Page 64 of #Awestruck

“I’m not stupid, Ashton. You almost have a heart attack every time he touches you. And I can only imagine how his truly magnificent chest probably just short-circuited your nervous system.”

I nodded. “It’s a long story, but I guess all you need to know is that we’re only friends, and this is all a little overwhelming, and I’m not sure where to go from here or how I’m going to get through this.” Yep. Just friends. Apparently the kind of friends who admired each other’s perfectly sculpted bodies.

“Friends.” Rory drew out the vowels in the word. “Right. I couldn’t really tell, given the way you look at, talk to, and touch each other. You don’t have to give me the details, but you two are more than just friends.”

“Okay.” I wasn’t in the mood to argue. “I have to get this shirt back to him.”

“Such a shame.” She sighed, rejoining Charlotte on the bed.

When I got to the doorway, she said, “Hey, Ashton?”

“Yeah?”

“You should remember the most important thing from this movie.” She pointed at the TV screen.

“Never trust a headless cat?”

“No. Before Alice got to Wonderland, she had to fall hard down a dark, deep, scary hole. But it was worth it, right?”

It was probably the most profound thing Rory had ever said to me.

And then she wrecked it. “And by Wonderland, I mean his body.”

“Thanks, I caught your drift.”

“Uncle Satan was naked with Aunt Ashton,” Charlotte announced, not taking her eyes off the TV screen. Crap. That was going to get repeated in front of other people.

Rory patted her on the back. “That’s because your aunt Ashton is a very lucky girl.”

I went back to the laundry room and handed Evan the shirt, being careful to avoid getting my retinas scorched by his chest again. “Here.”

And my dad’s shirt fit just as I’d expected, but unfortunately it didn’t diminish Evan’s sexiness even a little.

“We should go back downstairs.” I took off without seeing if he was planning on following me.

When we got into the family room, Aubrey and Justin were off in a corner arguing. It was one of those intense and scary whispered arguments married couples have right before they kill each other.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Mom and Dad went to take some pie to the Barris family, and I wanted to go on a walk with Justin, and Rory’s already watching Charlotte, and Joey’s tired and needs a nap, and I don’t want to take him because he’ll just whine the whole time.” Aubrey’s voice rose slightly higher with each word.

“We can watch him,” Evan offered behind me.

We? What was this we business?

“Really? That would be great.” Aubrey grabbed Justin’s hand and hustled him out of the house before I could object or Evan could change his mind.

Joey realized his parents were gone and threw a tantrum worthy of a supremely spoiled reality star who’d just been told an airline couldn’t upgrade his seat. I thought his shrieks were going to burst my eardrums.

“I’ve got this,” Evan said. “I think I know what he needs.”

“An exorcism?”

Evan got on the floor and started playing with some of Joey’s cars, ignoring his fit. Eventually Joey realized that no one was responding to him and started to watch Evan. Then he got up and sat in Evan’s lap, and they played cars together.

About fifteen minutes later, Joey nodded off, curled up against Evan.

It was tea-party-with-Charlotte adorable, and my heart lurched again.

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