Chapter 7
Thanks For The Present…Even If I Wasn’t Expecting It
“What is up with you, Hattie?” Stella asked, leaning over to bump my shoulder with hers.
She held Darcy in her arms, feeding her a bottle. Ash and Savannah were on my other side. Emmy was opposite me, feeding Layla. Jamie sat on one side of her, with Tory and Audrey beside her, and Elena on the other with Avery in her lap. She watching Layla and playing with what little bit of blonde hair she had, telling her a story that barely made any sense.
Our giant group took up most of the restaurant for breakfast the next morning. We took up so much space that we had to be separated into three different tables, though they were all next to one another. Emmy and John’s parents sat with Juliet and Theo at one table and all the guys were at another, including Sterling, Aiden, and Grant. It was good to just have the girls, though. It was something I missed.
“Nothing,” I shrugged, answering Stella. “I’m just tired. I didn’t sleep very well last night.”
I didn’t have to see any of them to know what kind of look they were giving me.
“You were right,” Elena said, looking over at Emmy.
“I told you,” she said. “I know my Hattie.”
“What are you guys talking about?” I asked, looking between the two of them.
“Come on, Hattie,” Jamie said, rolling her eyes. “It’s not like we don’t know this is about Drake showing up.”
Audrey smiled slightly. “I’ve never even met the guy before and I know.”
“And I’m still pissed at him for leaving without saying goodbye,” Emmy grumbling. “Next time he calls, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind…”
“He should know not to mess with the pregnant woman,” Jamie snorted.
“Yeah, and he thinks I won’t beat his ass because of it.”
Avery gasped, her mouth forming a perfect O. “Auntie Emmy! Bad word!”
Elena laughed, brushing her hair back. “That’s right, baby. Auntie Emmy did say a bad word.”
“Sorry, Aves,” Emmy grinned, leaning over to kiss Avery’s cheek.
“No say again!” she said sternly, pointing a finger at her. She looked so much like Elena in that moment, it was almost scary.
“Got it.”
“It’s not about Drake,” I told them, then glanced over at Beau, who was laughing with all the guys and not paying any attention to our conversation. “And don’t talk so loud.”
“Doesn’t Beau know about him?” Tory asked, looking confused. “He looked like he was going to punch him when he showed up the other night.”
“Only because he made her upset at her family’s benefit when he came unexpected,” Savannah noted. “We all wanted to hurt him because of it.”
“What?” everyone but Emmy and Ash asked.
Emmy grimaced. “I guess I forgot to tell you guys about him showing up in Atlanta last week, huh?”
“Oh, yeah, you forgot,” Jamie grumbled. “Do you want me to beat him up for you, Hattie?”
“You know she could take care of that herself,” Elena snorted.
I wasn’t the only one to give her a warning look, glancing then at Ash and Savannah.
“What was he even doing there?” she continued like it was nothing.
“He said he wanted to talk to me,” I shrugged. “But, of course, I didn’t want to talk to him. Why would I after almost four years without a word from him? I wasn’t the only one he made mad for just up and disappearing.”
“He told me he was just passing through,” Emmy said. “He wasn’t expecting to go to that benefit and see you.”
Jamie sniffed. “Can anyone smell secrets? Because I sure as h-” She quickly rephrased, grinning at Avery. “Because I can.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Emmy asked. “The guy didn’t call me for almost six months until that night, freaking out because I never told him Hattie had a girlfriend.” She grinned at Ash. “Great move, by the way. I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a while when he told me. John was pissed, though, because I woke him up, but who cares?”
“Not the first time we’ve had to do that,” Ash grinned back. “And trust me, you guys aren’t the only ones who want to hurt him for making her upset. After the last time she came home after he…”
“Shut up,” I whispered, smacking her leg under the table.
But that didn’t go unnoticed by the others.
“Last time after he what?” Emmy asked, narrowing her eyes at me. “I’ve never heard anything…”
“That’s because nothing happened,” I said quickly. “Nothing.”
“Last time they saw each other, they got in a really big fight,” Savannah went on.
“Savannah!”
“What?” she questioned, almost challenging me. “I thought you said these people were like your family? Well, family shouldn’t keep stuff like this from one another. You two got in a fight, things got ugly, and hurtful words were said that kept you crying for weeks after you came home. It’s obvious these ladies could take him down next time he comes around, so why not let them? I told you I’ve never like the guy, even though I’ve only met him twice now.”
I was glaring. “I can’t believe…”
“You never told me you two had a fight, Hattie,” Emmy said quietly. “Why?”
“Because I didn’t want you to get mad at him.”
“Oh, I’m mad at him, all right. And you know you’re going to be filling me in a lot more later, right?”
“Well, don’t be. And yes, I do. I say again, it was years ago. I’m over it, we apologized, and it’s done.”
