Totaled (25 page)

“Do you want to get that same platter of life-changing seafood that we tried to eat yesterday?” Drew teased.

“If you want. I’m always down. I’m the least picky eater you’ll ever meet, so I’ll let you decide.”

“How about we just get a couple of shrimp po-boys? That way we can walk around a little more. I didn’t get to see anything yesterday.”

“Okay. But I insist we go to Fat Betty’s stand for the po-boys. Hers are way better than the two on the far end.”

“Fat Betty’s it is,” he said, laughing at me.

The food was good, of course, and the weather, unlike yesterday, was perfect, a gorgeous and comfortable eighty degrees with a slight breeze blowing off of the water. There was just enough fluffy white cloud cover to occlude the sun every few minutes, providing shade. It was only mid-day but the festivities were well underway, with live music playing, a nice crowd of people checking out all of the booths, and the loudspeakers announcing that the pirate parade would start in thirty minutes.

I turned around to tell Drew that we should make our way over to the roped off area if he wanted to see the parade, but he was looking at me with an odd expression. He smiled and reached up to wipe something off of the corner of my mouth. I felt a little embarrassed at first. But then he brought his finger, with a dribble of cocktail sauce on it, to his mouth and sucked it off. He grinned teasingly at me. I immediately felt on fire with lust. He bent down slightly to kiss a sweet peck to the corner of my mouth where the sauce just was.

“What were you going to say?” he asked, laughing at me.

“Uhh, I don’t remember.” I was never going to need to wear blush around him.

Grabbing my hand and intertwining our fingers, he led me forward. “Come on. I want to check out this parade.”

I loved the way my hand felt in his. I loved the command he took and the confidence that he possessed when leading me down the street. It felt nice. I felt safe. And he was fun, playful, and carefree. He kept walking briskly so I had to pick up the pace to keep up with him, and then would abruptly stop, causing me to run into his back. He did it once, then twice, all the while laughing at me. I thought he was done, but when he stopped once more suddenly, I was so caught off guard that I almost stumbled and tripped. I reached out my free hand and grabbed around his waist to keep from falling. He helped steady me, laughing the entire time.

“If you wanted to put your arms around me, you didn’t have to trip yourself to do it.”

“Cute. Real cute!” I replied, smacking his chest.

He wrapped both his arms around me and kissed me hard. When I felt him start to pull away, I grabbed his face with both hands and urged him back to me, letting him know that I wanted that kiss just as much as he did. Chuckling, he obliged me. We separated and made our way a little further down the street, walking right up to the edge. I sat down on the curb and looked up to him, patting the spot beside me to invite him to sit with me.

“Arrrr you ready for the very best pirate parade ever?” I asked him in my best pirate accented voice.

He laughed and responded quickly, “Aye I think I am, me matey.”

“Well, shiver me timbers, you’re in for a real treat. Pirate booty and all!”

“I’m not going to have to flash the pirates, am I? I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing that my date wouldn’t appreciate that,” he joked.

“Avast, swashbuckler. This is a family friendly parade. No flashing required.”

We were having so much fun together. It was effortless and smooth.
I could get used to this.

I felt my phone vibrating in my wristlet and unzipped it to see who was calling. It was Sue, texting me. Still annoyed with her from yesterday, I debated ignoring her, but thought better of it.

Sue: Where R U?

Me: We are on Centre St and 4
^th
waiting for the parade to start

Sue: We?

I smiled before replying.

Me: Drew and I are together

Sue: OMG! I’m walking over there right now!

I rolled my eyes slightly, not wanting anything to take away from how much fun I was having with Drew. But I also wanted him to meet Sue.

“My friend Sue is walking over here in a few minutes. I’d like you to meet her.”

“Okay.”

“She’s my best friend.”

“Well, any friend of yours is a friend of mine,” he said, rubbing his thumb over mine.

Two minutes later, I heard her calling my name behind me and turned to see her looking out into the crowd of people, searching for my face. I waved until she saw me. Drew and I both stood up as she walked over, not releasing each other’s hands.

“Hey!” I said as she approached.

