Page 104 of Silver Fox's Secret Baby

“Coming right up.”

When he returns with a bottle of wine and two glasses, he suggests we go sit outside for a bit since it’s such a nice night. I agree and follow him outside, down a winding stone path to a rocky outcrop right at the edge of the property. The water is just below, waves sloshing lightly against the retaining wall. Such a gorgeous sound.

“Do you sit out here a lot?” I ask, taking a sip of wine. Tangy and musky on my tongue. Would be easy to drink a whole bottle of this, I think.

“When I have the time. Which is rare. It’s a good place to think,” he remarks softly, looking into the bowl of his wine glass.

Liquid courage doesn’t usually set in so fast, but my nerves have been so on edge all evening that it only takes a little wine to ply too many questions out of me. “You live here alone?”

“Yep.”

“Sorry if that’s an invasive question,” I say. Big gulp of wine. Calm the nerves.

“No, no, you’re right,” he says. “It’s weird, isn’t it? To be in this big house all by myself. The boys all stayed with me until they were ready for their own space, you know? I mean Keifer only moved out… I guess it’s over a year ago now. Huh. Time flies.”

I look back at the mansion. So beautiful and big. “I bet it was a beautiful place for them to grow up in.”

Ash smiles crookedly. “They only spent a bit of their childhood here. We really chose it for us. Me and Rose, I mean.” He sighs. “We could picture the grandkids tumbling around the lawn and a big fucking Christmas tree in the living room and… ” He laughs. “Life doesn’t go to plan, does it?”

Even though he’s talking about his wife who has passed, I’m even more infatuated. I’ve never seen this soft side. The few times I saw him when I was younger, he was ebullient, always quick with a joke or a laugh. The past three months have been completely counter to that in a lot of ways. Coldness, distance. And the undercurrent of it all is… this overwhelming love for his family. For his dead wife.

I want him even more.

“There are just too many memories here to leave it behind. You understand.”

“Of course. My dad is the same way.”

He nods solemnly.

I finish up my wine. Probably too quickly. If Ash thinks I’m a drunk, so be it. “I’m sure many women would be thrilled to live in a house like this.”

Ash quirks his eyebrows as if I’m speaking gibberish.

“I just mean, if you didn’t want to be alone, I don’t think it’d be hard for you to fix that.”Wow, Rye.Not only am I being super invasive, I’m speaking as if I’ve never crafted a sentence in my life.

“Oh, I don’t know about that, Rye.”

“I’m serious!” Doubling down. Might as well get some more wine. I fill both of our glasses, even though his is not yet drained.

Ash laughs uneasily. The thought of getting his best friend’s daughter drunk before she has to drive back home into the city is probably weighing on his mind. “I’m kinda old. I’m a grandfather now.”

I snort. “Oh, please. You wouldn’t be able to tell. You’re in good shape and—” I stop myself because if I start on the list of words to describe Ash, I’ll make more a fool of myself than I already have. Ruggedly sexy… insanely attractive… utterly irresistible.

“Rye, you’re very sweet, but—”

“No, no I’m not sweet,” I say abruptly.

We stare at each other through the dark, only lit by some of the landscape lighting underneath bushes and trees.

“I’m telling you the truth.”

Ash blinks. His silence kills me each second that passes. I’m waiting for him to tell me that it’s time for me to go and then tomorrow morning find out he called my dad and said I was super disrespectful and he never wants to see me ever again (and yes, this may be for the best, but it would kill me before it did anything good).

Instead, he drains his glass of wine in one go and then shakes his head as if he was about to say something and decided against it. How I would kill to know what thought crossed his mind. “I don’t want to be alone, but I don’t feel like I have a choice really.”

“Of course, you do,” I say with a smile. “I mean, take a look at my dad.”

“It’s different. I know it doesn’t seem like it from an outside perspective but—”

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