Stef Ann Holm, Lucy Back [paper ebook reader .TXT] 📗

point. There was no recollection of it even being on.

Breathing hard, she had to close her eyes a moment and get her bearings.

This was crazy insane. They were in a parking lot. Anyone could walk up and see, even if the faded light from the restrooms gave off little illumination. The fact was, they were out in public.

But she didn’t care.

He went to lift her top off, to fully expose her to the night air. The sound of laughter came to them; someone was walking up the hill to the parking lot.

Yes…she did care!

“I can’t.” They were the hardest words she’d ever had to say, or so it felt at this moment.

She sat up, putting herself back together. She pulled up the straps of her bra, redid the hooks. Her panties were wet from her arousal, and embarrassment flooded her.

Pushing him away, or rather pushing herself off the trunk of the car, she tried to stand on steady legs. Not an easy task. She faltered, and Drew was there at her side to put an arm around her waist.

“Don’t touch me.” She couldn’t think clearly when he was so close. He stepped away. “I don’t mean never again. I just mean, not right this second. I have to…” She smoothed her top down, found her sweater and slid her arms into it, even though she wasn’t cold anymore.

“Lucy,” Drew began, then he saw the kids coming into the lot.

“Hey, Coach!” Brownie ran ahead. “We’re getting Ryan’s Wiffle ball and stuffing it with beehive-bombs.”

Ryan snorted with excitement. “We’re going to light it and I’m hitting a high hard one over the lake.”

“Yeah!” Nutter confirmed. “We’re going to watch it blow up. Wanna come see?”

“I’ll be down in a minute,” Drew said, casually shifting his stance. Lucy’s gaze dropped, and she saw that Drew wasn’t easily forgetting where his hands had just been. Neither was she.

It was a good thing the area was dark or else things would have been a lot more awkward than they already were.

“Where’s Matthew and Jason?” Lucy inquired lightly, trying to sound nonchalant when her heartbeat still raced.

A hasty answer was supplied by Ryan. “Matt’s getting the beehives lined up and Jason’s with Mackenzie.”

“Where with Mackenzie?” Drew turned to the boys.

“Just sitting in some chairs by the water,” Nutter replied. “He isn’t hanging out with us. He wants to be with her.”

“Score!” Ryan hollered from the depths of his parent’s minivan. “Dude, I have two of them!” His fists were raised into the air, a Wiffle ball in each hand.

The boys ran in a pack back down to the beach.

Lucy crossed her arms over her chest, a shield to ward off the impulse to press herself to Drew once more.

Instead of doing something she’d regret, she said in a light tone, “Jason and Mackenzie have spent most of the day together. Maybe you’ll have to give me her father’s phone number so I can feel him out about the idea of his daughter with my son.” She gave a soft laugh.

Only Drew didn’t see any humor in what she said.

His expression closed off and his body grew taut. It seemed like a clash of emotions fought for dominance on his face. She couldn’t read his mind, but wished she could. Whatever his thoughts, they were troubling.

“Drew, what is it?” she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

His voice was dark when he said, “She’s mine.”

Not fully grasping the meaning of his words, she questioned him with her gaze.

Drew looked her over, as if trying to decide what to say, how to say it. Lucy sensed he was struggling, but finally he made a decision. His next words were strong, and with them came a clarity that all of a sudden made perfect sense.

“Mackenzie is my daughter,” he said.

Twenty-One

Lucy didn’t respond in what felt like forever, and for a second, Drew regretted telling her the truth.

He’d been thinking about it for a while, ever since he saw Mackenzie and Jason were interested in each other. Call it a hunch, but he’d trusted Lucy the first time he’d met her. With her boys at Opal’s that day, it was evident she had a good heart, and was a grounded person. In the two months he’d known her, he’d seen her acting fair, being honest and always determined. He couldn’t think of anything he didn’t like about her.

“But she said her father was a truck driver,” Lucy finally said.

“I’m her real father. Bobby Wilder was someone her mother married when I denied getting her pregnant.” The words were hard for him to speak. He knew good and well they made him sound like a jerk. And he had been.

“You denied it?”

Drew took Lucy by the hand, walked her to the cliff where a picnic bench overlooked the lake. “Sit down. It’s a long story.”

She did, slowly lowering herself onto the bench, hands folded in her lap.

The July night was still and cloudless, and the stars were hazy from gunpowder smoke lingering in the sky. They’d yet to set off the big aerials paid for by city funds. Everyone was still busy setting off their legal fireworks bought at the local stands.

Turning toward him and meeting his eyes, she waited.

Drew fought to form the words. Besides Caroline and Lynette, only Jacquie knew most of the whole story. But when he’d told her, he’d left pieces out, glossed over some details that, at the time, were too painful for him to talk about.

Being with Mackenzie, having her here, trying to reconnect with her, he had been reexamining all his choices, going back as far as childhood and high school. He realized now that the pattern set up for him as a kid had influenced the decisions he’d made as an adult. It didn’t let him off the hook for all the stunts he’d pulled, but it explained things he hadn’t fully understood about himself.

“I was a hero jock in high school and not smart enough to do anything else.” He