Page 21 of All Too Well
We both laugh and then she sighs. “You’ll figure it out, Ainsley. You’re truly gifted at writing, and you just need to dig in and get to work.”
Which is exactly what I plan to do. “I can’t wait for the world to realize what Ultimate Frisbee can do for them.”
“Me either.”
Now I just need to figure out how to do that.
I’ve decided that the less time I have to spend in Ember Falls the better. So the direct and in-your-face route is my best chance atgetting Lachlan to tell me all the things about how he went from being the number-one draft pick to playing in this league of unextraordinary men.
So glad he got a full ride to school, which I did not.
No, I have a mountain of debt to pay from what the military didn’t cover.
“Can I help you, miss?” a very attractive Black man asks as he approaches.
“Hi, are you a fireman here?”
He nods. “I am. My name is Davidson.”
I smile broadly. “Nice to meet you, Davidson. I was really hoping you could help me. I’m looking for the chief. He came by my place this morning and asked some questions that I didn’t know the answer to.”
He scratches his throat. “Lachlan West?”
“Yes, he said he needed to check if something was up to code in the cabin I’m staying in?”
“Oh! You’re staying at the shit shack?”
The shit shack? Well, the nickname is pretty accurate. “If you’re talking about the lodge that was advertised, but in fact is nothing like that, then yes.”
His eyes widen and then he blinks, washing away the horror. “Right. Sorry. Did you want to come into the firehouse? He’s most likely in his office.”
“Is there any way you could ask him to come out here? I just ... I really want the chance of fewer people hearing.”
Davidson gives me a wide grin. “No problem. I didn’t catch your name.”
“Painsley.”
“Painsley. With aP?”
“Yes.”
Poor Davidson, entering into a feud that he doesn’t even know about.
“All right,Painsley, I’ll ... let him know you’re here.”
“Thank you.”
He heads in and I lean against his pickup, waiting for thesexiest heroic fireman of the year to grace me with his presence.
It’s really hard, because I never felt this way about Lachlan when we were kids. He was my friend, or, at least, friend by proxy. There were a lot of times when Caspian would be mean to me, tell me to do something stupid, that I would’ve absolutely gotten hurt doing, and Lachlan would come to my rescue.
He was my protective friend I couldn’t wait to see.
Until my heart decided it loved him.
Traitorous organ that resides in my chest. Always trying to ruin things for me, I swear. The boy I knew was gone, and there was just a man I thought was so damn perfect. Even though he was four years older and never gave an inkling he was interested in me, I just wanted him.
The door opens, and all six foot three inches of him strides out like a fucking movie scene. His dark-brown hair is pushed back, brown eyes focused on me as he comes toward me, and then he flashes his stupid grin and I’m back to being that dumb girl again.
