Page 179 of Someone Like Me
“It’s the same for me, you know,” I rasp.
The fingers at my cheek move with a gentle caress, and then the hand under my top echoes it. “What is?” Drew asks. His smile is easy, but heat has returned to his eyes.
“Loving you… and you loving me… It’s changed me.” And then I struggle to put it into words. Because what I feel is immense. And the way he’s touching me scatters my thoughts. “Or it’s changed the way I see myself. Who I am? What I want? It’s enough.”
“Evie,” he says, the word jagged and full of need. And then his mouth is on mine. It’s as though we haven’t already kissed half a dozen times tonight. As if this is the first kiss of our reunion. The first kiss of discovery. And I’m ready for it to last another hour or two, but Drew breaks it, panting, and gazes down at me. “It’s not justenough,”he says. “It’s everything.”
EPILOGUE
DREW
One year later
“So, they’re going to board Quincy and Gemfor free?”I ask as I pull the Supra into the parking lot of Loftin Veterinary Clinic. It’s in Youngsville, a hike from the Saint Streets, but I can’t argue with free.
“Well, it’s more like bartering,” Evie says with a shrug. “Ten days of boarding for ten private yoga lessons.”
Last spring, I helped Evie convert the apartment into a studio. It’s not big, but she can hold private lessons and small group classes there. She still teaches at the Yoga Garden and gives free lessons in the park, but her clientele is growing. I can see her opening up her own place one day. Someplace cool…New Age…sacred. Just like her.
I kill the engine. “And Dr. Loftin practices yoga?”
She gives me a sassy smile. “His wife Sarah does.” She scoots out, flips the front seat, and ducks her head in to unbuckle Gemini. “Good thing, too, because Bertrand’s was going to charge us twenty bucks a night. Each.”
“Each?” That’s twice what the apartment in Greece is costing us. How the hell Evie found an apartment on Zakynthos Island at twenty bucks a night, I’ll never know. But the woman likes to travel, and she knows how to do it cheap. We used her dad’s points for the plane tickets, so we’re going for next to nothing. A part of me still can’t believe we’re going at all. Or, rather, thatI’mgoing.
I get out and work on unclipping Quincy. Nervous as hell, she’s pacing on the backseat and trying to twirl around, and generally making the job harder than it needs to be. “Easy girl. You’ll be alright.”
I lay a hand on her back and she stills. Quincy’s a good girl, but when she rides in the car, she gets antsy. My guess is she’s afraid she won’t go home again. I glance up at Evie. “You think she’s gonna be alright? For ten days?”
Her green eyes soften as she looks at me. “I made sure she and Gem will share a kennel. They’ll sleep right by each other just like they do at home. She’ll be fine.”
Of course, she’ll be fine. And, of course, Evie has already looked out for her. Because that’s what she does.
“You heard her,” I say and gesture for Quincy to jump from the car. She obeys, but then she presses her little body to the side of my leg, her tail tucked up so tight it’s probably tickling her ribs. Evie comes around the car with Gem to find her just like that.
“A-ww,” she says, the word breaking on a giggle. “She’s pitiful.”
I huff. “We can’t have that, Quincy,” I say, nudging the dog gently. “Show no fear. Just look at Gem.”
The Rhodesian Ridgeback has pulled his leash taut, sniffing the sidewalk and trying with all his might to reach the patch of grass that probably holds the smells of a thousand different dogs.
Some of his enthusiasm must impress Quincy because she decides to step closer to him.
“Atta girl,” Evie says, and when she leads Gemini to the entrance, Quincy follows. And the scene inside the lobby erases any of my lingering concerns.
“Dr. Delacroix loves you…and Dr. Delacroix loves you…Yes, she does.” A redhead in a white coat is sprawled on the lobby floor while two ecstatic lab puppies jostle for a spot on her lap, trying to lick her in the face.
Clearly, the temptation is too great to resist because Gemini charges up to them, sticking his nose in the vet’s face, and wagging his tail just like one of the puppies.
“Ooph!” the vet exclaims before getting a hand up to brace Gem. “Well, hi there. You’re new,” she says, scratching him under the chin.
Beside me, Quincy watches this whole exchange with cautious curiosity, but her tail is wagging. Just a little.
Evie manages to pull Gem out of the woman’s lap. “Hi, I’m Evie. This is Gemini. That’s Quincy,” she says, pointing down at my feet, and then she reaches back for my hand. I take it with a squeeze. “And this is Drew.”
The vet scrambles to her feet and offers Evie her hand. “Hi, I’m Millie Delacroix.” She shakes both our hands and then gestures to the puppies who still leap against her legs. “This is Jazz, and this is Disco. They belong to our receptionist.”
I glance over to the receptionist’s window, but the space is empty.
