Page 72 of All I Ask
“Nonsense, Teagan, you come in and have a snack.”
I smile as I look to Derek. She forgets we’re not seventeen. “I think she can have wine, Ma.”
“Yes, wine, of course. It just feels like old times with you two together again. I’ve missed you, sweet girl.” The warmth in her voice could bring tears to my eyes. I always loved her. She treated me like I was precious and not because I was an object in her life.
“I would love to stay, but—”
“Five minutes, Tea,” Derek says as a plea. “Just five minutes.”
“Five minutes.”
He smiles and holds the screen open, forcing me to walk through. “I like you when you agree.”
One day I’ll be able to say no to this man. I would really like that day to be now but clearly not. “Yeah, don’t get used to it.”
At least I can talk tough.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Derek
Present
“What do you see here?” I ask Chastity as we examine the cat that she’s now able to bring in the house. Mr. Stinkers has been acting strange for the last week from what she says.
After Teagan came over the other day, Chastity has been here, helping more. Yesterday she explained her cat needed an exam and asked if she could work extra hours to cover it. I told her that wasn’t necessary, but she insisted.
“Is that a lump?”
Well, we could call it that, but it’s a bit more complicated. “I wouldn’t call it a lump. More of a bump…where something or more than one something is growing.”
She looks at me with horror. “Oh my God! Is he going to die?”
“No, no.” I laugh. “He isn’t ahe. He is a she andsheis expecting.”
“He’s pregnant?”
“Technically, she’s pregnant, but yes.”
“Oh, no! Mr. Stinkers is actually Mrs. Stinkers.” Her face is priceless. “My mother is going to kill me!”
Chastity has made no secret of the lack of affection Teagan has for the cat.
“I’m happy to talk to your mother if you want, to help mitigate the situation.”
She shakes her head. “It’s fine. I’ve been handling my mother for a long time now. She’ll go off the deep end, calm down, see the cute little kittens—after the gore that will stain her carpets—and then throw me and the cats out on the street. It’ll work out.”
Sounds like Teagan.
I chuckle and nod. “I’m glad to see you’ve got it all worked out. If you need a place to stay, you’re welcome here.”
She goes back to petting Mr.—Mrs. Stinkers and sighs. “At least we won’t be homeless with new babies, right? We can live here or in a barn or maybe the abandoned lighthouse.”
I love when people talk to their pets. I was the same way at her age. My dog was my entire world and I did everything I could to make him know he was loved. It also helped that growing up with my father as a veterinarian sealed the deal. There was no shortage of animals to care for.
“You really love her, huh?”
She nods. “I found her on the beach. Mom used to take me there whenever she wanted to breathe—whatever that meant. She’d let me run up and down the shore and I found him—her—under a little box.”
