Page 43 of Chasing Sparks

“We’re not that interesting,” he says with a faint smile, deflecting.

“Now that’s a lie, isn’t it, Asher Hammond? I’m certain you have scads of stories. Time to sing for your supper.”

But Ash doesn’t want to talk about his family. He has something else on his mind.

Leaning his arms on the table, he fixes me with his piercing green gaze. “I think it’s time you told me aboutyou.”

“What about me? Compared to your life, I’m the definition of staid and boring. Look it up in the dictionary, and you’ll find my picture.”

“Not a chance.” His lips curve into a slight smirk. “Can I cut through the bullshit and be brutally honest?”

I click my tongue against my teeth, unsure I want to traverse this path. “Sure. Wait—let me grab more wine for this conversation.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“Says the man who just announced he’s about to be brutally honest,” I shoot back, raising a brow.

“No, I’m askingyouto be brutally honest.”

I wave my hand, dismissing him. “Tomato, tomato. Go ahead, ask me.”

“You said you bought the Dean Estate with money from an inheritance. I’m assuming your parents?”

“Something like that,” I reply, averting my gaze out the window.

Ash nods and helps himself to some more food, but his gaze finds mine again, silently prompting me to continue.

I think I’d rather discuss his night with the porn star.

“You don’t have to tell me. I just want to know you, Ori.”

Damn it. With a line like that—so earnest and real—how can I not empty my skeletons out of the closet?

“My father died. I didn’t even know it happened until a week after he passed.”

“You weren’t speaking?”

“Not for years. My twelfth birthday surprise was that my father had another family and was leaving my mother and me to live with them. His mistress worked with him at the law firm, but it was hardly an overnight affair. They had been in love since high school—at least, that was his claim. Only hiccup was my father was married with a small child. Not that it stopped them. He carried on a secret affair for a decade, with all his extra money going to support her andtheirson. When I turned twelve,I was apparently old enough to know the truth. Happy birthday to me.”

Ash runs a hand through his hair, leaning back in his chair as he exhales a slow breath. “Holy shit, Ori. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to open that can of worms.”

“It’s fine.”

But Ash doesn’t buy my blasé response. “No, it’s pretty fucking far from fine.”

I fiddle with my napkin, folding and unfolding it along the crease. “You’re right. Betrayal like that never goes away—it hardens you, turns you against what, or who, you used to love. You never fully recover.”

Ash stiffens, a strange look passing over his features. “That’s the damn truth. You’re never the same.”

He’s speaking about his first love, the one who destroyed him years ago—the one he can’t move on from, and the reason he hates love today.

But I won’t press him for details about her. The last time I asked, that first night in the basement, I saw the scars on his psyche—and they’re deep.

They might be deeper than mine.

“How could your father abandon you? How could any father abandon their kid?”

I take a swallow of wine, grateful for the warm flush it provides against this cold conversation. “He tried to reconcile with me several times, but I didn’t want to hear it. I was too angry to realize that forgiveness was the only way to release the hurt. Open that safety valve, you know? His last letter told me how sorry he was for what he did, how proud he was of me, and how he wanted to do right by me. It arrived with a notice that I was the beneficiary of his life insurance policy. Two million dollars.”

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