She pointed the spoon at Mitch. “Promise me you won’t hit him again.”
Drew knew his friend well enough to see some of the initial anger-fueled fight was going out of him. That was good in a way, because he didn’t really want to get hit again, but in another way Drew was sorry to see it. Anger was a lot easier to deal with than hurt and betrayal.
“I’m not going to hit him again.”
She gave them both a hard look, then turned and walked back the way she’d come. Both men watched her leave until they were sure she wasn’t coming back.
“I’m sorry,” Drew said quietly. “Not in a million years would I have guessed that your sister and I would...end up where we are.”
“Where is that exactly? Besides making out in a bathroom, of course.”
He blew out a breath and rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know, to be honest. We’re attracted to each other. We enjoy each other’s company. But it hasn’t been an actual relationship because of you.”
“Don’t blame me when you didn’t even have the respect to let me figure out how I’d feel about it. Instead you let me walk in on... I’m not the bad guy here.”
“You’re right. It wasn’t because of you. We were afraid, or mostly I was, that you’d react badly. As long as you didn’t know about it, I didn’t have to choose between you and her.”
“Which would you choose?”
Drew hadn’t expected that and it threw him. He hesitated, trying to wrap his mind around a choice he’d avoided making at all costs. “You. We’ve been friends our whole lives.”
Mitch pointed at him. “Then you don’t deserve her.”
Ryan stepped out of the trees, catching them both off guard. The path was a shortcut to the clearing and neither had heard him coming. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” Mitch gave Drew a look that was full of anger and hurt and questions, and then turned away. “I’m done here.”
Ryan followed Mitch down the hill, leaving Drew alone. He sat on a boulder, which wasn’t especially comfortable considering his lack of clothing, and gingerly touched his jaw. It wasn’t broken and, other than some bruising and throbbing, wasn’t a big deal.
His life, on the other hand? That had gone to hell in a hurry.
Chapter Twelve
Liz went back to the bathhouse, where she gathered up Drew’s clothes, and then walked to the big drink cooler they kept at Mike and Lisa’s site. She scooped some ice into a towel and almost bumped into Rose when she turned.
“What’s going on?” Rosie asked, her eyes scanning Liz’s face like an interrogator’s spotlight.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? The others thought, when they ran by, that they were horsing around, but Ryan went to see what was going on and he said punches were thrown. And you’re holding Drew’s clothes. Mitch found out, didn’t he?”
“Only one punch was thrown. And it’s nobody’s business.”
“If anybody was ever my business, it’s you kids. I told you before that you should tell him.”
She hadn’t thought that would be enough to put Rose off, but Liz really didn’t want to talk about it right now. “Mitch should learn to knock.”
She knew Rosie had more to say—probably a lot more—but Liz stepped around her and kept walking. Mitch and Ryan passed her on the way, but they didn’t say anything to her. That was fine. She had nothing to say to them, either.
Drew was sitting on a rock, holding his jaw. His eyes tracked her approach, but his expression was as hard as the boulder under his butt.
“I brought you some ice.” She held it out to him and, after a few seconds during which his pride and his pain were probably having an epic battle, he took it and held it to his jaw. “I’m sorry, Drew. I thought you locked the door.”
“I didn’t want to slow down that long,” he mumbled.
Flattering, but a serious error in judgment. “Thank you for not hitting him back.”
Even if he did feel like he deserved that punch on some level, she could see it really pricked at his pride to take it. It said a lot about his feelings for Mitch, and maybe for her, that he hadn’t even raised a hand in retaliation.
“He’ll get over it,” Drew said, and she wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or to himself. “A lot of the anger is shock. That was the absolute worst way to find out.”
“Actually, in another ninety seconds or so, it would have been way worse.” Her lame attempt at humor didn’t make him smile.
They heard the low rumble of an ATV slowly climbing the hill, so Drew stood and grabbed the clothes she’d brought him. He started with the pants, then pulled the T-shirt over his head.
Liz saw him wince when he shoved his feet in his sandals. There was a lot of gravel between the bathhouse and the top of the hill.
Their visitor turned out to be Andy and, thankfully, he was alone. “I’m too old to walk all over this campground.”
“Hey, Dad.”