Hanging On (29 page)

“Whaddaya want?” It amazed Sophia how his accent morphed from Michigan to Brooklyn when he was trying to be unwelcoming. None of them had ever been to the state of New York, much less that specific part.

“Sophia.”

That was Drew’s voice. Her head swung around as the fact he just told her father he
wanted
her registered in her head. She knew for a fact that her father saw her as a virgin, not as a sexually active woman. It wouldn’t matter if he caught her in bed with a dozen men, he would still insist his Sophia was chaste.

Daniel tactfully shouldered his dad aside and pushed open the screen door. “Drew! Sophie said you were in Los Angeles until tomorrow.”

“I came back early.”

While Daniel invited Drew inside and introduced him to their father, Sophia busied herself with the canister of assorted tea bags. “Which one do you want, Mom?”

Anna stared at her daughter, her head cocked to the side. All efforts at diversion were futile. “Sophia Anna-Maria DiMarco, who is that man?” Drew made it to the kitchen in time to answer that question himself.

“I’m Drew, Mrs. DiMarco. I’m Sophia’s boyfriend.” He took her mother’s hand and greeted her with a respectful handshake.

The aloof look Sophia gave Drew failed to quell his determination.

He didn’t bother to hide his displeasure. “You can’t break up with me if you don’t pick up the phone when I call.”

“You flew back a day early because I didn’t answer the phone?” She infused her voice with disdain. She was angry with him, but she didn’t want

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to have it out with him in front of her parents. She hadn’t even wanted him to meet her parents. All she really wanted to do was wrap her body around him naked. “Maybe I was busy.”

He parked his hands on his hips in a gesture that radiated danger. God, he was sexy. “I’m not stupid, Sophia. I talked to Sabrina last night. Jonas, too.”

Her temper reached its boiling point, both with her libido and his attitude. The growl that came out of her was a precursor to yelling and screaming, two things she hadn’t done in front of her parents since she convinced them she was done having meltdowns four years ago. “You had no right.”

Black pupils dilated, and the ice in his eyes burst into flames. “Excuse me?” Inherent in his statement was a reminder that he’d known Sabrina for more than half his life. If either of them had more claim on her friendship, it was him.

From the corner of her eye, Sophia watched her mother and father exchange looks of interest. The fact she hadn’t called him a liar when he introduced himself as her boyfriend spoke volumes.

“This isn’t the time or the place, Drew. Go back to Los Angeles.”

“No way. I flew four thousand miles to have this argument, and we’ll have it now.”

Now, her hands were on her hips. She leaned forward, unafraid of him.

That told her parents even more about their relationship. With a curt nod toward the hallway, she gritted her teeth together. “Fine. In my office.” She stalked off, leaving him to follow. He entered the room on her heels, closing it firmly behind him. She would have slammed it.

Whirling, she lit into him, punctuating every word with her pointed finger stabbing at the air. “You had no right to call Sabrina and upset her like that. You have no right to interfere in my life!” She was yelling, and she had no doubt her parents and Daniel heard every word, and she didn’t care. “I like my friendships the way they are, thank you very much. I do
not
need you to call up my friends and tell them they don’t treat me right. It’s none of your goddamn business!” Arms crossed, Drew leaned against the door and waited for her to finish yelling. He took the wind out of her sails pretty quickly. She was used to
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arguing with people who fought back, or at least reacted. Interruptions and counterarguments were helpful in fueling her temper.

When she was done, he took a step closer and dropped his arms. “It
is
my business, Sophia. Everything that concerns you is my business. I’m not going to stand by and watch you hold every person who cares about you at arm’s length.”

“You don’t know anything about my life,” she shot back hotly. Damn him for sounding so reasonable.

He leaned closer, stopping inches from her face. The minty scent left over from his gum fanned across her skin as he breathed heated breaths on her. “Because you won’t tell me anything. You keep
me
at arm’s length.” That was a slap in the face. She’d let him get closer to her than anyone else in the past five years. She stepped back, stumbling over a box of printer paper on the floor. Drew caught her by the arm. Once she was steady, she pushed him away.

“Sophie…”

Retreating across the tiny space, she leaned against the desk and crossed her arms. “So you called up my friends to pump them for information?” His mouth tightened, forming a grim slash from those lush lips. “I refuse to apologize or feel guilty for pumping Sabrina for information. Something made you afraid of letting me close to you. If she could tell me, then it would help me break through to you. Christ, Sophia! I don’t even know if you’re afraid of me because of something I did or because of something that happened in your past.”

No hot replies formed in her head or on her tongue.

“And I didn’t tell her she was a bad friend,” he continued. “I asked her questions, shared some theories, made her think. She’s the one who jumped to the conclusion she was a bad friend. I tried to talk her down, but she…she was…a little irrational.”

He seemed genuinely puzzled by her unreasonable behavior. Sophia wasn’t about to enlighten him. Sabrina asked her to keep the pregnancy secret, and Sophia assured her that she would.

Silence was her friend. She used it now because her suddenly poor impulse control wanted to confide the gory details of her past to Drew. An unfamiliar optimism argued he would understand. Then, logic and prior

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experience took over. The looks of pity and disgust people couldn’t hide haunted her still.

“Sophia, I’m flying blind, and I don’t like the feeling. You use every opportunity to push me away. Even when you have answered the phone these last few days, things have been different. You’ve been distant. I don’t want to lose you.”

With a sigh, she dropped her eyes to the floor and studied her bare feet.

She had wanted this time away from him to put things into perspective precisely because she felt too close to him. Had she been distant? Yes. Had she been trying to push him away? Hell yes.

