“No, Sasha. I need to take care of Alexa first. You don’t even need to do anything with your stuff anyway. The driver will leave them on the steps so they’ll be ready to load into your mom’s car.”

“Oh, but I thought we were all staying here for the weekend. It doesn’t look like my mom is here yet. Let me text her to make sure she packed to stay over also.”

The pounding in my head increased at the thought of spending even more time in Sasha’s company. I raised pain-filled eyes to Drake before turning to walk away. I couldn’t deal with her antics right now. I needed to take some medicine and catch a nap. Anything else could wait until I felt better.

As I climbed the steps of the main house, the front door opened and Drea bounced out.”Alexa!” she screeched. “Yay! You guys finally made it. I’ve been waiting forever.”

I smiled weakly as I neared her. “Hey, Drea,” I greeted Drake’s sister.

Drea’s smile fell from her face. “Oh, no. You’re sick. Here, come sit down.”

She helped me over to the chairs and fluffed a cushion behind my back. “You didn’t have to come if you weren’t feeling well. We would have been disappointed, but we would have understood.”

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back. “I’ll be fine, Drea. The headache just started. It hasn’t had a chance to get really bad.”

She looked down to the driveway, where Drake was rifling through my suitcase in search of my cosmetics bag. Sasha stood there, tapping away on her phone, presumably trying to make sure that she got to crash our weekend plans also. “Aha! I get it. Your headache is of the blonde variety. She really can be the biggest pain in the ass. And she’s had a crush on Drake ever since we were little. I swear she was about to pee herself when she found out that he was transferring to Blythe.”

Even through the pain, I laughed at Drea’s comments. “I’m sure she did. She’s made it very clear that she’s the one who should be dating him and not me.”

“Like that’s gonna happen. If Drake was the least bit interested in her, it already would have. Besides, I think she’s more interested in her mom’s fantasies of having her daughter marry her best friend’s son than anything else.”

“And does your mom have the same dream?” I asked, feeling disheartened by the idea of a pair of matchmaking moms.

“No, my mom’s wish would be that Drake finds the right girl to marry. Doesn’t matter to Mom where he finds her, just that she makes him happy. Like you seem to do. Now, let me go detach the leech from Drake so he can take care of you. Let me know if you need anything.”

Drea made good on her word and kept Sasha busy so Drake could focus on me. He found my Immitrex pills and brought me one along with a tall glass of cold water. He bundled me over to the pool house so I could lie down and take a nap. Before I knew it, I’d slept half the day away and awoke feeling a little better. I tilted my head from side to side to make sure there wasn’t too much pain. I felt a rush of relief upon realizing that I’d caught the headache early enough to stop it before it exploded into a full-fledged migraine. Hopefully I’d been fast enough that I’d be back to normal soon.

The house was quiet with no sign of Drake. Our bags were at the top of the stairs, and he had left my cosmetics bag in the upstairs bathroom where I’d easily find it. I brushed my teeth, feeling a bit gross after traveling and sleeping. I was still groggy and pale, so I splashed some cold water on my face. As I dried off with a fluffy white towel, I heard the door close downstairs.

“Drake?” I called.

I heard footsteps on the stairs before he appeared in the bathroom doorway. “Feeling any better?”

“I am, thanks. Sorry I conked out like that.”

“No problem. You must have needed the sleep. Hungry?” he asked.

“Yeah, I could eat. Did I miss anything while I was out?”

“Nothing good. My mom invited Sasha and her mom to stay for dinner so I told her we were just going to eat here since you weren’t feeling well.”

“Was she okay with that? We came here to visit your family. Not hide out together in the pool house.”

He crossed his arms over his chest, looking uncomfortable. “She wasn’t happy, but she was more worried about how you were doing than anything else. She’ll probably stop by to bring over some dinner and check on you soon.”

“Look, why don’t you just eat dinner with everyone and then bring me back some food later?”

He shook his head in response. “No way, baby. You’re my priority here. You don’t feel good, and you need me. My mom will get over it. And hopefully she’ll take the hint so that Sasha and her mom don’t end up staying the whole weekend.”