Trusting Drew: Burlap and Barbed Wire Read online

  Then Drake left him standing in the middle of the office. What the hell was that all about? He didn’t feel like he was distracted by her. He was attentive, but would that be a distraction? Did Drake see something he hadn’t yet seen himself?

  Shit, it was entirely possible. He had to admit, at least to himself, that he was tuned into her more than any other woman he’d ever known, even Monica. Drew rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, he couldn’t ever remember worrying about Monica being tired.

  Maybe it was just because Lily was injured, and he’d been tending to her. Yeah that had to be it. Didn’t it? Hell, he had no damn idea, he’d not been with a woman in so long he wouldn’t know attraction if it bit him in the ass.

  Lily woke from her nap feeling fully restored. She’d been silly last night, not sleeping and worrying about everything this morning. It couldn’t have gone any better if she’d scripted it. She still needed to talk with her parents. Drew had said they were on the other side of the bathroom. So, she hobbled that direction and was glad to hear them talking in low voices.

  She rapped once on the door and then opened it a bit. “Mind if I come in?”

  “Not at all, come right in, Lily-bug,” her dad called out.

  She tried not to hobble as she went into their room but by their worried faces she hadn’t quite succeeded. Limping over to her mom, who was on the bed, she saw their room was the mirror image of hers. Her dad sat in the chair he’d pulled up next to the bed.

  Her mom frowned. “Just how bad are your feet, Lily?”

  She didn’t want her mom to worry. “Not that bad according to Alyssa, but it’s only been a couple of days, so they are still healing. There is one large cut that needed a few stitches and one small one with one stitch. The rest were just scrapes. What took the longest was getting the stockings out of the blood and dirt.”

  Her mom patted her hand. “I’ll look at them tomorrow, when Alyssa changes the dressing.”

  Lily took a deep breath. “I just hope they are healed enough to wear the shoes. I’m glad we didn’t go with many sandals. At least this way if I still need bandages they won’t show.”

  “I did bring the boots too, in case you decided to wear those.”

  “Oh good, I can’t wear them with the gown, but they might come in handy with some of the other clothes. I hope all the sightseeing and pre-events aren’t walking and standing.”

  “Maybe we should stop in Denver on the way to the airport and see if we can get you some lower-heeled shoes that would be more comfortable for those early occasions.”

  Lily nodded. “That might be a very good idea, we can ask the ladies of the family for recommendations. I don’t think Drew will mind. He’s pretty laid back.”

  “And fairly smitten with you.”

  That statement stunned Lily. Smitten? No. Was he?

  Her dad groaned. “Elaine, you promised.”

  “She brought it up.”

  “Mom, I think you are seeing things. He’s been the perfect gentleman.”

  “Well, of course, he has been. You couldn’t remember your own name. Or if you were engaged or married even. But now that you have your memory back and we know the truth about Ronald, you are a free agent. And Drew seems much more like your type than Ronald ever was. Plus, Drew actually pays attention to how you’re feeling. None of us noticed you were drooping, but he did.”

  Well that was true, but she’d also told him she hadn’t slept well, so he knew what to look for. Not that she’d ever known anyone that had paid that close attention to her. “Yes, but I’ve only known him a few days.”

  “True, but you’ll be in each other’s pocket for another ten days at least.”

  That idea sounded very nice, a little on the scary side, but nice just the same. “Moooom.”

  “I know honey, just take it one day at a time.”

  Lily looked at her dad and he just rolled his eyes, which made Lily want to grin, but she knew it would only prolong the discussion and that was the very last thing she wanted to do.

  Chapter 11

  The next morning after she’d seen Alyssa and taken a shower, yay, Lily knew she needed to get busy. Her flight had to be changed and she wanted to ensure she could sit by Drew. Plus, he needed a hotel room adjacent to hers. She had to send email to the pageant coordinator to tell them that she would be bringing a bodyguard, so he would need meals and passes for the event.

