Текст книги "Perfect Kind Of Trouble"

Автор книги: Chelsea Fine

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Текущая страница: 19 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

43 Kayla

Daren. Ackwood.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed that someday I’d be head over heels for Daren Ackwood. But I am completely and utterly in love with the crazy brown-eyed boy standing beside me in the bathroom. And after last night, I completely understand what the big fuss was about Daren in bed. My God. Woman Whisperer, indeed. He kept me up most of the night, pleasing me in ways I didn’t know were possible. In his bed. On the floor. Even in the shower, though I now agree that shower sex isn’t nearly as hot as, say, sex against his bedroom wall.

“Are you using my toothbrush?” he asks, his eyes bulging in horror.

I laugh through the toothpaste in my mouth. “I couldn’t find mine.”

“That’s disgusting.”

I rinse my mouth and scoff. “We shared bodily fluids last night and you’re grossed out that our teeth have touched the same brush?”

“Ew. Don’t say ‘bodily fluids.’ That’s so nasty.”

I laugh. “What about ‘pee’? Can I say ‘pee’?”

“You know, for such a pretty mouth you say some disgusting words.” He leans in and kisses me. “But I still really love your mouth.”

“Mmm. My mouth loves you.” I kiss him on the nose then pad out to his room. I look at his bed with a smile. “I guess your mattress isn’t a virgin anymore.”

He cheerily scoffs from the counter. “Nothing in this room is a virgin anymore.”

Still smiling, I walk to my suitcase and sigh. “Man. I can’t believe I lost my toothbrush. It has to be here somewhere.” I start yanking things out of my luggage and tossing them aside.

“What’s happening here?” Daren walks out of the bathroom and starts picking up my clothes. “Bra… bra… jeans… scarf… gloves…” He looks at me. “You do know you’re in Arizona. We don’t really get blizzards here.”

I laugh. “I know. But we do get blizzards in Chicago. And I didn’t want to leave my clothes behind.”

He picks up more stuff. “Well that explains the trench coat.”

A beat passes and we snap our eyes to each other.

“Trench coat,” I say.

“There were a bunch of trench coats in the closet at Milly Manor,” Daren says with wide eyes.

“ ‘Through the trenches,’ ” I say, citing the clue. “Did we look behind the coats? Do you think there could be a safe in the closet too?”

“ ‘A safe place through the trenches,’ ” Daren recites with a smile. “I think we just figured out the clue.”

“I think so too! But wait,” I say. “What about the handcuffs? We took them off.” I bite my lip in distress. “We forfeited all the money.”

He twitches his lips in thought. “No. Not yet. We only forfeited the money if someone told on us. Let me call Eddie and find out.” He grabs his phone, dials a number, and puts the call on speakerphone as it rings.

Eddie’s voice mail picks up after the third ring and says, “Hello. You’ve reached Eddie Perkins. If this is one of my legal clients, please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible. If this is Daren or Kayla, I have not gotten any reports about the two of you being at Latecomers without handcuffs on last night. None whatsoever. So the inheritance is still yours if you can find it. Thank you for calling.”

A long beep follows and Daren hangs up. We stare at each other.

“So Eddie is going to let us get away with it?” I smile.

“I guess so,” Daren says, shaking his head with a grin. “Man, I love that guy. I’m going to buy him a new bow tie. You know, if we find the money. Do you still have the handcuffs?”

I rustle through my suitcase and pull them out with a wink. “Let’s slap these babies on, go back to Milly Manor, and dig through some trenches.”

He freezes. “Wait a minute…” Rummaging through his room, he starts going through the pockets of his jeans.

I watch him. “What are you doing?”

“You know those notes in the blue suitcase, the ones that were addressed to each of our names? Well I’m pretty sure mine had the word ‘trenches’ on it… Aha.” He finds the note and quickly unfolds it. “Yep. See?”

I look. In the bottom left corner it says THE TRENCHES in black marker with the number twenty-two underneath.

Daren says, “I thought it was just a mistake or that maybe your dad was reusing a piece of paper, but that can’t be a coincidence. Right?”

I shake my head. “It’s not a coincidence. My note has a random word and number on it too.” Digging through my purse, I hold up the note addressed to my name from the suitcase closet. “See? My note says ‘through fourteen.’ ”

We hold our notes up, side by side, and together they read THROUGH THE TRENCHES 1422.

“We had the clue to the hiding place all along,” I say, stunned. “Crap. And my note ‘encouraged’ me to show it to you, too. Dammit. Why didn’t I listen?”

“So did mine.” He nods. “But it was kind of personal so I didn’t show you.”

I say, “Yeah, well I chose not to let you read mine because I didn’t want you to get a big head.”

“Why?” Daren grins. “What did Turner say about me in your note? Can I read it?”

I eye him. “Only if I can I read yours.”

