Page 59 of To Bring You Back
The article had been kind enough to end with a reminder that the last woman Gannon had been involved with was Harper English.
Beautiful, famous Harper English.
Olivia and her friends advanced up the sidewalk to join the work. Judging by their meticulous hair and makeup, they would be even less help than Adeline had been to that point. Tegan seemed to have made herself useful, though, so Adeline would too.
She turned to find something to carry to the waste bin, but as she did, Olivia slid her slender arm through Adeline’s. “So where did he take you? You didn’t come home.”
A few of the boys’ heads swiveled their way too. Had everyone read that article? The piece had called their trip a “romantic getaway” and had listed resorts in driving distance where they could’ve stayed. How mortifying.
“We went to visit our parents. I stayed with my mom and dad. He saw his mom. Not everything on the Internet is true.”
Olivia shrugged, her shoulder brushing Adeline’s. “Amy saw him drop you off.”
Gannon had been more serious than she’d known when he’d texted to not do anything she didn’t want the world to know about. “We’re old friends. We went to high school together. Nothing romantic has happened.”
“Do you think we could meet him? Because he just left, and—”
A crash interrupted her. They turned to see Drew and two of the adults stepping back from the waste container. On spotting Olivia and Adeline, Drew waved them in.
“Olivia, can you find a rake and take care of that?” He motioned to the collection of leaves and sawdust exposed by the disappearing porch.
“There’s one in the shed at the back of the yard,” Adeline said. “And yard waste bags.”
With a heavy sigh, Olivia plodded off.
Drew smiled. “I’m not sure what she was expecting. I made it clear this was a service project, not a meet and greet. But more of the boys showed up than I expected too, so she’s in good company hoping it’ll turn into that.”
She checked on the photographers again, expecting to see more of the same, but all three had their cameras up and pointed at her and Drew. “Speaking of …”
“Let’s get drinks for everyone.” Drew tilted his head toward the house, and Adeline led the way around the back and through the entrance by the kitchen.
Bruce ran up, whining. She kneeled to pet him. The fur on his paws was wet with pink skin showing through. He must’ve been licking them for quite a while.
“Poor baby. The noise must be stressing him out.”
A loud creak sounded, another part of the porch coming off the house, and Bruce buried his head against her shoulder. He was melting into a puddle of fear.
The skin around Drew’s eyes creased. “How about you? Are you doing okay with the press and everything?”
“Yeah. Fine. It’s just frustrating, the things those people will write. All we did was visit home.” She stroked Bruce’s thick fur.
“You two must be getting along better.”
Better? Yes. But not as well as she’d like. The proximity on the bike had been a shock to her, but he’d placed her arm around his body, pulling her even closer, allowing her to hold on. This from a man who paid his staff to prevent others from getting that close.
She felt special around him. She felt special just thinking of him. As long as she didn’t think about how he’d dropped her off or his tone on the phone earlier.
Drew studied her.
She left Bruce and retrieved the lemonade mix she’d bought for volunteers. “I had to go with him. A photographer was here.”
“You don’t seem to mind them too much today.”
He had her there. She’d seen what they’d written. Though the pictures and the description of her jobs weren’t flattering, the article hadn’t mentioned the past at all. Maybe she’d been wrong to assume they’d dig deep. Why bother when they could sell tabloids without sorting through years of history?
A puff of lemony sugar lifted from the mix as she poured it into a pitcher.
Bruce leaned against her leg, still whining.
