They were right and he knew it. And he didn’t want that. “But me being here will make things harder for Liz.”
Ryan chuckled. “Don’t worry about Liz. As long as neither of you push her into a corner and try to make her choose one of you over the other, she’ll be fine. She’s a pretty tough cookie.”
Drew knew he wouldn’t do that to her, but he wasn’t sure about Mitch. “Maybe I should go talk to him.”
“Let Liz get to him first,” Ryan suggested. “He needs to be reminded our little sister is a grown woman who’s free to have sex with whoever she wants and that argument coming from you will probably get you punched in the face again. She’ll push back at him but it’ll be okay because they’re blood. You don’t have that unbreakable bond.”
“I’m not going to hide in my tent while she cleans up the mess I made.”
“Look,” Ryan said, annoyance obvious in his clipped tone. “This is why you don’t mess around with your best friend’s sister. Now you’ve got this messy triangle thing where Mitch and Liz’s relationship is not your problem and your relationship with Mitch is not Liz’s problem and Liz’s relationship with you is not Mitch’s problem, but really it’s just one huge goddamned problem because you’re all bound together.”
“If Mitch knows he and Liz are okay,” Andy added, “he’s more likely to listen and try to be okay with you.”
“So what am I supposed to do in the meantime? Sit on this rock?”
“I’d recommend running to Rosie,” Ryan said. When they both scoffed at him, he held up his hands. “What? I’m serious. Let her fuss over your face and your feet and feed you cookies. Don’t forget, she loves Mitch and Liz like her own, but you’re Andy’s son. She loves Andy. They live together so you’re like her almost stepson.”
“That’s a good plan, Drew. Ryan’s right.”
“I have a teenage almost stepson. Trust me, it’s like a crash course in navigating awkward family politics.”
Drew downed the rest of his water and screwed the cap back on the bottle. “I guess you’re right.”
As much as part of him wanted to go to Mitch and push him for the opportunity to explain and make things right, he knew the other men were right. And if ever he’d needed some fussing over from Rose, it was now. She’d known their secret all along and had still tried to throw them together, which meant she must be on his side.
He just hoped Liz didn’t eat all the treats first.
*
Liz sighed and shoved the last bite of her third blond brownie in her mouth. She was in dry clothes, thanks to Rose making a trip to her tent, but she still felt like a wet washcloth that had been wrung out hard.
After getting through the entire tale of woe, both women had tried to talk through it with her. Their joint advice was, of course, best summed up as Mitch would get over it and if she and Drew were meant to be, it would all work out.
Meant to be what, was the question.
If they were meant to be having some fun sex with no complications, that wasn’t working out too well for them. If they were meant to be more than that, well, she wasn’t sure that’s what either of them were looking for.
Rose, who’d been in and out, probably taking everybody’s emotional temperatures, entered the camper and smiled. “Most of the family has evacuated to the pool. And Paige thinks Mitch has calmed down enough to have a conversation now.”
“Good.” Liz chugged down the milk remaining in the glass Aunt Mary had poured for her and slid out of the dinette. “I’m going to go converse with him right now. Is he in his camper?”
“Yes,” Rose said. “But you need to keep that temper of yours in check or you’ll set him off again.”
“I’ll be good.”
Because most of them were down at the pool, she didn’t feel like a sideshow attraction as she made the walk to Mitch and Paige’s RV. That would no doubt come later when the family game of telephone had had time to complete the circuit.
When she tapped on the door, Paige stepped out. She was wearing a swimsuit and had a towel draped around her neck. “I’m going to join the others. Mitch is inside.”
“How is he?” Even though she was mad at him, she was trying to empathize with how it would feel for your best friend and sister to sneak around keeping secrets.
“He’s hurt. Angry. A little embarrassed by his temper. Confused, I guess.”
Liz drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I guess I’ll go in.”
Her oldest brother was sitting in the corner of the RV’s couch, leaning against the back of the dinette’s bench. She could have sat in the small swivel rocker, but she chose to sit on the other end of the couch. It wasn’t very long, so she had to nudge his legs a little to make room. She wanted the physical proximity, even if they were a mile apart emotionally at the moment.
“Drew told me yesterday after breakfast he was going to talk to you when we got back to Maine.”