CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“I can’t believe they lost my bag again.” Draven took the papers from the man behind the help desk and turned away. “Nem will lose his shit when I send them the paperwork to submit the claim.”
“Commercial airlines suck.”
“You,” he grabbed her bag and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, tugging her close, “have gotten spoiled swanning around on private jets with the alphabets.” His brain worked furiously as he tried to figure out what they were going to say to Lizz. His sister was probably illegally parked in the drop-off lane waiting on them.
Her shoulders slumped slightly. “I don’t swan anywhere with anyone. At least not anymore.”
Crap. I didn’t mean to say it like that.
Kicking your own backside should have been considered when humans were evolving, and whoever forgot to add that to the to-do list should have their pay docked. “I’m sorry.”
She shrugged. “It is what it is.”
But he knew it wasn’t. When he’d transitioned out of the Navy, it had screwed with his brain for months until Dalton Knight had called him and offered him a job. “You left to protect your father…”
“I left to save my own ass.”
Ah, fuck, now he understood. He scanned the area, spotted a quiet corner, and changed direction to lead her there. As much as he hated to have his back exposed, he crowded her against the wall and peered down into her eyes. “You feel guilty for leaving the farm. For not following your father’s orders, right?”
She broke eye contact. “Kinda. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“You feel it here.” He touched her chest. “And here.” Then he tapped the side of her temple. “Everything in you screams you should have followed orders to the letter.”
“Yes.”
“I hate to break it to you, baby.” He gathered her into his arms and hugged her, resting his chin on top of her head. “You’re normal. Living the life you have and having it all ripped away…” He heard her inhale and knew she was going to brush him off but he kept talking. It was important she understood this was normal. “Even if you were the one who made the call, it’s still a shock to the system. Give it time to grieve and find a new normal.”
“I know.” She huffed, but he knew it was a deflection. She surprised him by adding on, “Logically, I know it. But like you said, it’s still going to take time to get used to it.”
“At least you have the store to run with Lizz,” he reminded her.
“Yeah, I’m luckier than most.” She finally softened against his chest. But it only lasted a couple of minutes before she stiffened in his arms again. “Speaking of your sister, what are we going to tell her?”
“That you quit. Why would you tell her any different?”
“No, I don’t mean about work.” She poked him in the stomach. “I mean about us. She’s my best friend. I don’t want to keep this—us, from her.”
Shit, he hadn’t thought that far ahead. Even so, he was confused at her question. He tipped her chin up. “Do you think I want to keep what is happening between us a secret?” Maybe the airport wasn’t the best place to have this conversation, but the conversation mattered. Her answer mattered more than he wanted to admit.
“No.” She sighed slowly. “I just don’t know how to tell her.”
“Straight out like you always do, baby.” He refused to believe his sister would be mad about them. “She loves you as a sister. Having us—” yup, this really wasn’t the place for this conversation, but he forged ahead anyway, “—building toward a future together will—”
“Have her planning our wedding before we finish talking.”
Her flippant comment made his heart ache, and he battled back the disappointment that she still hadn’t figured out where he wanted this to go between them. “Is that such a bad thing?”
Maybe if you’d used words to go along with the actions, she might know.
Oh, shut up, listen to her. Brood later.
“It’s too soon… we only just…”
“If you say we just fucked,” he interrupted, “I swear I’m going to march through those arrival doors and tell Lizz to start wedding planning yesterday.”
Her eyes widened. “Stop putting words in my mouth. I wasn’t going to say that.” She held up her hand and glared at him when he opened his mouth. “I was going to say I want to keep us to ourselves for a little bit. Not because I don’t want Lizz to know, but because I want it to be just us before your hurricane of a sister takes off like a sprinter trying to break a world record.”
“Okay, but if she guesses, I’m not denying it.” She needed to understand that was a line in his personal sand box, and he would not cross it.
“If she guesses, then she guesses,” Indy replied. “I won’t lie to her, either. I’m not saying that.” Her frustration was more than obvious in her voice. “I want us to be just ours for a little bit. I can’t explain it. I just do.”
He wasn’t entirely happy about it, but he could give it to her if it was what she wanted or needed. “Okay. But know it’s going to be hard not to let it show. We just spent days getting used to touching and sleeping next to each other… I don’t want to change that.”
