Page 21 of The Date
I looked up at Ash. “So Jamie’s hot,huh?”
Ash grinned. “In case you haven’t noticed, I have a thing for redheads.” His hand smoothed the place he’d just pinched and he bent down to whisper against my lips, “Or one redhead,anyway.”
I sighedhappily.
“Really?Doyou have a thing for a redhead, Ash? I hadn’t noticed,” Jules said, deadpan. I looked over in time to see him roll his eyes at Ethan as they started setting up his table. “Believe it or not, this is them being understated, E. Sometimes, I go intoFanailleand I just catch themstaringat each other. Not kissing or groping or whatever. Juststaring, like they’re having this whole schmoopy conversation withoutwords.”
“Hey!” My face burned, but I could hardly argue since he was telling the truth. And honestly, it was prettyawesome.
Ethan smiled. “Well, I’m jealous as fuck,” he said. “I can’t believe you guys grew up so close to each other and never met untilnow.”
“We met when we were supposed to meet, I think,” Ash said, smiling down at me. “I might not have been in the right frame of mind to really appreciate Cal if we’d met when we were younger. There was a whole big world outside of New York and I had to see it, you know? Oslo, Fiji, Patagonia, the Greek islands. Not that I actually got to see any of those places while I was in the Navy,” he said, shaking his head at hisnaivety.
“That’s kinda like Parker and me,” Ethan agreed. “We knew there was bigger and better out there, but we only got as far as Boston. Never had the time or money to explore the way we wanted to. There was so much left for us to do. But Parker was happy enough to come back here and settle down… or that’s what he’s telling himself rightnow,anyway.”
“Not you?” Ash saidgently.
“Settling down?” Ethan shook his head. “Not me. Not yet. Maybe not ever. I keep feeling like there’s more out there for mesomewhere.”
“Ah, well. You’ll know it when you find it,” Ash said, clapping Ethan on theshoulder.
“Hey, can I get a little help getting these guys out?” Julian asked from the far side of his truck. It looked like he was struggling to move an aquarium out of thebackseat.
Ash and Ethan went to help him, but I stood where I was, frowning at Ash’sback.
Not that I actually got to see any of those places while I was in the Navy, he’d said. And Ethan had sounded so dubious when he was talking about Parker being content to settle down. It made methink.
It made meworry.
I mean, I wasn’t an idiot. I knew Ash wasn’t lying awake at night pining for adventure. I kept him up at night in far more pleasurable ways, for one thing. Plus, we’d talked about this a little bit when he’d first separated from the Navy and moved in to my apartment. He’d had nothing calling him to live in California; he’d wanted to be withme.
He was happy.Wewere happytogether. Without adoubt.
But in deciding to move to tiny, backwoods O’Leary, Ash had shut himself off from every other possibility in the world. My business was all about working from home becausethe business was literally our home. It sure as heck wasn’t portable. OwningFanaillemeant working like a fiend in preparation for every holiday, buckling down while the rest of the world was taking time off. It meant standing out in a field on the hottest day of the summer, because it was tradition and good for business and all that shit. Hell, we’d never planned a summer vacation or even talked about the possibility, because leaving town meant Maura would have to take over, which would’ve been a huge imposition, and… well, I was too much of a control freak to be okay with it,anyway.
“What’s the frown for?” Ash said, walking up in front of me so we were toe-to-toe. I realized I’d been staring off into the trees at the edge of the fairgrounds, contemplating this potentialproblem.
If there was one thing that drove me up a fucking wall, it was a problem without asolution.
“Nothing.” I patted Ash’s chest and tried to banish the whole stupid idea from my thoughts, but it was stickier than gum paste. I looked at Julian’s table and seized on the first distracting thing I could find. “What arethose?”
“That one in the terrarium is a milk snake. His name’s Amigo. He’s harmless. I’m gonna show the kids how to tell the difference between a poisonous coral snake and a milk snake.Red on black, venom lack. Red on yellow kills a fellow,” he recited. “Just in case you ever need toknow.”
I nodded. “I do my best to never get close enough to snakes for that to be an issue, but I appreciate theinfo.”
Jules laughed and pointed at the other cage. “And that’s a white rat named Mort. Poor guy’s getting old and slowingdown.”
“So as long as we make sure the kids only take one animal out at a time, we’re all set,” Ethan said, grinning evilly. “Otherwise they’ll get an unforgettable introduction to the circle oflife.”
Ashgroaned.
“Amigo was just fed recently, so he’s not hungry,” Julian said easily. He opened his passenger door and let out a comically scrunch-faced dog. “This is Captain. He’s part of my demonstration on pet safety in summermonths.”
I bent down and smoothed my hand over his short, golden fur. “Aren’t youadorable?”
“Captain’s my mom’s dog,” Ethan said. “He’s a pug, and pugs hate the heat. But he’s superfriendly.”
“Well, hi, Captain,” Ash said. He leaned down and rubbed the dog’s neck affectionately. Captain began licking his hand, so Ash lifted him up to cuddle against his chest. “I’m Ash. And this is Cal. Cal is abaker, but he doesn’t like the heateither.”
