Kelly looked out the kitchen window to the driveway, where the sounds of a bouncing basketball made her heart literally leap into her throat. Todd hardly ever played basketball by himself, which meant…
Drew.
Knees bent, arms raised, he tossed a free throw at the hoop. It didn’t even hit the rim as it fell through the net.
Kelly wanted to be out there. She wanted to joke around with him. She wanted to tell him that she was crazy in love with him, too.
But she couldn’t.
Even if Sydney had broken up with him and he was now a single man.
Kelly closed her eyes and sucked in a weary breath. She liked Drew so much that sometimes it hurt just thinking about him. Longing was definitely an unpleasant emotion.
When she opened her eyes, the boys were gone and the basketball was silent. The back door opened and their voices carried down the hallway from the mudroom to the kitchen.
Kelly went rigid.
Todd was the first one into the kitchen. He gave her a brotherly shove. “What’s up?”
She parted her lips to respond but suddenly Drew was there, looking at her, his hair slick and disorderly from sweat. He wore a sleeveless T-shirt, black gym shorts. His biceps looked even more toned close up.
It was like the buttery yellow kitchen walls blurred and there was only her and Drew. She wanted to say so many things to him right now and her heart beat frantically as her mind thought about the hundred different confessions.
I can’t, she thought and turned away.
“Hey,” Todd said, pulling open the fridge, “did I tell you me and Drew are throwing you a birthday party?”
Kelly glanced over at her brother. “Umm…no.”
Her birthday—August 23—was on a Saturday this year. Usually her parents got cake and ice cream and pizza, and she invited her friends over. But Todd had been talking about an end-of-summer bash/birthday party for Kelly for the last three years. Now he was going away to college, so evidently he wanted to throw that party before it was too late.
But maybe even more surprising—Todd had said Drew was helping him throw the party. Was that because he’d volunteered? Or because Todd had roped him into it?
It’d been a week since Drew had texted Kelly and she’d told him they couldn’t be friends. He hadn’t called her since. He’d shown up at the house Tuesday and then Thursday, but he’d barely looked at her, let alone spoken.
Now he was helping plan her birthday party? Yeah, right. Todd had definitely forced him.
Todd threw Drew a cold bottle of water and then turned back to Kelly. “The party will be awesome. I promise. We’ll make it great, huh, Drew?”
“Yeah,” was all he said.
“We’re out.” Todd waved at Drew to follow him out of the kitchen.
Drew didn’t hesitate. He surged forward, passing Kelly. She watched him go and couldn’t help but notice his scent lingering just behind him as he left.
The smell was that familiar Drew smell—no cologne, no laundry detergent, just Drew. It was like clean water and home-baked food. Or something. She just knew it by smelling it, describing it wasn’t quite so easy.
She wished she could curl into him and stay there for hours, his arms wrapped around her. She hadn’t had a guy hold her since Will. That was like seven months ago now. She was practically a nun.
Of course, if she really wanted a guy, she could probably go out and find one. She could probably talk Adam into holding her at the very least. But she knew, deep down, it wouldn’t be the same. Not if it wasn’t Drew.
Later that night, as her parents watched the evening news, Alexia said she was going out for a walk but called Ben before she left and told him to meet her at the park.
This was officially the sneakiest thing she’d ever done.
It took her a good twenty minutes to walk to the park from her house. Seeing Ben there, she wanted to burst into tears and scream with giddiness all at the same time.
It seemed like it’d been forever since she had seen him last.
She ran across the parking lot and over to the bench he sat on beneath a huge oak. He got up, held his arms out, and she jumped into him.
“Umph,” he said, tightening his hold on her. “I missed you, too.” He kissed both her cheeks and then her lips. It started out as a peck and then grew into something more heated.
Soon Alexia was tingling all over.
Ben was the one to pull away. His lids were heavy with contentedness. He dropped down to the bench and pulled Alexia down with him.
“So, Houdini, what’s with the Great Escape? Your parents know where you’re at?”
She giggled. It felt good to laugh.
“I told them I was going out for a walk,” she explained.
“Impressive.” Ben propped a foot up on the bench and rested his arm on his knee. “So how’ve you been? Your parents letting you out enough? Getting you some sunlight? I hope they’re feeding you.”
Alexia playfully shoved him. “Yes, they’re feeding me. And I’m fine.”
“Really?”
She licked her lips, tried to squash the weak feeling in her chest.
“Okay,” she said. “I’m not fine, exactly.”
Truth was, she was miserable. She couldn’t understand why Ben had chosen Pepperdine out of all the colleges that had accepted him. Did he want to get rid of her? Maybe this was his easy way out?
“Come here,” he said softly, pulling her on his lap. She nestled into the crook of his neck, liking his arms wrapped around her tightly.
“It’ll be okay,” he said. “I promise.”
He’d read into her emotions without her saying a word. That’s how close they’d become. Did it have to end already? Because it would probably end no matter what Ben said.
Long-distance relationships just didn’t work.