Falling for a Stranger (12 page)

But she couldn't escape to sea. She had to be a mom tonight, and even though she'd been in the role for a year and a half, it still didn't quite fit. She was only twelve years older than Megan, and sometimes it was difficult to be aunt, mom, sister and friend all at the same time, especially since Megan had started to push back. She was going through typically rebellious teenage years, which would have been hard enough to handle, but Ria had more than just Megan's hormones to worry about. She had to keep her niece alive. And whatever that required took precedent over teenage angst, at least most of the time.

"I'm hungry," Megan announced. "I didn't have lunch."

"I'll make something when we get home."

"But how am I going to eat anything? My jaw hurts, too."

"I'll make you a smoothie," she suggested.

"I already had a smoothie for breakfast. I could eat some noodles. Can we stop at the Hot Wok on the way home?"

"I'll call in an order after we get home," Ria replied.

"It will take over an hour. They're super slow for delivery," Megan reminded her.

"I'm happy to stop," Drew offered.

"I'm sure you'd like to be on your way," she said.

"I have nowhere to be, and I'm hungry, too. Sailing worked up an appetite. Where is this place?"

Deciding that an argument would take longer than stopping for food, she said, "Turn left at the next corner. It's on the right side of the street." Megan was in pain, and getting her something she could eat was the least Ria could do. "It's hard to park, so if you want to wait in the car, I can run in and order. It usually doesn't take too long to pick up. Delivery is a different story."

"No problem." Drew pulled over to the side of the road in front of a loading zone.

"Is there something you like?" she asked.

"Whatever you order is fine with me."

As Ria opened the car door, she realized she was leaving Megan alone with Drew, and that probably wasn't a good idea. But Megan wasn't going to go in with her, and Drew had to stay with the car. She just needed to make this stop as fast as possible.

"Don't worry," Drew said, catching her eye. He gave her a knowing smile. "Megan and I will get better acquainted."

That's exactly what she was afraid of.

* * *

Drew put the car into park, then turned in his seat so he could see Megan. The girl's face was swollen and bruised, but there was still beauty in her features. She had dark hair and dark eyes and an olive skin tone. She didn't look at all like Ria. Half-sister, he wondered, or maybe even step-sister? Or was she a relative at all? At this point, he wasn't sure of anything where Ria was concerned.

He had a lot of questions he wanted to ask Megan, but seeing the hazy pain in her eyes, he couldn't bring himself to take advantage of her weakened state. Well, maybe he could just a little.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

She sighed, taking the ice pack away from her face. "My life sucks."

He bit back a smile. He'd heard those exact same words come out of his sisters' mouths a million times. "You're having a rough day."

"Not just today," she muttered. Before he could question that statement, she added, "How do you know Tory?"

He wasn't sure if it was wise to mention the island to Megan, so he said, "We met a while ago, and we ran into each other by the yacht club yesterday. Today she gave me a sailing lesson."

Megan gave him a suspicious look. "She never mentioned you to me."

"She never mentioned you to me, either."

Silence fell for a moment, and then Megan said. "So do you like her?"

He smiled. "Yeah, I do."

"She's not going to date you. She doesn't go out at all."

"Why is that?" he asked curiously.

"She just doesn't," Megan said. "She works a lot."

"Maybe she should take some time for fun."

"She's forgotten how to have fun." Megan sighed and settled back against the seat. "She used to laugh all the time. Now, I hardly ever see her smile."

"Why is that?"

Megan shrugged.

A moment of silence passed, then he said. "You two aren't very close in age. Do you have the same parents?"

Megan frowned, and then winced at the pain that followed. "That's a weird question," she said, a grumpy note in her voice. "I'm her sister. We would have the same parents, right?"

"I was thinking maybe there was a second marriage or a divorce or something."

"Oh. Well, you should ask Tory."

"She's not very talkative," Drew said.

Megan acknowledged his comment with a nod. "Trust me, I know. I talk all the time, way too much. It used to drive my mom crazy. She said I had an endless number of questions. And now it makes Tory crazy, too."