“You haven’t done anything, Drew. I’ve been very honest with you from the start. I have panic attacks and migraines. I’m a mess. I haven’t had a real relationship in five years. I don’t even want this one, but I can’t seem to get you out of my system.”

Her body prickled with an awareness of him, leaning forward automatically. His arms came around her. She rested her head against his shoulder. Instantly, all felt right with the world.

“Why do you sabotage relationships?” His voice was muffled by her neck.

“Drew, do you remember when Jonas told you to give me time and space?”

“Yeah.”

“Give me time and space.”

He didn’t say anything. He just held her close for a long, long time.

The clank of pots from the kitchen made her aware of the time. Lifting her head, she smiled sheepishly at Drew. “You shocked the hell out of my parents when you told them you were my boyfriend.”

“Does that mean you’re inviting me to dinner?” His smile was that lush, relaxed one that made her want to feel it moving over her entire body.

“Now that they know you’re here, they won’t let you leave. Prepare to be interrogated.”

They were ambushed the second they appeared in the kitchen, which was technically only a few feet from her office. David pulled out a chair from the kitchen table with menacing slowness. The brief inclination of his head ordered Drew to sit. Though Drew wasn’t quite as tall as her father, he
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was nearly as bulky. Still, her father was overprotective. Sophia was a little afraid for Drew.

“It got awfully quiet in there,” he said pointedly as Drew followed orders. He remained standing, hovering over Drew like a brick wall threatening collapse.

“I can get my point across without shouting, and so can Sophia.” David DiMarco took that as a threat and crossed his arms forebodingly over his chest. “And what point was that?” Drew turned, staring down her father’s toughness with a casual, yet respectful demeanor. “Sophia has a volatile temper, Mr. DiMarco, as I’m sure you know. She needs to understand that she can’t push me away just because she’s upset with me. She also needs to understand that I will not pussyfoot around her alleged frailties. She’s a strong, intelligent woman. I refuse to treat her as anything less.”

Sweet Jesus.
He hit every one of her father’s macho buttons with one assertive statement. Her father would be the last person to admit that Anna DiMarco wore the pants in the family, yet she clearly did. He didn’t dare do anything without her approval. He might argue with her on many issues, but he always caved. His life’s goal was to keep her happy. Even with his daughter, he was a giant marshmallow.

However, he perceived himself as the dominant, uncompromising male.

Drew just set himself up as one of the guys. He might have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he had the innate ability to identify with any group of people. It was what made him so successful.

Sophia’s table was oval. She hovered nervously in the doorway. Her father took the seat around the corner from Drew, planting his body squarely between them. “Is ‘Drew’ your real name, son?”

“Andrew Snow,” Drew supplied.

“What do your parents call you?”

The easy charm that came as second nature to Drew served him in good stead. His smile was genuine and friendly. “Drew. My mom occasionally calls me Andrew.”

Finding her vocal cords at last, Sophia piped up. “Dad, Drew’s staying for dinner. You can spread the interrogation out over several hours. You don’t have to do it all now.”

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It wasn’t so much that he held up his hand that stopped her. It was the look. Her father needed to know he could trust Drew with Sophia or he would not be sleeping at night. Her eyes dropped, and she studied the floor as she held back the tide of shame threatening to overwhelm her.

Anna put her arm around her daughter’s shoulders and guided her to the counter. She thrust a pile of potatoes in her direction. “Your brother’s getting the grill set up. He’s going to need these soon.” A pot of Vernors boiled on the stove. Barbecued ribs were on the menu tonight. Anna boiled them in ginger ale before releasing them to Daniel for grilling. Sophia wondered if Danny volunteered for grill duty, or if their father had pushed him out the door so he could confront Drew.

She scooted around to the end of the counter so she could have a better view of her father and Drew. The position put her right behind Drew. Her eyes traced the outline of the broad shoulders against which she wanted to rest the complicated feelings swirling through her mind and upsetting her stomach.

Drew, for his part, understood the gravity of the situation. Whatever scared Sophia away from relationships affected more than just her, and somehow he knew that. Facing her father, Drew folded his hands together and leaned forward.

“What do you do for a living, Drew?”

The sliding door leading from the family room to the patio opened and closed. From the corner of her eye, Sophia recognized and dismissed Daniel.

“I co-own a successful bakery and catering company.” Daniel came into the kitchen and snorted. “He’s a chef, Dad. Sophie found herself a man who cooks.”

“Good,” her mother said. She took the pile of potatoes Sophia had peeled and set them on a cutting board in front of Drew. “Let’s put him to work.”

With casual grace, he replaced the knife she handed him and got another, larger one. In response to her mother’s narrowed glare, he shrugged. “Big hands, big knife.”

Sophia had seen him use a tiny paring knife with ease, but she knew when to keep her mouth shut. Chefs were particular about knives.

Danny didn’t have the same sense. “He has a cooking show on TV, Mom. He cooks better than you.”

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“Is that so?” Her question was directed at Drew, as if he had challenged her standing as one of the best cooks in existence. Their father had always raved about his wife’s cooking, which was very good. Sophia and Daniel learned all they knew from Anna, and David wasn’t bad in the kitchen either. Drew’s skills put them all to shame, but Sophia wasn’t stupid enough to say that to a woman whose cooking was part of her identity.

She kicked Daniel, but he kept going. “He has medals from winning contests all over the world. I think he should be in charge of dessert.” Drew narrowed an eye at Daniel. “Sophie told me you all cook together.

I’m happy to do my part.” He transferred the cutting board and potatoes to the counter to have more freedom to maneuver. With quick, expert movements, Drew cubed the peeled potatoes. Her parents watched in amazement at his speed and accuracy. Even Danny was impressed.