“You seem happy.” He’s not looking at me anymore. Instead, he’s staring straight at the blonde bouncing around the dance floor. It’s funny, it doesn’t matter what song plays, she seems to know all the words, singing along at the top of her lungs.
A smile spreads across my face. “Yeah. I am.”
“I’m glad it worked out. I gotta tell you, I like her. You better not fuck it up.” He laughs, but I don’t think he’s joking.
When she spins around, the lights reflect off her blonde curls. She’s glowing, and a laugh breaks free, filling the room.
“Oh, shit.” JT’s brows shoot up. “You’re in love with her, huh?”
I glare at him. “Don’t do that mushy shit with me. Fuck off.”
He laughs as I walk away.
A while later, I’m sitting at a table when Ash stumbles toward me, singing along to some girly song she’s playing. This is what she does. She waits until everyone’s had too much, then she convinces some drunk bastard to give her the aux cord. Then we all have to suffer through her shit for the rest of the night. She leans against the table in front of me, swaying and singing a love song at me before grabbing my face and putting her lips on mine. She lifts her arms in the air, throws her head back, and belts out the chorus.
“You’re drunk.” I laugh.
Hooking her arms around my neck, she shakes her head. “Nope.”
I wrap mine around her back and pull her onto my lap. “Yes, you are. Who’d you con into giving you the cord tonight?”
“Akers.” She grins. “He’s an easy target.”
Anytime Ash wants something, Akers damn near trips over himself to make sure she gets it.
These days, I think she’s got us all wrapped around her finger.
As if he knew we were talking about him, Akers pops out of nowhere. “You going to fight night tomorrow?”
“Eh… I don’t know. I’ll probably hang out with Drunk the Skunk here instead.”
Her mouth pops open. “That’s rude.” Grinning at Akers, she says, “What’s fight night?”
Akers lifts his brows. “Just a bunch of grown manchildren beating the hell out of each other. It’s stupid, but we’ve all been going since like freshman year.”
Her eyes light. “Ooo. Sounds fun! I wanna go!”
I don’t know why that catches me off guard. I shouldn’t be surprised. Ash is always down to do something fun, but I was more than willing to blow it off just to be with her.
“You wanna go?” I ask.
“Why? You don’t want me to?”
I shake my head, leaning in and just before I kiss her, I say, “I want you everywhere I go.”
29
ASH
JUNE 6 YEARS AGO
Fight night’s exactly what you’d expect. It’s mostly men, standing around in an old, abandoned building. The floors are concrete and some of the windows are busted out. The crowd’s rambunctious to say the least, gathered in a circle where two men beat the hell out of each other in the middle.
I clutch Gabriel’s arm until we find JT and the other guys.
“Damn, did you get prettier overnight?” JT shouts, wrapping an arm around me.
“You’re asking to get your ass kicked with that shit, you know that?”
