Page 94 of You Had Me at Hola
One more day. She just had to get through one more day, and then she could put all of this behind her.
ASHTON WAS HALFWAYthrough packing the next morning when someone knocked on his hotel room door.
For a brief, wild moment, he both hoped and feared it would be Jasmine. But after the way she disappeared from the party last night, he was sure it wouldn’t be her.
Still, he hoped.
When he opened the door, his father stood on the other side. Ignacio took one look at the open suitcases in the room beyond, and gave Ashton a bland smile.
“Going somewhere?”
Ashton rubbed the back of his head and ducked his gaze. That look and tone always got him, never mind that he was rapidly approaching forty. “Ah... just packing. There’s no reason to stay in New York.”
“Back to Miami?” Ignacio strolled through the chaos in the living room, eyeing the piles of unfolded clothing, multiple pairs of running sneakers, and scattered bottles of cologne. Ashton grabbed some stuff off a chair so Ignacio could sit.
“No. I’ll go to Puerto Rico with you. I don’t have any jobs lined up, so...” Ashton trailed off, and his father pinned him with a hard look.
“You’re running away,” he said.
“No, I’m taking the next steps for my life and my career.”
Ignacio actually laughed at that. “Really? Because from where I’m sitting, it looks like running away.”
Ashton paused with a bundle of folded gym shorts in his hands. Coño, his father was right. Ever since the Incident, Ashton had let fear control his actions. He’d been reactive instead of proactive.
Until he’d met Jasmine. She’d coaxed him out of his shell. With her, he’d made his own choices from a place of wanting something and going after it, instead of being afraid of something and avoiding it.
Someone else knocked on the door.
“Ah.” Ignacio braced his hands on his knees and stood. “They’re here.”
Ashton’s brow furrowed as his father made his way to the door. “Who’s here?”
In response, Ignacio opened the door and stepped back to admit Abuelito Gus, Abuelita Bibi, and Yadiel.
Ashton bit back a sigh and resisted the urge to scrub his hands over his face. Or hide in the bathroom. He knew an intervention when he saw one.
He met his father’s grin with a grimace. “This is an ambush,” he said in English.
Ignacio shrugged and shut the door. “You had it coming. Now, siéntate.”
Ashton hurried to clear space so his family could sit comfortably. Yadiel immediately tried to climb over the back of the couch, but stopped at his great-grandmother’s stern glance.
“¿Quieres volver al hospital?” she asked, eyeing the sling he still wore on his left arm.
“No, Abuelita Bibi.” Yadiel pouted, but he sat his butt on the sofa.
Once Ashton sat too, his father got right to the point. “I’m going back to Puerto Rico.”
Ashton nodded. “Okay. We’ll all go back together.”
But Ignacio was shaking his head. “No. You’re staying here. And so is Yadiel.”
Ashton’s brow creased, but he opened his arms when Yadiel bolted to him and climbed in his lap. “I don’t understand.”
“You’re not done here,” Ignacio said. “And I want to put more time into the restaurant, get it back to what it used to be before Maria.”
“I am done. There won’t be a season two ofCarmen.”
