Here in My Heart: A Novella (Echoes of the Heart) by Anna DeStefano Page B

so much, you want to sleep on my couch again tonight.”
    This isn’t like you, Dru . . .
    Joe’s gentle demeanor evaporated. “Even if you and Brad end up not being able to stand each other, you can tough it out the next couple of weeks. Or is the problem that maybe you’re not minding having him back nearly as much as you expected to?”
    “Butt out, Dad.”
    Her outburst sounded childish.
    Her foster father’s surprise agreed.
    “If you two can’t get along again,” he said, “that’s fine. You’ll figure out what to do with things once the will is probated. But are you going to tell me that you don’t have what it takes to even give this a shot? You don’t run from things like this, Dru.”
    He sounded so disappointed.
    She couldn’t stand it. “I . . . I know I don’t, Dad. But . . .”
    “Aw, honey.” He pulled her into a hug that was exactly what she needed. “I hate seeing you tearing yourself up over an opportunity most people would jump at.”
    Dru laid her head against the shoulder of the man who’d gifted her and a dozen other lost children with the love and acceptance they’d needed to thrive. He’d been her role model all her life, long before Vivian had become one, too. Neither of them had ever backed down from helping someone else, even if they’d gone about the details of living in very different ways.
    A knock at the door broke the spell between them. Joe stepped away. She checked the time on Vivian’s wall of comically chattering clocks. She and her dad both knew there was only one person in town who’d be barging in at this hour.
    “It’s going to be okay,” Joe promised. “Think about now, Dru, not the past. Think about tomorrow. Be sure of what you want before you throw away something you’ll never get back.”
    Joe’s unhurried stride took him toward the foyer. She longed to cling to him, the way Lisa had last night, when the little girl had been hurting and afraid and needing things she didn’t understand. Dru wanted to tell her dad that for the first time since she’d left home, she had absolutely no idea what she wanted.
    Way too soon, Joe opened the front door.
    “Brad.” He shook hands before walking down Vivian’s steps, leaving Vi’s grandson standing alone on the threshold with a duffel bag over his shoulder and a determined expression on his face.
    “We need to talk,” Brad said to Dru.
    “We already talked.” She didn’t ask him to come in. After dealing with Joe, she felt sixteen again—staring up at Brad and needing him, wanting to trust him and hoping it wouldn’t be the biggest mistake of her life.
    He dropped his bag on the foyer’s worn hardwood and shut the door behind him. He was in front of her so quickly, she had no time to react. His hands cupped her shoulders, and hers instinctively rose to brace herself against him. He leaned in, kissing her as her palms absorbed the warmth and strength of his chest, digging her nails into the muscles she’d glimpsed beneath his loose clothing last night.
    Her fingers, her lips, were still clinging when he inched away.
    You couldn’t be in better hands . . .
    “No,” he said, picking up their conversation without dropping a beat. “We haven’t talked. Not for years. Not since you kissed me .”
    Dru jerked back, but not far enough. It would never be far enough if he could still make her feel this empty as soon as he stopped touching her.
    “Since the night you slept with Selena?” she asked.
    “Since the night I pushed you away, thinking I’d be taking advantage of my best friend’s kid sister.”
    “So you could move on to taking advantage of his girl?”
    “Selena and I were drunk and stupid, Dru. It’s not an excuse, but she and Oliver had broken up already. I was reeling from wanting you so much I ached, and telling myself I couldn’t have you. And none of it has anything to do with now. I made a mess of my life, you got burned in the fallout, and I’ve done my best to