Page 3 of Holding You
“No, should I?” Her tone is flirty as she looks at me for the answer.
I chuckle and am about to give her my name, but her dad beats me to it.
“It’s Declan Young.”
Now it’s my turn to blush. He said my name like I’m important and she’s supposed to be impressed by the name alone.
It’s got to be a parent thing to do this to us.
“You’re kidding,” she says and the sweet innocent tone that laced her voice just seconds ago is gone, replaced with complete distaste. “Declan. Young.”
I glance at her dad and then at her.
Ah, she’s definitely not impressed by my name.
“That’s … me,” I say awkwardly.
She crosses her arms and pops her hip. I’d say it’s cute, but I’m starting to get the feeling that she doesn't like me.
Which is crazy, because I can’t think for the life of me of a moment where we interacted and it went badly.
“And you livethere?” She points to my house.
I nod. “Yes.”
“Since when? For how long?”
I let out a nervous laugh at the horror in her voice.
“We just came back and I’m not sure yet. A while, though.”
“A while,” she repeats.
“A while,” I repeat, but this time with a little more snap.
Okay, her tone is starting to piss me off a little. You can't be rude to someone for no reason and expect them to just take it.
“Well, this is just great. I’mthrilledto have you next door.”
I grin, crossing my arms and facing her. “You know, I'm just going to put this out there, but I don’t think you mean that.”
“Ha, you think?” She huffs and walks off. “Dad, bring Max home with you when you come inside, please.”
Paul and I stand in silence until the door closes and Ruby is inside.
“Huh,” he says first. “I get the feeling my daughter doesn’t care for you very much.”
I rub the back of my neck, watching the children again to clear my mind.
“Yeah … I caught on to that, too.”
“Care to tell me why?”
His guess is as good as mine.
“If I knew, I’d tell you.”
He laughs at that, and we fall into a conversation about how I landed back in Lovers and how much it hasn’t changed over the years.
