Page 76 of All I Ask
“You’re going to help me once you get what you want?”
I shrug. “No, you don’t have to agree to what I want, but you have to listen.”
“When I get out of this,” she warns, “I’m going to kill you.”
“All the more reason to keep you trapped.” That was definitely the wrong thing to say. I’m pretty sure she’s ready to lose her hair at this point. I better make it quick. “My point is, I need your help, if you’re not homicidal by the end of this.”
“Help with what?”
“I need to move out of my parents’ house and I’m supposed to meet the Realtor in an hour. I was hoping you could come.”
Her eyes narrow a bit. “That’s what you wanted to talk about?”
“Yeah.”
“Not…”
“Not what? Is there something else you’d like to discuss?”
Like the kiss that has kept me up every night. The way her lips felt with mine. How long I’ve wondered what it would be like and now it’s all I can think about.
“No. House hunting sounds fine—great even. So, you want me to go look for a place for you and Everly?”
“Yeah.”
“But regardless of my answer, you’ll release me?”
Like I’d leave her here? How the hell would that go over in terms of ever seeing if that one kiss was a fluke or real? It wouldn’t. And I have to know.
“Well, that depends, now, doesn’t it?”
“On?”
“On your answer.” I smile, and she groans.
I didn’t say I wouldn’t have fun with it, though.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Teagan
Seventeen years old
“This is a hammer,” Derek says with a smirk.
“I know what a hammer is.”
“Well, I don’t know what you know. Do you know how to use it?”
I know I’d like to hit him in the head with it, but that would probably be frowned upon when you’re working on rebuilding a barn that was burned down.
“Yes. I do.”
Derek challenged me to do something for someone else without anything to gain. I know Mr. Mitchell needs his barn back after the storm took part of it down so he can care for the horses he helps, which is why we’re here. I called all the football guys and organized the whole thing.
There are about twenty kids, but the best part was that when the town caught wind of what we were planning, the adults lined up to help as well. Then, Mr. Harvey donated lumber and others helped out financially.
I can’t explain the joy I feel inside knowing we may actually build this thing today.