“Well, hello, hello. You must be the infamous Drew,” she said, ignoring me and looking him up and down.

“Guilty. I see you’ve already been talking about me, huh?” he asked, turning to me with a smile.

“All right, calm down,” I answered, rolling my eyes at him.

Sue stuck her right hand out to shake his hand, noticing that he had to let go of holding mine to shake hers. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Sue Ashwell, Bree’s very best friend. And if you thought the beating you got from her with your first run-in hurt, you have no idea the pain that I can and will inflict if you hurt her.”

“Whoa! Whoa! No one’s hurting anyone here. We’re just getting to know each other,” he explained. “I appreciate that Bree has such a protective friend, but you have nothing to worry about.”

“Okay, cool. But just so we’re clear, you WILL have something to worry about if you toy with her heart,” Sue reprimanded, shaking her finger at him in warning.

“Hello? Still standing right here!” I called out, reminding them that they were having this extremely unnecessary conversation in front of me, not to mention that we were in the middle of the street with a crowd of people surrounding us, certainly within earshot of this entire conversation.

“Oh, right. Hey, girl,” Sue greeted, snapping out of bitch mode and hugging me. “So what are you guys up to today?”

“I’m just showing Drew around the festival. We didn’t get to see much yesterday since it rained.” I looked over at Drew when I said it and we shared a smile, remembering our afternoon.

Sue caught on to it and cleared her throat. “Okay then. So Bree, I was just walking over to the candy shop to use the bathroom. Wanna come with?”

“No, thanks. I’m good,” I replied quickly.

“Um, please? I don’t want to walk by myself.”

“It’s three stores down. You walked over here by yourself.”

“It’s okay, Bree,” Drew interjected. “I think she wants to talk to you. And not in front of me.” We all laughed. “Do you really need to go to the bathroom or should I go grab us all a drink?” he offered.

“A drink would be great,” Sue answered. “I’ll take a soda.”

“And you, Bree?”

“Anything is fine,” I said with apologetic eyes. Friends were great, until they got in the way.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes then.”

“Take your time!” Sue shouted as he turned and walked away.

I admired his sexy stroll as he walked away from us, instantly missing holding hands with him, before I turned my eyes to Sue. “What the hell? That was rude!” I chastised her.

“Oh, he’ll be fine,” she scoffed, waving a hand in his direction. “So what’s going on? Did I just catch you guys holding hands?”

“Yes,” I confessed with a giggle. “We’re on a date. Our first date.”

“What? When did this happen?” She looked offended, like she was entitled to know every little detail of my recent relationship developments despite me not being a priority for her until it was convenient.

“Well, yesterday when you rudely ditched me to hang out with Brock Woods instead of spending the day with me as planned, Drew found me and we started talking. We hung out, ate seafood, flirted, and then it started pouring down rain and we shared the best first kiss in the history of ever.”

“Okay, first of all, I did not ditch you for Brock,” she protested, hands on her hips. “I invited you to come along and you declined. Second of all, WHAT? You kissed? And it was good?” She sported the giddy grin of a boy crazy pre-teen.

“It was ridiculous! Seriously hot. I mean, I have no basis for comparison, but it was pretty much perfect. And every kiss we shared after that was even better than the one before it. And when we showered together at the gym—”

“Wait, WHAT? Back up! Showered together?” Her jaw dropped and her eyebrows were raised in disbelief. This was fun. “Brianne Murphy, are you telling me that you showered—naked—with a
man
?!”

“Well, not together, together. Next to each other. It’s a long story. I can’t get into it right now, on the street with all of these people, and when he’s going to come back any minute.”

Judgmental Sue reared her ugly head, scowling with disapproval. “Don’t you think that’s a little fast?”

“What? No! It wasn’t like that. We didn’t do anything like that. And you’re one to talk.” She was starting to piss me off. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. I don’t even want to think about the things she probably did with Brock Woods yesterday.

“Just be careful, Bree. You don’t even know this guy.”

“Oh, would you relax? Have a little more faith in me than that. I’m not sleeping with him… yet,” I said, inviting a response of shock. “I’m kidding. Chill out.”

