All I Ask(82)

“That’s a start.”

“I’d—”

“God.” Chastity’s voice breaks the statement he was about to say and I turn bright red. “You should be happy it was me,” she says as she grabs the notepad off the table. “All I’ve had to hear about for weeks was my stupid mother and her stupid father and how that didn’t mean we’d be stupid sisters. Like I’m excited by this idea?”

“Aww, sisters.”

She rolls her eyes. “And what did you do to her?”

Derek puts his hands up. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Today, she’s being all nice and it’s freaking me out. Pissed off and mean Everly I can handle, but she’s asking me about how it’s been to be raised by a single parent and if my mom is my friend. It’s weird.”

I can’t help the smile that forms. There was no guarantee she would actually hear what I said and not just mentally flip me off. The two of them share a bond that they don’t know. I always notice that, when two people think they’re different, it’s often because they’re so similar they can’t accept the other. It’s the things that bond us that can also divide us.

Chastity and Everly could be best friends, but they choose to be enemies.

“Maybe she’s trying,” I suggest.

“Maybe she had a lobotomy or was abducted by aliens last night. Either way, you guys need to stop…touching and stuff.”

“Nice to see you too, honey,” I say with a smile. “Derek and I were just checking the temperature of the sauce with our mouths.”

Derek steps to the side before clearing his throat. “I’m…”

“Oh, don’t try to placate her, she’s being an ornery teenager. Like we’re not going to catch them making out with their boyfriends? Please.”

His eyes shoot to mine and then it dawns on me what I said. I said that we were going to. Not me. Not him. But as though we’d be raising them together and catching them. I don’t know when that shifted.

When did I start thinking of us as a couple? A real couple.

It’s always been me doing it on my own. I’ve had it all mapped out because I never saw it any differently. Now I’m talking about being a team with him. It’s foreign but at the same time, deep in my gut I know that it’s what I want.

My world has been turned around and finally, I have hope for more.

“Yeah, I guess we will.”

Chastity groans and leaves the room. “I should’ve moved in with Grandma.”

Both of us burst out laughing. “Well, I guess I’m glad she didn’t say her father. Thank God none of us had to see him all that much when he was here.”

Derek stops laughing and something in his face changes. I’m not sure what, but it was so weird that my stomach drops a little. He turns his face and starts to busy himself.

Why did he turn away when I said something about Keith? He hadn’t shown up again after that night at my parents’, and from what I’ve heard he left town yesterday. I’m just grateful my life can go back to normal.

“Derek?” I call his attention.

“Teagan?”

“Why did you turn away?”

He straightens his back and sighs. “I hate thinking about Keith.”

“Well, no one really likes to think about him, but you seem…I don’t know…weird.”

“I hate him and I still hate what he did to you. And that there even is a tape.”

My heart sinks. I thought maybe after he knew the whole story, he’d understand. He didn’t seem bothered by it after. He was angry, which I get, but not at me. Derek felt a lot of self-hatred for not protecting me—which is stupid.

He couldn’t have stopped it. I don’t even know that I would’ve told him.

“I get that, but it’s in the past, seriously.”

He nods. “Agreed, but I still don’t like him.”

“Oh, me neither.”

“Good, then let’s stop talking about him.”

“Okay,” I say apprehensively. “Dinner is done anyway.”

Derek gives me a quick kiss. “I’ll head downstairs to get the girls.”

This could be so easy if we can get the girls to be civil, which seems to be happening on its own. There are no hurdles to overcome other than merging our lives. I don’t think we’ll struggle there. Even though years of us being apart has changed things about us, we’re still the same.

We just—click.

It’s why I think I see the future with him.

There’s a knock at the back door that leads down to the store, which means it can either be my mother, Derek is locked out, or it’s Nina. I pray for any but the first.

When I open the door, I thank God for once being kind to me with this. “Hey!”

“Hey,” Nina says a little quieter than her normal boisterous self.

“Everything okay?”

“I really need to talk and it can’t wait.”

I push open the door and invite her in. “What’s wrong?” She starts to pace, and my nerves grow. Nina is always so easygoing. When things are in crisis, she’s the calm one. Seeing her like this is out of character. “Nina?”