“…just don’t understand why you don’t have a wedding date yet. You’ve been engaged for almost half a year.” It was Mrs. Allen.
“I’m aware of that, Mom,” Derrick snapped. “But unless my bride sets a date, I can’t do a darn thing now, can I?”
“Derrick Allen, you had better not have done something to upset her.”
“What business of that is yours?”
“Amy is the one thing in this world that you have done right. She’s beautiful and smart and has her head on straight. All the things you need. And if you do something to lose her, so help me, I’m not even sure what I’ll do with you.”
Ouch. I wasn’t a Derrick fan of any sort, but I couldn’t imagine my mother talking to me like that. Derrick was talking again, but I decided I’d listened in long enough. I opened the door again and closed it loudly this time.
“Hello?” I called as though just getting in. “I’m here.”
The arguing abruptly ended, and Mrs. Allen came out a moment later to greet me, all signs of their argument gone.
“Good morning, Jessie. I’m just about to go, but I left some take-out in the fridge for you from last night. You can have it for lunch if you want.”
“Thanks so much.” I had to work to keep the smile on my face this time. “I hope you have a great day.”
She grabbed her purse and called goodbye to Jade before leaving. After she’d closed and locked the door behind her, I dared a peek at Derrick. He’d followed her out, but now he turned to go back into the kitchen, still muttering under his breath.
We didn’t speak much for the rest of the morning. Derrick seemed lost in La-la Land, which would have been fine with me, had I not heard his mother’s words that morning. So I did my best to get Jade ready quickly, and I didn’t complain at all when he put her in the car and buckled her in himself.
I couldn’t keep my mouth shut or my sympathy high, though, once we realized it was the therapy center’s first day at their new location. We also learned rather quickly that we didn’t know where that was, even with GPS.
“I told you that you should have turned left back at that last light.” I shook my head and sipped coffee from my travel mug.
“What?” Derrick asked. “And lose out on our adventure?” He seemed to have forgotten about his mother’s jabs and was in finer form than ever.
“Thanks to your littleadventure, we’re going to be three minutes late.” I looked at my phone’s map in dismay. Jade’s therapy center had moved to what they called a “more central” location. But I was really beginning to doubt that moniker.
Derrick came to a stop so fast I shrieked as coffee spilled all over my lap.
“You really are a beast,” I muttered as I grabbed a tissue and began to pat my jeans dry.
“I’m okay with that.” He grinned unashamedly as the light turned green. “The beast got his girl in the end.”
“Lucky for him, he got to change back into a prince. You never had that option to begin with.”
“Ouch.” He gave me a patronizing look. “No fun today, are we?”
I held his startling blue gaze for a long minute before pulling out my phone again. That’s it. I was going in for the kill.
“What are you doing?” he asked after several minutes of silence. I couldn’t help being a little thrilled at the suspicious look in his eyes. Good. Served him right.
“You are the third person to accuse me recently of not knowing how to have fun,” I said, holding up my phone so he could see. “So the three of us are going to have more fun than you ever imagined.”
He squinted at the screen. “What is that?”
“Guess what, Jade?” I gushed, turning around in my seat. “We’re going to the diamond mine next week!”
“Yay!” she squealed, nearly dropping the book she’d been looking at.
I turned back to Derrick triumphantly. “A full day of digging for diamonds. Doesn’t that sound like an adventure?”
For the first time since I’d met him, he looked truly miffed. “That’s your idea of fun?”
“Of course!” I feigned surprise. “Who wouldn’t want to go digging in the dirt for a full day?”