We swiftly swap notes and I read the letter my father wrote to Daren.

Daren,

I’m sorry that I’m gone. But more importantly, I’m sorry that I’ll be missing out on the rest of your life. Your circumstances have taught you to underestimate yourself and hide behind your reputation. I want to teach you the opposite.

I know you, Daren. All your strengths, all your hopes, all your hesitations. I know the bare bones of who you are, and there isn’t a doubt in my mind that you will be very successful and much loved in life. But it’s not my doubts, or lack thereof, that matter.

You are about to embark on a journey that will hopefully encourage you, if not completely change you. And I’ve designated Kayla as your travel partner.

My daughter is just as stubborn and resilient as you, which is why I used handcuffs to keep you together. Had I not, the two of you would still be searching for the inheritance, independent of each other, of course, and with no intention of ever sharing the money. Not because you’re selfish people, but because you’re impossibly guarded. One of the many things that make you and Kayla so similar.

You’re both inverted diamonds in the rough; polished on the outside, cracked and raw within. But priceless just the same.

Yet you both doubt love—despite all I’ve tried to teach you. But alas, there are some lessons in life that cannot be taught. Some lessons, especially those on finding love, are only learned through time and trust.

And I gave you both the moment you were handcuffed to Kayla.

Happy hunting, Daren. Take care of my little girl.

I finish reading my dad’s careful handwriting and look up. He knew. Even though he wasn’t really in my life these past five years, my dad knew me and my heart well enough to know that Daren Ackwood was exactly what I needed.

And he didn’t hesitate to handcuff us together to prove it.

Daren and I lock eyes.

He eyes me. “Why are you smiling so big?”

The smile I hadn’t realized I was wearing stretches even wider. “Because I really love my dad.”

44 Daren

I’ve never been so happy to see Golf Cart Gus. I flag him down as Kayla and I run toward the town square, and when he stops for us we jump inside.

“Hi,” Kayla says with her best smile. “I’m Kayla.”

Gus is immediately smitten. “Why, hello darling.” He kisses her hand and she giggles.

After throwing clothes on and chaining ourselves back together, Kayla and I went out to her car, only to find it with another dead battery. With no other options, we ran, handcuffed, to the town square and, thankfully, came across Gus.

“So listen,” I say. “Kayla and I need to get to Milly Manor, but we don’t have any money to tip you with.”

“Yet,” Kayla corrects. She smiles at Gus. “We don’t have any money yet. But as soon as we do we’ll totally pay you back if you wouldn’t mind giving us a ride right now.”

He looks her over with a grin. “Anything for you, sugar.” He turns to me and says, “You lucky dog.”

I glance at Kayla and smile. “I know.”

Two minutes later, Gus drops us off at Milly Manor and we fumble around the front yard, tripping over our own feet as we struggle to get into the backyard and dig through the garden to grab the spare key.

Once we let ourselves inside the house, we waste no time running for the same hall closet where we found the blue suitcase. We open the door and shove aside all the coats within.

There, just like we guessed, is a giant safe.

Kayla giggles. “I can’t believe it.”

I smile. “We should have known. We should have known!” I look at her. “You open it. It’s your home. Your father. You should open it.”

She tries the door. “It’s locked. But there’s a keypad for a number combination.”

I nod. “Try fourteen twenty-two.”

“Ooh. Yeah. ‘Through the trenches fourteen twenty-two.’ You’re brilliant.” She punches in 1422 and a clicking sound fills the closet. Kayla bites her lip, then slowly swings the safe door open.

For a moment, we stare in silence.

“I don’t believe it,” she says quietly.

I blink. “Me neither.”

Inside the safe are stacks and stacks of money, all hundred-dollar bills, all banded together, and on top of the bills is one final envelope.

Kayla carefully reaches for the envelope and pulls out the paper inside.

My dear Kayla and Daren,

This is my last letter to you, and I hope you find it with different hearts than you had when you set out. I always had money during my life, but I did not always have happiness, and I think that was the lesson I wanted you to learn most of all. People are where our happiness is found.

Daren. You are not my son, but I cared for you as such. There were many days I wished that I could be part of your life in a more significant way. I cannot begin to tell you how proud I always was of you, and how much I believe in you. I hope you learn that your value is not in what others make of you, but in what you find in yourself and what your loved ones see in you.

And my sweet Kayla. Fatherhood did not go as planned for me. I wanted to be more involved in your life than I was, but life is not always fair. All the money in the world could not buy back the years I missed as your father. But I always loved you, never doubt that for a moment. Being your father was the best thing that ever happened to me. I have no doubt you will find greatness in life. No matter what dreams you follow or paths you take, I know that you will shine, my little diamond. I will love you always.