***
“You’re not over whatever happened between you and Drake, Hattie,” Emmy said as we all walked down Fifth Avenue an hour later. “Even if it was years ago.”
Emmy’s dad Brian was going to take us on a private tour of the Met, though most of us had spent a considerable amount of time there. And in John and Emmy’s case, breaking in. We were mostly doing it for Beau, Gage, Savannah, and Ash. A three-day trip just wasn’t enough time to see everything there was to see in New York.
As we walked, Emmy looped her arm through mine, pulling us back a little ways behind everyone else. She knew I wouldn’t have talked so openly at breakfast, but I would when it was just the two of us.
That didn’t mean I was going to tell her everything, though.
“Yeah, I am,” I sighed, only partially lying. “But even though time passes, some wounds just don’t heal. There was forgiving, just not forgetting.”
“I say again, I’m willing to give him a good kick in the ass if you want me to.”
I snorted. “And, also like you said, I’m capable of doing it myself.”
“So tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
She sighed, even though both of us knew what she was referring to. “You and Drake had a fight, huh?”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “The night of John’s leadership ceremony.”
Emmy nodded, looking ahead at John, who was joking around with Ryan, Ren, and Nathan. “If I’m remembering correctly, he hardly even spoke a word to you.”
“Well, that’s true, but not for the year after he left after the whole Order and Antecedent thing. We kept in touch, talking on the phone, emailing, that kind of thing. But then, right after New Year’s, he stopped. He never answered my calls, never emailed me back. I thought I’d done something wrong, of course, because what could have happened that would make him do that. I was really upset.”
Emmy was quiet, thoughtful. Her eyes were down, almost as if she was trying to figure out what had been going on in Drake’s mind then, too, just like I had been.
“I think,” she started, looking back up at me. “I think that was the last time I talked to him before the ceremony also.”
“Then it wasn’t just me, huh?”
“I guess not,” she said, shaking her head. “But then when he got to the manor, he was acting as if nothing had happened. He was the normal Drake. But there was something…”
“He was normal to you guys, yeah. But to me…I knew something was wrong with him the moment I saw him. He might have had that confident stride, that humorous smile, but it was his eyes. They were…darker, I guess. They’d never been like that before…because I knew them.”
I looked over at her, embarrassed. “I’m sure you already figured it out, but Drake and I spent a lot of time together when all of us were at the manor, trying to find the book and get the three missing pages. It was right after I beat him up in the ballroom. Remember? He wanted me to teach him some stuff at first, then it was about the book and all that, but after…it was just about us. We got to know each other. And I…”
I was so lost in my ramblings that I didn’t realized, but Emmy had stopped us along the sidewalk.
She smiled sadly. “You loved him, didn’t you?”
When she said it, all those feelings I had rushed back, practically choking me. It was like that night all over again, being so hurt and confused and yet I had still loved him anyway.
“Of course, I did,” I whispered to her. “A girl fell in love with a guy almost five years older than her. He became her best friend and she told him even more than her best friends back home. Because she didn’t have to keep any secrets from him. He knew all about her secret life and her normal one. Drake knew me…but, apparently, I didn’t know him.
“I realized that when we were finally alone that night after the ceremony. You remember how he was going to India after instead of heading home with your family? He stayed mostly for me. He’d said he wanted to talk, but all it turned out to be was a fight. All I asked him was why he hadn’t contacted me in those past few months and how hurt I was because of it…then all hell broke loose.
“Of course, he had to go on and call me a young, naïve girl. He had to tell me how stupid I was to think that anything would happen between us, had to tell me I didn’t know anything about him. It was like he had all this pent up anger and frustration and just took it all out on me. And me…well, I can’t say I didn’t take out all my frustration out on him, too, calling him a coward and an ass for stringing me along. I told him I hated him…well, I kind of screamed it at him. And then I might have slapped him.”
“Oh, Hattie,” Emmy whispered, reaching up to my face. I didn’t realize what she was doing until she started wiping away tears that had somehow started fallen.
“When I hit him, it knocked us both out of it. I was shocked at myself and he was, too. We just stood there, staring at each other in shock and he…he just left.” I swallowed hard, looking away from her. “And I didn’t see or hear from him again until the other night at the benefit.”
“Why haven’t you told me any of this before?”
I shrugged, brushing my hands across my cheeks. “I don’t know. I guess I was just hurt, embarrassed, and I just wanted to forget about it. It’s hard, though, especially when it was the first guy you ever loved.” And still really hadn’t gotten over…but I wasn’t going to tell her that. “I never understood it when people said that you would always remember your first real heartbreak. I did then.”
“And what about last night?” she asked. “You two disappeared around the same time. Did you…?”
