Let Me Love You Again (An Echoes of the Heart Novel Book 2) by Anna DeStefano

the coffee. “A lot closer to six, maybe a little older.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “Which means Camille would have been conceived—”
    “Seven years ago . . .” Oliver glanced toward the living room, where good-natured bedlam continued. “Is anyone else wondering the same thing?”
    “Joe and me. Maybe Travis, but he wouldn’t cause trouble for anyone unless he was sure.”
    Anyone . . . “You mean for Brad and—”
    Dru burst through the doorway.
    “What’s the holdup?” she asked.
    Blonde and tall, she was as beautiful as ever, even with worry dragging at the gorgeous smile she flashed their mother. She had a sniffling Teddy perched on her hip, his red hair spiking in the back from his nap.
    “Oh my God,” she gushed. “Is the coffee ready? Is it decaf? Count me in. But we’ve got to get this party started. The kitchen crew needs me at the Whip. And Travis wants to check in on Dad before he heads to the station for his night shift.”
    “Let’s do it, then.” Marsha poured a mug of coffee, black, and walked it over to Dru, exchanging it for Teddy. “Hey there, big boy,” she cooed.
    The toddler beamed at her, besotted, and then over her shoulder at Oliver, as Marsha walked him away from the bomb she’d just detonated in Oliver’s life.

    “You okay?” Dru asked.
    Oliver realized his mouth was hanging open.
    “Sure,” he managed.
    I just might be a father.
    Or an uncle.
    Which would make you a stepmother, if your fiancé knocked up the girl of my dreams when we were teenagers.
    He pulled his sister into his arms for the first time since rolling into town.
    “God.” The rightness of home washed through him again, crowding out the rest. It was the first chance they’d had to be alone. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.”
    Dru hugged him back.
    She made a happy, watery sound, half laugh, half cry. “I can’t believe you’re back. We’ve missed you.
I’ve
missed you.”
    “Me too.” He made himself set her away.
    “Yes.” She punched his shoulder. “I could tell how often you thought of us, with all the letters and phone calls and attempts to stay in touch.”
    Oliver tousled her bangs like he used to, when she’d been five inches shorter but just as sassy. He rewarded her next punch with a satisfying grunt. He deserved it. He didn’t have a clue how to explain the distance, his need for it.
    “I just wanted . . .” He’d wanted
here
to be right for all of them. He still did. He looked out the kitchen window at the Rosenthals’ empty backyard. “I’m really sorry, Dru.”
    Dru hugged him again. “No apologies. Not between us. I understand. Really. Brad does, too. He told me a little about the hospital. Sounds like it was brutal. No one blames you for wanting to be somewhere else all these years. What happened, it was horrible. I felt responsible for it for years.”
    Shocked, Oliver sputtered, “Why the hell would you think any of this was your fault?”
    “I’m the one who got Brad to admit he’d slept with Selena. I was so mad. I had such a crush on him. I wasn’t thinking about what it would do to you if the rumors were true. I refused to believe Brad when he said it just happened. That it meant nothing. I needed company in my pity party. So I found you and tattled.”
    “It was a long time ago, and you were hurting, Dru.”
    “I was the reason you two fought and you got yourself in trouble again. If I’d just stayed out of it . . .”
    “You couldn’t have.” And he couldn’t take the tears in her eyes. “You cared too much about everyone to just let it go. I’m the one who made Selena feel like she had no one on her side. I might as well have driven her into Brad’s arms.”
    Dru winced at the image.
    “None of this is your fault,” he insisted. “You got hurt because of me.” And it might not be over yet. “
I’m
sorry.”
    Dru cocked her head to the side. She’d always been sneaky good at reading him.
    “You were in love with