Family Bonds- Drew and Amanda (Amore Island Book 2) Read online

  That was something at least. Or was it really? Omitting the facts was almost as bad in her eyes. “Now I know why he hates me so much,” she said, more tears falling.

  “Why do you even care?” Charlotte asked. “He left you. You were a kid. Seventeen is a kid. So was he, but come on. You were more mature than him and he hated it. You’ve always been mature and level headed.”

  “I think he was scared that I had it planned out. I knew how to move forward.”

  She remembered that now. That every time she talked about the future with him, he’d sort of freak out. Say that he wanted to finish school. That it was expected he’d follow in the family’s footsteps and be a lawyer. She’d never told him to stop. She was fine with it and encouraged it.

  But his parents had threatened to cut him off and that meant more to him as he was so far stuck up their ass he couldn’t be removed without pliers.

  “That’s right, you did. He wanted to be a kid still. I heard him telling Mom that he needed time to wrap his head about being a father. That he was selfish to do what he did and when he found out you took the money and ran he was pissed.”

  “Not enough to fight for me,” she said. “Never enough to stand up to his parents for me.”

  “No. I’m not sure if he got a conscience or not or he wanted to put it behind him. Maybe he thought you’d hit him up for child support in a few years and wanted it taken care of.”

  “That sounds more like something his mother or father would put in his ear,” she said.

  “I don’t know. But he left. He said some choice things about you and the family on his way out.”

  “Like what?” she asked.

  “Does it matter?” Charlotte asked. “It was his emotions talking. Who cares what he thinks or thought?”

  “You’re right. I wish I’d known. You and I talked a few times after I left. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Would it have made a difference if you knew? It wouldn’t have changed anything. You wouldn’t have sought him out and explained. I know you. I wish I was more like you.”

  “No, I wouldn’t have sought him out. I would have been just as happy to never see him again.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Why do you wish you were more like me?” Maybe it was time to find out what was going on with her baby sister. “You seem to have everything going for you.”

  “Not really.”

  “Aren’t you happy?”

  “Not as happy as you’ve ever been. Not in love as much as you either.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Amanda, I saw how hurt you were over his rejection. I saw how much you loved him. I’ve never felt that for anyone. Not like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. I’m happy to a point. Content might be the better word. Mom likes Richard.”

  “So, you are more concerned with her liking who you pick than who you really love?”

  “I said I’m not you. I’m not as strong as you to stand up for myself or what I believe in.”

  “And look at where it got me,” she said.

  She’d hung up a few minutes later and decided to take a shower. She didn’t want her roommates to see her like this.

  When she was pulling sweats on in her room, there was a knock at the door. She opened it to see Sidney there. “Kayla texted me to check on you. Are you okay?”

  “I’m getting there. Did she tell you what happened?”

  “No. She didn’t. She wouldn’t. She understands we all have things in our past. I’m here if you want to talk though.”

  “Not right now. I appreciate the offer though.” She wasn’t sure she could talk about it anymore. Her stomach was just raw over it all. She stood up. “I’m hungry. How about some dinner?”

  “I’ve got it covered,” Sidney said.

  When they went to the kitchen she saw two place settings with bowls of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. “You never cook.”

  Sidney laughed. “I’m not sure this is really cooking, but it’s comfort food. I figured you could use it. You always take care of everyone else and it’s time someone took care of you.”

  She hugged her and said, “Thank you. I’ve got it pretty lucky here with you and Kayla.”

  “Not Bri?” Sidney asked, then they both laughed.

  38

  What Family Did

  It took a few days before Amanda could calm down enough after what had happened.

  Never in a million years did she think she’d run into Randall on Amore Island. Of course she didn’t think she’d run into her sister in a city the size of Boston either.

  It was like rotten luck or, if some could be believed, fate was slamming into her life all at once.

  Why? Why now? When she was finally starting to feel happy in her life and in a relationship?

  Was it a sign that she needed to move on? That she needed to be honest with Drew about her past?

  That she could actually take a step and trust someone again? Let herself fall?

  She didn’t have the answers for that any more than she suspected her friends did.

  Those friends that held her while she cried. That listened to her and didn’t judge.

  Did she finally tell Sidney about running into Randall? Yeah, she did yesterday.

  She’d felt she owed it to her roommate that gave her unconditional love like Kayla. Wasn’t that what family did?

  She might not have family by blood close by in location or her heart, but she had friends and that was enough.

  And like Kayla, Sidney didn’t judge her one bit.

  She’d also needed those few days to not face Drew.

  He’d called and left her that message on Tuesday night when she’d been on the phone with her sister. She hadn’t even listened to it until the next day and was glad it wasn’t anything important and nothing that needed a response.

  Did her heart lighten just a bit more hearing that whenever he heard her name he thought of her? Yeah, it did.

  Which was why tonight she was at his place cooking dinner while he was taking a shower.

  She had the meatloaf in the oven and the potatoes cooking on the stove with carrots in a pan with a touch of orange juice to sweeten them up. She loved these home-cooked rustic meals that she didn’t have growing up.