“I know.”
Now that he knew kissing her whenever he wanted was going to be off the table until she was ready to spill the beans, he was so tempted to put his aversion to public displays of affection to one side and scandalize everyone here, but he made do with pressing a soft kiss to her temple instead. “We should go. Lizz will either have a ticket or be driving around in circles, fuming at the traffic.”
“Yeah.”
He turned her toward the doors which led to the arrival’s hall, holding her hand until the last second. He had no doubt his sister would guess there was something going on between them. The only questions were which of them she hit up for answers first and how long it took for her to do it.
He was already scanning the area for Lizz’s car. The second they stepped through the doors, a long toot from a horn drew his attention and he spotted his sister’s hot pink car. “There she is.”
The door of the car was pushed open as they approached. “Get in, fast!” Lizz yelled. “The parking jerk is coming back, and he’ll ticket me for sure if I’m not gone by the time he makes it to me.”
He shook his head at his sister’s orders. “Some things never change.”
“Thank God.” Indy pulled up the front seat. “You sit in the front, your legs are longer than mine.”
He winced as she climbed into the back seat. He had no doubt Lizz would pick up on the lack of squabbling between them for who would sit in the back seat.
“Hurry up,” Lizz hissed. “He’s at the car behind me.”
Draven ripped his gaze away from Indy’s luscious behind and made eye contact with the ticket dude. He tipped his fingers to his forehead and jumped into the car.
Lizz whipped out of her illegal parking spot almost before he was fully in the seat, and he had to react quickly to get the door shut before he either fell out or it hit the rear fender of the cop car in front of them. “Jesus, Lizz, what the heck?”
“You took so long to come out that he told me I’d have a ticket if I was still there by the time he made it back from his rounds.”
His head hit the top of the car when they went over a speedbump a lot faster than they should have. “Fuck.” He rubbed the top of his head. “We are moving, and you aren’t going to get a parking ticket,” he grumbled. “A speeding one, on the other hand… that is gonna happen if you don’t slow the fuck down.”
“I’m telling Momma that you keep swearing at me.” She zipped them in between two busses and into the fast lane. “She’ll be mad.”
“Hah, Mom will be so happy that I’m back in California that she won’t care.”
“You are going to go see her, right?” Lizz asked. “Because I’m not covering for you again. The last time, she refused to bring me soup when I was sick.”
He could tell by the way she was both babbling and avoiding talking to Indy that his sister had been totally freaked out by what happened in Africa. “She’s fine, I promise.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Aren’t you, Indy?”
“I promise I’m okay.” Indy laid a hand on Lizz’s shoulder. “I’m sorry I scared you.”
“You can’t do things like that anymore.” Lizz dashed a tear away from her face. “I get that you have a job to do, but I can’t lose you.” She changed lanes. “Either of you.”
“It won’t happen again,” Indy promised.
“You can’t promise tha—”
“I quit,” Indy cut her off. “I don’t work for them anymore. Ask Drave, he’ll tell you it’s true.”
He heard Lizz’s inhale, but he wasn’t sure if Indy had. But he knew she got how stunning this turn of events would be for his sister. “It’s true.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Lizz took the exit to bring them back to Riverton. “How could you decide this without talking to me?”
“It was spur of the moment. I swear, once we’re home and I have the biggest glass of wine we can find in my hand, I’ll tell you all about it.”
“You better.”
“I swear it,” Indy promised and changed the subject. “Tell me what’s happening at the store.”
Just like that, Indy’s promise fixed everything between both women who meant so much to him. He leaned his head against the window of the car and listened to Lizz as she updated Indy on the store. Gossip at neighbors, friends, and other stuff which had happened before Indy had left. Hearing them like this soothed the disquiet in his soul. He’d needed this, needed for what was building between Indy and him to not change their relationship more than he knew.
Everything will be fine. It will work out as it should.
He freaking hoped it did, because he didn’t want these women at odds because of him. He loved them both, so they would have to figure out a way forward. They could do that… right?
