I began picking up my belongings again.
“Okay, Medina there’s another reason…um…I like you. I mean, I like to be around you, and that doesn’t happen very often. Most people, I wish would fall off the face of the planet.”
I was unmoved. At this point, I needed more than reassurance that he didn’t dislike me.
He took in a deep breath and expelled it. He turned his face away from mine, but I could see him close his eyes tightly and then swallow hard. He looked back at me again.
“It’s not only the money.
Iwantyoutostay
.”
The sentence was so rushed it came out sounding like one big word, and he appeared relieved afterward, as though he’d been afraid it would stick in his throat. When I didn’t respond, he forced himself to continue. “And, I’d…
miss you
…if you were gone.” After the last statement, I thought he looked like a fourth-grader who’d just managed to recite the Gettysburg Address from memory.
I stared at him, my mind telling me to run out the door, my heart telling me to stay. In the end, my body made the decision. The bags dropped from my hands.
“Great,” he said enthusiastically. “Let’s make some plans.”
Not so fast.
I had to regain some control over this situation.
“I have a couple of conditions. If you can fulfill those, then I’ll do it.”
He looked nervous and very serious. “What are they?”
“You’re going to propose again, and you’re going to do it right. First, you’re going to call me by my first name. Then you can do your little speech, minus the part at the end about convincing people it’s real.”
“Yeah, I know. Meridith already told me.” He sounded like a big kid again.
“I’m not finished. During said proposal, you’re going to take my left hand in both of yours. If I am satisfied and I say ‘yes,’ you’ll slip the ring on my finger and kiss me like any self-respecting fiancé would. Do you understand?”
I was fully aware my demands were much more drastic to Drew than they would be to any normal person, and he might not be able to go through with it. I felt strong again, though. I’d laid out the terms of the contract and now it was up to him to sign it, so to speak. If he didn’t want it—or me—badly enough to meet my demands, I would leave. Simple as that.
He didn’t respond for a moment. He seemed to be contemplating whether or not he was really capable of such a feat. Still feeling powerful and attorney-like, despite my skimpy exercise garb, I marched over to the scene of the earlier fiasco and sat down in my chair near the dining table.
Drew fumbled in his pocket as though he was making sure the ring was there, but I suspected he was stalling. Only a few seconds passed, but it was enough time for me to become alarmed.
This actually might not happen and I might have to pick up those bags and walk out on him
.
He took a deep breath and, with his head lowered, paced toward the table. For the second time that day, he knelt down in front of me, but this time, with a very uncertain right hand he reached into my lap and picked up my left. He placed it lightly on his left palm, and then covered it completely with his right. It wasn’t exactly what I had meant, and the thought crossed my mind that, in this position, he looked as though he was about to start praying instead of proposing marriage.
After staring down at our hands for several seconds, he realized something wasn’t right. He rearranged them until he had my fingers draped over the index fingers of both his hands with his thumbs resting on top in a more traditional proposal position.
I nearly broke out in nervous giggles at the sight of his complicated ministrations. I’d thought the aversion to physical contact and controlling his wayward tongue would be the only challenges involved, but he was so out of touch with convention and normalcy, it was like being proposed to by a Neanderthal.
Finally satisfied with the hand positions, he looked up into my face. My temptation to laugh disappeared when he focused his deadly serious gaze on me.
“
Mia…
” he said my name so softly and reverently my eyelids closed involuntarily for a split second, and I took in a sudden, shallow breath. “I know we haven’t known each other long, but I feel like we have a special connection. I can’t imagine that a more beautiful, brilliant, or unusual woman exists on this planet, and…” —
Uh-oh.
I felt an ad lib coming on— “and I would miss you, if you went away. Will you marry me?”
I didn’t say anything for a moment, and Drew didn’t ruin it with one of his juvenile comments. He just kept looking at me, seriously, hopefully.
“Yes.” It came out as a whisper and I wasn’t even sure it was my answer until I’d said it. Although my head still objected on too many grounds to list, my heart had made the decision.
He kept looking at me as if he was waiting for a “but” or for me to tell him this was a joke and I’d only wanted to see if I could make him do it before I left. I saw the disbelief in his eyes and had to reassure him.
I cleared my throat to make my voice stronger this time. “Yes, Drew, I’ll marry you.”
His face brightened and he looked like he wanted to celebrate, but apparently remembered his job wasn’t over. With great care, he took the ring from the open box on the table and placed it on my finger. I was afraid to ask how he’d ascertained my ring size and accepted that it happened to be a perfect fit. We both knew what was supposed to come next. If kissing was as complicated for him to figure out as the hand holding was, this could take a while.
Still on one knee, he looked back up at me with those intense, dark eyes. Again, I was afraid he wouldn’t fulfill the rest of the bargain and I might have to leave. How could I do that now?
