“Mom?” I called when I tapped open the creaky front door of the house. I stepped over something or another and spotted that the closet door in the den had been left open, with a bunch of old boxes and board games spilling out.
“In the kitchen, Evie.”
Right away, I felt like her voice sounded strange, like she was reading from a script. I smirked because I had a feeling this meant she had her surprise for me in there, and I was pretty sure it was the box of yarn and all the knitting needles she said she’d dug through the closet to find.
“Mom, I hope it's not just pink and purple yarn you’ve got, because I have a feeling this kid’s gonna be a - “
I shut up the moment I stepped into the kitchen.
Right away, every part of my body froze, my heart stopped like a floating rock in my chest. The blood drained from my cheeks as I simply stood there and stared.
Because sitting with Mom at the tiny kitchen table, on the “good” crown back chair that would actually hold all his weight, was the last man I’d ever expect to see in Belfield, Massachusetts.
“Evie.”
I dropped my bags at just the sound of Drew’s voice saying my name.
“What are you doing here?” I breathed as he rose to his feet.
From the corner of my vision, I saw Mom cover her mouth the way she did right before she cried, and only then did I realize that I had started it. Tears were already welling in my eyes from barely a second of standing in front of Drew, because I was so immediately overwhelmed.
Looking at him, I was somehow as angry, confused and embarrassed as I was completely relieved. Apparently, it was still my instinct to feel comfort, relief when I saw him because my body was still trained to want to be near him. It still wanted to melt into his chest, and even now, I had to stop myself from running straight into his arms.
I had to remind myself of the way he looked at me last. Like he didn’t trust me and never should have - like perhaps this whole time together, I’d had ulterior motives.
“Please tell me what you’re doing here, Drew.”
My breath rattled in my throat as he came closer to me. It was too bizarre to see him in my childhood home - the place where I’d dreamt and fantasized and wished for a different life. It hurt more to see him here than it did somewhere else, and despite the fact that he’d clearly come all the way to Belfield to find me, I refused to get my hopes up for what he was about to say.
Clearly, he’d passed some of that famous Drew Maddox cynicism to me because a part of me was preparing myself to hear him say that he’d come to write a check to buy my silence on the baby, or maybe he was here to sue me for somehow breaking my NDA.
But when I felt him cup my face, his thumbs stroking my cheeks, I knew I was wrong and I immediately burst into tears.
“You know why I’m here,” he murmured, wiping my tears as he kissed me on the forehead.
“Just say it,” I whispered.
“I’m sorry. I fucked up that night when you told me, and if you’ll forgive me, I’m here to take you home, baby.”
The words alone made me cry into his chest for who knows how long. Mom was up at this point, standing a few feet away with her hands pressed together in front of her lips, waiting for the moment when she needed to step in and take care of me. But she didn’t, instead standing back and smiling through her sniffling because apparently, I was in good hands. And she could tell.
“Trust me, I let him have it when he first got here,” she said the moment our tears wound down enough to make room for talking again. “I didn’t make it easy on him.”
“She didn’t,” Drew smirked as I looked up at him in awe. I could’ve sworn I was dreaming. I still couldn’t believe he was here.
“How did you find me? Even Aly doesn’t know this address,” I asked when Mom went into her room to give us privacy in the kitchen.
My voice was still shaky, and I was still trying to keep at least some of my guard up because Drew was touching me so tenderly, pushing locks of my hair from my eyes, and it made me want to forget everything he’d ever done to make me question him.
But I couldn’t do that. Not just yet.
“I Googled you, Evie,” Drew answered my question with a laugh. “Apparently all I needed was your name and hometown. That said even the GPS couldn’t find your street when I got here. I had to roll my window down and ask someone. Not that that really helped. He was high off his ass.”
“Ohhh...” I wanted to ask if that someone’s name was Trevor Bloom but I highly doubted Drew asked for a name, and I had far too many other questions to ask. “Drew...” Of course, despite all the questions, I barely knew how to start. “Drew, the last time we spoke, you were - “
“An asshole,” he finished, quietly but firmly. “I was... shocked. And overwhelmed. My instinct was to question. But that’s not an excuse, Evie. It was knee-jerk reaction because I still have a lot to fix with the way I think. It’s habit for me to question everyone in my life, and I know it’s fucked up but I’ve already started turning some of it around.” His Adam’s apple moved as he swallowed and brought his gaze from our entwined fingers to my misty eyes. “And it’s solely because of you – there’s no denying that. Just being around you showed me that people can be good. Hell, I enjoy everything around me more when you’re by my side. My world’s just better with you in it, and I don’t want to go back to how it was before you came, Evie. I love you. I love you too much to let you go.”
I was crying again and he had me sitting now - propped up on the shoddy kitchen counter I barely trusted to hold me. But my legs were too weak to stand and if I fell, I knew Drew would catch me.