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Cass laughed and shook his head. “By your tone, I’m assuming she was okay?”
“Oh, yeah. She just giggled and tried again.”
“You’d better hurry and babyproof your place then, she’ll be crawling before you know it.”
He heard a quiet laugh from the other end of the line. “I thought I was supposed to have a little more time, but yeah, I think you’re right. She’s . . . she’s this ferocious little girl, does everything with her whole being, and she’s stubborn too. So much like her mom.”
The grief slipped through in Ash’s voice, despite the little bit of lightheartedness before that, and Cass wished he knew exactly what to say. But he didn’t, and so he said the first thing that came to mind, instead.
“Sounds like her mom was pretty amazing too.”
“Yeah. Yeah, she was.”
“Do you want to tell me about her? I can listen if you need to talk about her.” It was a gamble, and really, Cass should probably hang up and head back inside with his friends. But something in his gut told him Ash wasn’t ready to stop talking yet.
“Um, I . . . Yeah, actually, if you don’t mind . . .”
Cass’s heart stuttered, and he closed his eyes and nodded. “I don’t mind. Tell me about Ashlynn.”
Ash talked. For a good twenty or so minutes, he talked, and Cass listened. Joe came out to check on him at some point, but Cass just quickly reassured Joe he was fine and would be a few more minutes. Then he continued listening. Ash told him all about his sister—her free spirit, her hobbies, her passions. He told Cass how Ashlynn was an artist, and how he’d inherited all of her finished and unfinished paintings. He told Cass how she’d been on the swim team in high school with him, though she’d sort of despised swim meets, and how she’d loved hiking and camping and kayaking. And he told Cass about how close they’d been, how hard it had been when she’d decided to move down to California with her friend Shaina for college, how much he’d missed her, even before she’d passed.
He heard tears in Ash’s voice several times, but he also heard strength and courage and determination and love.
He was so invested in the conversation that he didn’t even notice Joe had come back outside until Joe’s arm slipped around his waist. He glanced down at the man who’d been such a great friend to him the last several weeks, the man he should be thinking of as his boyfriend. He smiled and tried as best he could, pulling the phone away from his ear for a second and leaning over to kiss Joe’s cheek. But something about the gesture felt stale now.
“Sorry, almost done,” he whispered.
Joe just nodded. “Take your time. I called a Lyft for us. They’ll be here in about five minutes.”
“Matty and Tam?”
“Trish is coming to pick them up.”
Cass nodded and lifted the phone back to his ear.
“. . . so she named her Brielle Rose after my mom,” Ash said, his voice sounding both small and empowered at the same time.
“It’s a beautiful name,” Cass replied. He wrapped his arm around Joe’s shoulders.
“That’s what I told her too.” Ash laughed weakly. “Sorry, I just jabbered on for way too long, but . . . but I think I really needed that. Thank you for listening. It means a lot to me.”
“Yeah, no, any time. I mean it.”
“Careful, I might take you up on that.”
“Please do.”
Ash laughed again, the sound like sunshine to Cass’s ears. He smiled as a comfortable warmth settled in his chest.
“So I’ve gotta run now,” he said, “but I’ll talk to you soon?”
“Yeah, sounds good.”
“Good night, Ash.”
“Good night, Cass. Thanks again for calling.”
“For sure.”
