Page 27 of All I Ask
Which meant, I was the only option he had.
“How are you feeling today, Dad?”
He shrugs. “Horses were giving me a bit of trouble. You know how stubborn they can be.”
“Much like teenagers,” I toss back.
“Everly is in a lot of pain, Derek. You should remember that. Losing a parent is very difficult.” Mom’s voice is soft and full of understanding.
“Doesn’t give her the right to be a little shit.”
Dad pushes the paper he was reading down. “Mouth.”
“I’m almost thirty-five.”
“I don’t care if you’re seventy-five. Around your mother we don’t use that language.”
My mother smirks and rolls her eyes because he’s so hell-bent on protecting her delicate ears when she has the worst mouth in all of Virginia. Mom cusses like a sailor thanks to her father, who was one.
“Whatever you say, Pop.”
He grumbles and goes back to his paper. Mom shares a secret look with me and I smile. She and I have always been close, and right now, I need her help. I was fortunate to grow up with a loving, sweet mother who baked a cake once a week but who also loved poker and taught me how to cheat. She’s the oxymoron to every situation. My friends would look at her and see this version of June Cleaver, only to find out she was really PegBundy.
“You know what always helps me clear my mind?” she says, drawing my attention. “A walk on the beach. The salt air is great to cleanse the soul. Don’t you think, honey?”
It’s been a long time since I’ve been close to the water. We lived on the Georgia border of South Carolina. I’ve missed the waves and the mere idea of seeing the wild horses.
“I hear you, Mom.”
She smiles to herself and goes back to her knitting when I stand.
The walk to the shoreline takes about ten minutes, but it’s ten minutes of total peace. There’s no one out, since it’s September and all the tourists are gone, leaving the locals back to their little slice of heaven. It’s still warm enough that it feels like summer, though. The breeze tonight is light, just enough so the air’s not stagnant.
I make my way over the dunes and see her.
Her back is to me as she sits looking out to the ocean. There’s a bottle of wine beside her, and I’m thrown back in time.
How many nights did we meet this way?
When the world was asleep and we wanted to pretend all our dreams were within reach.
Teagan was my world and my fantasy, wrapped up in one perfect person. I stand here, unsure of what to do. So much time has passed and I’m not ready to deal with the things between us.
So I do what I did thirteen years ago, I turn my back on her—again.
Chapter Ten
Teagan
Present
I know he’s here. I can feel his presence, even in the dark with the wind and sounds of the ocean, I can sense him.
If only I didn’t, maybe his being back in this town would be tolerable. Time has done nothing to diminish the connection I have with him, and that is the saddest part.
The seconds pass and I wait to hear his arrival. There’s no doubt he saw me, but as the numbers climb in my head, he still doesn’t appear.
I turn, shifting to see where he is, and that’s when I see him walk away. “Derek!” I call his name without thinking.
