Page 12 of Tailwhip

Noah answers next, “I don’t mind finishing high school online, if that’s cool with you. My parents only care that I finish school whatever way I want or can.”

Anthony considers this for a minute, probably messing with them and putting them both on edge. “Yeah, I am fine with whatever you all want to do, as long as you finish!”

“Deal,” they both say at the same time.

Once back in the car, Anthony turns to me, and says, “I want to take you to one of my favorite places in Dallas. I go to it every time I am in town.”

Back in town, we head for the Reunion Tower. I have never been here before; I am excited to see Dallas from this height. At the top, we have a 360-degree view of the city, and it is beautiful. The sun is just starting to set, painting the sky in orange and pink colors. Outside, we are on the observation deck, standing at the rails and looking out. Anthony comes up behind me and cages me in with his arm; looking down at his forearms, I run my hands over them and feel his muscles flex.

We both stand here in comfortable silence just looking out over Dallas. Still standing behind me, he puts his jaw on my shoulder and asks, “What was your phone call about? You didn’t seem happy when you got off the phone.”

I blow out a breath, saying, “Heath talked to a new publishing company about one of my suspense stories that I started a few years ago. It’s untitled and not yet fully completed.”

Anthony says, “I always wondered why I never saw your name on any books, honestly. Can I ask why you don’t write your own stories and books, instead of doing freelance work?”

I really don’t want to get into that reason this early on, but I need to be upfront with him. I turn around, still caged in his arms and say, “It’s stupid honestly, but my last boyfriend, Ryan, wasn’t the most supportive of my writing career. One night, I finally got the courage to show him one of my suspense stories I had been working on for a few months at that point. He was only a couple pages in when he looked up at me and just started laughing, saying, ‘No publisher is going to want to publish this shit. Just give up Ashlynn, it won’t happen for you. You need to give up and move on. It could be some sort of hobby.’” I let out a small laugh. “I haven’t written anything on my own since.”

I haven’t looked at Anthony while telling him all this, but if the grip on the rail is any indication of how pissed he is, I don’t want to look, but I do anyway. He looks like he wants to hurt someone. I shake my head and continue. “It’s stupid, I know. I let it get to me.”

Grabbing my chin between his fingers, he forces me to look up at him. With his voice low and serious, he says, “Ashlynn baby, that is not stupid. That fucker doesn’t know what he was talking about. I have read all your stories you had from high school, and they are all publishing material. Don’t ever let some asshole make you feel like you can’t do something. I think you should go for this and get your work out there. Share it with the world.”

I tell him I am scared, that it won’t be good.

“It will be good; it is good. I always loved that you would let me read your stories, even the unfinished ones,” Anthony says.

Smiling at him, I stand on my tiptoes to give him a kiss and I tell him I think I will do it and that I will need to call Heath and work out the details.

Eyes turning dark, he asks, “Who is Heath?”

I quickly tell him, “He is my agent/friend, who told me about this!”

“Good, I don’t have to worry about him hurting you! Now that that’s all figured out, let’s go get some dinner and possibly dessert,” Anthony says.

After dinner, we get back to the hotel and into the room. Laying back in bed, I ask if Nick knows that we are trying things out with each other. “He knows that I wanted you out here for the grand finale, but I didn’t elaborate on anything else. Are you trying to hide me, am I your dirty secret?”

I shake my head. “I haven’t had a chance to really process all this with us. It happened so fast, but I would like to keep it our dirty little secret for a while and just enjoy each other. Would you be ok with that? I know Neha would have a field day with us being together again.”

Tucking a piece of hair behind my ear and running his fingers along my jawline, he says, “Ashlynn, I am ok with whatever you want to do, as long as we are on the same page, and I get to continue seeing you; I am fine with that, but you do know Neha is going to find out eventually, right? Nick is going back out to Colorado in a few days and is spending time with her until he has his next videos to do for his sponsor.”

Shit, I did not know this about Nick and Neha. I knew they stayed together in Denver, but I had no idea it turned into this. Oh, well–get it, girl! Anthony knows what I am thinking, and says, “Nick won’t say anything; he knows I am private, so don’t worry about him.” That is a relief!

Sitting in silence for a moment, Anthony asks, “By the way, when I talked to Neha at the tour, she said she didn’t give you much of a choice at 2 AM to go to the tour. What does that even mean?”

Laughing and rolling onto my stomach, I look over at him and tell him, “Neha likes to just show up at random hours at my house. Sometimes it is at 2 AM, yelling and banging on my door. That is when she told me about the tour and her interviews!”

Smiling, Anthony says, “That girl is something else.”

10

Anthony

Stay With Me - Finch

Today is Ashlynn’s last full day in Dallas and mine before I need to get started on the stops for the Overbear video. I wake up before her and sneak out of bed to go get us some breakfast from a local bakery. I have woken Ashlynn up the last few mornings with quickies, wanting to hear nothing more than her moaning first thing every morning, but I figure I’ll let her sleep in today.

I have a full day planned for the Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington area. Picking up a couple of breakfast sandwiches, pastries, coffee, and a chai tea, I head back to the hotel. Once I get inside the room, I notice the bed is empty, along with the entire suite. I do see some movement out of the corner of my eye, and Ashlynn is there on the balcony, typing away. She’s wearing nothing but my t-shirt and her glasses, with her hair pulled up in some type of mess on top of her head. Opening the door, I say, “Nerd looks sexy on you!”

She looks up and gives me a big smile. “I was wondering where you went; I felt you get up, thinking you were just going to the bathroom, but you never came back! So, I just stayed up.” Ashlynn says.

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