Page 71 of Love Her

“Ari, I think your mama is looking for you.”

Turning to mouth “thank you” to Ashton, I shift to help Ari from her seat before she takes off running in the direction of the house, cake and the subject of mean boys forgotten. As I turn to face my savior, I note her smirk. “I assume Dakota is not looking for Arizona?”

“Nah. I could tell you were dying over here. Besides, I wanted to check on you and see how you’re doing.”

Her question could be about so many things. The bar, my physical therapy, the breakup. Heck, for all I know she could be really interested in my cake consumption.

“No cake for you?”

“Not right now. I’ll take some home to enjoy with a bubble bath. A treat to myself after wrangling those two monsters all afternoon.” I follow her eyes to the twin toddlers who are rolling around on the ground with Dakota’s youngest daughter, Cali, and Scarlett’s son, Nick.

“Can’t say I blame you.”

Ashton sits back in her chair, arms crossed over her chest, brow quirked. I’ve seen this look on her before. Usually, she saves it for Taylor when they are working on the books at the bar. I’m not used to being on the receiving end of one of these looks. I have to admit, it’s a little unsettling.

“I’m fine?”

“Why is that a question? Don’t you know?”

Unlike Dakota with Ari, I don’t worry about Ashton when her kids get to the teen years. She’s a little scary, maybe I should be concerned for them.

“It isn’t a question. I just don’t know what you’re asking. Work is good. I have three new acts booked for live music events. Dax is great, and it’s nice to have someone like him behind the bar, especially on busy nights.”

“I know all that, Connor. What about Felicity? Have you talked to her?”

Instead of answering, I narrow my gaze. There isn’t a hint of disgust or contempt for Lis as she says her name. Considering the way they were speaking to one another a few weeks ago, this surprises me.

“I saw her today.”

Rolling her eyes, she purses her lips and waves her hand in a “well go on” fashion.

“What? I went to her mom’s store. She was there and helped me. That’s it.”

No longer interested in the delicious cake, I toss the plate and plastic fork onto the table. I could share with Ashton the apology and sadness in Lis’s voice. But, I haven’t processed that myself and can only imagine the opinion Ashton would offer.

“We’re friends, right?”

“Umm. . . yeah.”

“Good. Then you can’t get too mad at me.”

You would think growing up with a little sister I would be used to deciphering cryptic statements like this. Half the time I didn’t understand what Meg was talking about but if I paid enough attention, I could figure it out. Ashton is a different story. I have absolutely no idea why I would be angry with her.

“So I think you may have misunderstood what Felicity and I were talking about when you walked into The Closet that day. Actually, I know you did.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Felicity didn’t say those things to me because they are true, she said them because I was provoking her. It’s kind of been what we do. Did. Not anymore. Apparently, we’re friends now. Which is weird but that’s neither here nor there.”

“What do you mean provoking her?”

“Well, I mean, I kind of maybe was warning her from hurting you and then she threw my accusations back at me. That’s what she was doing when you walked in the door. If you could have seen the look on her face when she realized you heard her . . .” Ashton shivers and scrunches her nose. “I knew then that she really cares about you. After she walked in from chasing you, I almost felt bad for her. Now, I really do feel bad. Then, I was still waist deep in our contentious relationship.”

Slow on the uptake is an understatement for how I’m processing this. I’ve had a few beers but not enough for none of this to make sense. “I heard her. She said she was using me.”

“No. Actually she didn’t. I mean, yeah, she said those words, but you heard them out of context. I’m so sorry, Connor. It’s been eating me up inside and then after I saw her with her ex-husband, and we were at the hospital—”

“Hospital?” I shout, drawing attention from others nearby.

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