All I Ask(17)

“Then you give me something real and I’ll give you one, if I don’t die of hypothermia.”

“Fine,” Teagan tosses back with a hint of anger. “I really don’t ever want to know what life is like without you in it.”

I’m stunned. I literally can’t move or speak. I have so much I want to say back to her because it’s as though she and I might actually be on the same wavelength. A few years ago, it wasn’t anything more than friendship for me.

Sure, she was gorgeous, but we were always just friends. All I wanted was for her to see that she was more than her popularity.

The joke was on me, though. I saw it. I saw how special she was. I saw her donate her time to helping others during the food drive and then again with a fisherman who needed help with his boat. She didn’t know how to fix an engine, but Teagan read every manual she could. I saw how much she wanted others to see her for who she really was but was too afraid of the way it would change her world.

Then, I saw her stop caring about her fears and embrace the woman she was, making it impossible not to fall for her.

“Derek?” Teagan says my name slowly. “You okay?”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“I was worried maybe you froze to death…like Jack and Rose.”

I roll my eyes. Only she would make that stupid movie reference at a time like this. “That fucking movie.”

“You love it. I know you cried.”

“I cried because it was three hours of my life I’ll never get back.”

Teagan steps forward and wraps the blanket around me, hugging me at the same time. “More like sixty hours, since I made you watch it every day.”

The things we do for the girl we want but can never have.

“You make me smile,” I say without thinking.

Her eyes lift, meeting mine with curiosity so deep. “What?”

“That’s my something real. You make me smile.”

To that, her lips turn into a huge grin. “I’m glad we were forced to become friends.”

“Me too.”

She snuggles into my chest and I rest my chin on the top of her head. “I miss you, Der. So much.”

I swear I hear her sniffle, but she coughs quickly after that so I’m not sure. “I miss you too, but we’re never really apart.”

“No, I guess not.”

I lean back, press my finger under her chin, and lift it. “You will never have to know what it’s like not to have me, not unless you decide I’m too much of a pain.”

She smiles softly, the moonlight shining down on us. “Never.”

She’s my something real. Hell, she’s my everything that matters.





Chapter Nine





Derek




Present



“You will not behave like this!” I tell Everly as she rolls her eyes.

“Whatever.”

“I’m serious. You don’t know these people. You show up and the first day you decide to be nasty just because?”

Everly picks at her nails and then slams her hands on her bed. “You moved me here! You! You don’t get to tell me that I have to be nice to some dork! She actually thought I would sit with her? Please. Like I want to be friends with the losers on day one? No thank you.”

When did my sweet girl with big brown eyes and a smile that could melt even the coldest of hearts turn into this?

While I would love to say her newfound nasty attitude started when Meghan died, that would be a lie. She was already becoming this creature I didn’t recognize before then; I think her mother’s death sped up the transformation. Suddenly, Everly had every excuse to be mad. I watched her go from one extreme to another, unable to help stop her anger.

“You have no idea if she was a loser, she was being nice! Besides, how do you know anything about Teagan anyway?”

She shakes her head like I’m an idiot. “Don’t be dumb, Dad. I heard Mom talk about her.”

I jerk back, confused and pissed at the same time. “When did…?”

“If she hated her, then so do I.”

I close my eyes and count to four. I need to be calm. “Your mother didn’t hate her.”

“Not what I heard.”

“You’re thirteen! What could you possibly hear anyway?”

“Mom always talked about your slutty friend from back home.”

Anger begins to fill me, but also guilt. I let this happen. I allowed Teagan to be the villain in our story. It wasn’t Teagan who did Meghan wrong, it was me.

At first, I did as Meghan asked, letting Teagan go, focusing solely on my marriage.

I pushed aside the conflicting emotions I felt for Teagan because that’s what I needed to do to keep my wife.

When I think back, I remember the pain in my chest when I made that last call to Teagan. The way I pictured her face as she cried and begged me not to do this. I let her think it was her fault. I didn’t tell her it was me who was weak and ashamed.

I didn’t tell her that I had feelings for her and I needed to make the right choice, even if it hurt us both.

Meghan would’ve left me if I spoke to Teagan again.

So, I kept my promise to my wife, cut all ties, told Teagan I couldn’t be there for her anymore since I had my own family. Which wasn’t the case at all.