Page 105 of All Too Well
“Takes one to know one,” he tosses back.
“I’m going to just pretend you’re not cutting me off at everyturn.”
Lachlan’s smile grows. “I expected nothing less.”
“Right. So. You’re annoying and a fireman, but you’re also incredibly hot.”
“I like the turn of this one now. Please go on.”
I swear he’s the most annoying man ever. “I planned to without your permission.” I mean, really, does he think I care either way if he wanted me to stop or start? No. I need to lay it out again becausesomeonekeeps cutting me off. “My point is, you’re a fireman, you’re hot, you’re annoying, so when you combine them, you’re a spark. No one knows if you’re going to start a flame, and you’re like that lighter that keeps clicking, so you try over and over and over to get it to light.”
“Maybe it’s out of fluid,” he suggests.
“I think it’s more that you’re just annoying.”
Lachlan laughs, pulling me to his chest tighter. “I’m pretty sure I know how to start a fire in you.”
Yes, he does. I just worry about when I have to put it out, because I’m pretty sure I’m going to get burned.
twenty-two
Lachlan
“Iwant to get a whole bunch of strawberries!” Rose exclaims as we’re in my truck on the way to Virginia Beach.
Ainsley twists in her seat so she can see her. “Did you know that your dad and I went to this festival every year when we were kids?”
Rose grins. “You did?”
“We did. It was my favorite thing to go to. I would eat so many berries that I would have the worst stomachache, then they’d make me ride rides and get sick.”
I shake my head. “I think you have that a little backward.”
“I remember it perfectly.”
“You do?”
She nods. “Yup.”
“Well, as I recall, you wouldn’tlistento any of us when we warned you about eating from the containers as we walked. You’d just pick and refill, pretending like no one saw you tossing the tops of the strawberries on the path—which was a crime since you were stealing,” I say with a hint of smugness.
“Please, arrest me.”
“If I could, I would.” I continue telling Rose the rest of the story. “Then we’d walk around the festival, where you’d spend theentire time feeling like shit, and we’d have to skip going to all the fun events because you would cry that your stomach hurt so much and you needed to lie down.”
She crosses her arms over her chest. “Lies. You and Caspian would keep filling my containers as we walked, and then you made me ride that horrible spinning and twisting ride.” She drops her voice to mirror mine. “‘Come on, Ainsley, all the big kids ride the ride.’”
Okay, maybe we did that once or twice, but only because she was always talking and telling us how we should take her on the rides. At least if she was gnawing on the berries, she was quiet and we could plan how we were going to ditch her.
It wasn’t my finest hour, but I was twelve, so ... I give myself a pass.
“And you kept eating them,” I remind her.
“You were mean and—I say thisagain—annoying.”
“Yes, and you’re just . . .”
“A delight,” she finishes.
