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My cell started to ring, cutting off her reply.

“Can you see who it is, please?”

Ari nodded, digging into the pocket of my bag where I kept it. “Look at that,” she said with a laugh, turning the phone so I could see the screen.

As if summoned by name, not that I would ever call him Slim-Jim anything, Ashton was on the caller ID. I had a quick meeting of the minds where one part of me was already whispering,Silence can be a form of cruelty. Just answer. Get it over with. Be clear about the next step, then end the call.And the other? Was screaming at me toignore, ignore, ignorelike it was a fire drill.Let it go to voicemail. Protect your peace.

I walked over and took the phone from Ari. I hesitated and then answered, aware I had an audience.

“Hey.”

Cloe tilted her head, trying to determine which version of me was answering the phone. Ari pretended to stay busy on hers. Neither of them said anything, but Roxxi eyed me as she prepped herself a smoothie.

“Hey,” Ashton said on the other end. “Thanks for picking up. I wasn’t sure you would.”

“Why wouldn’t I answer?”

“Because I know you probably don’t want to talk to me. I just needed to hear your voice. I’ll be out again today. I’m back at my dad’s. He’s… going through something.”

I hadn’t even known he was absent yesterday, let alone clear across town again.

“Is he alright?” I was genuinely concerned. Ashton’s dad was a teddy bear of a man, the kind who always made me feel welcome, no matter what was going on between me and his son.

“He’ll be fine. I’ve been with him since yesterday, staying through the weekend.”

Cloe slipped past me to the fridge and grabbed the magnetic notepad we used for grocery lists, scribbled something down, and walked over like she was serving a court summons.

Put him on speaker.

I gave her an amused look, but pressed the button anyway, holding the phone out for them all to hear.

“If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know, okay?” I offered.

“You’re so sweet,” he replied softly. “I know you’re heading back to see your family tonight. I’ll be back on Monday. Can we talk then? Just us? I was thinking we could grab lunch at the bistro. The one with the string lights and that weird lavender lemonade you always order.”

“Sure,” I agreed readily.

There was a discussion we had to have and doing it in person had always been the way I wanted to end this. Cloe returned to her coffee but flipped the notepad over and started writing again.

“I want to explain myself without any excuses,” Ashton continued. “I fucked up, Sanj. I got in my own head and let that ruin something good, but hearing your melodic voice now…” He exhaled hard, like it physically pained him to keep talking. “It makes me feel like an even bigger asshole.”

“Melodic?”Roxxi mouthed, turning away to smother a laugh.

Ari made a face that conveyed her ick, but quickly smoothed it out and went back to pretending she was doing something on her phone.

“I’m sorry again,” Ashton went on. “For everything. For yelling. For not hearing you out. For whatever this mess has become. You didn’t deserve that, sweet girl.”

I wasn’t remotely sweet, but he was. Dense at times and more emotional than I was used to, but his heart was in the right place. The problem was, I wasn’t the girl for him. Ashton was somewhere in the green, and I had a thing for shades of red that made me feel like gold. “We’ll talk Monday, Ash.”

There was a pause on his end. “Can we still keep in touch before then? Text me at least. The Hunt’s getting closer, and I… I would feel better being in contact with you.”

“Sure,” I said after a beat. “We can do that.”

“Okay.” His voice softened. “Monday?”

“Yeah. Monday.”

I ended the call before I could overthink, as was my specialty, the phone screen fading to black in my hand. Cloe tapped her pen against the notepad once before tearing the page off and sliding it toward me.

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