Dances with Monsters(113)

Drew noticed that everyone seemed to be laid back and relaxed; it was nothing like her family. By the time they had actually gotten to eat last Sunday, Heath had already been grilled for at least thirty minutes. Lana and Connor and John asked her general questions about herself and seemed genuinely interested in what she had going on. Drew wondered vaguely how much about her past they were aware of. She didn't think that Heath would tell them anything. At least, she hoped not.

She warmed to John as well. She knew of his history from the things Heath had told her, but sitting next to her now was only a kindly older gentleman, friendly, funny. She could feel a little tension between the three men, but after a while even that dissipated a bit. John seemed especially interested in the fact that she'd been born and raised in Brooklyn and began regaling her with a funny story about an old Marine buddy of his, an Italian boy from Brooklyn who he'd gone to boot with and then several years later they found themselves in the same unit. At several points in the story Drew found herself laughing out loud at the shenanigans that John and his friend found themselves taking part in once upon a time. She caught Heath's eye during one such moment and found that he was watching her, half-smiling when she burst out laughing.

As the afternoon stretched on, Lana rose to her feet and started collecting dishes. Drew immediately rose with her. "Let me help you," she said, and stacked her and Heath's plates and silverware together.

"Oh," Lana said. "Thank you. That would be really nice. It'll give us a chance to talk a little bit."

"Go easy on her," Heath joked from his seat.

"I will, I will," Lana teased back.

Drew followed her around the table, struck with a feeling that it was now her turn to be interrogated. Lana seemed to be a pretty straight-forward woman, and Drew realized just how protective she seemed of Heath. She wondered if he'd ever brought a girl home before.

Lana was holding the screen door open for her. "This way," she said.

Drew followed her inside into the spacious kitchen and braced herself for the interview.





Chapter Twenty-Four


Drew set her stack of dishes in the sink carefully as Lana turned on the water to rinse them off. She handed Drew the rinsed dishes to place in the dishwasher and Drew waited patiently for her to start talking.

"So," Lana said finally. "It seems like you and Heath are really getting along well. Connor had told me that he'd been seeing you for a little while but I guess I didn't know it was this serious."

Drew shrugged. "I'm not sure what it is, to be totally honest with you," she replied. "We have been spending a lot of time together and I do really like him. I just haven't 'dated' in a really, really long time so I don't want to scare him off with the 'so what are we?' conversation. He hasn't brought it up."

"Why have you been out of the dating scene?" Lana asked, then quickly shook her head. "Sorry. That came out rude. I just mean, you said you haven't been dating for a long time, so I just was wondering if there was a reason for that."

Drew cleared her throat, feeling uncomfortable. "I've had a rough year," she finally said, deciding that seemed like an innocuous enough answer. "And before that I wasn't really serious about anyone but I dated here and there."

"I guess I should just be totally blunt with you," Lana said, and Drew looked up at her. "Heath and I aren't super close, but I do care about him because he is my brother-in-law and he's my husband's brother. I know he still feels a certain way about me and Connor because he felt like Connor chose me over him when he and their mother were getting ready to leave to go west. We've made leaps and bounds over the past six months or so, but we're still not quite there."

Drew just looked at her, not sure exactly where she was going with her statement, but she had to admit that she had sensed a little bit of tension between Heath and Lana. It wasn't anything blatant; they still exchanged pleasantries and Drew knew he cared about Lana in his own way. She picked up that it was more discomfort and uncertainty rather than animosity.

"Anyway, I'm saying all of that to say this: Because I do care about Heath and because he is my husband's brother, I feel sort of protective over him. He's had a rough past and now that he's sort of 'famous' I feel like there's no shortage of people who try to take advantage of him. He can handle his own with the general public, but when it comes to girls I'm not so sure. As long as I've known him, he's never dated anyone seriously because I know he has trust issues and he gets a lot of attention from women now, women who only see a nice face or body, and dollar signs or fame. I just don't want him to get hurt."