Page 95 of Center Ice
I could live in a place like this.I don’t know where the thought comes from. Except for college, I’ve lived in one house all my life. I thought I’d be raising Graham in that house, too. But somehow, Drew’s place already feels like home.
“I mean, with the sounds you were making each time you tried something new,” Drew says, drawing my eyes back to him,“I felt like I had to keep feeding you different things. You wereobviouslyenjoying it.”
“Oh yeah? What kind of sounds was I making?”
“Let’s just say that it sounded an awful lot like a sexual experience.”
My cheeks heat. “No, it didn’t!”
He huffs out a laugh. “It really did. And I quite enjoyed it, so please don’t be embarrassed now. Youshouldenjoy food as much as sex, when it’s that good.” He reaches out and smooths a piece of hair off my face, tucking it behind my ear. His fingers slide through my hair to the back of my head, and he pulls me toward him, dropping a kiss on my forehead. “God, I missed you.”
I melt into his touch. “Missed you too.”
I’m about to roll onto my knees from my sitting position so I can get a better angle to kiss him, when the shrill ringing of my phone cuts through the low music Drew has on in the background.
“Shit, sorry,” I say, grabbing for my purse where it sits on the couch cushion behind Drew. “Let me just make sure this isn’t Jameson or Lauren.”
I fish my phone out of my bag and am horrified when Karl’s name is flashing on the screen, and even more horrified when Drew clearly sees it.
“Why’s he still calling you, Audrey?”
“I don’t know.” I shrug.Ring. “I stopped returning his texts and answering his calls over a month ago.” Right when Drew came back into the picture.
“You haven’t told him you’re seeing someone?” There’s a hard edge to his voice as he narrows his eyes at me.
“No.”Ring.The grating sound makes my whole body tense up. “I just stopped responding.”
“Are you trying to keep that door open, just in case?”
Ring.“What? No!”
Drew holds his hand out, obviously intending to answer my phone. For a half-second, I hesitate, but then I realize there’s no reason not to let him. I’m not going back to sleeping with Karl, ever.
“He’s a colleague. Be cordial, at least,” I say as I hand him the phone.
“Hello?” His tone is annoyed.
“Oh, sorry,” I hear Karl’s voice. Drew doesn’t have the phone pressed against his ear, like he wants me to hear the conversation. “I think I have the wrong number.”
“No, I think you have the right number.”
“Oh. Is this Audrey’s phone?”
“Yeah.”
“Who’s this?” Karl asks.
“Her future husband. So do me a favor and lose her fucking number.”
He ends the call before Karl has a chance to respond. I should probably be bothered, but I can’t find it in me to be—because if that was a girl he used to sleep with when he needed to scratch an itch and she’d been calling him regularly for the last month and he hadn’t told her to go to hell, I’d want to do the same.
“Anyone else going to be calling in the future that I should know about?” he asks, eyebrow quirked. “Because it’d probably be easier for everyone if we just block their numbers now.”
I roll my eyes. “No, you jealous caveman. No one else is going to be calling.”
“Good.”
“Is there anyone I should be worried about calling you?”