I sighed. “I went after him, wanting to know why he was leaving without saying goodbye to all of you guys again. I don’t know. It’s almost like…almost like he thinks he doesn’t really belong with all of us anymore…like he doesn’t belong with the Brotherhood or the Knights, even though John and Juliet both offered. He’s the one who refused. He’s the one who basically exiled himself from our world.”
Emmy nodded in agreement. “He’s definitely been keeping secrets. And if you’re anything like me, which I know you are, you really want to find out what they are.”
***
I needed to get away on my own for just a little while, so I told everyone I was going to a bookstore – which they all knew was my happy place – and left a little while later.
The piece of paper was pretty much burning a hole in the pocket of my shorts…mostly because I hadn’t opened it to see what it was. I was scared and nervous, but I had to.
When I finally reached into my back pocket for the note and unfolded it, an address was scrawled on it in Drake’s handwritten. It was close, too, right on Fifth Avenue, though down the street from the museum. I hesitated, but decided that I should at least see what the address was for.
Drake said it was up to me, though…and I wanted to know what was going on.
Once there, I looked both ways across the street before I headed toward the front doors of what looked to be an apartment building. The doorman held open the door for an older couple as they walked out arm in arm.
“Hi,” I smiled, stopping beside him when he looked at me strangely. “I’ve got a question. Do you know if there’s a Garner that lives here? Drake Garner, to be specific.”
He nodded. “The Garner’s have lived in this building for many years now. Their son moved out a few years ago, though. Good boy. He hasn’t been here since he moved out, though he did come to visit recently.”
“Do they live in…” I looked back down at the address. “14C?”
He nodded again. “That’s them,” he said, holding open the door for me.
“Thank you,” I nodded, walking inside.
Drake’s parents’ place? I glanced back down at address, wondering why he would want me to go there. It was strange, even though I knew quite a bit about them from what he told me years before. His parents, Mitchell and Kristen, were good friends with Emmy’s. He was the oldest of three with two younger sisters. Piper was a few months younger than me and Gracie was fifteen.
Riding up in the elevator, I watched as each number lit up, wondering how I could start this conversation.
I didn’t even have to worry.
When I knocked on the door, I heard a girl’s voice yelling before another woman yelled back. The sound of the lock followed before the door swung open. A woman in her late forties stood there, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Blue eyes I recognized as they widened, seeing me.
“Oh, wow,” she breathed, her hand still on the door.
I swallowed hard, smiling shyly. “Um, hi. My name is…”
“Hattie,” she nodded. “Yes, I know who you are. Drake…you’re friends with Drake.”
“Well, kind of. We were years ago.”
She held out her hand for me to shake. “My name is Kristen. I’m his mom.”
“It’s so nice to meet you, Mrs. Garner.”
“Please, call me Kristen.” She smiled slightly, still staring at me in shock, before stepping back. “Do you want to come in?”
“Yes, thank you,” I said, stepping inside.
Down the short hallway, there were a few open suitcases with clothes piled beside them.
“Sorry about the mess. We just got back from a family trip. We would have met at Emmy’s graduation, but we missed our flight, so we had to stay an extra night. My youngest daughter Gracie is here, but my husband Mitchell and my other daughter Piper are out getting groceries.”
She led me into the living room where a center island separated it from the kitchen. A blonde girl a few years younger than me stood there with a yogurt in her hand and spoon in her mouth. Her eyes widened when she saw me before she started grinning around the spoon.
“Gracie, this is Drake’s friend Hattie.”
Gracie stuck out her hand, balancing her yogurt and spoon in her other. “Nice to meet the famous Hattie. You look older now, but still the same as in that picture Drake has of you.”
Picture? “Um…what?” I asked, confused, and looked over at Drake’s mom.
“Well, it’s of you and Emmy, actually, when he was over in England with you guys a few years ago,” she clarified, like it would make me feel less awkward. “He used to have it in his room, but took it with him when he moved out, of course.”
“And yet he still had it when he showed up like a lost puppy on the doorstep this morning,” Gracie laughed. “I started teasing him about it when I saw it in his wallet.”
“He came by?” I asked Kristen, trying to calm my embarrassment. I already knew this from the doorman downstairs.
She nodded, smiling. “You’d think he’d make more time to spend with his family when we haven’t seen him in years. He was only here for a little while, joking that he would have stayed with us if we hadn’t missed our flight. He said he had a plane to catch. He didn’t say anything about you coming by, though.”
“I actually didn’t know I was either,” I said, reaching into my pocket for the piece of paper with the address on it, showing it to her. “He, um, gave me this last night. I didn’t know what it was, so I just decided to come anyway. I was surprised it was your apartment when I asked your doorman downstairs.”
She took the piece of paper from my hand, looking down at it with furrowed eyebrows.