"Questions are good. It's the only way you learn anything."

"I think so, too. So what do you do?"

"I fly helicopters for the Coast Guard."

She sat up in her seat, new interest in her eyes. "Seriously? That's cool."

"It is cool," he agreed. "Have you ever been in a helicopter?"

"No, but I want to. My mom and dad took a helicopter tour in Hawaii, and they flew into a volcano. They said it was really exciting. Have you done that?"

"I haven't done that yet."

"You should," Megan said, ending her words with a yawn. "So where did you meet Tory?"

"In a bar." He figured he wasn't giving anything away with that answer.

"My mom met my dad in a bar," she said sleepily.

"Yeah?"

"My father told me that his heart literally stopped when he saw my mom; she was so beautiful. He knew right then that she was going to be his wife," Megan said, a dreamy note in her voice. "I want someone to fall in love with me like that."

Her words took him back to the island, to the moment that he'd set eyes on Ria. His heart had stopped, too. He hadn't called it love; he'd been much more comfortable with desire. Because physical attraction he understood and could handle. The emotional component had always eluded him.

"My mom said my dad swept her off her feet. She fell madly in love, just like they do in the fairytales." She took a breath. "But she didn't get her happily ever after."

Drew's gaze narrowed as Megan ended her words on a sniff and then quickly blinked away tears.

"Did something happen to your mom, Megan?"

"She died. So did my dad. It's just me now."

"You and Tory," he said.

"Right. It's just me and Tory, and I shouldn't talk about my parents."

Considering how many times Megan had already brought them up, Drew found her words to be a bit ironic. But he wasn't going to question a teenager about her dead parents.

After a moment of quiet, he said, "I lost my mother when I was five years old. She died of cancer. I don't have a lot of memories of her, but one that has always stuck with me is the lavender smell of her perfume. Whenever I smell lavender, I think of her."

Megan stared back at him. "My mom smelled like gardenias. She loved flowers. She'd spend hours in our greenhouse, and at night when she'd tuck me in, I'd smell gardenias in her hair." She paused, a guilty look flashing through her eyes. "Don’t tell Tory I told you that."

"I won't. But can I ask why?"

"It makes her sad."

He nodded. "I can understand that."

"I missed my mom today," Megan confessed. "When I was waiting in the hospital by myself, I really wished she was still alive so that she could hug me and tell me everything would be okay." Megan sniffed again. "I can't cry because my nose is going to get all stuffy," she added, a desperate note in her voice.

"Don't cry," he said quickly. "It's going to be okay."

"My prom is on Saturday night. And I look like a monster. How is it going to be okay?"

He didn't know the answer to that question, but he felt a little more comfortable with the change of topic. "Makeup can hide a lot."

"How do you know that?" she asked suspiciously.

He smiled. "I have three sisters. And they all seemed to have facial emergencies before the prom. I remember when Emma got a big zit in the middle of her forehead. It looked like a volcano crater. She was going to call her date and tell him that she had the flu, but my sister, Nicole, talked her into some makeup rehab. By the time Nicole was done, you could hardly see it. Emma went to the prom and had a great time."

"You can't cover a nose the size of a grapefruit with makeup."

"The swelling will go down by then, and I'm sure you can hide the bruising."

"I hope so." She gave him a thoughtful look. "You're kind of cool. Maybe Tory should give you a chance."

"Maybe she should," he agreed with a smile.

The car door opened, and Ria got in with a large bag of food.

"That smells good," he said, his stomach starting to rumble.

"It is good." Ria gave him a wary look. "What were you two talking about?"

He smiled and decided to give her a taste of her own medicine. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Drew—"

He saw the worry in her eyes. "Relax. Megan didn't give away any of your secrets."

"He's right. I didn't tell him anything," Megan added with way too much fervor.

Ria sighed. "I feel so much better."

Drew smiled. "I thought you would. Now, let's get to your house so we can eat. I'm starving."

