She laughs, making Aaron smile up at her. He makes joyful noises of adoration, and we both laugh harder.
Janine shakes off her amusement. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I do have a guess.”
I smirk at her. “Of course you do.”
Her all-seeing eyes don’t blink. “Drew Moroux?” Her tone suggests she doesn’t need confirmation.
My sigh is answer enough.
“What do you want to do about it?”
I shrug, but the motion is meant more as a shield against what I say next. “What’s there to do? He doesn’t want to see me.”
Her brows lift, but her tone is mild. “I doubt that very much.”
I pull a face. “He walked away from me. He’s avoiding me. The last words he spoke to me were literallyI don’t need you.”I shake my head. “Not a lot of room for misinterpretation.”
I can tell she wants to laugh at my ironic tone, but Janine gives me a sympathetic smile instead. “But where was he when he said that to you?”
She’s heard the whole story, so she’s just making me say it aloud.
I roll my eyes. “He was at my house. Presumably looking for me.”
Clearly satisfied, she nods. “From everything you’ve told me, it sounds like seeing you is something he desperately wants.” The softening in her voice and the implications of her words make my throat close.
Seeing Drew is what I desperately want. Does he want it this much?
Just imagining he does — that he wishes to see me but won’t let himself — makes me want to run to him. But I have no idea what I’d do once I got there. He has made up his mind about me.
“Well, I think we should throw a party and invite him,” Janine says as though I’ve spoken.
“What?”
“You know. A block party. Like we always do.” The Mayfields have been known to throw great parties. Halloween. Mardi Gras. UL Homecoming. “We could invite the whole neighborhood. His street. Our street. Do you think he’d come?”
My laugh is mirthless. “Hell, no.” Drew is not the party type. Not at all.
Janine shrugs. “Well, I still want a party. We haven’t done anything since Mardi Gras.”
I eye Aaron pointedly. “I can’t imagine why not?” I tease.
“Exactly. I was huge and aching for the Fourth of July, and then I was sleep-deprived and tearful for Labor Day.” Janine’s eyes flash with a kind of excitement I haven’t seen since the first half of her pregnancy. “And there’s supposed to be a bit of a cool front this weekend. James could grill... I could make lemon squares and brownies… Ooh maybe we could do a Tex-Mex theme—”
“You had me at lemon squares.”
She laughs. “Good. It’ll cheer you up.” Then she looks at me with a tender expression, her tone all gentleness. “You could use a little cheering up.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
DREW
I tuck my new driver’s license into the sleeve of my wallet. “Thanks for taking me.”
My sister smiles up at me as we cross the parking lot of the DMV. “Of course. I would’ve done it sooner if you’d asked.”
I grunt. She’d do pretty much anything I’d ask, so I try not to ask. But the city bus doesn’t go all the way to the DMV office in Abbeville, and while Grandma’s feeling a lot better, she’s still not quite herself.
And I wasn’t about to ask Evie Lalonde.