All I Ask(89)

“She’ll be fine.”

I laugh. “I know, it’s me I worry about.”

“You have no idea the strength you have inside of you. In the midst of dealing with Keith’s bullshit, you raised an amazing child. You’ve persevered when many would’ve collapsed. Don’t sell yourself short, my friend. I am so proud of you.”

“So am I.” Derek’s voice cuts in as I clutch my chest.

“Derek!”

“You didn’t think we weren’t going to spend our last night together, did you?”

“Where’s Everly?”

“She’s perfectly capable of staying home with my parents.”

“And on that note.” Nina claps her hands. “I’m going to head out and let you two…well, do what you do.” She comes over to me, and the tears come again. “Don’t you cry, Teagan Berkeley, don’t you dare. You’re doing something magnificent and I’m so happy for you.”

Nina has been my rock over the years. I love her heart and I’m going to miss our daily talks. “This is so damn hard.”

She grabs my hand and squeezes. “The things that are worth doing aren’t meant to be easy. Call me when you’re settled?”

“You can count on that.”

She touches Derek’s arm on her way out and I hold back as much as I can. I try to be brave and strong because I chose this. I kept saying I wanted to have the power to make choices and now I want to take that back. Choices are dumb.

Give me consistency and Derek.

He makes his way over to me, pulling me to his chest. “She’s a wise woman.”

I nod, breathing in his musky scent. I close my eyes, committing it to memory so that on the nights I’m missing him, I can remember this. The way his arms hold me just right, his chin rests on my head as I melt into him. There’s the faint scent of the ocean that’s ever present and then his cologne. It’s everything that makes me happy.

“I have a surprise for you,” he says after a few seconds.

“Yeah?”

“Are you all packed?”

“Almost.”

“I should’ve figured.” He chuckles. “Get your bags because we won’t be coming back here.”

“What?”

“Just go with it, Tea.”

There’s so much that I still need to do, but then none of it matters as much as the man in front of me. So, I toss a few more things in the bag while Derek waits patiently. I know I forgot stuff, but he’ll be driving down with the girls in two weeks and I can have him bring whatever I need. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

My mother said she’s leaving the apartment as is, so when I come back, I don’t have to worry about housing.

After ten minutes of checking the apartment over again, I’m as ready as I’ll be. We head to the car, both of us quiet but finding ways to touch the whole time. When we get in, I can’t keep silent anymore.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.” I can hear the smirk in his voice.

“You could just tell me.”

He turns to look at me, grabbing my hand and lacing our fingers together. “I could, but then I would ruin the fun.”

“You and I have a very different version of fun.”

I hate being left in the dark. I also know he used to love tormenting me with things he knew that I didn’t. The more I pushed, the worse it was.

“Maybe, but you make it too easy to make you crazy.”

We drive through town and when we turn down Sycamore Street, I know exactly where we’re going.

The house.

Sure enough, he pulls into the drive and releases my hand. “Come on.” We get to the front door and he hands me the key. “Open it.”

“You want me to open the door to your house?”

He comes around behind me, holding the key with me, and we turn it. I wait for the scary beady eyes to stare at me when the door opens, but they’re not there. Instead, the house is completely cleaned out and it smells like fresh paint.

“Go in,” he urges.

I enter the space, still waiting for the creepy dolls to pop out, and when he flips the light on, I can’t breathe.

It’s breathtaking.

The wood is a dark gray stain and the walls are painted a light cream color. Everything has been cleaned and the house looks exactly as I’d dreamed it in my head. “This is beautiful,” I say as my hand touches the doorframe.

“I remembered you said something about cream walls so I went with it. Everly picked the exact shade.”

I smile. “She did great. When did you do all this?”

He walks forward as if the small distance was too much. “We’ve been working on it the last few weeks, but we really got busy three days ago.”

“When you knew I was leaving?”

“I wanted you to see it before you go.”

I close the distance and lean up, kissing his lips. “I’m glad I did because the last time we were here…”

“Freaking scary.”

I laugh once and rest my head on his chest. “I’ll remember it always.”

“Oh, me too, it frequents my nightmares. Come on, there’s more to see.”