Every now and then, Ash kisses my temple, and I have to keep from pinching myself. If this is a dream, I don’t want to wake up.
But because I can’t help rocking the boat…
“What is this?” I ask. My voice breaks the silence like someone dropped a plate on the floor.
“Hmm?” Ash asks.
I think I pulled him out of his own daydream.
I turn my head where it rests on Ash’s chest. “You said we’re dating. Officially. Does that mean the rest of the team knows about us? Should we tell Kaladin?”
His body tenses beneath mine.
“Kelsier knows,” he says. “And I should probably tell the rest of the team at this point, but Kaladin is a different story.”
“You’re afraid of what Kaladin will do if he finds out we’re really dating,” I say. I had the same concerns.
“I don’t want him to pull your funding,” he says. “Or worse, make us stop working together because of a conflict of interest.”
I start to nod against his chest, but then something occurs to me, and I sit up to face Ash.
“Do you think Kaladin already suspects?”
He frowns. “Why do you think that?”
He’s going to think I’m crazy, but…
“I thought I was just being paranoid since the whole thing at my house, but maybe I really am being followed.”
The expression that crosses his face looks like panic. “Like the man you saw at the grocery store,” he says, and there’s something in his voice I can’t place.
“Exactly,” I say. “I swear I saw him at my conference in Florida. It can’t be a coincidence he’s up here now.”
Ash sits up on the couch, and he looks…troubled?
Several seconds of silence congeal with the leftover soup before he says, “I have to tell you something, Gray.”
It feels like that other shoe I’ve been waiting for has just dropped. My stomach goes queasy, and I pray the soup I ate doesn’t come back up.
I try to stand, but Ash catches me around the waist and pulls me back.
“Wait,” he says.
“You’re married, aren’t you,” I say. “You’re married and your wife hired a private investigator to see if you’ve been cheating on her and…” The words come out in a chaotic rush, as I tug at Ash’s arms in an attempt to free myself. “Oh God. I’m the other woman, aren’t I.”
I knew my pessimism would prove right one of these days.
Ash frowns and tightens his arms to hold me in place. “What? No. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Then what do you need to tell me?” I ask, trying and failing to keep the hysteria at bay. “What do you know about the man who’s been following me?”
“Men,” he says.
I go still and blink at him. “What?”
Ash sighs. “Themenwho’ve been following you. As in more than one.They’re a private security team I’ve had keeping an eye on you since your house was broken into.”
I’m stunned into silence. I’m not sure which part of that I find more insane. That there hasn’t just been one man following me, but several, or that Ash actually hired a security team to keep me safe.
