“There’s no moving forward, anyway. I’m not ready to start popping out babies and everybody knows that’s what he wants.”
“He doesn’t necessarily want them tomorrow. Mallory didn’t want them at all. You want kids someday, don’t you?”
“Probably.” Liz shrugged, turning the uneaten apple over and over in her hands. “Not definitely, but probably. And not anytime soon.”
“I bet he’d wait. You’re worth it, honey.”
“Don’t you have anything else to talk about besides me and Drew?”
“No, not really.”
Of course not. Rose couldn’t be any more of a typical mother where Liz was concerned if she’d given birth to her herself. “Why don’t you tell me about you and Andy.”
The warm bliss that flooded Rosie’s face made Liz both very happy for her and a little jealous, too. It was obvious the woman was very much in love.
“We’re very happy,” Rose said. “We love each other and, not only do I get to keep taking care of this house and you kids, but he really enjoys helping Josh with the lodge. It couldn’t have worked out any more perfectly.”
“Pretty strange considering how long you refused to let him on the property,” Liz said. “Are you ever going to tell me what he did to make you hate him for decades?”
Rose tightened her mouth and shook her head. “That, young lady, is water under the bridge.”
“Well, so is what happened between Drew and me. Just water under the bridge.”
“I still think you should dive back in and see where the current takes you.”
“Probably over a waterfall and onto the rocks,” Liz said, and then she took a bite of the apple.
Rose shook her head. “You’re just as stubborn as your brothers.”
Chapter Six
After a few days of popping into the diner for lunch, Drew realized he really liked Liz. Not just liked thinking about the amazing sex they’d had or her amazing smile or how great her ass looked in jeans. He liked her.
Because he liked to be in the office if Barbara wasn’t going to be, he ate lunch later than the norm, and the diner was fairly quiet whenever he went in. He’d chat with Liz while she restored order after the lunch rush and got the place ready for Ava to come in and do the supper shift, and he’d discovered there was nothing Liz couldn’t talk about.
Politics, books, movies, history. It didn’t matter what random subject popped up, she’d talk about it. And if she didn’t know a lot about it, she’d listen and ask questions.
The best part of his day was when Liz leaned her hip against the counter and talked to him.
He wanted to take her on a date. A real date, with dinner somewhere other than the Trailside Diner. That would mean a long drive, but he wouldn’t mind because he liked her company.
Part of him was starting to wonder how Mitch would take it. Maybe there was a way to beat around the bush and see how his friend would feel about Drew dating his sister without actually coming out and saying he was interested in her.
It had the potential for disaster, though. And some logical part of his brain really wanted to know if it was worth risking his relationship with Mitch when that same part knew that before Liz came back to town, Drew had promised himself he was going to stop feeling sorry for himself and go out and find the mother of his children. Liz had never said she didn’t want kids, but that wasn’t something that came up in casual conversation. But he did know, or at least strongly suspected, that it wasn’t something she was thinking about now.
That meant there was a possibility Drew could invest himself in a relationship with her, at great risk to his friendship, only to have her realize down the road she had other things she’d rather do than be a mother.
It was a frustrating circle of what he wanted versus what he needed, and it was enough to keep his mouth shut.
“You’re looking pretty serious today,” Liz said, breaking into his thoughts as she set his bowl of chicken soup in front of him. Drew never missed Gavin’s chicken soup days if he could help it. While it wasn’t quite as good as Rose’s, it ran a pretty damn close second and nothing beat a good bowl of chicken soup.
“Lot on my mind.” Before she could open her mouth to push for more, he kept going. “You know, if you need to go into the city to stock up on more than what the Mustang can hold, just say the word. We can take the SUV. I just fill it on my personal card before I leave town and nobody complains.”
It was almost a date. He wasn’t a big fan of shopping, but at least he’d get to spend some time with her away from her family and the rest of the town.
“Thanks, but I stole Josh’s truck and made a run the other day after work. There are enough vehicles there so he didn’t miss it and, if he really needed a pickup, the gas mileage in the old plow truck doesn’t hurt as badly if he was just running around town.”