I stood, looking over at him, noticing that he didn’t reek of smoke as usual. “You didn’t interview anyone, so you have no say. Next time, maybe you’ll put in the work if you want to be included in the decision making.” I walked off and felt him stomp after me. We’d closed the bar from 1-3 p.m. for the interviews, and Julie had gone up to help set up my apartment and make it more livable.
“I’m not hiring that dude just so you can flirt with him all day!” Ashton snapped.
I froze, spinning on my heel and faced Ashton’s piercing blue eyes. “Ashton Knight, you’re jealous.”
He crossed his arms. “Please, I’m just saying, no one comes to a bar for amalecocktail waitress. Ain’t happening, honey.”
He was jealous … you could see it in his eyes. Things had been strained since his grandma sold me the bar, and with Julie here, Ashton and I weren’t able to talk about anything or clear the air. I didn’t know what we were, just that we’d had the best sex of my life and then he’d turned back into the asshole I’d first met.
“He’s getting hired.” I shrugged. “And it’s a male waiter, not waitress.” Then I started to walk around him.
Ashton sidestepped me and I ran right into his chest. His arms came around me and he grabbed my ass, pulling me flush against him and sending a burst of heat between my legs. “Woman, you drive mecrazy. That punk was drooling all over you. Hire him and I’ll make his life a living hell.”
Holy shit, jealous Ashton washot.
“You like me.” I grinned. “You’re not capable of just being my business partner, are you?”
He was silent, glaring at me behind those fucking gorgeous blue eyes, hands still on my ass. “No. I’m not,” he answered, and reached under my butt, pulling me up onto him so that I could straddle his waist as our lips crashed together. My lips parted immediately and his tongue searched for mine with a hunger that I matched. All I could think about was our night together and the amazing sex we’d had—how close to him I’d felt, how needed I’d felt and how good he was with his tongue.
It hit me then, in this moment, I’d moved on. Somewhere between moving into that apartment upstairs, fighting with this crazy asshole, and going to his gran’s farm, I’d moved on. Colin was … my past. That very thought panged my heart, but it also set me free in a way. I couldn’t deny that I finally felt alive. Old Millie was back, and for the first time since Colin died, I had a purpose, a future. And it was with Ashton.
I’d want you to move on, to be happy.Colin would want this for me, because he was that kind of guy. He wanted it for me before I’d wanted it for myself.
Ashton walked us back toward the bar and I envisioned the crazy counter sex we were about to have, vowing to bleach it after and keep it up to code.
Ashton pulled away and looked up at me as my hair fell in a curtain around us. “I want to know everything about you.” Leaning in, he kissed my neck. “I can’t get enough of you.”
His words were so sweet that it made guilt gnaw at my gut. Know everything about me? If he knew that, then he wouldn’t be kissing me right now. When I had first gotten here, all I could think about was the fact that this man had Colin’s heart. But as the days stretched on and I got to know Ashton more, I thought less and less about it. He seemed to genuinely care for me. Maybe if I just told him, he would understand.
He lost Jenna. He would understand.
Pulling away from his urgent kiss, I looked him in the eyes. “Ashton … I need you to know something.”
This was it. Do or die. What had started as a simple kiss in the river had morphed into passionate sex in his grandmother’s guest house, and now it was going firmly into a relationship zone. He needed to know, even if it broke us before we could begin.
He frowned. “What?”
Taking a deep breath, I prepared myself. “I came here—”
A loud smack against the glass front door made a shattering noise, filling the space as we both leapt off the counter and ran to see what had happened.
“God dammit, Wayne!” Ashton cursed as my gaze fell on the front door. The glass was shattered into a hundred pieces with Wayne standing there, holding his arm, which was bleeding.
My eyes widened. “Ohmygosh!” I rushed forward, grabbing a cloth napkin as I did. “Are you okay?”
Wayne swayed where he stood, rocking like a gust of wind was about to knock him over. “I burrily yunkked it,” he slurred as I flipped the lock on the door and opened it, glass crunching at my feet.
Reaching out to wrap his arm with the cloth, I looked down and my eyes widened. It was abadcut. Was that bone?
“Ashton we need to take him to the hospital.” I wrapped it quickly and looked over, expecting to see concern in his gaze, but all I saw was venom.
“I’ll call 911, they can deal with it,” was all he said, and dialed on his phone.
My eyes widened.
Was he serious?
He hated his father that much that he wouldn’t even drive him to the hospital … unbelievable. I knew they had problems, but this wasn’t the Ashton I wanted to see. Family was family no matter what. You didn’t give up on them because they had a disease. I knew that was easy to say from my perspective with my perfect, still-married parents, but still. The way Ashton treated his father made me sick.