  Her mother wouldn’t be caught dead cooking meatloaf. She didn’t think Randall would have eaten it either.

  But Drew—who had more money, history, and class than her parents or her ex—loved when she cooked like this.

  Imagine that? Guess it just goes to show it’s what’s in a person’s heart rather than what was in their wallet. She’d always known that and was glad she was being shown it too.

  “This smells good,” he said. “How much time before dinner is done?”

  “About thirty minutes,” she said. “How was your week? We didn’t get to talk much as we’ve both been busy.”

  “It was good. I had the weirdest meeting at the conference on Tuesday. One of my employees was there and she and her fiancé were going to look at the Retreat for their wedding after the conference. I guess he ran into his ex and pretty much threw a hissy fit. Didn’t want to look at the Retreat at all if they let someone in there like her. I felt horrible for Rachel, as she’d waited so long for the ring. Hunter and I managed to calm him down and I think he was rethinking it after that.”

  Her face paled. She knew it did. It all came back to her now. The message Drew left. Asking if she’d been at the Retreat on Tuesday. There was no way. It couldn’t be.

  “What was the guy’s name?”

  “Randall Vernon. Complete dick if you ask me. I mean, I get what happened to him. Rachel told me all about it, but come on, grow up.”

  She turned from stirring the potatoes. “What happened to him? What did Rachel tell you?”

  “That his parents bought off his ex and she chose the money over him. Then I guess he knew she’d been pregnant and when he finally decided to man up, he found out she termi
nated the pregnancy and hadn’t been heard from since. Rachel confided that part to me the next day so I didn’t think too harshly of her fiancé. It’s tragic, I get it, but you learn from it, don’t let it linger and dictate your whole life or future with someone else.”

  She started to cry. There was no stopping the tears. “That’s not what happened. I loved him.”

  Drew looked at Amanda standing in front of him and was pretty sure his stomach just pitched to the floor as if he’d jumped off his deck the hundreds of feet to the beach and ocean below.

  “It was you, wasn’t it? He said Amanda. I was just kidding, but it’s not a joke. You were his ex? You only wanted his money and then ended the pregnancy and left?”

  Was that what she’d been hiding for years? How could he have been so wrong to think she wasn’t anything like the other women he’d dated in the past? That he’d fallen in love with.

  “No. I mean yes, it was me. I was seventeen, Drew. I’d gotten pregnant. He knew. I had it all planned out. I was going to work while he was at Harvard.”

  “Harvard?” he asked. “You were still in high school?”

  “No. I’d graduated but you know my birthday is late. I’d only been a few months pregnant before we graduated. No one knew but our families. My parents wanted me to end the pregnancy and I didn’t want to. I didn’t do it. I swear I didn’t.”

  She was crying now, her body shaking. “What happened?” he asked. He needed to hear her side of it because otherwise he was going to be ill.

  “I thought we were fine. I thought we had it all planned out. He went to college and I stayed back. Yes, his mother offered me money, but I didn’t cash the check. I almost ripped it up in her face, but something told me to just lock it up. I guess I’m glad I did because that is how I was able to get away.”

  “Get away?” he asked.

  “Randall left for college and called me twice. That’s it, twice and it was returning my calls. I’d told him I was having a girl on the second call and then I never heard from him again. I left message after message. I almost went to see him, but I was working and it was hard. I wanted to give him time to adjust to things.”

  “Adjust to what? You were the one carrying a child. He was off doing his own thing.” He was starting to get worked up again with confusing thoughts. He was pissed thinking she took the money and ran, but now his heart went out to a pregnant seventeen-year-old when the guy pretty much ditched her.

  “He said he was stressed. He’d always been controlled by his parents. I’d never told him they gave me the check. I didn’t want him to get upset with them anymore because things were tense and they were supporting him. My parents weren’t going to support me and we didn’t need to lose the only thing we might get if we needed it. He needed it, not me.”

  It didn’t surprise him to hear this based on what Rachel had said of Randall and how strong Amanda was.

  “The baby?” he asked.

  “I lost it. Right before my eighteenth birthday. I went for a checkup by myself because my mother hated going. It was an embarrassment to her. But I was having contractions, it was too early, and there was no heartbeat. I had to deliver my daughter even though she was gone.”

  “By yourself?”

  “My mother came when I called her crying. I was still a minor, so the hospital wanted her there. It wasn’t pretty. Not the things she said, not the way she handled it. When I was able to, I left home and never went back. I cashed that check and I made a life for myself. But it was never about the money, Drew.”

  “If it wasn’t you wouldn’t have cashed that check,” he said and wished he could have stopped those words but he felt it. He’d been burned too. “You would have destroyed it when it was handed to you. If you loved him as much as you want me to think you did, you wouldn’t have cared.”

  “There isn’t anything I can say to get you to see it from my point of view. I’m not even going to try.”

  She grabbed her jacket and keys and ran out the door sobbing the whole way.

  He wanted to go after her. He knew he should, but he couldn’t get his feet to move.

