Drew immediately flushed hot. He glanced around to make sure no one was near enough to overhear before saying, “Yeah.”
“And?” Abby asked, way too much excitement in her voice.
Drew couldn’t help but smile as the conversation shifted his focus to everything that had happened the night before. “And it was game changing,” he said.
“That good, eh?” Abby teased him.
Drew smirked. “You knew all along, didn’t you.”
“Knew you swung both ways? Yep. I also knew you and Lee were perfect for each other as soon as I met him,” she said.
“We are kind of perfect together,” Drew admitted, smiling. Those happy, horny feelings were confusing when they rammed up against his anxiety about Jessica, though. He sighed and said, “I’m kind of a mess right now. This whole thing is a lot.”
“Of course it’s a lot,” Abby said. “But you’ve got this. I have complete faith in you.”
Drew wanted to keep talking to Abby and to get her advice for how the hell he was supposed to navigate his life now, but another call came through. A call from Lee.
“I have another call,” he told Abby. “I have to get this.”
“Okay. Take care. We’ll talk later.”
Abby hung up, leaving Drew free to answer Lee with. “Hi.”
“How did it go?” Lee asked right away.
“Terribly,” Drew answered with an ironic laugh. “Jessica screamed and sobbed, and apparently she’s gone back to L.A.”
“Yikes,” Lee said. He paused, then went on with, “I almost feel bad for asking if you want to come to Kent later to celebrate Dan with me and Mum. Mum asked about you and would like you to come.”
Heat spilled through Drew. Lee’s mom wanted to meet him? Already?
Then again, running away from his life to celebrate someone else’s might be just what he needed to distract himself once filming was done.
“I’d love to come,” he said. “As long as filming doesn’t run late today. I’m only needed here until about noon.”
“Come if you can, then,” Lee said. “I’ll text you the address. If someone can drop you off, I’ll drive you back.”
“Thanks,” Drew said. He wanted to say so much more, that he missed Lee, that he’d had a great time last night, that he wanted more of that. But those words wouldn’t come out, and they were far too dangerous on a crowded set. All he could say was, “I’ll see you later.”
Lee said a much more affectionate goodbye, then hung up. For a while, Drew just sat there, staring at his phone. Everything in his life had been thrown up in the air in the last twenty-four hours, and he still had no idea how all the pieces would land. The only thing he knew was that he needed more of Lee. More than he’d ever needed anyone.
fifteen
. . .
When he’d first moved into the city, going home to his mum’s house now and then had been a real treat for Lee. Then Dan had gotten sick, and while those journeys had grown more frequent, they had also turned more fraught. Now that Dan was gone, going home always brought a bittersweet ache to Lee’s gut.
“My dear boy,” his mum greeted him with a tight hug that lasted too long. “My, you’re looking well. How have you been feeling, darling? Is everything alright with your digestion?”
Lee hugged his mum in return, knowing full well where her worries about his gut were coming from. “I’m fine, Mum. Doing great, actually. Really well.”
He couldn’t stop smiling as he spoke, even though it was his mum and explaining exactly why he felt like he was walking on air at the moment would be opening a can of worms that he wasn’t sure he wanted to deal with.
His mum eyed him as she turned to head into the kitchen, gesturing for him to come with her. “I’ve seen the pictures online,” she said, proving Lee wasn’t going to be able to get awaywith keeping his strange new romance a secret. “He seems very famous.”
Lee laughed as he took a seat at the kitchen table, the site of more family memories, arguments, and heartfelt conversations than he could count. It was the table where they’d all sat when he and Dan were teenagers and his mum had announced that she was finally divorcing their abusive, deadbeat father. It was where she’d told them all about the business plan for the garden center that was her dream job. It was where he’d come out to his mum and brother, where Dan had told them both his diagnosis, and where they’d helped him get his affairs in order and figure out his final wishes.
Now it was the place where Lee was certain he would have to make a load of confessions he wasn’t sure he was ready for.