Page 38 of Hers to Marry
Chapter 11
“You think you can make me look like a fool!” Parker yelled. Drew ducked underneath the hotel slipper hurled at his face. “How dare you!”
She’d been silent the whole drive back to the hotel. Now that they were inside her room, she unleashed her fury.
She had a right to be angry. They were still engaged, and Drew had almost cheated on her. The more the C word bounced around in his head, the tighter his stomach coiled, making him want to hurl. This wasn’t like him. At all. He’d always been faithful to his girlfriends. He respected women too much not to end things and walk away.
He just couldn’t see or think of anyone else when he looked at Kat. He wanted to tell her everything that happened since he’d been away. Talk about her life and dream with her. But he couldn’t. Not with that ring around Parker’s finger.
“Have you forgotten what I’ve sacrificed to be with you?” Parker yelled.
“No, because you remind me every day!” Drew shot back.
“I was there for you!”
“I know!”
“And you can’t even be there for me! You want your ring back?” She snatched the engagement ring off her finger. “Here!” She launched it at him, hitting him square in the chest.
Drew didn’t bother picking it up or seeing where it landed. He just stared at Parker as sobs racked her body. He’d never seen her this unhinged, and he was the cause of it. His chest tightened uncomfortably and fissures stripped across his heart.
“Parker…” He went to her and gathered her in his arms as she sobbed.
“I’m so tired,” she wailed.
The job. It was stressing her out. He didn’t help by momentarily allowing himself to be distracted by Katrina. How had he let that happen? He hadn’t seen her in so many years. Kat was right: they didn’t know each other.
Except, she hadn’t been much different than what he’d remembered. A little less adventurous, and maybe less talkative, but he figured that’s because she didn’t know him either.
But she still wore his necklace. And there was no mistaking the attraction in her eyes moments before he almost kissed her. He’d felt it too: the instantaneous shock. The jolt of need when he had first laid eyes on her for the second time. The night before he moved away, he had promised to always be hers. No matter what happened in their lives, he would only love and marry her. When he was older, he’d come back and find her.
He wanted to laugh at the words he’d spoken as an eight-year-old. He’d been so passionate back then. So naive. Yet, he did return home. He was drawn to this place, and it probably had a lot to do with Kat.
In Guam, he had found a new friend in Zache. Their families were transferred to Germany about the same time. It was there they entered the military right out of high school.
They had joined the Marines with ideas of being the best and toughest of soldiers. Several tours in Afghanistan later, Zache had gone out on a mission in place of Drew, and his truck hit an IED. Zache came home in pieces.
Drew could barely forgive himself. He’d been honorably discharged, and then his life went downhill. Only one other time in his life did he have a friend he would’ve died for, and that was Kat. But a childhood love was foolish, his father had once said. He couldn’t possibly know he was meant for someone at that age. Brains were still being developed. Maturity hadn’t been reached.
But Drew had disagreed. Kat had meant as much to him back then as Zache had been the brother he’d never had. When he met Parker, he thought he had a second chance at finding a friend, someone he could trust and depend on. And then he fell in love with her. Marrying his best friend sounded amazing.
He couldn’t just marry his best friend. Not with something like this between them. First it was the depression Drew had experienced from his death. And now it was Kat and the familiar feelings she stirred in him whenever they were together. He couldn’t ignore them. If he and Parker were ever going to make a home here in Springfield, they would probably see Kat all the time. If he didn’t squash these feelings now, they would overtake him, and he’d do something even worse to Parker.
And hurt Kat too.
“Parker, I’m so sorry…” He sat them on the bed and rocked her, smoothing her hair away from her face as she cried into his shirt.
“I’m never going to be enough, am I?” She looked up at him with a tearstained face. “You need more than I can give.”
“No. No, that’s not true.”
She wiped her red nose on the back of her arm. “What does she have that I don’t? What can she give you that I can’t?”
Questions he had to ask his soul.
Parker smirked and leaned back. She gently pushed his arms away. “She cried a lot after you had left. When she thought I wasn’t looking, she would be clutching that half-heart necklace. Don’t think I haven’t noticed that she still wears it.” Parker sighed and wiped her cheeks with her hands. “I knew she was in love with you then. And trust me”—Parker met his gaze—“if I’d known you were her Drew, I never would’ve gotten involved with you.”
“I’m…I’m notherDrew.”
