any of this hurts. If you’d just told me, I would’ve understood like I do now. And it’s like you went behind my back with her, especially when you took her to the restaurant. If I’d known, it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal.” I held up a hand when he started to protest. “I can’t pretend to act like I fully understand it all and how threatened you must feel, Drake. But telling her I was some infatuated customer, well, that’s just unacceptable.”

  When I stood to go, he got out of his chair too.

  “Honor, you have to understand, there’s been no one in my life since her, until you. So this is all new to me. I handled it all wrong. I know that now.” I nodded in agreement because yeah, he did. “But I love you and don’t want to lose you.”

  I bit my bottom lip. “I love you too, Drake. But I need some time now,” I whispered before walking out.

  Chapter 20

  When I got home from meeting Drake, I barely had time to make the cheesecake but I got it done. As I pulled it from the oven, Krystal came in.

  “Hey! Oh, that looks delicious!” When I turned to her, she frowned. “What’s wrong?”

  “You look beautiful,” I said, loving the stunning hot pink dress she wore that was sleeveless and in a racerback cut, the front coming up to her neck almost choker-style and spattered with white, sparkly crystals. “The cheesecake won’t be ready until after you guys get back from your date,” I explained.

  “That’s not what’s bothering you.”

  “No, it’s not.” We sat at the table and I gave her a rundown about what Drake had said as she listened carefully.

  “Well…I totally understand his side. But I absolutely get yours too,” she declared. “Some help I am, huh?”

  “I’m just gonna have to do so
me thinking,” I said.

  “You are. But he’s right, On. He said he’s never been in the situation of dating someone else with Runwayzilla in the picture, so I think you need to cut him some slack,” she suggested.

  “My brain is on overload,” I confessed. “So now would probably be a good time for you and Vic to fill me in on everything.” She laughed at my sardonic remark.

  “Speaking of,” she stated then called, “Victor! Are you ready?”

  My brother walked into the kitchen looking sharp as hell in dark jeans, a charcoal gray blazer with a white button-up underneath and black lace-up boots.

  “Damn, Vic!” I crowed upon seeing him. “You clean up nicely!”

  He smiled at me but only had eyes for Krystal and that dress of hers murmuring a, “Fuck me.”

  “You like?” she said, spinning and smiling huge.

  “I do,” he answered. “You look beautiful.”

  “Thank you. You look pretty amazing yourself,” she declared with a wink. She looked at me then back at him. “Are you ready to talk?” When he and I both replied in the affirmative, she asked, “Kitchen or living room?”

  “Kitchen,” I stipulated knowing I’d be more comfortable there.

  I sat across from them and when Krystal looked at my brother, he nodded for her to start.

  She took a deep breath and blew it out nervously then reaching across the table took my hand. “You know Victor and I started dating in October freshman year.” I nodded. “You know I don’t sleep around, but we,” she looked at Vic, “fell pretty hard for each other and by November we were sleeping together.” She looked back at me and smiled sadly. “Even though we were safe, I found out the next July that I was pregnant.”

  My mouth dropped open upon hearing that.

  “We’d love to tell you there’s a happy ending,” Vic added. “But we lost the baby in August just before you two went back to school.”

  I glanced at them through the tears that had welled up in my eyes. “I’m so sorry.”