  He wasn’t sure what to think or believe at this point. Deep down he knew the truth of what she was saying, but on the surface he was stunned over what he’d heard and hurt that he didn’t know her as well as he thought he did. That he was wondering if his own judgment was off once again.

  Fifteen minutes later his front door opened and he thought for sure Amanda had come back, but it was his mother. “What are you doing here?”

  “I just had a feeling you’d need me tonight.”

  He snorted. “I need to be left alone.”

  “Your potatoes are boiling over,” she said, walking to the stove and turning them off. He’d completely forgotten about dinner. “Is Amanda coming? Is that why you are cooking?”

  “She was here. She left.”

  “And you’re pale and shaking and upset. You want to cry but you aren’t. You look pissed off too. Tell me what happened. Did you two fight?”

  He wasn’t sure how she could tell all of that looking at him, but he needed to get everything off his chest and told her what happened. He knew she’d keep it to herself and she wouldn’t judge Amanda either. “You can see why I’m all those things.”

  “I want to smack you, Drew.” Yep. No judgment for Amanda but a shitload for him.

  “What did I do?”

  “Take a step back and listen to what you said to me. She was seventeen. Could you make decisions like that at seventeen? From either her point or Randall’s? At seventeen all you cared about was making enough money to get a better car.”

  “I wouldn’t have abandoned her!”

  “No, you wouldn’t. But as you can tell, she was. Not just by her boyfriend but her parents. Then to find out her parents and his all lied to them. Manipulated them. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she lost a baby. You said she’s always been like a mother. That she wasn’t like any other woman you knew at your age.”

  A lot of it was making sense now. Was Amanda trying to make up for what she’d lost? Or was she just meant to be a mother. To love and nurture?

  “She’s not.”

  “I lost a baby, Drew. I lost your little sister and you know how hard that was for me. You know that was my last pregnancy and it was devastating. But I had you three boys and I had your father and a lot of other support. I was an adult. She was a child herself.”

  He remembered that time. He remembered how upset he was when it happened to his mother. When he thought he was getting a sister and it wasn’t going to happen. Then how upset his mother and father were.

  “She still took the money and left without confronting him. That isn’t the woman I know now.”

  “That’s right. It’s not. She’s a woman now. I would have taken that money and run too. I would have done anything I could to get away from everyone that hurt me and made another life for myself just like she did.”

  “No, you wouldn’t,” he said. “Money never meant anything to you.”

  “It didn’t and it doesn’t. I don’t think it does to her either. But it was a means to an end back then. Her only option to get away. Put yourself in Amanda’s shoes. All you’re doing is seeing Cassandra again and again and you can’t move past it. You didn’t get burned or rejected nearly as bad as Amanda and yet you’re acting like it now.”

  A great way to have that shoved in his face. “I’ve had to deal with this my whole life,” he argued. “I’ve had to look over my shoulder and doubt everyone I was in a relationship with.”

  “You did. And you found someone you believed in, didn’t you?”

  “And it turns out I was wrong.”

  “No, it turns out you’re an ass,” his mother said and turned to walk out.

  39

  Both of Us

  The last thing Amanda expected was to hear knocking at her side door an hour later. She walked out of her bedroom to see Bri with her hands on her hips confronting Drew. “No men
allowed.”

  “It’s fine, Bri,” she said.

  “I suppose you want me to leave now, huh?” Bri asked.

  “I’d like some privacy with Drew,” she said. “We can go in my room. You’re fine.”

  “I’ll leave. When I’m pissed I start throwing things and cursing. Then you might want makeup sex. You can’t let loose if I’m here.”

  She rolled her eyes and watched as Bri walked out of the room. “Don’t even think about it,” she said to Drew. He wasn’t smiling though. He looked upset and she didn’t care. It was how she felt right now too.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “For what?”

  “Everything.”

  “Be more specific. Everything doesn’t cut it.”

  “You aren’t going to make this easy, are you?”

  “Why should I?” she asked. “Nothing in my life has been easy, unlike you. But that’s right, you don’t believe that. You think I was some money-grabbing whore. Trust me, I’d heard the word whore thrown my way enough from my mother too. It’s no different.”

  He flushed and she didn’t care. “I don’t think any of those things. My mother came over a few minutes after you left.”

  “You called her?” she asked.

  “No. She showed up and said she had a feeling I needed her.”

  “A mother knows things like that,” she said.

  “That’s another thing. I’ve said from day one you were like a mother. Not just with me, not in an icky way, but in the way you cook dinner and the way you think. The way you don’t want your roommates to be alone. How you put everyone first but yourself. That’s what really stuck with me after my mother left pretty much kicking me in the ass.”

  “I figured if you told your mom she’d be on your side. I’m used to having men side with their mothers too.”

  He laughed. “If I was siding with my mother it’s in your favor. She was pissed off at what I told her—and, trust me, it won’t go any further than my house—and my reaction to it. She told me I was an ass and pointed out that at seventeen my biggest thought was what car I wanted. But I would have never abandoned any woman that was pregnant with my child. Never. Not even to take time out to think about it. Nothing!”