  They sent her a list of instructions for the bodyguards which she forwarded to his email. It also included an itinerary for the pre-events, so she was happy to look that over. She was glad to see that the first day was a boat tour of Ellis Island and other New York attractions.

  The second day was Manhattan locations, but even those looked like they would be in double-decker buses. With stops everywhere for photo shoots. Comfortable shoes would definitely help however, because there would be walking involved, especially in Times Square.

  The last thing she did was go onto the pageant social media sites. She’d been remiss in her duty as a contestant to keep the buzz going for the pageant. So, she posted and commented, both on the pageant pages and on her personal pages, on all the different platforms, talking about how excited she was, as the count-down for the last week before the pageant events began.

  Her sister Rose called. “Oh my God, are you okay? I just heard the news. Mom and dad didn’t tell me anything, when they left, other than they were going to meet you in Colorado. And now to find out Ronald was being a sneaky snake. I just can’t believe it, I never really liked him much, but I never would have guessed anything like this.”

  When her sister finally had to stop to drag in a breath, Lily said, “I’m fine. I wasn’t about to let that man derail my promise to Olivia.”

  Rose huffed. “I suppose not. I wish you’d never made that stupid promise in the first place. Then none of this would have happened.”

  “Yes, I know. How are the munchkins?” Lily held her breath hoping the distraction would work. One never knew about Rose, sometimes she was like a dog with a bone and would not be deterred.

  “Sandy is doing great, she loves first grade and her teacher Miss Evelynn, but she doesn’t like having to hold hands with that stinky Gerald Brentwood.”

  Lily laughed, “The little boy here at the ranch was complaining about the very same thing last night, having to hold hands with a little girl named Cindy. He’s just in Kindergarten.”

  Rose chuckled. “So, it seems to be a universal issue at that age.”

  “Yeah. How’s Jimmy?”

  Rose sighed. “Keeping his mother hopping, he’s got so much energy. Even when I take him to preschool part of the day, he still comes home raring to go. John just shakes his head and says boys will be boys. Which isn’t helpful in the least.”

  Lily knew Rose’s husband, John, wasn’t nearly as high strung and persnickety as his wife, so until he got worried about little Jimmy’s behavior there was probably nothing to be concerned with. She chatted with her sister for a few more minutes, not at all sad when Rose said she had to run.

  Later in the day, when school got out, she had a text from her brother, telling her he was sorry to hear about the troubles, but he was certain she had it all handled, and he’d be rooting for her next weekend. Typical seventeen-year-old guy, probably too busy thinking about football practice, or girls, to have a real conversation.

  Lily didn’t see a lot of Drew, only at meals, and she assumed he was getting his ducks in a row to be able to take the time off to spend with her. They had a lot of texts back and forth as she booked the flights and hotel rooms.

  Meals quickly became her favorite times of the day. The whole family came together and there was a lot of talk and laughter. She now understood Alyssa’s comment about eating her sad solitary lunch.

  Lily liked dinner the best, when all the girlfriends were off work and little Tony was home from school. This was his first year of school and he was having a wonderful time. He was a bright boy and adorable. />
  She also liked all the girls Drew’s siblings were engaged to. Last night after all her drama had been talked about, the topic for dinner was weddings. With three of them coming up in the next few months there was a lot to talk about.

  Elaine had jumped right into the discussion, since they’d done a full blown-out wedding for Rose. Her mom had plenty of ideas and suggestions.

  No one quite knew what to do or say about the destination wedding to Hawaii, but both Rachel and Adam assured them that they had a great wedding coordinator that was taking care of everything, and all they had to do was show up. She had excellent reviews and recommendations, so they weren’t worried.

  Lily couldn’t wait to see what the topic of conversation would be tonight. It was such a lively family, no telling what they would come up with.

  She was surprised when the conversation turned to her visit to New York. She’d caught Drew right before they all sat and had told him that all the arrangements had been made.

