Page 44 of Lovewell Lane

He was awfully giggly today. He laughed under his breath at my response and grabbed a knife to cut the grilled cheese in half. “Rectangles or triangles?”

“Triangles, of course.”

He did as I asked and set the plate in front of me. He’d given me more of those delicious potatoes they served at the party along with it. “Do you have any soda?”

I shoved the grilled cheese in my mouth when he turned around. I’d never been so hungry in my whole life. He placed a glass of water in front of me and moved to sit in the seat next to me at the dining table.

“So you had a good time tonight?”

I mumbled an affirmative through the food in my mouth.

“Good. So did I,” Derek mumbled with that sexy accent of his. The quieter he spoke the thicker it got.

Coughing sounds spluttered out of me as I nearly choked. He slapped my back to help me get a hold of myself. I swallowed and reached for the water bottle to wash it down.

“You did look happy. It was kind of unsettling,” I said.

He chuckled. The same lines next to his eyes that appeared when he was annoyed appeared when he laughed, too.I like those lines.

“I like the people I work with. My family, too. In small doses, at least,” he said.

“Hm.” What about me?

“I like you too.” I looked at him, surprised. Had I said that out loud again? Or was he a mind reader? Suddenly Honeyfield had a lot of similarities to Forks, Washington.

“Are you a vampire?”

He openly laughed this time. No chuckling or half-assed bullshit, he belly laughed. “Margo, are you just drunk or are you high? You sound insane.”

“Whatever was in that punch was intense.”

“Let’s just keep sipping on your water for now.” He grabbed my plate and stood up to take it to the sink. I stopped him by putting a hand on his bicep. It felt so nice.

“Let me wash it, you cooked, so I’ll clean,” I insisted. I stood up and clumsily took the plate from him. I was halfway to the sink when I misjudged the distance to the kitchen island. Derek stepped in and swept me off my feet to place me out of the way of the island.

“Hey,” I accused.

“You were going to run into the counter. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

I scoffed. “But I’m supposed to be the one taking care of you.” He took the plate from my hands, and I chased his arms, reaching for it. “Your dad literally asked me to.”

He dropped the plate to his side. “What?”

“Why do they call him Slick anyway?”

Derek moved to stand right in front of me to keep my attention. “What do you mean he asked you to take care of me?”

“At the party, he said to look after you while he’s away. I’m doing a horrible job, and it hasn’t even started.”

Derek set the plate in the sink and looked at me hard. Like he was trying to read my mind again. “And you agreed to this?”

“Sure,” I said. Simple as that.

“Why?”

“You do too much. You take care of all those people that showed up today, and wow was that a looot of people. I can’t imagine taking care of that many people. It must be exhausting. I can’t even take care of you,” I whined.

“You don’t need to take care of me, Margo.”

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