Page 20 of Lovewell Lane (Honeyfield Dreamers #1)

Margo

Turns out booze is a crucial part of a Seedling Party.

I definitely overdid it. Everyone was so friendly, and people were handing out cups of Kenny’s delicious punch concoction like it was candy.

Plus, it was slightly chilly, and I was only wearing jeans and a sweater, so the alcohol kept me warm. That was my excuse, anyway.

Seeing Derek being so friendly was actually the reason I felt the need to drink.

When I spent time with him working on the diner he was so grumpy and independent and hard-headed that I forgot he ran an entire farm on his own.

Watching him interact with his workers and family was fascinating.

I watched him laugh at jokes and relax in his chair.

He almost looked… happy. And it was really messing with my head.

After my fourth Uno game with Tessa and Sienna, I tapped out. I stood up and wandered around aimlessly until I saw an empty seat next to someone I recognized.

“Hey, Slick.”

“Margo,” he said, holding out his drink to me. “Successful party, I’d say.”

“Definitely.” I watched as a group of small kids ran around the lawn chairs playing duck duck goose with everyone.

“So, I’m leaving on my trip tomorrow.”

“I heard.”

“I was wondering if you’d look after Derek for me.

” Derek? The six foot three grown man, Derek?

There must be a kid running around here with the same name.

Slick clearly saw the confusion on my face because he clarified, “He takes on everything, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.

It would ease my mind if there was someone looking out for him. ”

“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, he was just 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 the ACDC thing 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.”

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.”

“I already know you don’t want me to, that’s why I didn’t ask.” I leaned over to rest my forehead on the cool marble countertop of his kitchen. It felt nice on my hot skin. “I just want somebody like you have. You have soooo many people. Why can’t I have one?”

Derek patted my back and lifted me upright. Then he lowered himself to have one arm under my knees and the other still on my back. Suddenly, I was horizontal.

“Hey,” I complained. “Don’t lift me.”

“You’re tired and need to go to bed.”

I was airlifted right to my cozy bed. It was warm and snuggly, just how I liked it. “I love this place,” I said airily.

Derek mumbled something and put another bottle of water with something else on my nightstand. I sat up slightly to look him right in his eyes. “I really love this place. The whole town, and my diner, and this house. I love it,” I repeated.

“I’m glad.”

“Why can’t I take care of you?”

“You take care of me plenty, Margo. It’s time to get some sleep, now, okay?”

I nodded and fell into a deep sleep the second my head hit the pillow.

-

“No way,” Scarlet gasped.

“Please, not too loud, I’m still hearing stars,” I winced. My laptop was propped up on a pillow while I sat up in bed and watched Scarlet put on concealer through the screen. She was getting ready for work but made the time to have an emergency therapy session with me.

“What did the text say again?”

“Come over now. He probably thought I was booty-calling him!”

Scarlet shrugged. “He came over anyway. And were you booty-calling him?”

“No, even drunken Margo knew that was unfathomable. I just wanted to talk to him, which is so much more embarrassing.”

“Maybe just lay low for a day or two, lick your wounds.”

“I live in his backyard, Scar. There’s not much room to hide.”

“Don’t hide, then. It sounds like there is undeniable sexual chemistry to me. I mean he carried you to your bed? And listened to you rambling about how much you love living at his house? He clearly has a thing for you.”

“He’s just older. And a gentleman. He takes care of everyone like that.”

“He carries grown women to their beds?”

“Well, maybe not like that, I just don’t know if he sees me that way.”

“Margo. Open your eyes. It’s a beautiful world out here. There are lots of great things to see.”

I scoffed and lowered my head to rest in my hands.

“He’s so hot. The way he always fixes everything with so much ease is so sexy.

Him wanting to take care of me is so sexy.

Even the fact that he’s older does it for me, which has never happened before.

He’s so strong and smart and competent .

He’s kind, not just nice, but genuinely kind. ”

“Uh huh,” Scarlet mumbled with a smile.

“I so want to fuck my landlord,” I said out loud. It was quite the epiphany.

Scarlet lowered her eyeliner to look directly into the camera at me. “You don’t just want to fuck him, Margo.”

“Whatever,” I murmured. “Fuck him. Date him. What’s the difference?”

She raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow at me. “You’ve never really dated anyone. I know you’re joking, but you should definitely know the difference before moving forward. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

I laughed. “I won’t get hurt. Nothing will actually happen between us. It’s just quite a revelation that I want something to happen.”

“I hate to interrupt this delusional conversation you’re having— mostly with yourself, but I have to go.

You should write about this in your journal.

” She watched me bite back a laugh. “I’m serious.

I’ve been waiting for the day you’d be seriously interested in someone romantically.

I wasn’t sure it’d happen, but now that it has, you should be honest with yourself about your feelings. ”

Scarlet really picked the wrong career when she chose her major in marketing.

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll make sure to write my name with his last and frame it in hearts on the page, too.”

“Margo.”

“Scarlet.”

We had a staring contest until I broke into a laugh, immediately wincing at the effect it had on my headache. “I love you. I’ve got to go to work. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Love you, too. Bye,” I said with as much happiness as I could muster.

I closed the laptop and gently laid on my back. Bread. I needed bread and eggs to cure this hangover.