“Okay, but I want all of the graphic details later. And be safe, whatever you do.”

“Got it.”

We were both laughing when Drew walked back up, holding our drinks.

“What did I miss?” he asked, passing us our cups.

“Nothing. Sue was just leaving. Aren’t you meeting up with people?” I asked, giving her a look that said, “Scram!”

“Oh, yeah. Right. I gotta go,” she said, playing along and turning to leave. “So nice to meet you, Drew. Thanks for the drink. You kids have fun on your date.”

“We will! See you later,” I said firmly, emphasizing every syllable of my statement. Once she was gone, I turned back to face Drew. “Sorry about that. She can be a little intense.”

“It’s okay. You’re lucky to have such a caring friend. Did you guys talk about everything that you needed to?” he joked. “Gave her all the juicy details?”

“Yes. She’s appeased, for now. You handled her quite well, by the way.” I was proud of his suave confidence with her. Sue came off as pushy and intimidating to a lot of people. Hell, she was pushy and intimidating, but I don’t think she cared.

“I’m glad you thought so. She was scary,” he admitted with an exaggerated shiver.

We laughed and continued to talk back and forth. I told him all about Sue and how close we are. We watched the parade and eventually made our way over to the Miss Shrimp Fest beauty pageant, which Drew found especially hilarious. Our interaction was so natural and easygoing, it was like we’d known each other for years. I couldn’t remember having that much fun in a long time and it was refreshing. I didn’t have to question what Drew was feeling or thinking, either, which was a nice change of pace from other guys. He constantly let me know that he was having a great time. He was sweet, chivalrous, and affectionate. We even passed by Mick and two of his friends walking down the street, and I caught Mick winking in approval at Drew. It made me smile and suspect that they’d previously had some sort of conversation about me. I didn’t want the day to end.

When my feet were throbbing in protest, I asked Drew if we could sit down somewhere.

“Do you want to just get out of here?” he asked.

“Um, yeah, kind of. I mean, we can stay if you want. It’s just…I’m getting tired. And there isn’t much more to see. The later it gets the more it kind of just turns into a drunk fest outdoor bar. The live music is cool, but I think I’m too worn out to dance tonight. Is that okay?”

“Of course it is. I’ve had the best day with you. The best day I’ve had in a long time. I don’t want to end it on a bad note.”

“Okay, good,” I said, beaming at his candidness.

We walked back to the gym parking lot, where our cars were parked next to each other.

“I don’t want to stop hanging out with you,” I said to Drew as he faced me, bringing his arms around my waist.

“I don’t either, but we’re both tired. We’ve had a long day. A very long, very perfect day. And I’m supposed to be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow. Mick’s taking me deep sea fishing.”

“Oh, that’ll be fun. Unless…do you get seasick?”

“I don’t know,” he said, surprised at the suggestion. “I’ve never been on a boat before.”

“Oh, Lord. This could be a disaster. Hold on a second.”

I unlocked my car and reached in to grab a piece of paper and a pen. Jotting down the name of some motion sickness medicine that I knew worked well for Liam when he used to go fishing, I handed it to Drew.

“Go to the drugstore on your way home and pick up some of this medicine. Make sure you drink a huge glass of water before you leave the house in the morning and take that medicine at least an hour before you leave the dock. It should help in case you get sick.”

He took the piece of paper from me, looking at me in disbelief. “Thank you, Bree. Thank you for caring about me.”

He brought his hand up to my jaw, holding it softly, and kissed me. Sweet at first, and caring, he took his time exploring my mouth. When he nipped at my bottom lip, I nipped back and pulled him closer to me. The embrace quickly turned passionate. We let our tongues dance together, tasting each other. I moaned into his mouth and he immediately guided my body until my back hit the side of my car, trapping me between it and his hard body. I felt caged in by him and I didn’t want to break out anytime soon. His dominance overpowered me, yet I felt completely safe the entire time.

When he pulled his face away from me, it took me a few seconds longer than it should’ve to open my eyes. He was grinning, obviously knowing exactly what he was doing to me, knowing how much I enjoyed the kiss.