Page 14 of Sweetheart and the Grouch
“So, what? You’ll just hack into our files or something?”
He folds his arms across his broad chest and shrugs. “Either that, or I’ll ask my boss to run a check on you, or I can even ask my sister-in-law to get her brother to do it. He’s a cop over in Kismet Cove.”
“You’d really do that to us?”
“If you can’t help me understand what’s going on and why it seems like you’re running away, then yeah. It’s exactly what I’m gonna do.”
“That’s a real douchebag thing to do. What if doing all that let CPS know where we were? Can’t you just accept that we’re better off on our own and leave it at that?”
“Can’t you just accept that I’m not walking away from this?” He furrows his brow and steps so he’s standing right in front of me and I have to crane my neck up to keep eye contact. “There is very obviously something going on with you two, and I’m not going anywhere until I know what it is, and most importantly, that you’re safe.”
He reaches up and brushes my curls from my face the same way he did last night. It makes my heart ache and sing at the same time. “I thought I was too young for you,” I whisper, my eyes burning as he crowds my vision and closes in.
“You are.”
“And what happened to only being neighbors?”
“I’m not strong enough to only be your neighbor, Ainsley.”
“Then what do you want?”
“All of you. I want all of you,” he whispers, sealing his mouth over mine.
AJAX
Achildish giggle interrupts the kiss before it moves much further than the touch of our lips and a single sweep of the tongue.
“I told you he was looking at you like John Smith!” Elena calls out, her little face poking out the open window with a wide grin.
“You really need to learn something about timing, El,” Ainsley groans as we pull apart.
“Well, I’m only ten and you two are doing this stuff out in broad daylight.”
“We’ll continue this later,” I whisper near Ainsley’s ear, pressing my lips to her forehead before I start heading back into the cabin. “We should probably get back to cleaning.”
“Are you staying now?”
“Looks that way.”
“Are you and Ainsley boyfriend and girlfriend now?”
Ainsley jumps in at that. “We’re just figuring stuff out, Ellie. Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“Oh, I’m already planning your wedding. Ajax here is a keeper!”
“Are you sure she’s only ten?” I ask Ainsley over my shoulder, laughing as she rolls her eyes and covers her beet-red face with her hands. I stop in the doorway and catch her about the wrist. “I still wanna know your story, by the way. Don’t think I’ve forgotten.”
She lifts her eyes to mine and exhales. “OK. I’ll tell you. But later, OK? When Elena’s gone to bed. Can you stick around that long?”
“Like I said, I’m not goin’ anywhere.”
A slow smile kicks up the side of her pink lips. “I believe you.”
When we finish with the cleaning, we sit outside in the sunshine to enjoy a picnic lunch while a pot of orange rind and cinnamon simmers away on the stove. That, coupled with the doors and windows being wide open means that cabin will soon smell like Fall. The memory of the damper incident will be thoroughly cleansed away, although for me, the part where a naked Ainsley came flying down those steps and into my arms is a sight I’ll carry with me always. No amount of cleaning is going to scrub that one. It’s in my spank bank forever.
“I don’t think you mentioned how you’re supporting yourselves while you live up here,” I say after the food is finished and Elena has moved off to explore. She’s currently trying to swing from a low-lying tree branch at the edge of the property, but she keeps losing her grip and needing to start the process all over again.
“I’m a freelance writer,” Ainsley says, giving me a slight smile as she splits a blade of grass between her nails. “I write articles, blog posts… you name it, I’ve probably had a hand in it. It’s surprising how much work is out there for a writer with a little talent.”
