He sighed and leaned his body against mine. The moment our shoulders brushed, I felt my whole body warm. I rested my head on his shoulder as we stared at the two tombstones in front of us.
“Karla?”
“Yes?”
“I’m glad I got called to your bookshop.”
“Yeah....” I smiled. “Me too.”
44Ash
I read the book for Karla’s book club. I showed up to Second Chance on the last Tuesday of the month for the discussion with her friends. I didn’t know why, but it felt important for me to step into Karla’s new life and see the person she’d become over the past few years. It was clear that her healing journey looked a lot different than my own.
I faked my happiness; Karla found hers.
As I walked into the bookshop, I saw Karla laughing with a guy who was making drinks at the bar. In another corner were three individuals who were setting up a snack table.
Karla turned toward me with a bright smile. “Ash! You made it.” She walked over and hugged me.
I wondered if she could tell how my body reacted whenever she touched me. It was like sparks of life shot through my whole system, but whenever she’d let go, she’d take the sparks with her. She’d almost jumpstarted my heart again simply with her touches, and she had no fucking clue.
“I’m so happy you’re here. Let me introduce you to everyone,” she said, grabbing my hand in hers as she pulled me toward her friends. There they were again, those damn sparks.
“Hey, y’all, this is my old friend Ash who I mentioned might be joining our book club,” Karla said. She gestured toward the two women. “Becca and Grace, this is Ash.”
“You left out the fact that he was handsome,” Grace said as she smiled my way and extended her hand for me to shake.I shook her hand. “Nice to meet you. I’m Grace. Karla’s very single friend,” she flirted.
“Don’t let her hold on too tight. She bites,” another person said. I looked over to him, and he smirked and held his hand in my direction. “I’m Eric. Nice to meet you.” Eric was a little shorter than me and had a buzz cut. He dressed in graphic T-shirts and sweatpants and looked beyond comfortable.
“I don’t bite,” Grace chimed in. Then she sweetly looked my way. “Unless you’re into that.”
“Geez, someone get that woman a muzzle,” the guy at the bar said as he walked over with a tray of drinks. He set the tray on the table with the display of wings, then looked my way.
I swore he eyed me up and down before deciding to introduce himself.
“Hey, I’m Daniel. I work the coffee shop and bar here. I’mgoodfriends with Karla.”
The way he said “good friends” made me wonder if the two of them might’ve been a little bit more than just friends. That bothered me.
It had no right to bother me. Karla was allowed to be with whoever she wanted to be with. But were they... Did she have feelings for Daniel? Had she been with anyone?
Fuck.
Get a grip, Ash. Shape up.
I shook Daniel’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you all. I’ll admit, I was a bit concerned coming in to join the book club, because Karla and I already had aHot Onesnight together, and I hardly survived it.”
“You two did aHot Oneschallenge?” Daniel asked, shooting a glance toward Karla. “I thought that was just for our book club.” He seemed almost offended by the fact that I’d shared wings with his “good friend.”
Karla waved him off. “I figured I could test Ash’s strength level. It turns out he couldn’t hang with the big dogs.”
“Don’t feel bad,” Becca said as she grabbed a plate to pick up some wings. “No one is quite as big of a masochist as our girl Karla,” she joked.
I smiled. “I almost died that night.”
“I bet your body suffered a lot after eating them, too,” Grace said. She lowered her brows. “How’s your body Ash? Does it still hurt? I heard massages could help after that kind of situation. And it just turns out that I’m a massage therapist. If you need, I can help you release some tension in your ass—”
“Grace!” all her friends shouted.
