Every Girl Does It (27 page)

“
Get back here
!” Pr
eston yells loudly into my ear.

I’m now deaf
,
I think cheerfully to myself. He
’
s trying to catch Ashlyn as she runs
around the firehouse for the tenth time.
Unfortunately
,
she has the engagement ring tucked away in a box on her.

Preston
thought it would be romantic to propose for real rather than constantly telling me I was going to marry him. Plus
,
I did threaten him within an inch of his life that if he didn’t do a real proposal, I would find the tape of our high school choir performance where he tried to ask me out for the first time.

Needless to say
,
this is why I
’
m waiting patiently at the fire house for Preston to chase around his dog. The same dog I mistook for his wife
. Sometimes
when I think about the whole fiasco
,
I contemplate medicine for insanity. I mean what was I thinking? I got all of that from a few text messages.

I shake my head and cross my arms, looking the part of annoyed girlfriend
,
when
actually
I wouldn’t want my life any other way.

“I can’t find her,
” Preston pants next to me
.
“And if you say one thing about my cardio being low I’m going to tackle you.”

I snap my mouth shut because that was exactly what I was going to comment on. He’s faster
,
but I can run for longer amounts of time. Not that he ever lets me remind him of such things.

He turns quickly to look at me and smiles “Did I mess up the proposal?”

I smile back
.
“We’ll get the ring when she tuckers out.”

He laughs and gets down on one knee “Amanda?”

“Yes
,
Brad
,
” I answer seriously
.

He laughs and corrects himself “Angelina?”
My eyebrow raises in appreciation.
“Would you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”

I wait as long as possible and watch him slowly become
paler
by the second. I finally pull him up
,
wrap my arms around him
,
and whisper yes into his neck.

He picks me up and twirls me Hollywood movie style then kisses me forcefully on the mouth. “Challenge accepted.” He mumbles against my lips.

“What?” I look at him puzzled
.
“
What
do you mean by that?”

“You’re a challenge….always challenging me
,
at least
.
I a
ppreciate that. So I accept all
future challenges from here on out!” He looks delightfully giddy.

I clap
my hands together and smile
.
“R
eally? All challenges?”

He nods. Oh men, the weaker sex.

“Great!” I say jumping up and down “
On your mark—
”

“Amanda!” He’s looking at me with his mad eyes.

“Get set!” I plant my feet
,
knowing he’s going to lose because he’s been chasing the dog around the firehouse for the past hour. I
love winning.

“
Go
!” I take off like a crazy person and fall just as fast. What in the world?

Preston sits on the floor with me and laughs, “I was trying to tell you. Your shoes are untied.”

I look at him and blush slightly before I lean over and kiss him on the mouth. “I love you.”

He chuckles
.
“Like I said before, yo
u’re crazy, but I love you too.”

Rachel Van Dyken is a Graduate of Northwest Nazarene University, with a degree in Social Sciences with an emphasis industrial psychology and a minor in Spanish. She is also a Post Graduate of California Coast University receiving a MBA with an emphasis in Human Resource Management.
She resides in Nampa, Idaho and counsels children.
Starbucks is a daily must, spiders make her scream, and she loves chocolate but is allergic, of course.
Nate, her husband makes her laugh so hard she cries and they share their home with a very loud snoring boxer named Sir Winston Churchill.

Sixteen-year-old Ima Berry (pronounced I’m a) leads anything but a normal life. For starters, the ridiculous name her eccentric dad gave her is always the opening for a goodjoke. Not to mention the fact he makes his living as a supernatural investigator, which has them moving around every few months. It’s hard to hang out with new friends when she spends all her time trying to prove the existence of Bigfoot, ghosts, fairies and any other number of paranormal creatures. Unfortunately, the cases always end in disaster. That is until now.

On a whim, Ima’s father decides to move them to Point Hope, Alaska. Here, he plans to investigate the possibility of shifters amongst the Inuit tribes. Ima isn't thrilled with the move, until she meets an Inuit guy named Carsen. Not only is he hot, but he’s also a star basketball player, and he’s interested in her. Too bad his best friend, Talon, doesn't like her and takes every opportunity he can to discourage the relationship. Ima has no idea what she’s done to make him mad, but there’s no denying the strange connection between them.

