At First Sight

Chapter Seven

Wes smiled. “Hey.”

“Can you sign my shoe?”

“And my phone case?” added Scarlett.

Copeland crossed her arms over her chest. She was cute when she was mad. “They just got here. Can you let them settle in? Gosh Scarlett!”

“Fine. Grams wants you to bring Drew.”

“Of course she does. Tell them to make a spot for Wes and Rowyn too,” she turned. “If you want to come, that is.”

Wes and yoga girl conversed amongst themselves before Wes spoke up. “We’d love to.”

Scarlett and Ana left, looking pleased that Wes was also going to be joining their family fun.

“We were going to go on a hike,” Drew said. “You up for that?”

“Yeah,” Wes said, “of course.”

He took them to a trail he’d been on during a previous camping trip. Copeland and Rowyn were a few steps ahead giving him a chance to talk to Wes and find out why he was really here. “She’s hot, bro. Nicely done.”

“She is,” Wes agreed. “And she’s amazing but she doesn’t want to date me.”

“I don’t blame her, I wouldn’t want to date you either.”

If looks could kill, Drew would have been prepared to meet his maker right there on the spot. “I’m sorry. Why? What’s her deal?”

“Her dad is Jeff Riley.”

Drew stopped dead in his tracks. “As in the musical legend?”

Wes nodded. “Crazy, right?”

The girls had stopped, Copeland had her damned camera out again, only this time she was taking shots of Wes’s girl, and the two of them together. He loved that she was in love with life and everything in it.

“Anyway, because of that, she doesn’t want to date a musician. She thinks I’ll leave.”

“That’s legit though,” Drew said. “I mean, you kind of have to understand that to a point.”

“I get it,” Wes said, arching a brow.  “Doesn’t mean I have to like it—or accept it.”

Drew knew that look like it was his own. Wes was a guy with a plan. “So what are you going to do about it?”

“I need your help. We need to bump your party ahead for a week or so.”

“No problem,” he said. “Done.”

“Can you be home by Friday?”

Drew didn’t have a single recollection of a time when Wes wasn’t there for him. He intended to make sure Wes could say the same thing. He’d make a trip home on Friday, whether or not it would mean the end of his camping trip would remain to be seen. “Yep. I can do that.”

“Perfect,” Wes said. “I’ll fill you in then. Just be there by seven, okay?”

“Got it.”

Copeland and Rowyn were a good thirty feet ahead, looking at something in a tree trunk. Knowing her, Drew thought she was probably fascinated by another spider web, but she pointed and yelled excitedly. “A bee’s nest!”

“Don’t get Drew started on bees,” Wes shouted. “For the love of God, don’t do it.”

As they reached the girls, Copeland smiled. “Without bees, the planet couldn’t survive.”