cab is out front.”
“Thanks, Bastion.” She waved back. “That’s it, ladies, time to head home.”
Drew held out his arm. “Let me walk you out. We’re leaving as well.”
Meilin nodded and Drew hung back with her. He helped the women gather their purses and wraps if they had them, and made sure the tabs were settled. He and Jack tossed down handfuls of bills. Meilin signed a slip while her friends tossed smaller bills on the table. The waitress was well compensated in tips as far as he could gauge. At last they had little excuse but to follow their friends to the street. Jack, he noted, ushered Courtney with a hand on her lower back and an eye over his shoulder to make sure Drew and Meilin followed.
“Is there a way I—or rather my mother—can reach you?” he asked.
Meilin paused just outside the club door. A mixture of exhaust, common street filth, and a hint of salt in the misty air teased his nostrils. He wanted to smell nothing but her, the rich scent clinging to her hair and skin.
Letting his hand drift to her lower back, he once again experienced the jolt of electric awareness.
“Um, sure.” She dug into her small purse. “I’m pretty sure I have a card in here somewhere…” A smile curved her lips upward as she pulled the small rectangle of cardstock from her purse. “Here it is. My cell phone is also on there, so if, um, she misses me at the office, she can try there. What’s her name again?”
“Randi Robinson. Formerly Ferguson.”
“Oh, I think I know her. Absolutely do”—Meilin’s breath hitched—“have her give me a call at any time.” Drew suspected Meilin had just given him permission to call her, rather than his mother. Did he dare hope?
The card slipped between his fingers as hers brushed his for a moment. “I’ll do that.” He looked as deeply as the dark night allowed and saw an answering heat flare in her eyes. “You get home safely.”
“Thanks. I will.”
“Meilin!” her friends called from the packed cab. “Meter’s running, let’s go!”
She waved at her giggling friends. “I must go. I’ve enjoyed meeting you, Drew Robinson. Best of luck straightening out your Chinese.”
And if she’d really given him permission to call, he wanted to be sure. “May I call you if I need help studying?”
For a very long moment, she gazed into his eyes. “That might not be a good idea,” she finally said quietly, the roar of Jack’s SUV pulling up behind the cab almost covering her voice. The hand she held out was delicate, just like her. “Although it’s possible your professor may call me for teaching assistance. We may yet meet again in the few weeks before the class moves to Peking University. Give my best to your sister. She’s lucky to have you.”
While his heart pounded at the thought of seeing her again, even if only for tutoring, Meilin turned and ducked into the front seat of the cab. The rest of her friends were piled two deep, one sitting on the laps of the others in the back. The driver pulled away with a screech of his tires to the squeals of his passengers. Meilin’s wave was tiny and it left Drew’s soul feeling empty as he watched her cab disappear around a corner. The sight of her face turned to the window, her green eyes looking back at him before being whisked down the street.
He had to let her go. One did not find true love at a bar the night before her engagement party.
The blast from Jack’s horn broke him from his reverie and his feet dragged and stumbled against the ancient cement sidewalk as he made his way to the vehicle.
Drew had never considered himself a romantic, but something had shifted in his world tonight. Inside he knew he’d finally learned the secret to the poems written by men over the centuries. The aching loss of the possibility of a glorious future. Some of the sparkle went out of Drew’s generally golden life. Meilin was one of a kind. Exotic and extraordinary. Lord, he must be more exhausted than he’d thought. It felt as if he’d never find another like her if he lived a hundred lives.
Climbing into Jack’s SUV, he shook his head. Exhaustion, plus alcohol, dizzying lights, and deafening music, all combined to metaphorically dump him on his arse. A rare moment of fancy, that. Surely he’d manufactured the whole drama in his own head. Besides, in six weeks he was leaving for China. Where would he have time to fit in a seduction? Suddenly what had felt like an endless amount of time seemed far, far too short.
Chapter 4
“Turn up the music, Jack,” Birdie called from the back seat.
“Enough, Bird,” Drew complained. “I’ve got a splitting headache coming on.”
“You’re getting old, brother dear.” The tease made him smile. But for a few measly months, they were the same age.
“Not old, just exhausted.”
“Yeah, yeah. You poor baby. All tuckered out and no rest in sight. Have you heard from the parents?” She started digging into her purse. “Guess we wouldn’t have heard our phones in there.”
“No, I didn’t check for messages.” But he pulled his phone from his pocket.
“Guess that means you had a good time tonight.” Jack’s smile was back to being a little sly. “Didn’t think I’d ever see you hitting on a woman ten years your senior.”
Ten years? “Didn’t seem like she was.” Gaze on his phone, he swiped the screen and saw there were a few messages waiting.
“They’re home!” Birdie chirped. “What time do we see them tomorrow?”
“Not too early.” Drew groaned, reading his own messages. The two of them had received the same texts.
“In graduate school and still letting your parents know what you’re up to every night? I’m impressed. My mother hasn’t followed my antics since I finished high school.” Jack turned on the wipers to clear the drops of mist forming on the windscreen.
“Won’t your parents be at graduation?” Drew asked absently as he typed a reply. “They should be at the house about now,” he commented over his shoulder. “Probably as wiped out as we are and jetlagged.”
“Not too bad,” Birdie replied. “They spent last night in New York. It’s easier flying west. This way they gain several hours instead of losing them.”
“Bet they’re already falling into bed.” The ding of a message arriving belied his prediction.
“Nope, they’re too wired to sleep, Mom says. Headed for the hot tub.”
A snort left Drew’s nose. Not something he wanted to think about. He’d caught them au naturel in the backyard spa once, not that they’d seen him. They’d been far too busy to notice Drew escaping the house for a late night soak. While he was thrilled for them—nice to know that in twenty years he could look forward to an active love life—it wasn’t something he’d wanted to see. A glimpse had been enough, and he’d quietly retreated back into the house and left them to it.
Still, he’d never seen affection of any kind between his father and his mother,
