All I Ask(63)

How right she is. “We’ll keep trying.”

“Thank you.” Her voice is shaking and then she disconnects the line.

Nina has tears rolling down her face. I swear, this girl is such a sap, but then again, I’m tearing up too. Mrs. Dickman has been waiting for so long and I almost hate myself for not understanding more how much she’s missed what she’s lost.

“You’ve made her very happy.” Nina wipes under her eyes.

“God, we’re a bunch of babies.”

She laughs. “It’s romance, Tea. It’s a beautiful part of her story that you’ve given her back. To us, they were stupid chairs, but to her, they represented the love she had for her late husband.”

I nod, knowing exactly what she means. “I want to cry.”

Nina wraps her arms around me and she pulls me close. “I always knew you had it in you. We just needed Derek to come back to remind you that you do believe in love.”

“Oh, dear God. I wouldn’t go that far.”

She slaps my arm. “Stop it. Now, tell me about the kiss.”

I smirk. “Which one?”

Nina squeals again. “I knew it! Did you do more? Please tell me you had sex because that would be exactly like the book I read before this one.”

“Umm, no.” I laugh. “We are taking things really slow.”

“Oh, Jesus.”

“What?”

“Slow? You two have been at the pace of the tortoise on a freaking marathon. He’s still only on mile marker two after fifteen years of running.”

Now that’s some good imagery there. To some extent, she’s right. We have gone at the slowest pace ever, but in some ways we haven’t. Neither of us knew our feelings until it was too late. The history we share isn’t exactly a smooth one either. I think slow is smart. I need smart because I’ve done an awful lot of stupid.

“I’m not saying we’ll be running a marathon with the tortoise pace, but I need to make sure I don’t jump in headfirst and end up with a concussion.”

She sighs and leans against the counter. “You’re not getting any younger, you know.”

“Neither are you.”

Nina’s eyes narrow. “We’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you and the man that you’ve loved your whole dang life being right in front of your face.”

“And if it’s right,” I say with as much conviction in my voice as I can muster, “then tomorrow, he’ll still be in front of my face.”

I can see her displeasure, but that’s the way it is. We’re going slow and it’s not just because I’m scared, which I am, but because it’s not just about me or him. It’s also about two other people—our daughters.

“You should be naked in his bed right now. The two of you should be locked in a room somewhere, working off the last decade of sexual frustration.”

“Well, we’re not.”

Although I do agree that I have a decade’s-plus worth of sexual frustration that made it really freaking hard to pull away last night. But he was so sweet and understanding.

We kissed…a lot. We kissed as though we were two teenagers who just found out how fun kissing was. He walked me to my car, kissed me again, told me he would call me, and then he watched me drive off.

I wanted to turn back around, to feel his lips on mine again, but I somehow held myself back.

“You’re thinking about him naked, aren’t you?” Nina accuses me with a grin across her face.

“No.”

“Liar.”

“Fine, I am, but only because you brought it up.”

She laughs. “Whatever you need to help you sleep at night. So when are you seeing him again?”

The twenty questions with her are killing me. “I don’t know.”

“How about now?” Derek’s voice fills the space and I jump.

“How the—?” I say because the damn door didn’t chime. My cheeks burn and I can only imagine how red they are.

“How long was I here and what did I hear?”

Oh, this is so bad. My heart is racing and my mind is searching for something to say. Nothing can make this better if he heard me admit to thinking of him naked. I will never live this down.

“That would be good information to know now, yes.”

His smile is full of mischief. “Tea, now where would the fun of overhearing a conversation you definitely didn’t want me to hear be if I told you?”

“Well, I think the fun part would be telling me so I know how long I have to hide.”

He walks closer and shrugs. “I guess we have different ideas of fun. Although”—he turns his head toward Nina—“I like her suggestions of being naked.”

I cover my face in my hands and pray the good Lord takes me now.

“Naked is the new dating,” Nina says.

“Really? Well, it’s a good thing Teagan and I are dating.”

“Nina’s insane.”

“She’s onto something,” he tosses back.

“She’s also about to be fired.”

Nina bursts out laughing. “Your mama likes me more than you, my friend. I think if she could, she’d make me manager just to torture you.”