“Maybe he wanted his girlfriend to finally meet the family,” Gracie grinned, peeking over her mother’s shoulder.
“Oh, I’m not…um…I’m not his girlfriend. Never have been.”
“Could have fooled me with how much he used to talk about you. Piper used to have to hit him just to get him to shut up. She thought it was gross, him having a little crush on someone who was only a few months older than her. I can see why he did, though. You’re gorgeous.”
“Gracie!” Kristen gasped. “Stop embarrassing the girl!”
“What?” she laughed. “I love hanging my brother out to dry. He’s never around for me to make fun of him anymore!”
“We weren’t…together,” I told them both, shaking my head. “We were just really good friends until…until he left. I didn’t see him again until a few days ago.”
Kristen nodded. “Yeah, he told us about that, stopping in Atlanta before coming here. And then when he did come home, he was all bruised up. Wouldn’t even tell his mother what actually happened. He just waved it off. I swear, if he’s gotten himself in trouble in the past few years…”
Gracie snorted. “He’s always getting himself in trouble.”
“He told everyone he got into a bar fight,” I said.
She held out a hand for a high five. “I love you already. Please tell me you’ve always been this mean to him.”
I smiled. I really liked this girl. “I beat him up once. I’ve studied martial arts all my life and he didn’t think I’d be able to. He didn’t believe I could, but after I flipped him over my head, he shut up. Took me all of ten seconds.”
Gracie laughed, delighted. “Can we keep her forever, Mom?”
Kristen walked around the island into the kitchen, looking back at me with a smile. “Hattie, do you want anything to drink? We don’t have much, but…”
“No, no, I’m fine. Thank you, though,” I said. “So, um, about Drake. Do you know what he’s be doing these past few years? I mean, surely he must have kept in touch.”
She shook her head, grabbing a glass of water for herself. “No, not really. I know he’s been traveling for his dissertation, so he really can’t call often. Maybe every three months? This last time was longer, though. Emmy said it was the same with her. He usually calls us both on the same day. He really doesn’t say much, though. He just wonders what been going on in our lives, even though I want to grill him about everything in his. But I trust him. He’s always had a good head on his shoulders. That’s why I’m worried about him. I mean, if you and Emmy couldn’t get it out of him, I don’t know who could.”
“If you try beating it out of him, can I watch?” Gracie grinned.
I smiled back, shaking my head. “Sorry, but he’s already left. I don’t expect to see him anytime soon.”
Kristen sighed. “Yeah, I wouldn’t expect it either. He said he had a long flight ahead of him. Close to fourteen hours, I think. Again, wouldn’t tell us where to, though.”
“Didn’t even give a hint?” I asked. “Did he leave anything, take anything with him?”
But she shook her head. “No, nothing.”
After another hour, I left the Garner residence, smiling. Talking with Kristen and Gracie left me in a good mood, even if going into the situation blind made me a little crazy. They’d wished I could have stayed to meet Drake’s dad and other sister Piper, but I had to leave after getting a call from Beau, wondering where I was.
But before I could make it out the door, the doorman opened it, coming inside and stopping me.
“You’re Hattie Devereaux, correct?” he asked.
My eyebrows furrowed. “Um, yes.”
He nodded, walking around me to walk toward the mailboxes that lined one wall of the lobby. A small cardboard box with an envelope attached sat underneath. He bent down, picked it up, and held it out to me.
“When Drake left, he said that a young lady would be coming to visit his family and he wanted me to give this to her. I was assuming you were that young lady when you came, so…this is for you.”
My eyes went the box as he handed it to me. It wasn’t very big or heavy, though I could feel whatever was inside shift.
“Thank you, I guess, even though I don’t really know what it could be.”
He nodded as he led me to the door, holding it open as I continued to look down at it.
Once outside, I crossed the street and sat down at an open bench. My name was scrawled across the envelope in Drake’s handwriting. How did he even know I would go to his family’s apartment? I opened it, pulling out the folded piece of paper inside to find a short note.
Hattie,
Don’t open this until you get home and don’t tell anyone either. It’s for your eyes only. When you do, read it all, even though I know it won’t make much sense until I can explain it to you myself.
And I’m hoping it’ll be soon, Hattie. Like I told you, you’re the only one I would want to help me with this.
You wanted to know what I’ve been doing for the past few years. Well…here you go.
- Drake
***Whoo for another upload!
As for the next, though, it'll probably be a few days. These chapters were the only ones I had finished.
But, hey, we're getting down to business now! We'll know what's been going on with Drake soon. There's a few things, actually. >:D
So...75 votes and 30 comments before the next upload. I'm going to shoot for Friday, but you never know. It might be sooner.
Let's do it!
Comment and vote!!!1***