As for the two of you, I don’t know if you are still handcuffed together, but regardless, I hope you do not resent me for asking you to do it. I knew, from the moment you were young children, that the two of you knew how to love more than anyone else I’ve ever known. And hopefully, you will use that love to the advantage of your relationship, whether it be for friendship or for something more.

Because money without love is complete poverty. And poverty with love, well that’s pure wealth. I love you both so much.

We turn to stare at each other in the hallway as joy fills our faces. We reach into the safe to pull out the bills and, behind them…

“The box!” I smile broadly and pull out the green box, still wound with ribbon, that Marcella wrapped for me all those years ago. I take the box in my hands.

Kayla gasps. “My locket!” She carefully lifts a small gold necklace from the safe and kisses the heart-shaped locket hanging from its chain. She smiles at the box in my hands. “You got your baseball cards back, I see.”

“I did, but it was never about the baseball cards. It was about the green box the cards were in.” I open the box. Inside are my baseball cards from so long ago, but beside those cards still sits the paperback copy of Holes that Marcella gave me for Christmas all those years ago. “Marcella gave me this when I was a kid.” I open the first few pages to the inscription. “This was what I wanted to get back.

Kayla leans over and reads Marcella’s handwritten inscription out loud, “ ‘To my favorite boy. I will love you forever, mijo. Love, Marcella.’ ”

“It’s the only thing she ever wrote to me,” I explain. “And after she died, I didn’t have anything left of her. But this book was here all along.” I look at Kayla’s necklace. “I’m guessing that’s pretty special?”

She nods. “My father gave it to me and—” She opens the heart locket and gasps. Inside is a note from her father—a new note, probably written just before he died. “ ‘My Kayla,’ ” she reads out loud. “ ‘It was an honor to be your father. I will love you forever.’ ”

She chokes up and I pull her against my chest.

As we look down at our precious lost items and the loving words left for us by Marcella and James Turner, Kayla inhales deeply and says, “Wow. That was the best scavenger hunt ever.”

Nodding, I look at Kayla, in my arms and in my heart, and smile.

Jackpot.

Epilogue Kayla

I dust off my hands as we move the last box of stuff into my new room at Willow Inn. It’s been three weeks since Daren and I found my father’s hidden money, and in that time I accepted Ellen’s job offer as a waitress at Willow Inn, while Daren accepted her offer as her new cook.

He was able to quit his other jobs so he now works full-time in the kitchen with Mable, and I swear he smiles all day long. He can’t stop talking about how he wants to open his own restaurant someday.

The girl who was the prep cook before me, Pixie, now lives in Tempe where she’s going to Arizona State University. And because Pixie knows a lot of people at ASU, she’s going to introduce me to some friends of hers that are currently in the nursing program. Which will be great since I start classes at ASU this spring.

Ellen let me stay at the inn as a guest while she had Pixie’s room repainted. The guy who lived next to Pixie, Levi, moved down to Phoenix as well, so Ellen had both rooms painted yellow.

I also bought a working car so I could travel back and forth from Willow Inn to Copper Springs to visit Daren, whom I’ve decided I completely and forever love.

Daren put his share of the money to fast use, paying off all the medical bills he wanted to take care of and buying a new car for himself as well. As much as he missed Monique, he thought it would be silly to spend so much money on a car. So he bought a truck instead. Overall, things have just fallen into place for us and I couldn’t be happier.

Daren enters my room with a giant box in one hand and a bag of cookies in the other.

“Ooh, I love you, I love you, I love you.” I smile at the cookies.

“Easy, tiger.” He sets down the box and pulls two cookies from the bag.

I look him over with a smile. “You know, I read the book Holes last week.”

He lifts a brow. “You did?”

I nod and eye him closely. “And at the end, the boy who had to dig all those holes finds a lost treasure and all his bad luck goes away. Pretty fitting, don’t you think?”

A slow grin pulls up his face. “I knew I liked that book for a reason.” He looks around my room. “So what do you think of your new home?”

I grin at the bright yellow walls and the new blue bedding I bought for my bed. “I love it.”

He hands me a cookie. “And you know the best part about your room?”

I eye him. “What’s that?”

He grins. “That it’s right next door to an empty room that will soon be mine.”

“Are you being serious?” I smile so widely my face hurts.

He nods. “We’re going to be neighbors—if that’s okay with you.”

“That is more than okay,” I say. “That’s incredible!”

“Then here’s to being neighbors.” He holds up his cookie and grins. “And to handcuffs.”

I tap my cookie to his with a smile. “Here’s to handcuffs.”

About the Author

Chelsea lives in Phoenix, Arizona, where she spends most of her time writing stories, painting murals, and avoiding housework at all costs. She’s ridiculously bad at doing dishes and claims to be allergic to laundry. Her obsessions include: superheroes, coffee, sleeping in, and crazy socks. She lives with her husband and two children, who graciously tolerate her inability to resist teenage drama on TV and her complete lack of skill in the kitchen.