“Latasha. Nice to meet you.” She shook my hand then put her hands on her hips even though she was sitting down. Then she scowled at Derrick. “I already like her better than you.”
“She’s prettier,” Derrick said, still studying the paper.
He thought I was pretty? My face grew hot again. That was uncomfortable for a number of reasons.
But Derrick didn’t seem to think anything of it. For some reason, I found this was a bit of a relief and a disappointment. No. Not a disappointment. Just…I was going to ignore him.
Instead, he looked back at Latasha and grinned. “But what about my personal charm?”
She snorted and shook her head. “If you were that charming, you’d have a real girlfriend here with you.” She glanced back at Jessie. “Or you’d ask this one. She seems like she could up your worldly game if anyone could.”
I wanted to melt into a puddle, but Derrick didn’t miss a beat.
“Always a critic.” He leaned down and scooped Jade up before she could throw another fit, which looked to be exactly what she wanted to do while we stood in the lobby. “Hey, Geode.” He kissed the top of her head. “Let’s go back and get ready.” And before she could argue, he hoisted her up on his shoulder and moved toward the door. I followed, hoping everyone would forget the conversation that had just taken place.
Ten minutes later, Jade was in her gear and on the horse, and Derrick and I were watching from the sidelines. Derrick kept his eyes on his sister’s lesson, and I tried to think of something to say that might erase our recent conversation. He had a girlfriend. Maybe I could get him talking about her.
“So,” I shoved my hands into my jean pockets, “you have a girlfriend?”
He grinned. “What, we make peace and now you’re hitting on me?”
I gaped at him. “I…No! I don’t…I’m making basic conversation!”
“Relax. I’m riling you up on purpose.” He stretched and linked his hands behind his head, a cocky grin on his face. “You’re just so tightly wound that it’s kind of hard not to.” He quirked an eyebrow. “Are you going to be this way all summer?”
“I am not tightly wound!” I sputtered. “I’m…I’m professional!” Did the man’s ability to annoy know no bounds?
“You’re too worried about what the Allen clan is going to think and say.” He shook his head. “You’re nannying my sister, not applying to be my family’s personal nun.”
I crossed my arms and pursed my lips. “As far as I can see, there’s no pleasing you no matter what I do.”
“My fiancée’s name is Amy,” he said, watching Jade as one of the instructors stopped the horse to adjust her posture. “We met in Colorado, where I was stationed last. She works at a law firm there.” He held out his phone, and the lock screen lit up with a picture of a woman with lips so red and skin so white and hair so dark she might as well have been Snow White. She was drop-dead gorgeous. And from the look of her fitted sweater and perfectly pleated mini skirt, she seemed to have the inherent sense of style that I had somehow missed out on.
So he was engaged. Not that it mattered. In fact, I pitied the girl. “Do you get to see her often?” I asked, hoping to keep his attention on Amy and away from me.
He kept his eyes on his sister. “She’s pretty busy, but I’m going to try to drive out there when I can. I’ve got a buddy still at Peterson that I stay with when I go to see her.”
“Is Peterson an Air Force base?” I asked.
“It is. It’s one of the few bases with C-130’s. I worked there as a hydraulics maintainer, same as I do here.”
I watched Jade giggle as the horse began to move faster. “What does a hydraulics maintainer do?”
“Brakes. Things that open and close. I make sure the wheels of the plane do what they’re supposed to.”
“That sounds…hard,” was all I could come up with.
He shrugged. “It’s not that bad. But it does mean dealing with a lot of hydraulic fluid that doesn’t wash out of your uniform.” He turned back to me and opened his mouth as if to speak. Then he looked down and promptly shut it.
“What’s that?” He nodded down at my feet.
I followed his gaze to my yellow rose backpack. “What? My bag?”
“That book, the one sticking out of the bag. You keep touching it.” He reached down into my bag and pulled it out. I thought about yanking it away, then thought better of it. He may be about five-years-old, but I was an adult. “Beauty and the Beast?” He turned the book around in his hand, running his fingers along the gold filigree sprawling across the binding against the dark blue background. “It is Beauty and the Beast.”
I smiled and rolled my eyes. “Fine. You caught me. I like fairy tales.”
“Actually, I’m impressed.” He grinned as he flipped through the blue leather-bound book. “What else?”
