‘No.’
‘Because?’
He flicked her a brief glance. ‘Kids get hurt when parents break up.’
‘Not all parents break up.’
‘Close to half do.’
‘Yours didn’t. They were still together when they had the accident, weren’t they?’
Drake’s jaw hardened and his grip on the gear stick tightened. ‘What’s your number six?’
Aerin was not so easily put off by his attempt to steer the conversation away from his background. It intrigued her why he was so reluctant to talk about it—or did that have something to do with having lost his family so young? But wouldn’t he want to keep their memory alive by talking about them?
She realised she knew very little about his background other than the occasional snippets of information she had gleaned from her brother. But even Tom hadn’t been all that forthcoming, and she hadn’t wanted to appeartoointerested. All she knew was that his parents and younger sister had died in an accident when he was fifteen and he had been raised by relatives. It kind of explained his aura of self-sufficiency and hard-wired cynicism. He had loved and lost and had since learned not to rely on anyone but himself. ‘Weren’t your parents happy?’
There was a long drawn-out pause before he spoke. ‘No.’ His tone had a flat, almost deadened note to it.
‘Does it upset you to talk about your family?’
He let out a stiff curse word. ‘What do you think?’
Aerin gave a soft sigh. ‘I think it must be very hard to lose your entire family when you were so young. But how else will you remember them if you don’t talk about them? Or is it just too painful?’
‘It’s...’ his jaw worked for a moment and then he continued ‘...complicated and painful and I’d rather not talk about it.’ He rearranged his shadowed features into a more relaxed pose as if he’d flicked a switch in his brain. End of subject. ‘So, what’s number six on your list?’
‘My future partner has a dog or cat, or at least would like to have one.’
‘Another tick against me.’ Amusement coloured his tone but it wasn’t reflected in his expression.
‘But you like animals, right? You bent down to scratch Mr McPhee’s dog, Mutley.’
Drake gave a dismissive shrug. ‘I like animals and I like kids, but it doesn’t mean I want them. What are we up to now? Number seven?’
‘I want my partner to be musical or creative in some way.’
‘I can play chopsticks and I draw a mean stick figure.’
Aerin fought back a smile. ‘Be serious. Can you write poetry?’
‘Not my forte, I’m afraid. So, what’s number eight?’
‘He has to love Christmas.’
There was another beat or two of silence.
‘Let me guess,’ Aerin said, looking at him again. ‘You don’t like the festive season. ‘You’ve never once accepted my parents’ and Tom’s invitation to join us for Christmas.’
Drake had now parked the car and turned off the engine before he answered. ‘Christmas isn’t a time of joy for me.’
‘Is that when you lost your family? At Christmas?’
‘Christmas Eve.’
‘Oh, Drake, I’m so sorry. That must have been so awful for you. I mean, to lose them at any time of year would be devastating but just before Christmas...it’s such a family time.’ How on earth had he coped with such a loss? Her heart ached at the thought of him all those years ago, suffering such sadness and trauma when he was only a teenager. No wonder he was so reluctant to talk about his family. It would be reopening a wound that hadn’t quite healed...maybe it never would.
Drake glanced at the clock on the dashboard and then unclipped his seat belt. ‘We need to get a move on. We can’t have you missing your reunion, can we?’