Page 84 of In Your Wildest Dreams
“No. We only hung out once, nothing happened.”
I laugh a little at the bizarre conversation. Of course, Ash has dated other women. He’s young and hot and charming. “It’s okay.”
“Are you sure? I feel kind of like a dick now. I didn’t think about her being here.”
“It’s absolutely fine. You’ve dated other people. I’ve dated other people. We’re not even together. We’re just…whatever. We’ve kissed twice. I don’t have any claim over you and even if I did, I wouldn’t care.”
Maybe it isn’t the same thing as Gabe keeping me from hanging with my friends because he was jealous, but it’s too close to ever be something I’d ask of someone.
He wears an amused expression as I finish talking. I take a large gulp of my drink to keep myself from rambling on any longer.
“It’d be okay if you wanted to have a little claim over me.” He winks, then rests a hand on my lower back. “Come on. I want to introduce you to some more people.”
23
WORKED THEN AND WORKS NOW
ASH
Hangingwith Bridget at the party is fun. If not a little bit torturous.
I’m not usually the kind of guy to want to go all caveman and throw a woman over my shoulder (unless it’s in the bedroom), but every time I introduce her to one of my teammates and their eyes linger a little too long, I’m ready to hightail it out of here with her in tow.
I keep reminding myself that this is our first date. It’s funny, I sent her all those questions because I wanted her to feel like we knew each other better, not because I thought we needed to know each other better. I thought I knew plenty about her before, but it solidified my feelings in a way I didn’t realize was missing.
I like her. I like the way she thinks and texts and talks and makes me feel when she smiles at me, like she’s doing right now. We didn’t make it all the way through the list of questions since she came back early, so we’re doing that now.
Who is your celebrity crush? Me—Florence Pugh. Bridget—some young prick I’d never heard of but now hate.
Where would you live if you could live anywhere? Me—the lake house. Bridget—undecided because she hasn’t been to enough places to choose.
“What’s your house like?” she asks, angling her body to face me. That long, blonde hair hangs over one shoulder and her eyes lock on me instead of roaming around to take in all the people here. Jack has a lot of friends. Hockey players, baseball players, a couple of actors, lots of models. People fly in for his New Year’s Eve party every year. The man knows how to throw a party.
“Want to find out? I could show you easier than I could try to describe it.” I waggle my eyebrows playfully and tighten my grip around my beer bottle to keep from touching her. She agreed to come out tonight, but her body language is timid. I don’t want to scare her off.
She laughs, dimples flashing on either side of her beautiful smile, and then sidesteps the question by firing off more of her own. “Is it a one-story or two? What’s your favorite room? What’s the backyard like?”
“Two-story. The master is downstairs, which I really like. I hardly go upstairs at all, so I guess it’s kind of a waste, but when I’ve had roommates that’s been nice. I spend the most time in the living room. I guess that’s my favorite. The backyard has a pool, but honestly it doesn’t get used that much because I spend so much of the summer at the lake.”
She’s still staring at me, focused on each word. That guy that stars inEuphoriajust walked by and she didn’t even give him a cursory glance.
“When we were texting over break, I kept trying to picture you sitting around at home doing normal things and couldn’t.”
“Well, I don’t do normal things. I do awesome things.”
She shakes her head at me.
“I’ll show you sometime. Give you a tour. Might even let you sit in my favorite spot in the living room.”
There is only one question left on the list. When I pulled the list from Google, there were only thirty-five, so I added one of my own. A question that I’d been avoiding asking but that has plagued me since we met. How did you meet your last boyfriend/girlfriend? I cleverly concealed it by not naming him, but I know he’s the last person she dated.
“All right. Final question. How’d you and Gabe meet?”
Her demeanor shifts instantly, and I really want to kick myself for bringing him up. I just need to know how a girl like Bridget could fall for that jerk. It doesn’t make any sense to me.
“At a bar.” She laughs. “Real original, right?”
“There are worse places.”
