Page 51 of Meant to be Mine

She took another enormous bite, and a small dab of tomato sauce landed on the hem of her blouse. She looked down at it immediately. “Oh, no.”

“Here.” I reached over and plucked another napkin from the bag, and without thinking, dabbed at the spot before she could do it herself.

“You’re a mess,” I said. “I can’t take you anywhere.”

“It’s a meatball sub.” She used her thumb to wipe my cheek. “You’re not exactly spotless.”

“I guess I should have probably gone with a basic turkey,” I said.

“We’ll just be careful.”

“It’s nice your mom made you lunch,” I said.

“She’s bored. Making me lunch gives her something to do. She’s going a little stir crazy.”

“We’ll have to do something to fix that,” I said.

“Like what?”

I winked. “We’ll think of something.”

18

KENSEY

Iwas ready forty-five minutes before I needed to be. Mom was already at the kitchen table. She’d abandoned the puzzle for the morning.

“How do I look?” she asked.

“Beautiful,” I said.

She beamed. “I’m so excited. I haven’t been out anywhere fun in weeks. Your father’s idea of an outing is the hardware store.”

“I heard that,” Dad called from the living room.

“I meant you to,” she called back pleasantly. “Is he here yet?”

“He’s not supposed to be here for another fifteen minutes.”

“I feel like a kid waiting to go to Disneyland,” she said with a laugh.

Drew had always had that effect on her. She’d treated him like a second son from approximately the third time she saw him. She’d always said he had good manners and a good heart, which were the two things she cared about. Everything else was noise. She didn’t care about the money or influence. Those things didn’t matter to her.

And him offering to take the whole family out for a day of fun was just what Drew did. It wasn’t anything more than that. We were friends and I was completely fine with that.

“You look nice,” Mom said.

“Thank you.”

“You did something different with your hair.”

“I just blow-dried it.”

“It looks nice.” She paused. “You’re nervous.”

“I’m not nervous.”

Dad appeared in the doorway, dressed in khakis and a button-up. He looked just as excited as mom did. Getting Mom out of the house and in a good mood was doing something for him.