All I've Waited For by Lindsay Harrel (classic books for 13 year olds .TXT) 📕

“Do you have time to take a break now?” Heather kissed Mia on the head. “It’s almost this one’s bedtime.”

Click, click, click. Ashley’s thumb was getting a workout with her pen. “Um, sure.”

Mia jumped down from her stool and held out her hand to Ashley. “Come on. I’ll let you pick any of the Barbies. Except for the wedding Barbie. She’s my favorite.”

“Oh, she’s mine too. But I’m sure I can find a great second favorite.” Laughing, Ashley took his niece’s hand.

Mia held out her other. “Uncle Elephant. You too. We need a Ken. And you’re the best Ken around.”

“He really is, isn’t he?” Heather squeezed Derek’s shoulders. “You’ve been summoned, big brother.”

“All right, all right.” Standing, he made his way toward Mia and Ashley, whose eyes laughed at him. He bowed. “Ken, at your service.”

Mia’s and Ashley’s giggles pealed through the lofty kitchen. His niece stole his hand, tugging him and Ashley toward the living room.

He turned to eye Heather. “Aren’t you going to join us?”

“After I clean the dishes.”

“I can do that later. Come on.”

“I’ll be right out.” Her eyes held a twinkle.

The traitor.

After the three of them had picked out dolls—or, rather, Mia assigned them—they headed to the back door. Stepping out, Mia went straight for the brown swing attached to the underside of the porch roof by two metal chains and plopped down. “Okay, Uncle Elephant, you sit on one side and Miss Ashley on the other.”

Both of the adults obeyed the little dictator, and the wood groaned with the effort. Mia proceeded to tell each of them what to say and where to move.

After fifteen minutes of playing with the bride Barbie, she inclined her head toward Ashley. “We can switch dolls now if you want.”

“Oh, I kind of like being the doctor Barbie.”

Mia frowned. “But the bride Barbie and Ken need to kiss, and Mommy told me I’m too young to make the Barbies kiss. So you have to do it.”

Okaaay. Enough of that. “Peanut, you know what I think it’s time for?”

His niece eyed him warily. “What?”

“Snuggles and stars.”

Her eyes lit up. “My favorite!” Then, after placing all of the dolls gently on the ground, she scrambled up into his lap, leaving a Mia-sized gap between Derek and Ashley.

“Snuggles and stars?” Ashley arched an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

“We snuggle and look at the stars, silly.” Mia shook her head as if it should have been obvious. “Scoot over so you can snuggle too. It doesn’t work if you’re too far away.”

“Um, I should probably—”

“But, Miss Ashley, you promised you’d stay.”

Ashley’s eyes met Derek’s, and she shifted on the seat.

Ugh. She was uncomfortable. Of course she was, after what he’d pulled on Thursday. “Miss Ashley needs to go.”

Then Mia busted out the trembling lower lip. She was a wily one. “But …”

“All right. I can stay for a few minutes.”

“You sure?” He studied Ashley.

Her gaze shifted down to Mia, then back up to him. “Yeah.” She moved a bit closer to him on the bench.

He shouldn’t be so happy to have her near.

The temperature had dropped rapidly with the sun, and Mia’s little body shivered against him, so Derek pulled a quilt off the back of the swing where someone had left it on some previous night. After tugging the quilt over them both, he tossed half of it across Ashley’s legs.

“Now, let’s look at some stars, shall we?” He pointed out the obvious ones, including Mia’s favorite, the Big Dipper. Crickets chirped as the three of them laughed and made up silly stories, Ashley contributing one about Leo, the lion who got his head stuck in a jar of honey.

Eventually, Mia started to yawn and turned to snuggle into Derek’s chest. After less than a minute, her breathing evened.

Ashley glanced down from the sky and at the four-year-old. “I think she’s out.” Her voice remained soft.

“Guess I’m not going anywhere for a while.” His chest squeezed as he watched Mia, took in the relaxed peace in her features. “We just had one more thing to talk about wedding wise, right?”

“Oh.” Ashley straightened a bit on the seat. “Yes. Vows.”

“Vows?”

“Yeah.” She coughed. “Do you guys want to go traditional or write your own?”

“I guess I haven’t thought much about it.”

“Really?” Ashley’s hands played with the raggedy fringe on the blue quilt. “Hmm.”

“What?” He winced at the sharpness in his tone. Thankfully, Mia didn’t wake up. Derek lowered his voice. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“I know you, Ash, and that wasn’t nothing.” The wind kicked up, nipping his face. He adjusted the quilt better around Mia, covering her neck and ears.

“I just …” Ashley heaved out a hard breath and fixed her gaze once more on the sky, where thousands of stars lit the black around them.

That was her—light and beauty even in the darkness.

“You just what?”

“Do you love her, Derek?”

His grip on the quilt tightened, its soft timeworn fabric digging into his hands. “Why are you asking me that?”

“Most couples I work with … they just act differently than you guys do.”

“So people have to act all lovey-dovey for you to believe they should get married?”

“No. That’s not it.” She turned her body toward him, her foot sidling up to his for a moment before it fell away. “You said you know me, but I know you too. And this whole thing just doesn’t jibe with the man I know. He was steady and logical, yes, but he was passionate too.”

“I can’t afford to be passionate now. I have responsibilities.” He pressed a kiss to the top of Mia’s head. “People counting on me.”

“I can certainly understand that, but—”

“If you did, you wouldn’t be challenging me on this.”

His niece rustled beneath him. Oops. He needed to be better about holding in his temper.

Ashley’s eyebrows pulled downward. “I don’t get what all of that has to do with you marrying Claire.” Her voice hissed across the expanse between them, which might as well have been miles instead of inches. “What I want to