Page 1 of Finding Ash
Chapter One
Ash
Getting settled in a new place was…overwhelming, especially for an introvert like me who’d never ventured far outside the boundary of the commune.
I’d been lucky, though. My brother Kit and his husband Nate let me stay in their guest room and even hired me part-time to help out at the bar they owned, Pints ‘n Pool. But that still left me with too much alone time, so Hudson at Nuts and Bolts gave me a few hours aweek until I found a permanent job in Foggy Basin. This truly was a community that took care of their own and watched out for one another.
Hopefully, I’d soon find my place in life, and the nervous jitters would settle down then too.
While I didn’t have the wanderlust my younger brother Kit had, I did have the desire to seek a new life beyond the walls we were raised behind. I was thankful we didn’t grow up in one of those made for TV movie cults, but it was still a cult, nonetheless. Our parents weren’t abusive, and as far as we knew, no one was passed around and families didn’t share parents. Like, one dad had a hundred kids with twenty wives type of thing. We were isolated, tucked away from the general population, which quite possibly led to some of the fear of the unknown I harbored.
Until our first family visit to Foggy Basin.
Almost immediately, I fell in love with the small-town life. Neighbors helping neighbors, saying hi as others passed you by walking down Main Street. It felt safe, yet not so big that you’d get lost in the shuffle. Maybe Foggy was nothing more than a steppingstone in the path called life, but it gave me the courage to step outside my comfort zone and find out what made Kit, yes, the joke of our having no last name was true, tick. My brother was thriving here, and I was beyond happy for him. His daddy Nateloved him with a fierce, protective passion. To say I was jealous would put it mildly, but in all the right ways. Their love ran deep and someday I hoped to find my forever, who when they looked at me you could see I was their world, as Kit and Nate did with each other.
Maybe someday, but until then it will give me time to figure things out and a safe space to be me. Whatever that may be…
Due to the summer rush nearing, Kit and Nate were happy to have me here. They’d expanded the RV lot onto the backside of their personal property and purchased four RVs they parked there and added all the hookups to. Those would be available year-round, while the main lot remained for those towing their own to rent and put down temporary roots. Foggy was a summer mecca, the place to be with one of the cleanest lakes around. Fully stocked for fishing by the Game and Wildlife department. New businesses were popping up all over town, including an ice cream place I couldn’t wait to try.
The locals were thrilled with the influx of foot traffic, but the city council was determined to keep the small-town feel, which was one of the draws that brought me here. The empty spaces along Main Street were gaining renters, and the locals were finding jobs within them. Thebest of supply and demand while keeping it inside the Foggy family.
“Hey Ash, could you take some fresh towels out to the rented RVs?” Nate asked. He’d just finished washing them and Kit was mopping before they opened the bar.
“Sure thing.”
“And ask if they need anything else.”
“Say please, Daddy,” Kit corrected him. I wasn’t about to. His bark may be gentle, but I wasn’t about to find out how far Nate’s potential bite extended to anyone who wasn’t Kit.
“Boy, I ought to take you over my knee.”
“Promises, promises,” my mouthy brother teased his husband. I definitely wasn’t stepping into whatever that was. To each their own and all that, but being in my brother’s bedroom was not gonna happen. Even if only metaphorically.
“But yes, please and thank you, Ash.” One for Kit, zero for his growly man.
I headed for the laundry room, which was part of the big kitchen remodel and expansion they recently did at Pints, which added another five hundred square feet to the space. They had a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen installed and a separate laundry room with multiple machines right off it. Long-term tenants, like the ones in the four RV’sthat worked for Queen Gaming, used them to wash their personal laundry as well. Some even washed the sheets and blankets on their beds so we didn’t have to do it for them.
With the service cart stocked up, paper supplies and soaps included, I headed out into the beautiful spring day. The weather was crisp but nothing like the cold we’d endured in the mountains where we were raised. This was more comfortable. A light chill and a brisk walk, what a perfect combination to start the day.
“Housekeeping, I brought fresh towels,” I called out as I knocked on the first door. It took the guy a few minutes to answer, and when he did I wondered when he’d last slept. Hair standing on end, dark circles under his eyes, and his shirt covered in food stains. I handed him a stack of towels, but me being me, curiosity won out. “Are you okay?”
The guy ran his free hand through his hair, causing it to really go wild. “Yeah, yeah. Just working on a deadline and can’t get this scene to stop glitching. Give me a sec and I’ll grab the dirty towels for you.”
Video games were a foreign concept to me having not grown up with so much as a television. We were homeschooled and never had anything more than board games and other childhood silliness we created to pass the time.
“Here you go, thanks for waiting.”
“No problem, call the bar if you need anything else.” A quick wave before he disappeared behind the closed door. I shook my head and wondered what the next guest’s appearance would be like. “Housekeeping.”
How did they find their jobs fun when each game designer appeared more unhinged than the last? If something stressed me out that much, I’d have to walk away. Thankfully, I was almost done. Then I could get this load washed and folded. The third one proved much the same, and by then words had escaped me. Not sure how healthy their lifestyles were but they were just that, their own.
“Housekeeping,” I knocked and waited for the last one.
“Oh hey, Ash, right?”
It took me a moment to find my words. Messy and stressed I fully expected. Cute and smiling, that one threw me off. Wait, what did he ask me? Oh yeah, my name. “Ash.”
He smiled like I was the crazy one. and right now, I very well may be. He wasn’t disheveled and his smile brightened my day. “Come on in, what’s up?”