I was sure he could hear my heartbeat as it echoed off the walls of the otherwise silent room. His eyes moved to my lips and I felt his longing. He wanted to kiss me, I was sure of it. I swallowed hard, as I imagined the feel of his mouth on mine. Once more, I remembered how easily he had swept me up into his arms the day before.
Will he do it again, today…now?
I knew I couldn’t take another breath until something happened.
Drew’s gaze left mine as he looked down at my left hand, still clutched in both of his. He gently fingered the ring. Then, very slowly, he lifted my hand and turned it over, pulling it toward his face. He bent his head and pressed his warm lips to the middle of my palm. A small gasp escaped me. It wasn’t the kiss I was expecting, but its hot intensity sent an electrical current to the most intimate parts of my body. As the sensation spread through me, he placed my hand back on my lap, stood up, and looked down at me. “I’ll go make us some lunch,” he said casually, and he was gone.
Chapter Seven
Lunch? Didn’t we just have breakfast?
I sat, alone, thinking about what had happened. Drew had somehow managed to completely subjugate himself to me, fulfill the terms of our agreement, and still turn the tables on me at the end. I should have been angry with him. He knew the kiss on the hand wasn’t the deal I’d meant to make, but as an attorney, I respected his ability to find the loophole in the contract. Besides, I had experienced more sensation from that kiss on the hand than I had from any touch I’d had from a man, ever.
So, I wasn’t in the mood to quibble. I was still bad at waiting, though, so I decided to be a good sport and see if there was anything I could do in the kitchen—unlikely as that was.
I walked over and pushed the swinging door. It opened noiselessly. Planning to ask for “permission to come aboard,” I was stopped short by the scene in front of me. Drew was busily chopping vegetables on a cutting board and periodically stirring something that was boiling on the stove, and humming. Yes, he was humming, and appeared to be thoroughly enjoying himself. I hated to intrude, since, so far, I hadn’t seen him looking so carefree, but he caught me before I could make a discreet exit.
“Did you need something, Medina?” he asked casually.
Oh, we’re back to that again. I guess I should have said, “Call me by my first name, forever.”
“No, I was going to check to see if you wanted me to do anything in here.”
“
Can
you do anything in here?” he asked doubtfully.
I had to laugh. “Well, if you don’t mind giving me a little instruction.”
“Okay, I have an easy job for you. Stir the pasta so it doesn’t stick.”
“Do you think I’m qualified?” I asked in a goofy voice.
“No, but it’s hard to find good help,” he answered. “Why were you leaving the kitchen without saying anything?” He scraped the vegetables from the cutting board into a pot.
“You looked like you were enjoying your solitude, and I didn’t want to interrupt.”
“Yeah, well, I get plenty of solitude.” He seemed to realize he was taking the conversation in the wrong direction, and changed his tone. “Did I tell you I liked your outfit?”
Finally, the compliment I’d been waiting for this morning. “You mean the one with the lavender top?” If he was imagining me in it, I wanted him to get the mental picture right.
“No, the one you’re wearing now.” He cocked an eyebrow, and swept his eyes over my body.
“
This
isn’t an ‘outfit,’” I replied. “This is my ‘wanting to be comfortable hanging around the house when no one is going to see me’ garb.”
He took the spoon from me and stirred the pasta himself, proving that I really wasn’t qualified. “Then why were you going to wear it to fly to the city?”
“I’m sure, once I got out of here and noticed what I was wearing, I would have stopped somewhere and changed.”
“Oh, if you feel that way about it, you may want to go up and change while I finish this. We’re leaving. Housekeeper’s coming in an hour.” He said it like it was a perfectly good explanation for needing to vacate the premises.
“Does the housekeeper have a name?”
“Sure, doesn’t everyone?”
“What is it?” I asked impatiently.
“Mary or Maria or Hilda or something,” Drew answered disinterestedly.
“So, she’s of British, Puerto Rican, German descent?”
“I told you, I never see her.”
“You had to hire her.”
“No, I didn’t. Meridith did. She says she has
excellent references.
” On the last two words, he sounded like he was mimicking his sister.
“Are you telling me you’ve never even laid eyes on her?”
“Yeah.”
“How do you pay her?”
“I leave money on the table.”
I was too exasperated to finish this conversation. “I’ll go get dressed,” I sighed, realizing no logic was going to sway him from his state of semi-reclusiveness.
At least I would get to see the Vaughn Estate. Meridith was so accommodating, I knew I could get a full tour if I asked.
I came downstairs as Drew was putting platefuls of pasta on the table. “I guess I have perfect timing,” I said.
“No, I do, but you’d better eat fast, she’s supposed to be here in thirty minutes.”
I rolled my eyes, but he acted as though he didn’t
notice
.
~
We managed to be on our way before the dreaded cleaning lady arrived. The close quarters of the car apparently made Drew uncomfortable. He was completely silent except for some occasional tapping on the steering wheel. I thought perhaps this was too intimate a setting for him. But I didn’t enjoy quiet car rides—they were too much like waiting—so I decided to make some conversation.