Free Ever After Drake by Keary Taylor Page B

him?”
    I sit back in my chair, suddenly
feeling out of breath and exhausted. Tears sting the back of my
eyes and my hands feel shaky.
    “ You know,” I say,
crossing my arms over my chest. “I have met someone. Someone I
can’t imagine not being in my life. Someone I’m pretty damn sure I
want to spend the rest of my life with. Someone I want to raise my
own kids with. And if we do, I’m going to make sure I’m there for
them. Every second. Because you’re supposed to love your kids that
much. Skyler loves you, but I’m not so sure you love him
back.”
    I can’t take another second. I stand
and drop a twenty dollar bill on the table. Because it’s all I have
on me. And I walk swiftly toward the door. I pull my phone out and
dial Drake. I’m not watching where I’m going, so when I step off
the curb, I bump right into Mom’s lime green Beetle, which is
parked right in front of the doors.
    “ Hey,” Drake answers
cheerily.
    “ Can you meet me at the
school?” I say as I right myself. My voice shakes and betrays the
tears that threaten to break onto my cheeks. My limbs tremble as I
make my way down the street to my own car. “Now?”
    “ I’ll be there in five
minutes.”
    I am ten minutes away, further than he
is from the school, and Drake’s car is in the middle of the parking
lot when I get there. When he sees my car, he climbs out, closes
his door, and leans against it.
    And the second I see him, those tears
I’ve been holding back spring out like a waterspout. I bite my
lower lip and erupt from my car the second it is in
park.
    I sprint the small distance between us
and my arms lock around his neck and I crush my lips to his. The
tears continue to roll down my face.
    “ Hey,” he whispers against
my lips. “What’s wrong?”
    I squeeze my eyes closed harder,
pushing more tears down my face. I shake my head and press my
forehead to his chin, because it’s as high as I can
reach.
    “ She’s screwing it up so
bad,” I say, shaking my head still. “This isn’t what a family is
supposed to be like.”
    “ What happened?” he says,
rubbing a hand over my back. The other holds me to him
tightly.
    I shake my head again and my trembling
eases slightly. “Nothing. That’s exactly it. Mom’s exactly the same
as she’s been all along.”
    Drake brings his hands up to the sides
of my face and forces me to look up at him. “I don’t know exactly
what’s going on, but I know you’re strong enough to get through it.
Humans make stupid decisions. Nobody’s perfect.”
    “ You are,” I say, looking
up into those hazel eyes. The storm inside me begins to calm and is
replaced with that sense of comfort and ease.
    “ No,” he says with a
breathy chuckle. “Not even close.”
    “ Pretty close,” I say as a
smile slowly begins to form on my face. “You’re kind, and caring.
You always want to make things better.”
    Drake presses a soft kiss to my
forehead, proving my point. His arms once again wrap around my
body, promising safe harbor.
    I relax into him, taking a deep
breath.
    “ I love you,” he
breathes.
    And everything that has ever been
wrong in my world is righted with those words.
    I look up into his eyes and there I
see the truth of what he’s just confessed.
    “ I love you too,” I say.
“More than anything.”
    He brings his forehead down to mine
and his lips hover a millimeter from mine.
    “ All I want to do is give
you a happily ever after,” he whispers.
    “ You’re already giving it
to me.” I let my lips brush his as I speak. My eyes slide closed
and I let myself live in this moment. This moment that is perfect
and untouchable to the real world.
    “ Drake, I don’t ever want
to let you go,” I say, feeling the back of my eyes sting again. Not
out of frustration or anger or abandonment this time. Out of pure
happiness. “I want to create a life with you. I want to make a
family and a home and a forever with you someday.”
    Drake stills for just a moment.