That nice lady with the reupholstered dining room chair cushions was growing a field of marijuana. Who would've guessed? "Are you serious?"
"I told you, my parents are hippies at heart."
"And that's why your mother has a bumper crop of weed hiding behind her blackberry bushes?" I asked.
He shook his head like dealing with his mother's antics was a real hardship. I knew it wasn't and I enjoyed his impatience for that reason. "It's on the edge of the property and insulated from view well enough to prevent notice. If anyone asks, she pretends she has no idea what it is. She told one of her neighbors it's an invasive butprotectedspecies so they shouldn't treat it with any chemicals."
"This isn't the last thing I would've guessed about your mother but it's not in the top quartile," I said.
"She used to tell us she used the leaves for brewing salves and tinctures." He dragged a finger down my arm, raising goose bumps as he went. "It made sense since she was always drying her own herbs and canning vegetables and god knows what else."
"Salves and tinctures," I repeated to myself. "And to think, you gave me shit about working at a spirituality shop."
"What can I say? You're rather overwhelming. I handled that by being a dick." He shoved his hands in his pockets. "I feel like you know this about me."
I wasn't certain when I'd become overwhelming or what it was about me that overwhelmed but I'd heard this enough along the way to know it was a core piece of my me-ishness.You're a lot. It was the kind of comment that slapped on both sides while leaving the crumbs of a compliment in my lap.
Perhaps those words wouldn't have landed with such force if I hadn't spent so much time crimping myself into a shape that others could accept and embrace. But that was the gravity of it all and it hurt now because I'd realized it should've hurt before.
"You know this, right?" Ash prodded. "You know I have occasion to be a dick and you know how to put me back in my place for it." He waited a beat. "Right?"
I touched my fingertips to my lips, tracing the freshly swollen lines as I replayed his words in my mind. "I'm not overwhelming. You were overwhelmed. That's about you, not me."
"Okay." Ash watched me as he rubbed a hand over his shoulder. It seemed to be bothering him. He probably shouldn't have held me against that tree. Even if it was the single most spectacular event of my life as I knew it. "Okay, yeah. I was overwhelmed. I was fucking leveled by you—and I still am." He reached out his hand to me and I took it. "What does that face mean? What did I do wrong just now?"
I let him lead us along the path toward the house. "Nothing." I shook my head but he probably didn't see. "I'm just thinking."
"No, your thinking face looks like gears turning behind your eyes and you chew on your bottom lip." When the path narrowed between the raised beds, Ash stepped behind me, settled his hands on my waist, and steered me through the garden. "It isn't your worried face because that one involves defined frowns. I wouldn't wager money on it but it isn't your irritated face either since that one is all about slicing me in half with your killer eye beams."
"When did you have time to catalog my faces?" I asked, all while knowing I'd unconsciously done the same to him.
"I'm a man of many talents. One of those talents is being able to think about multiple things at once." We stopped at the base of the back steps and I turned to face Ash. "One more thing before we go in there."
He slipped his hand along my cheek and into my hair as he leaned down to kiss me. I sighed and softened when he gathered my hair in his fist, holding me steady as he banished all consideration of my overwhelming effect on people.
Nearby, someone cleared their throat while Ash's tongue flicked over mine. He rumbled a grumpymmm-mmmin response and banded his arm around my lower back.
"I wouldn't mind but the food is getting cold," his mother called. "And I'm not about to allow Zelda to sit down to a cold supper."
"But it's acceptable for me?" he asked, his lips hovering over mine.
"You're not a guest. I'm stuck with you, young man, and nothing I put on the table is about to change that," she replied. "But I'd like Zelda to come back again. That's not likely to happen if her rice is cold and dry."
"I see how it is," he replied with a chuckle. "We'll be there in a minute."
"I'll be watching the clock." The screen door banged shut behind Diana as she returned inside.
He delivered a quick kiss to the corner of my mouth. "What did I tell you about my family wanting to keep you?"
I busied myself with straightening his collar and brushing away nonexistent dust. "Will you make it through this? Will it be all right for you?"
He glanced at the house, giving it a scowly study. "Yes, for two reasons. First, my mother doesn't allow any work conversation at the table. And second, despite the disagreement you overheard, my dad is a laid-back guy and won't continue being upset once a conversation has ended. He isn't resentful. He doesn't hold on to anger or grudges. We don't agree on matters of business but it doesn't overflow into other areas, thank fuck for that. All things considered, he's remarkably easygoing."
"Must be all the weed."
Ash replied with a deep nod. "You're right on that front."
"It must be frustrating though," I added. "Having a heated disagreement one minute and then sitting down at the table as if nothing happened the next. Maybe not frustrating but—I don't know—disequilibrating."
