My mouth goes slack.“What the hell?”We were just talking personal trainers, so how did this escalate so quickly?Unless… “Catherine, do you sleep with your trainer?Ash?”
“Who doesn’t?”Catherine says with a shrug.
I turn to Kendall.“I’m not that Ash.Actually, I never even go by Ash.”
Kendall staggers back, eyes even wider.“I guess… I’ve never heard anyone call you Ash.”
“Because they don’t.”I face Catherine.“Am I correct in thinking the Ash in question is Asher Diggle?”
Catherine takes a step back.“Yes, but I don’t want to get him into trouble.”
I turn to Kendall.“So… when you said you had a friend who told you that I sleep around, was it Catherine?”
Catherine snorts.“Ash doesn’t just sleep around.He fuckseveryone.How else do you think a trainer that inept could have such a big roster of repeat clients?”
Something on my face must scare Catherine because she mutters a couple of excuses and rushes away.
I turn my fury to Kendall.“You actually believed such a thing about me?That I slept with every training client?”
Kendall’s face is pale, but she stubbornly says, “That’s what it sounded like.”
“And you believed it until this moment?Even after getting to know me?”
She jams her hands under her armpits.“When I brought it up, you didn’t deny it.”
“I thought you were talking about sleeping around in college!”I realize my voice is raised, but I can’t help it.
“College?”she asks in disbelief.“That’s what you meant?”
“Yes.I told you.I’m not as much of a manwhore as you think.”I drag in a breath.“Is this why you had such a hard time believing that I wasn’t with anyone for three years?”
She looks stunned.“Is thatreallythe case?You haven’t been with anyone else since that night?”
“Yes.”What will it take for this woman to fucking trust me?
Suddenly, something else hits me.This Ash misunderstanding is why she ghosted me three years ago—as in, for no reason at all.What’s worse is, even now, even with everything clarified, she doesn’t seem to trust me.
“I didn’t see Ash to get laid, by the way,” she says.“In case that’s what you’re thinking.”
I didn’t until now, but?—
My phone rings and I want to ignore it, but the ringtone is “The Imperial March,” which means it’s my father calling.
And he never calls me.My mother, sure, but never this late.
“I have to take this,” I tell Kendall tersely and pick up.“Hey.Is something wrong?”
“Yes,” my father says grimly.“It’s your sister.She was just rushed to the hospital.”
Chapter29
Kendall
As Ashton picksup the phone, I can see that he’s angry about the Ash misunderstanding, and he has a right to be.As I process this new information, I feel progressively shittier.I can’t even fathom how pissed I’d be if our roles were reversed.
Whatever Ashton hears on the other end of the phone call makes all the blood leave his face.
“What happened?”he demands.