Every star in the sky seemedto glow a little brighter, and there were ten times as many as there’d ever been inSacramento.
Not quite as many as some ofthe places I’dvisited, but enough. This should have been a beautiful place, but awake bymyself, I didn’t want to be in the main house at all.
Which was why my feet wereleading me to the unit Ashley’s grandma lived in. She was the one nice thingabout this place, the onegoodthing. I could see goodness in her, warmthand love radiating off her.
I could see why Ashley hadturned to her, why he trusted her, and why she was the keeper of all hissecrets.
The door opened before Icould decide whether or not to knock on it, Grandma peeking out with her hairin curlers, wrapped in a fluffy robe that had Ashley’s sense of taste writtenall over it. A gift, I thought. I was willing to bet she’d kept every gift he’dgiven her.
“Can’t sleep?” Grandmaasked, opening the door a little wider.
I shoved my hands deep in mypockets and shrugged. I’d left Ashley dead to the world, sleeping sopeacefully he hadn’t even woken when I’d kissed him.
But I couldn’t stay in thathouse. It reminded me too much of being a helpless teenager.
The thought of leavingAshley here made my stomach twist all over again.
“Let’s see if hot chocolatewith a shot of whiskey can’t cure that,” she said, holding the door and steppingout of the way to let me in.
Well. I’d come out here,might as well go inside.
“I’ve got chocolate cake andthin mints, choose your poison,” she said as she led me to a kitchen area witha small, practical table in the middle of it.
Everything about her was sopractical.She hadn’tturned Ashley into the person he was, she’d just let him figure it out forhimself. There wasn’t a speck of glitter or lace in this place—or if there was,Ashley had left it there.
“I don’t think I’m hungry,”I said, taking my place at the table.
This was nice. I’d never had aGrandma to go to when I was stressed or upset, and while this wasn’tmygrandma…
I felt like she didn’t mind playingthe role for me.
“Two shots of whiskey foryou, then,” Grandma said.
“No, uh. I… can’t drink awhole lot. I take a lot of pain meds.”
She leveled her gaze at me. “Recreationally,or for pain?”
“For pain,” I said, faceheating up. “I got hurt.”
Grandma nodded. “Thought as much.Your right leg, right?”
I swallowed. She’d noticed. MaybeI didn’t hide it as well as I thought I did?
Or maybe she was justlooking.Paying attention. Either because she was observant like that, or because sheknew I meant something to Ashley.
That Ashley meant somethingto me.
“Yeah,” I said. “There wasan incident.”
“Figured you didn’t quit thearmy because you got bored,” she said, pouring milk into a saucepan. “You know,I didn’t pay you to fall in love with my grandson.”
I looked down at the saltand pepper shakers in the middle of the table.
She knew. Of course sheknew. I was probably broadcasting on all frequencies that Ashley had become oneof the most important people in my life so quickly my head was still spinning,but that was what lovewas, wasn’t it?
Head-spinning,stomach-churning, terrifying. But also exciting. So exciting that my heart dida backflip every time I thought about him smiling at me, or talking to me, orbiting his lip the way he did when he was teasing.
Yeah. I was, in a word,screwed.
