He lifted his gaze to my face and didn’t even spare a glance for what I held in my hands. My breath caught in my throat with the way he looked at me. It was different from any other way he’d pinned me before with those green eyes of his. It made my stomach turn in knots. I was nervous, I realized—again. He’d been doing that a lot to me lately. “What,” I asked defensively. He blinked and looked down at what I had in my hands.
“Class of 2017,” he read aloud.
I shook out the fleece tie blanket, and he saw the rest of the side he’d already read. At the beginning of the summer, I’d special ordered the yellow fleece material, with its brown buffalo at the center of the black graduate’s hat dominating most of the space. It was large enough to fit a twin size bed. Initially, I had planned on using it as a backdrop in some of the pictures I would be taking that year for the yearbook, but after my second date with Drew, I knew it had a better purpose. So, I embroidered, Class of 2017 into the body of the buffalo with gold thread, and into the hat’s tassel, I embroidered, Drew Graves, with the same thread.
“You made this for me?” His eyes danced with wonder.
“I giggled, happy that he was so touched by my gift. “Yes, but that isn’t even the coolest part.” I flipped the blanket over so he could see the other side. I had asked my dad to stop by a fabric store on his way home from work in Tulsa to get the other piece of fleece. It was a black panel with the Kansas City Chiefs logo on it. It was the perfect fleece blanket for Drew to snuggle up with when the cold winter nights came. My smile was full-blown as he stared at the blanket. “Do you like it?” I held my breath as I waited on his answer.
He took the blanket from my hands and laid it across his lap between us. “Eden, this is going on my bed as soon as I get home. It’s the nicest thing anyone has ever made for me.”
There had never been a more satisfying feeling than the one his words brought out of me. He genuinely appreciated how much heart and soul I’d put into my first gift for him.
“Hey, you two,” Dad hollered from the kitchen, “It’s time to eat!”
I hopped off Drew’s lap, and he folded the blanket, stood, and placed it in the chair before he walked to the kitchen with me. Dad had decided to have the meal in the small dining room right off the kitchen rather than in the formal dining room. It was perfect because that table only sat four anyway. I loved the crème colored sandstone tile of the floor. It complemented the white and gray marble of the counters. I thought that white appliances would have matched the rest of the kitchen better than the stainless steel ones Dad had insisted on, but it hadn’t been my choice. Dad brought the seven cheese lasagna to the table.
“Can I help,” Drew asked as he watched his mom place a Greek salad next to the lasagna.
“Nope, I think we got it handled, young man, but thanks for asking,” Dad told him.
I watched Dad close the door of the wall oven and round the island cooktop with a plate of piping hot Italian bread. I laughed because he narrowly missed knocking himself senseless on a pan that hung a little low from the pot carousel above the cooktop. With everything on the table, the parents sat at either end. Drew was about to sit down when his mother cleared her throat loudly and glanced at me.
“Oh!” Drew scurried around the table to pull out my chair. Once I was seated, he pushed me in and then took his seat across from me.
“Sara and I were talking about leave and vacation time, and what you’d told me the other night about New Orleans came up, Eden.” Dad paused as he cut the lasagna “It turns out Sara and I both have quite a bit of paid vacation time on the books, and she’s always wanted to visit New Orleans because it’s on her bucket list. So we got to talking and wanted to ask you, kids, how you felt about us all taking a trip down there together. It would be a great time for Sara to get to know Eden and for me to get to know Drew. We both feel that this would best be achieved if Sara roomed with Eden and if I roomed with Drew. What do you two think about spending five days in New Orleans?”
Chapter Eight
Honest Deception
“What the hell was I thinking?”
That was my question five hours into the drive south. When Dad asked if I was sure about wanting to make it a road trip rather than fly, like an idiot, somehow I thought hours on end in a little ass car, would be a great idea!
“Do me a favor Drew, the next time I have a ‘GREAT’ idea—make sure everyone ignores me.”
Drew chuckled but kept his eyes on the road as he followed my dad’s little sports car down the highway in my even smaller two-door coupe. I’d insisted on taking my car because it was an automatic and we could split the driving that way. We were more than halfway there, and Drew had yet to relinquish the wheel. He’d been a car hog the entire time. My phone rang, and when I answered it, I could hear Drew’s mom