Chapter Nine

"So this is your home," Drew said, as they walked into her apartment a few minutes later.

Ria nodded, knowing that Drew's sharp eyes wouldn't miss the fact that there was only one bedroom, and that room was decorated in typical teenage fashion. And if he missed that, the pillow and blanket on the back of the couch would no doubt suggest that at least one of them slept on the couch. The blank walls would reveal nothing about her past, but that would probably only reinforce the idea that she was in hiding.

There was nothing she could do about his assumptions. He was inside, and she had to deal with that fact.

She wasn't ashamed of the small one bedroom apartment. It was all she could afford. The neighborhood was safe, and no one could get into the building without being buzzed in—at least theoretically speaking. She hoped that her neighbors would never let anyone in without knowing who they were, but there were sixteen apartments in the building, and the only person she knew was her neighbor, Amelia.

"This is it," she said shortly, heading over to the secondhand table she'd put up next to the small galley-type kitchen. She set down the bag of food and then moved around the counter to grab plates and silverware.

"Not much on decorating, are you?" he said, as he took off his coat and tossed it over the back of a chair.

"I've been busy."

"How long have you lived here?"

"A while," she said, setting out plates. "Why don't you start opening up cartons?"

"And shut up?" he asked with a knowing smile.

"You said it; I didn't."

"We're so in sync, I can read your mind."

She rolled her eyes but refrained from making a comment as Megan slid into a chair at the table. Ria grabbed sodas and juice out of the fridge. Then she sat down next to Megan and across from Drew. It was surreal to be sharing a meal with him and Megan, she thought. In all the dreams she'd had about him, she'd never imagined this scenario, but ever since she'd run into him again, her day had been one surprise after another.

"This looks good," Drew said as he helped himself to the broccoli and beef dish.

"It's the best in the city," Megan said, as she carefully ate some noodles, wincing as she swallowed.

"How's the pain?" Ria asked.

"It's a little better," Megan said. "Do you think the swelling is starting to go down?"

Ria could see no change whatsoever, but that wasn't what Megan wanted to hear. "I think so." It was one lie she wouldn't feel guilty about. "Do you have homework tonight?"

"Not much. I did most of it already."

"That's good. You can get to bed early."

"I don't know if I can go to school tomorrow," Megan said doubtfully.

"We'll figure that out in the morning."

"It's not like school is that important," Megan added. "I'm not going to go to college."

"Why not?" Drew cut in, curiosity in his eyes.

Megan hesitated. "Well, it costs a lot. And we don't have the money."

"There are scholarships," he pointed out. "A college education is important."

"Tory doesn't have one," Megan said.

That piece of news took him by surprise. Ria could see the discomfort in his eyes, but she wasn't about to make it easy for him. He'd butted in for no reason; now he could figure a way out.

"I didn't realize," he said slowly, turning to her. "Why didn’t you go to college?"

"I was sailing around the world. I learned a lot more on my travels than I would have learned in school."

"And you have no regrets?"

"About skipping college?" She shook her head. "For me, no, but I think Megan should leave her options open. Certain jobs require degrees."

"Exactly," he said. "Until you know what you want to do, you should keep everything on the table." He glanced back at Megan. "Do you have any idea what you want to be when you grown up?"

Ria stiffened. While the question was one most high school juniors were asked over and over again by helpful relatives and school guidance counselors, for Megan, there was no simple answer.

"I don’t know," Megan said. "I'd like to do something adventurous. But I don't like boats as much as Tory does. Maybe I could fly helicopters like you do."

"You could, but that would take some education."

"Are there a lot of female pilots?" Megan asked.

"Not a lot, but quite a few, and I've worked with some excellent female pilots," he answered. "I can introduce you to some of them if you ever want to know more about the job from a woman's point of view."

The last thing Ria wanted was for Megan and Drew to start developing a relationship, but that relationship had obviously begun while she'd left them in the car alone together.

"Megan has a long time to decide what she wants to do," Ria interjected.

"Not that long. Doesn't she have to start applying for college in the fall?"