Page 24 of Ash
Once in the car, I take off down the street. “So, where is Wade?” I ask as I choose not to notice her smooth, toned legs as she crosses them.
“Art class, thankfully,” she says as she looks at her phone. “I was afraid he wouldn’t be willing to go today after last night. Which, by the way, I owe you an apology. I shouldn’t have acted that way this morning. It was very kind of you to stay with us last night. I just have a rule about sleepovers.”
I laugh. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, I wasn’t doing any sleeping.”
“No, actually, it doesn’t.” Her voice is soft and full of, is that… concern? My thoughts are interrupted when my phone rings through the bluetooth in my car. I don’t recognize the caller, fuck did I have a client I forgot about? “This might be a client, sorry.”
Sunday nods and I accept the call. “This is Ash,”
“Ashy Johnson.” I nearly wreck my car at the sound ofhervoice. My heart starts pounding and my brain stops working. Sunday notices my reaction and grabs my bicep, squeezing it to get my attention. I quickly turn into a parking lot and stop the car.
I give her a look that I hope shows her how sorry I am before speaking. “Shannon!” I force out with as much fake excitement as I can muster. “To what do I owe this pleasure?” I see the look of confusion written all over Sunday’s face, and it’s then I realize Sunday doesn’t know my ex’s name.
“Yeah, Ashy, look, Hud and I are going to be at the wedding this weekend. Are you going to be able to act like a man about it or will that be too much to ask of you, given your…sensitivenature?” I flinch at the ice in her words and cast my eyes downward, not wanting to meet Sunday’s gaze. “That is the correct term right? I wouldn’t want to be unsympathetic or something and make you have to go cry to your therapist about me.” Her laugh grates at me and I wish to God a black hole would open up right now and take me far away.
“Yep,” I say softly. “Honestly, I didn't give it much thought.”
“Oh my God,” she groans. “This is so like you! I’m trying to have a conversation to make sure everything will run smoothly, and you are acting all closed off. It’s disrespectful, and this is just one of themanyreasons no woman in their right mind would ever lower them—”
“Excuse me.” My eyes snap up to look at Sunday’s angry face. “Who in the fuck do you think you are to talk to him that way?”
Shannon chuckles uncomfortably. “Ashy? Who is that?”
I go to speak but Sunday beats me. “Thisis his girlfriend. So why don’t you explain to me why it is that you are calling and talking to my man in such a disrespecting way?” Holy fucking shit, I can’t breathe. “Because I’m telling you right now, I wouldn’t allow you to talk to a hog like that, let alone my boyfriend.” What is she doing? How am I going to face Shannon this weekend alone now that I supposedly have a fucking girlfriend?
“Listen, sweetheart. I am Shannon, I’m sure you heard of me.”
“Hmmmm… you must be the one that couldn’t get him off?” H-holy shit… I listen as Shannon disconnects the call, but my eyes never leave Sunday’s face.
“I don’t like her. Don’t you let someone talk to you that w-mmppf–” I can’t help it. I pull her to me and capture her lips. I wait for her to shove me off and slap me, but it doesn’t happen. Instead, she captures my bottom lip in between hers and kisses me back. God, her lips are so fucking soft and fuckkk if she bites my lip like that one more time, my cock is going to punch through my jeans.
I pull back for fear of going any further and stare into her honey eyes. “Thank you,” I whisper, causing her to give me a smile.
“No problem.” I watch as she bites down on her lip as she sits back in her seat and I know this is a bad decision before it leaves my mouth, but here I am doing it anyway.
“So, Indy and I are heading to my mom’s wedding this weekend. You and Wade should come.” She blinks her pretty eyes at me as her forehead wrinkles in confusion.
“What? W-why would I do that?” I give her a small shrug.
“Well, you kind of told my ex, who will be there, that you’re my girlfriend.” I smirk as I turn into our garage. “It’ll be fun, good food, free drinks, and I’ll take you and Wade flyboarding.”
“Flyboarding?” she asks as I park in my assigned spot. “What’s that?” Smirking, I turn towards her and give her a shrug.
“Guess you’ll have to come to find out.” She looks like she might consider for a second before she shakes her head.
“I can’t. I’d have to have someone take over my classes, plus there’s Alice.”
“Alice?” I question while trying to not get drunk off her scent. She smells so fucking good. Warm and woody, which is unique for a woman. I’ll give her that. It’s like vanilla and smoke and spice. I remember her smelling this way years ago too, and it had the same magnetic effect then that it’s having now.
“Wade’s chicken,” she says, and I blink in confusion.Chicken?It’s then I remember seeing the black bird around when I had been in her place when the girls were drunk, but I didn’t see it last night, so I didn’t think about it.
Wait. Black Chicken?
“Holy shit, it was you!” I say, pointing a finger at her. I remember her talking about running to save Wade’s pet. “I saw you that night. I saw you running with an all-black chicken. But I didn’t know it was you because you were moving so fast.”
She laughs and shakes her head. “Yep, that stupid bird is Wade’s baby. Apparently, the thing is some kind of rare breed of chicken. Josh researched it and when he found out, he wanted to breed her. But Josh didn’t understand how to, and I had no desire to be a chicken dealer, so I said no. Josh then bought a rooster, which he thought was the same breed as Alice, with a lot of my money. It wasn’t the same breed, and the rooster was a dick and tried to kill Alice. When we broke up the last time, it was because I realized he was willing to commit more to building a chicken business than to a family. Then he tried to keep Alice. So, I had to break into his place and steal the bitch.”
“Well yeah, obviously.” I chuckle at the absurd story and brighten as she too begins to laugh.
