Now I admit, this turn of events might not have been a shock to anyone else. Another person would have started putting facts together in their mind the second they walked into the restaurant and saw Ash sitting there alone, but until I got that text, I swear I hadn't. After seeing him with Karen yesterday, I'd placed Ash firmly in the camp ofAlready Taken.And he still was. But clearly he had a different way of defining “taken” than I did. He'd flirted with me yesterday, I remembered. He'd gone off to Vegas and gotten a lap dance. Apparently, he dated guystoo.
I was angry - so angry I couldn't control it, couldn't deep-breathe my way past it or Zen my way out of it.Thiswas my guaranteed-perfect match? That I'd recognized that perfection yesterday, felt the puzzle-pieces-clicking connection between us - only made me angrier. The Universe was playing a practical joke, and I was having none ofit.
I set my jaw and stalked into the diningarea.
Ash's eyes were up, this time, and latched on me the second I came into his field of vision. The look in his eyes shook me - absolute shock, followed by disbelief, then excitement. All of that changed when he caught sight of my expression, which probably conveyed that I was ready to completely lose my mind. He turned wary, and even a trifle pissed off,himself.
Good.
"Is this a joke?" I whispered furiously, holding out my phone as I reached his side. I didn't give a shit if people overheard me, or that a bunch of kids in basketball uniforms at the next table had turned to look atus.
"A joke?" He darted a glance at the phone before looking back at my face. "How the he—. Uh." He broke off and looked at the group of kids for half a second. "Heckwould it be ajoke?"
"Oh, let me think..." I hissed. "Maybe becauseyou have afiancée?"
The look on Ash's - confusion, followed by outright disbelief and fury – stunned me. What the hell didhehave to be angry about?Let him deny it, Ithought.
Two tables away, a smiling man and woman got up to leave, and as they passed, the man clapped Ash on the shoulder and looked at me inapology.
"Sorry to interrupt," he told me. "Cal, right? FromFanaille?"
Inodded.
"Wife loves your apple pastries," he said with a wink. Then he turned to Ash. "You tell your brother good luck this weekend, alright? Tell him Coach Simms wishes him and Karen a long and happy lifetogether."
Ash summoned a smile and said something... I honest to God don't know what. I was too busy sitting down in the empty seat across from him, all the anger that had propelled me across the restaurant draining out of me in asecond.
Hisbrother?
"You were saying?" Ash took a sip of water, and I could feel him watching me, but I couldn't quite bring myself to meet hiseyes.
"I... I fucked up." I sounded stunned because Iwas.
"Yeah, you did," he agreed. "Bigtime."
And then, because I had to confirm that I wasn't jumping to another ridiculous conclusion, I repeated, "Yourbrotheris marrying Karen? Notyou?"
"Christ, no. Definitely not me." Ash snorted. "And this is not the only questionable decision Mackie's made recently, as you probably got from the conversation yesterday." He sighed. "But my mom thinks Karen'll be good for him. Grounding, or whatever. So I'm trying to keep an openmind."
"Well, that's..." I cast around for an appropriate end to the sentence.Good for them? Interesting?I darted my gaze to his face, and his dark eyes caught and held mine. They were warm, amused... and just a tiny bit wary. And I knew I owed him somethingmore.
"That's a relief," I told him honestly, laying a hand on my chest. "That's such a huge relief, you have noidea."
His lips twitched. It was adorable. "I don't know how the hell you arrived at that conclusion in the firstplace."
"Maybe because you never mentioned your brother yesterday? Not once." I would have heardit.
"Sure I did." He frowned, like he was poring over the conversation in his mind, and eventhatwas adorable. Jesus, I was lost. "Didn'tI?"
"Not once," I repeated, shaking my head severely even though my heart was lighter than it had been since yesterday afternoon. I gave him another truth. "I still shouldn't have jumped to that conclusion. I knewbetter."
He shrugged, his eyes never leaving my face. "We'd justmet."
"Still." What he'd said was factually accurate, but there had been something between us from the second I'd laid eyes on him. I'd known him. I'd felt like he knew me. I couldn't explain it without sounding like anidiot.
But he didn't make me explain. He just smiled widely and nodded. "Yeah.Still."
I had to look away and take a deep breath before I blurted out even more inappropriate truths. This was moving too fast, and I knew it, but I didn't know how to slow itdown.
