Once inside the elevator, Drew pushed the button labeled 7 and turned toward me as the doors slid shut his hand still in mine. “You're sure you two will be okay though, right?”
I laughed. It was the sweetest thing that he was so concerned about it. “Yes, we’ll be okay, I can’t stay mad at her forever, but for now I am as good as alone in my head for a change.”
I looked up to offer him a reassuring smile and realized that he was in my intimate breathing space. When he smiled down at me, my heart rate jumped, and the spasms in my stomach came back with a vengeance.
“That’s what I was hoping you’d say.” He leaned in and stole my breath with a kiss I couldn’t escape. My legs felt like they wouldn’t hold me up, but that didn’t matter because he’d slid a supporting arm around my waist. All there was left to do was live in the moment and feel the passion his kiss sent streaking through my body.
When I moaned in response to his lips on mine, I felt a sense of satisfaction and pride wrap around me like a warm blanket, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard Echo's approving voice.
Finally—it’s about damn time.
Chapter Twelve
Mother May I
I stared at my reflection and was so lost in my thoughts that I hadn’t realized Sara walked in until she was peering into the mirror from behind me and giggling. It snapped me out of my daydream, where Drew was kissing me. In horror, I watched as my face, not just my cheeks—but my whole damn face flushed primrose pink. I was mortified when Sara’s giggle evolved into a rolling laugh that had her bending at the waist.
“Oh man, you should see your face, Eden.” She straightened, cupped her chin in her palm, and bit her lower lip. “Oh, but I know that look. I had one very similar to it on my face the first time Andrew’s dad kissed me. No boy had ever made me feel it clear down to my toes like he did, but then,” she sighed, “he wasn’t just any boy.”
My face felt like it was on fire, and I was positive that the reddest of apples didn’t have anything on the shade of crimson my face must have been at that moment. I knew that mothers were supposed to have insane intuition—but DAMN! I hadn’t uttered a single word, and she’d guessed precisely what was happening with me. Sara walked over to her bed in our suite and proceeded to kick off her shoes. She sighed in relief as she flung the four-inch heels to the wall in front of her.
“Hmm, judging by your shocked silence I’d say I hit that puppy right on the nose,” she said with a knowing smile. “Oh, and a word to the wise Eden, never, and I mean not ever, wear heels if the person you are sight-seeing with is your father. The man does not believe in driving anywhere! My feet are killing me. Sooooo…did, the kiss, have you forgetting about all the other boys you’ve ever kissed before? That’s a sign of the right kind of chemical attraction, you know, and by the way you can thank me for the privacy it took for you to share that moment with my son. It took almost the whole ride down here to convince your father that he needed to cut some of those purse strings he has attached to you. My boy was raised with a solid moral set. He would never do anything you didn’t agree to.
I gawked at his mother in disbelief, why on earth would she want to talk to me about how her son kissed—it was just weird. My expression must have revealed just how strange I thought that was because she started back-peddling immediately.
“Oh no, no, no, Nuh-uh,” she said, shaking her head. “That is not why I was asking. It is simply a mother’s curiosity about where you are emotionally and possibly mentally. Is Andrew just another boyfriend, a passing phase? Or is he different from the others, and can I expect to look forward to establishing a friendly relationship with you as his mother?” For the first time I saw the motherly concern show in her features.
Every blood vessel in my face was screaming in agony because of this constant stint of embarrassing questions and comments. My skin was going to be permanently flushed if she didn’t stop. Never in a million years had I thought getting to know Sara would go quite like this. I was floundering over how to proceed when I felt Echo’s emotional presence rise to the surface. It was confident, prideful, and had a definite sense of self-worth. Without her having to say a telepathic word, I got the pep talk she was trying to convey to me. It gave me the strength to collect my thoughts and address Sara’s questions in the most effective way possible.
I sighed and felt some of the pinned up tension leave me. “You have an interesting way of inquiring what my intentions with Drew are. But to answer your question, no, he didn’t make me forget about past boyfriends because there are none to forget.”
It was my turn to laugh at the look on her face. It was clear to me that she hadn’t known that Drew was my first boyfriend. Like Drew had earlier that day, she looked like a fish gulping air at the top of a fishbowl, and it made me laugh harder, which had her sobering with a wry twist of her lips as she regarded me. “Okay, Okay, I guess I may have put my foot in my mouth