Dinner in Italy has been amazing, and the McKinley brothers had done their best to make Indy and him feel welcome. But to Draven, there was nothing quite like having dinner with the people he considered his own family. Catching up with Lizz and talking to his mom on the phone had been the icing on the cake. He finished sorting the cutlery freshly washed out of the dishwasher and laid them all on the countertop. “What kind of heathen puts the teaspoons at the back of the drawer? My freaking sister, that’s who.”
He pulled the drawer out as far as possible and removed the cutlery tray, put everything in its place, and returned it to the drawer, this time with the teaspoons on the outside where under-caffeinated people didn’t stab themselves with a fork every morning. When he stepped away from the counter, he had to pull up the waistband of his sweats again. His sister might think it was hilarious to have bought him three XL pants. But he didn’t. It was freaking annoying, but better than having to wear her robe while his clothes finished washing. He checked his watch and did mental math to calculate the time. “They should be done by now.” He opened the laundry room door and scowled at the machine which was still doing its thing. “Slow coach.”
“You know the washer isn’t equipped with the ability to talk, right?”
“Shit.” He whirled around, hitting his shoulder off the door as he did so. “You scared about ten years off my life.”
“Sorry.”
Given the way she was smirking at him, he knew Indy wasn’t sorry. She probably got a kick out of seeing him almost have a heart attack. “No, you’re not.” He stalked down the hallway toward her. “You did that on purpose.”
“Indy, stop winding up hero-pants,” Lizz called from her bedroom. “I’m just jumping in the shower. Do not make me come out there because he’s dangling you over the balcony.”
Hah, there it was, that blush he fucking loved.
“I’m not teasing him. I swear.”
“Liar.” He came to a stop directly in front of her and cocked his head to one side, listening for movement from Lizz’s bathroom, but all he could hear was the shower running. He stepped closer to Indy, and she retreated, matching him step for step until they were in her bedroom. He closed the door behind him.
“What are you doing?”
“I’ve come to give you a goodnight kiss.” He winced because he’d said that louder than he’d meant to. Indy, as expected, elbowed him hard in the belly. “Oomph.”
“Indy?” Lizz called through the shared wall of the bathroom. “Are you okay?”
Jeez, does she have ninja hearing?
“Yes.” Indy answered Lizz and thankfully didn’t protest when he tugged her into his arms. “I just stubbed my toe.”
“Ouch, want me to grab some ice?”
“No!” Indy yelled. “No, thank you, but I swear it’s okay.” She glared at him and whispered, “She’ll hear us; the walls are paper thin.”
“She won’t,” he whispered back. “If we’re quiet, she won’t hear us over the shower.”
“You are a bad influence.” She wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and tugged his head down to hers. “A very bad influence.”
“And you love it.”
“I do.”
Damn, did she know how hot those small teasing kisses she was pressing against the side of his mouth were? “We’ll have to be very quiet.” He kissed her lips and her mouth opened under his. “Can you be quiet? If you can’t, tell me now and I’ll leave.” She didn’t answer him immediately. Instead, she kissed him until he didn’t remember they were supposed to be quiet and he groaned softly.
“Shh.” She shushed him and tugged him toward the bed. “Just sleeping, okay? I…”
He put a finger to her lips and smiled softly. “Just sleeping, I promise.”
She pulled back the covers and climbed into bed, giving him an awesome view of her ass as she crawled across the bed. “Thank God, because I don’t want you to leave.”
He was too much of a gentleman to remind her that it had been her decision to keep their relationship quiet for now and not his. He laid down next to her, and she scooted into his arms, turning over so he could wrap around her. “Night, baby.”
“Why do you call me baby? Is that something you call—”
He stiffened against her and swallowed hard, barely remembering to whisper and not speak loudly. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence. I’ve never called anyone that but you.”
“Oh.” She pushed her hand under where it rested against her belly and intertwined his fingers with hers. “I’m sorry. I’m still figuring out how this works.”
He sighed; she was right. This was new for both of them. “Me too, baby.” He refused to stop calling her that name. He liked how it sounded when he said it to her. The warm fuzzy feeling it gave him was pretty damn awesome too. “I’ll leave in a bit, okay?”
“Mmh.”
He wasn’t sure she heard him, but he figured it would do. He had to be back on the couch before Lizz got up in the morning.
Sneaking around like a damn teenager is not my jam.
But for her I’ll do it.
For now.