Actually, most recently, he talked about his damn kitten.
I knew the little guy had been a present from Penelope, but for crying out loud. The kids weren’t going to want to spend another minute at my house. Why would they? At Ash’s, they had much more space, everything was new and upgraded, and now they’d have a pet.
We’d talked about adopting a cat or dog for years, but we hadn’t felt like we’d have enough time to be good owners.
“No, of course—I can do that,” Ash was saying. “But is everything okay with Emmett?” That would be James’s nephew, if I remembered correctly. “That’s a relief. But no worries, I’ll check in on Jordan in about an hour. How sick is he?”
I frowned. My friends had never asked me to check in on their partners.
Ash’s forehead wrinkled. “I’ve never heard of that, and since you’re Mr. Chuckles over there, it can’t be too serious.”
Okay, enough of this. I went back to clearing the table. He was leaving in a little while, with another excuse ready for Micah and Lily. If they even asked. I guessed a silver lining in this mess was that they were so used to Ash and me sneaking out for an hour or two to work out. Mostly Ash. I preferred to do my workouts in the morning.
Ash ended the call and looked to me with a frown. “What the fuck is abdomflixifluxitis? Is that a thing?”
What?
“Uh, never heard of it. It doesn’t sound real.” I considered myself fairly read up on any ailment that could befall children. “Are you heading out now?”
“Unless there’s anything else you wanna talk about,” he replied. “I warned Mikey and Lily earlier that I’m helping a coworker fix his car.”
On a Saturday night.
“You should be Employer of the Year,” I said. “I don’t have anything else to discuss, so you’re free.”
“You sound kinda bitter when you say things like that.”
I refrained from rolling my eyes.
“I’m not bitter, Ash,” I lied. “I’m exhausted.” That part was true.
He turned pensive and got up from the table. “Well, you know…we can trade. You can go help a friend, and I’ll take over here.”
That wasn’t remotely tempting. “Thanks, but I’m good.”
Micah and Lily would fall asleep in the next hour or so. We’d eaten late today since Ash had attended the event at Mclean.
“All right. Uh…before I go, can we talk about next month?” he asked. “I saw you’d listed yourself as attending the masquerade ball at Mclean on May 9th.”
I waved him off. “I’ll probably cancel. If we’ve broken the you-know-what news, I’ll wanna be home as much as possible.”
He cleared his throat and stuck his hands down the pockets of his jeans. “Can I be selfish? I’d like for us to celebrate my birthday together. Without anybody being upset.”
Oh. Oh, of course. I hadn’t even considered that. I’d thought about his birthday, but more in terms of making sure the kids picked out good gifts for him.
“Of course we can do that,” I assured.
Some relief flashed in his eyes. “Great, thanks. And, you know, that’s just three days before the masquerade thing. Itmight be our last chance to do something fun before we spend the next however-long doing damage control.”
I tilted my head. “You want to go to the ball too?”
He shrugged. “If you don’t mind. I was thinking maybe your folks could watch Mikey and Lily.”
“I’ll talk to them.” I knew they wouldn’t say no. “Do you, uh, have a date to the ball?”
He snorted. “That’s funny. No, but I finally have friends again—and they think it’s time I get back out there.”
I fucking hated those friends.