  “I found out all I need to know about flying with my gun, too. So, we should be good to go. That sightseeing itinerary is going to keep us hopping, especially with them planning to do photo shoots at nearly every stop.”

  “Right? It’s crazy all the things they are cramming into two days.”

  Emma had clearly overheard them because as soon as they sat down and had filled their plates, she asked, “So tell us what is on the itinerary and where all they are going to take your picture. Have you ever been to New York?”

  Lily shook her head. “No, I haven’t, which now in retrospect seems rather telling that Ronald never invited me to his home. He always came to see me. I wonder just how much of his sophistication was a big fat lie.”

  Lily frowned, but then shook it off to answer Emma’s first questions. “They have two days of sightseeing. The first day is a boat and harbor tour with photo stops before we get on the boats and there will be a significant stop at the Statue of Liberty, where they will photograph us both as a group and individually. I don’t remember the rest of the stops, since that one is the most exciting to me.”

  Drew rattled off several other photo locations and then waved for her to continue.

  “That night will be a fancy reception to meet the mayor and elected officials of New York. Oh, and the first morning, we’ll meet all the pageant people at an early reception before the sightseeing. The next night is another reception with our sponsors and the overall sponsors for the pageant.”

  “Wow lots of eating out. I hope they have decent food for you all, so you don’t get all bloated,” Summer, Cade’s fiancé said. “Sometimes organizers are trying to be so uptown, that they forget all about who they are feeding.”

  Lily had no idea how Summer knew that, but she certainly did seem to know what she was talking about, and hoped the organizers had run the competitions long enough that they had learned that lesson. She smiled at Summer. “Let’s hope they’ve got that figured out after all the years of running these.”

  Drew said, “The second day of sightseeing and endless photo sessions, are all around Manhattan.”

  “Oh yes, sorry I got distracted. They plan to shuttle us around to the different locations. Times Square will be one of the primary photo ops.”

  Rachel sighed, “I mostly take landscape pictures, but I would love to follow you around and take candids at all those amazing places.”

  Lily grinned. “That would be so much fun. You and Adam could both come. Oh, and Beau and Alyssa could join us as my official medical team.”

  Cade spoke up, “Hey what about us?”

  Lily tapped a finger to her lip. “Hmm, I can’t think of a good reason.”

  Summer said, “I could do makeup and hair.”

  Katie nodded and smiled at her friend. “You certainly could, much better than anyone else. I can’t think of a single thing I could do.”

  Both Cade and Chase spoke at the same time. “Moral support.” Then they high-fived each other over the table, and Katie laughed.

  Emma said, “I think Tony and I will sit this one out. He would miss school and that would be a disaster.”

  Tony nodded solemnly. “It would. I would be very sad to miss school just for a boat trip and lots of pictures. I like the boat here in town when we go out fishing, but lots of pictures is so hard to sit still for.”

  Lily couldn’t agree more with Tony’s sentiment. “That’s very true Tony, it is hard to sit still for pictures. It’s much more fun to go to school.”

  Tony grinned and took a big bite of his chicken leg, while everyone beamed at the little boy.

  Lily noticed Drew had grown silent during the exchange, he was clearly in his own world and she wondered what he was thinking.

  Drew knew they were all teasing about going to New York, but as they talked, he realized he wouldn’t mind them going along for extra backup. He couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something very bad awaiting them in New York. He’d been trying to ignore the nagging feeling all day, but it just wouldn’t go away.

  He thought about the cost and logistics of his whole damn family going and realized it wasn’t feasible, so he tried to push the ideas aside and join back in the discussion, but they stayed in the back of his mind, nagging at him.

  After dinner broke up and everyone went their separate ways, Drew’s dad suggested they have a chat in the office. So, he followed his mom and dad into the room and took a seat.

  Travis began the conversation. “I noticed you got quiet while all your siblings were joking about going to New York with you. Tell me what’s on your mind.”

