Page 133 of All In Good Time

March 1986 | After

“I told you not to worry about it.” Derek frowned and looked at the gift bag with tissue paper sticking out the top that Becca held out to him.

“You might have gotten away with it last year, but there is no way in hell I’m missing your birthday gift this year.”

She’d been planning this for weeks. He’d said over and over that all he wanted to do for his birthday was exactly what they did last year.

That’s why they were currently parked outside the same small ice cream parlor at 9:30 at night, both with chocolate cones in their hands, but she wasn’t going to miss out on getting him a gift just because he said not to. Anyone who says they don’t want a birthday gift is lying.

He shook his head, but smiled as he carefully set his cone down and accepted the present.

Becca licked happily at her ice cream and watched him with eager eyes.

He glanced up at her through his lashes, then tugged the tissue paper out. He reached in and pulled out the brand-new leather jacket that Becca had carefully folded before placing it in the bag.

She smiled sheepishly. “I know it’s not much, but you were complaining about the other one getting too old, and I thought you could have this one, and I could have your old one and—”

He cut her off with a kiss that tasted like chocolate and cigarettes. Her eyes drifted closed, and she felt a drop of ice cream hit her hand.

He pulled away after a moment, and Becca blinked her eyes open, dazed. “It’s perfect. I love it.”

She grinned and licked the melted cream off her hand.

Content, he smiled and put the gift back in the bag for safekeeping and moved it out of the way of the melting ice cream.

Becca glanced over at the small envelope she had stored in secret in the side door compartment. It wasn’t a birthday gift, and it wasn’t necessarily about Derek, but it had arrived today, and she wasn’t sure if she should bring it up now or later.

“What is it?” He caught her eyes wandering and followed her gaze to the envelope. “What’s that?”

Becca bit her lip. She was excited to tell him, but this was his day, not hers. “It’s nothing.”

He raised a brow. For a second, she thought he would drop it, but then he suddenly reached across her lap and grabbed it. She couldn’t catch him in time before he turned his back to her and opened the envelope.

“Wait. Derek, let me—”

He smiled and read the words on the letter out loud. “Dear, Rebecca Lewis. Congratulations! It is my pleasure to inform you that you have been…” His words trailed off as he continued reading and it clicked in his head.

She sat still, anxiously waiting for whatever he might say next.

He looked at her. “You got in?”

He knew how important this all was to her. After he and Mal moved in with her and her mom, he’d sat with her at the kitchen table as she worked her way through the colleges she’d applied to and tried to pick which would be best for her future career as a nurse like her mom.

Eventually, she, with Derek’s help, had decided that this university in California would be her top choice.

“It came while we were at school.”

He grinned so brightly it was like he was the one who had been accepted into college. “I never doubted you for a second.” He leaned in and kissed her lips again.

Becca’s heart soared.

But that wasn’t the only reason she was worried to bring it up on his birthday.

Now she knew she would be moving to California in a few months.

And yet, the conversation about what Derek would do had remained inconclusive. She knew it agonized him trying to make a choice. Follow her across the country to his home state or stay in Highburg.

On the surface, it might look easy, but it wasn’t.

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