Page 43 of Lovewell Lane

“Oh,” I said stupidly. “I don’t think he would let me.”

The old man laughed with his whole belly. “You don’t have to ask. I think you already do without thinking about it much.”

“Then I’ll keep on keeping on,” I said with a too-big smile.

“Cheers to that.” Slick clinked his glass beer bottle against my plastic cup again, and I downed the rest of my punch.

Back in my guest house, I was bored and alone. I pulled out my phone, still drunk and sloppy from the Seedling Party. Someone must have walked me home, but I couldn’t remember who. I opened my lock screen with the intention of calling Scarlet when I got distracted looking at text messages.

I had Derek’s number. It was dark out, and I wondered if he was still awake. Not thinking about it any further, I typed in his name (it ended up being more like Drik, but my phone got the gist) and wrote the first thing that came to mind.

Margo: Come to my house now.

Frantic knocking sounded at my door minutes later. Was he just as excited as I was to see him? All day, I’d spent watching him being all hot and happy and in charge. We spoke at the party, but I wanted to talk to him more. With just us.

I swung the door open with a smile. “Hey, sailor.”

His face was slightly red and he was gulping down air like he ran out here. Wow, hewasjust as eager as I was to talk to him.

“What’s wrong?”

“What do you mean,” I slurred.

Derek stared at me for a few seconds before his entire body relaxed. “You’re drunk.”

“No,maybeee, a little tipsy,” I said while smacking my hand lightly on his chest. “I wanted to talk to you about theACDCthing more. What other music do you like? Do you sing alone a lot?”

“Margo,” he said as if I was the biggest burden on the planet. “Tessa is inside. I can’t just stand out here talking to you about music.”

“Oh, then don’t worry about it. I have plenty of other people I can talk to.”

“Margo,” he grunted.

I went to shut the door, but he stopped it with his hand. He had giant forearms. I wanted to bite into the one resting near my head against the doorframe. “I’m fine, goodnight.”

“You can come inside my house. Tessa and Calli are sleeping, so we have to be quiet. Is that alright?”

I glared at him through the crack in my door. “I can be quiet.”

I let him slide the door open again and led the way through the backyard to his porch. The garden was pretty in the moonlight, the flowers and bushes were all bathed in serene lighting.

“Why were you texting me anyway?” Derek asked.

“I just wanted to talk to you.”

He seemed unsatisfied with that answer. “Hungry?”

“Starved.” I’d had about a hundred of those tiny hot dogs rolled in croissants, but I wanted at least a hundred more.

“The pigs n’ blankets are all gone,” Derek laughed. Oh. Did I say that out loud? “How does a grilled cheese sound?”

“Perfect,” I said.

I watched him wordlessly pull ingredients out of the fridge and get to work. His gray sweatpants kept grabbing my attention. But I didn’t want to sexualize him and make him uncomfortable, so I found myself looking away.

“Why are you staring at the ceiling?”

My gaze lurched back down. “No reason.”

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