  Drew felt stupid for letting his thoughts show so easily. He was supposed to have a stone face, it was a requirement of the job and he’d done pretty well perfecting his. Obviously not well enough to shield his thoughts from his parents. “It’s nothing really. It would be fun for all of us in New York.”

  Meg rolled her eyes. “Fun had nothing to do with what you were thinking, son. Tell us.”

  Busted, he needed to work on his poker face. “It really isn’t worth talking about.” When both of his parents just sat there looking at him, he caved. “All right fine. I just have a nagging feeling of unease about going to New York. Not the actual going but what we might find or get caught up in when we get there.”

  He stood up and paced. “This thing with Lily just seems off. I mean it’s a stupid beauty pageant, it’s not like it’s an international incident. So, why did they go to so much trouble? That Ronald guy had to find a way to meet Lily and then give her the bums rush. But do it well enough to convince her, she’s not an airhead, so he did a good job of convincing her he loved her.”

  Drew sat back down in the chair. “Did they do this with all the contestants? Some of them? Just Lily? I just can’t wrap my mind around it. So, what will they try next? By what Lily said Ronald had mentioned, I don’t think ‘his bosses’ would have been adverse, to more permanent measures.”

  He sighed and sat forward resting his elbows on his knees. “So, when everyone was teasing about going to New York it got me thinking about how much better we could protect Lily. With Beau and Adam there we could kind of surround her. And then the twins might be extremely useful if we used their twin-ishness to fool people into thinking there was just one of them, in case there was some reason to have a secret agent.”

  He ran his hands through his hair. “I know it sounds ridiculous and we probably won’t need to do anything at all. Plus, it’s completely unfeasible for all of us to go to New York, but it keeps niggling at my mind. I’ve just got a gut feeling that something bad is waiting.”

  He looked up and crossed his arms. “See, I told you it was stupid.”

  His parents exchanged a glance and his dad said. “It’s not stupid at all, Drew. We’ve always taught you to trust your gut. The main problem I can see is that you’re going in blind. None of us have any idea what the pageant entails, why someone would care who wins, how it will be run, or what the stakes are.”

  Meg s
poke up. “It could be anything. It could be some mobster whose baby girl wants to win, so he’s taking out the competition. It could be that the winner gets some kind of recognition that is a big deal. Maybe it’s a sponsor that wants their candidate to win to edge out a competitor sponsoring one of the other girls. Maybe there is an international component that we know nothing about. We can only guess the motivation. But what they did to Lily is not minor, so it wouldn’t surprise any of us if they tried something in New York.”

  Travis nodded. “So, if you want or feel like you need backup, then you take backup with you. We work out the feasibility issues later, safety is the most important thing.”

  Drew felt a huge relief that his parents were taking this as seriously as he was, but he still didn’t want to run off half-cocked. All of them going to New York would be expensive and it would leave the ranch short-handed. So, he didn’t want to jump the gun. “All right. Let me think about it some more and see if I can figure out what or who, I would really need.”

  His dad rubbed a hand over his face. “We’re here to help, so do feel free to run your thoughts and ideas by us. And if you feel like you need or even want your siblings nearby to help, you’ve got them. Don’t hesitate. I would rather see you take them with you and not need them than not take them and find yourself in a bind that could have been alleviated.”

  “Thanks, mom and dad. I’ll keep that in mind, we’ve still got a week. I’m going to see what I can learn.” He got up and walked out of the room. He decided to begin with an internet search and see what all this pageant entailed. Who would be at it, what the prizes were, who were the sponsors. Anything he could find out to give him a hint. He knew Drake was running a deeper scan on Ronald Duvall, maybe he would find something to help. Some association that would point them in the right direction.

  Ronald startled when his phone rang. His nerves were on high alert and he was debating if he should flee, like he’d done from Colorado. Something was making him jumpy. It wasn’t time for the next call from his bosses, but they were calling. Damn, he’d bluffed his way through the first time. He could do it again.