Page 101 of All In Good Time

“Just fine, Sheriff.” Derek smiled up at him.

“How’s the old man?” There was a look in his face as he asked it, and Derek immediately knew it wasn’t an innocent question. It was an investigation.

Derek’s hand tightened slightly on the gear, but his face remained carefully careless. Wade’s eyes were attentive.

He knew Wade knew, because the sheriff wouldn’t have his men circling Derek’s home every so often if Becca hadn’t told himsomething. Still, Derek wasn’t entirely certain of the full extent of what Wade knew about his home life.

“He just started working security at the mall.”

“So I heard.” Of course, he’d heard. It was his job to know what the people in Highburg did, especially those that had been noted to be something other than harmless.

Derek met Wade’s stare for a moment, and he could sense him looking for something deeper than that meaning, but Derek kept his expression straight.

After a few seconds, the sheriff backed off and exhaled. “You give me a call if you need anything, alright?”

“Yes, sir.”

Wade hit the top of the car, a signal that he was excusing Derek. “Drive safe.”

Derek smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Yes, sir.”

His window rolled up at an agonizingly slow pace as he backed out of the drive and sped away down the street. This isn’t what he’d wanted to do with his day.

The brief mention of his father plummeted his mood, but he brushed it aside and ignored the stone in his stomach. He didn’t want to think about this. Not now, not when he was so happy.

He held onto that happiness as he drove away from the cabin and back into town. He begged for it to stay. He wanted the warmth in his stomach and chest to linger just a little longer before it was doused out.

There was one thing in this town that could bring the flame back to life…with just the smile on her face or a touch of her hand. He needed that—right now.

* * *

Those damn applications took her much, much longer than she anticipated.

And yet, she wasn’t upset about it. She’d spent the rest of last night stuck in the unbelievable sensations Derek left in her body and head, even after his departure.

That was no state of mind to be writing college essays in.

The result was waking up later than she meant to and having to speed through the last of them before the post office closed for the rest of the weekend.

And yet, shestillwasn’t upset about it.

She had to pause every few minutes to bury her head in her pillow and giggle in school-girl excitement whenever a fresh memory popped into her head. The things he’d said to her that set her hair on delightful edge, the adept movement of his lips and fingers.

Even now, putting on her coat to leave the house, she spaced out for a few seconds to try and come to terms that the boy she was madly in love with hadkissedher and told her how much he wanted her.

God. It couldn’t be real.

God. She wouldkillto see him right now.

She slipped on her walking shoes and bundled herself up, with a folder containing each of her completed college applications wrapped protectively in her arms. She’d have to walk to the post office today, since her mom had taken the car to work earlier in the morning.

Not that she minded. It gave her more time to think about Derek.

She stepped out of the house and shut the door behind her, before walking down the sidewalk toward the driveway to make her way to the post office.

But the driveway wasn’t empty. There shouldn’t have been any cars there, but there was one.

There wastheone—the exact one she wanted to see right now. Leaning against it was the person she was itching to see.

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