As things grow more serious with Carsen, Ima uncovers a secret about him and some of the residents of Point Hope. A secret that will force her to choose between her father’s already dwindling career and her new found love. And with the knowledge of this secret comes danger…a danger that could cost them their lives.

“Shh…do you hear that?” Dad said.

I could barely make out his form as I stumbled to a stop. We were in the Modoc National Forest surrounded by thick trees that blocked out most of the light. Even at midday, it was gloomy and creepy. I took a step closer to our cameraman, Matt, and the scent of bug spray assaulted my nose.

The last thing I wanted to do was get lost in the middle of a Bigfoot hunt.

Matt angled his camera toward my dad then panned over to me. All I saw was his dark shaggy hair over the camera, but I knew he was probably grinning like an excited idiot, too. I mean, this was the closest we’d been to seeing something significant all week.

The faint sound of wood banging on wood filtered through the silence, and I reached down to grab the thermal-imaging camera off my belt. As quiet as possible, I swept the area for evidence of the big, hairy sort.

“Dad,” I whispered, hurrying over to the shrubs. I bent down and examined a huge print in the dirt, easily the length of my arm, from wrist to armpit.

“It’s a print,” I said, trying to keep my voice low but failing miserably. This was it!

My dad barked out orders to his colleagues while cameramen filmed the clearing. See, my dad is Lou Berry, the host of the show Berry S.I. (supernatural investigator). Tonight was the team’s last night in the Modoc National Forest, not to mention the season’s final episode.

He’s a paranormal investigator/crypto-zoologist. Yeah, I know. No one takes him seriously because of his belief in the unexplainable. He’s the laughing stock of the scientific community, and it doesn’t help that every one of his investigations gets botched in some way.

I swear he has the worst luck. How else could I explain the things that happened on set? Last season, we were so close to proving the existence of the Dogman, but the camera film and video footage ended up blurred and at one point disappeared all together. Then there were the DNA samples that got lost in the mail—on seven different occasions! And the cement casts we took? They ended up broken. It was like the forces of nature were against Dad proving his theories.

“Ima,” my dad called out. “Prepare the casting so we can get the print.”

Ima. That would be me. It’s pronounced ‘I’m A’. And yes, my last name
really
is Berry. It gets better; my middle name is Blue. So I officially have the most embarrassing name in the world. Ima Blue Berry.

But it could be worse. My middle name could’ve been Dingle instead. Thank goodness for small favors, eh?

I pulled out a pair of rubber gloves and dumped quick-set cement powder and water into a plastic bag, mixing them together.

“The casting’s ready.” I poured the concoction into the large footprint.

“Make sure there isn’t any debris to interfere with the cast,” Dad said over my shoulder.

I rolled my eyes. “I’ve been doing this since I was like two.”

I grew up on set with him, traveling to exotic locations for investigations. At sixteen, I’d already visited about half the countries around the world. It sounded glamorous, but I moved around a lot, which didn’t give me a chance to make many friends. My school transcripts spent more time at any school than I did. Most girls my age worried about dances, boys, and clothes. Not me. I worried about tripping down mountains or being killed by mythical creatures.

The only guys around me were old enough to be my dad or even grandpa. Pretty much the entire crew of Berry S.I. was old. Well, other than Matt and Brady.

Needless to say, the idea of dating seemed impossible. And as far as dances went, there wasn’t anyone around to take me to them. Well, there was that, and the small fact I never stayed at a school long enough for anyone to even ask.

Dad joined his fellow investigators to discuss the next move while I waited for the casting to dry.

“Smile,” Matt said. He focused his digital camera on me then zoomed in to get a look at the print at my feet.

“Only if you smack the mosquito on the back of my neck,” I said with a grin.

Slap
! I watched Matt wipe his hand on his shorts, his bicep flexing beneath the tight t-shirt. “Now give me a big smile. Show America how much you love being in the woods.”

I snorted. “So, it’s our last night here. Do you think we’ll find Bigfoot?”

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