by A. P. Moraez
Logan reached out and flipped the switch, and then they were in total darkness.
It was a cold night. The weather guy had announced there was a heavy blizzard approaching fast and, when it hit, it’d be ugly. It was bound to hit the mountains at some point in the next few days. Its cold fingers had surely already arrived, greeting their skin and leaving trembling chins behind. They’d covered themselves with extra blankets tonight, and Ash appreciated the heavy weight. It made him feel an extra layer of protection, even if Logan’s strong arms holding him tight all over should’ve been enough.
“I forgot to tell you something,” Logan said, a mere rumble a little above Ash’s ear.
“Hm?”
“Diana is coming to town in two days.”
“Oh. Didn’t you say you guys had talked? That she was to stay away until all this was over?”
Logan snorted out a laugh. “I’d like to see you try to change her mind once she gets something in her head.”
Ash chuckled against Logan’s chest, pressing his lips to his skin. “Why’s she coming, though? Something happened?”
“Nah,” Logan replied, starting to rub circles on Ash’s back. “She just wants to meet and show me some scripts she thinks I might be interested in.” He snorted out another laugh. “I told her I wasn’t sure if I wanted to grab any job in the near future, but she’s been insisting that some pretty unique scripts landed on her desk and that I should take a look. Some indie stuff she thinks would mesh well with me.”
“You should listen to her. What if you find something you really wanna do?”
“Dunno. I’m just not feeling like working right now. I’d rather spend my time with you.”
Ash propped his head in his hand and narrowed his eyes on Logan, even though the man couldn’t see him in the dark.
“That’s not fair. I don’t want you to stop doing something you love just because of me. Imagine how that’d make me feel.”
Logan remained in silence, so Ash went ahead and twisted his right nipple.
“Ouch!” Logan yelled, laughing. “The fuck was that for?”
“So you’d listen to me.”
“I’m listening.”
“Then promise me you’ll hear her out and go over whatever scripts she has to show you with an open mind.”
Logan didn’t respond for a few moments, then he brought Ash back down against his chest. “Alright, I’ll do as you ask. But I’m telling you: I’m only picking something if it’s special enough to be worth me going on set and not seeing you for weeks at a time.”
“Good,” Ash said as he closed his eyes and breathed Logan’s scent in.
“That’s news,” Logan mused in the dark, “you siding with Diana. I thought you didn’t like her much.”
“I don’t know if I like her or not. I’ve barely met her. But I love you, and I don’t want you to ever give up on your passions because of me.”
Logan squeezed him tight and didn’t say anything after that, and it was the last thing Ash registered before sleep took him.
ASH JUMPED WHEN he opened his eyes the next morning to see Logan seated next to him, wearing a red Henley over his usual thermal that Ash had always found sexy as hell. He was fully awake and, when he saw Ash waking up, gifted him with the brightest smile.
“What time is it?” Ash asked, rubbing the sleep off his eyes.
“A little past ten.”
Ash jumped up in bed. “Damn. I told Jeff I’d visit this morning. I’m gonna be late.” He made to remove the piles of blankets from over him, but Logan stopped him.
“Hey, hey,” he said, “there’s no need to rush.”
“I told you yesterday I needed to wake up a little earlier today. Why’d you let me sleep so much?”
Logan was grinning at him like everything was right in the world. “I just thought you could use a little bit more sleep. Yesterday was a lot.”
Ash leaned over and messed Logan’s hair, then pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Thank you. But, really, I need to go get ready.” He threw the blankets aside and shot up. The wooden floor was beyond cold against his socked feet and Ash winced. “You still not coming?”
“Nah,” Logan confirmed. “I really need to work out if I hope to stay in shape for some possible job someone,” he emphasized that word as he narrowed his eyes on Ash, “is making me consider taking.”
“Alright, then.”
Ash started to spin in the direction of the bathroom to brush his teeth and get ready, but Logan’s firm hand wrapped around his wrist stopped him. Ash slid his eyes back to the man, eyebrow raised in question.
“I need to give you something before you abandon me.”
Ash chuckled and rolled his eyes. “What?”
“This,” Logan said as he pulled the last thing Ash could’ve expected from his pants pocket and rose from his seating position on the bed.
Surprise mixed with an unexplainable wave of happiness traveled over Ash’s whole body made his jaw drop. “I can’t believe you kept it,” he choked out as Logan deposited the old necklace on Ash’s offered palm. Once, before all of that had happened, it’d been his most prized possession aside from his guitar. As he’d done countless times in the past, he flipped the guitar pick pendant and marveled that it hadn’t changed at all in all these years. The platinum had remained intact, untouched by time and torment. Ash ran his finger over their initials engraved in it: LB on one side, AR on the other.
“I thought it was time I let it go. Back to its rightful owner.”
He collected the necklace back from Ash’s palm and motioned for Ash to lean his head down a little. Ash did just that, and Logan put it on him.
Ash’s gaze was glued to how the weight settled against his neck and chest, like no time at all had passed. It was a part of him that he’d dismissed a long time ago, moved by lies and gratuitous hate. Only now, seeing it again, did he realize how much he’d missed it. He shifted his eyes back to Logan, who was studying him with his oceanic stars, deep and shiny.
“I can’t believe it. I didn’t know you’d kept it.”
“I kept everything you left to me in that box in our glade behind your house.”
Ash shook his head, astonished. “Why didn’t you give it back to me sooner?”
Logan’s jaw ticked, then he closed the distance between them and snaked his arms around Ash’s waist. “I guess I was scared,” he confessed. “For years, it was the only part I had left of you besides my memories of you.” He paused. “Guess I didn’t wanna let it go without some sort of confirmation that you’d accept to be forever tied to me,” he explained, grabbing Ash’s hand and pressing his lips to the finger where the pinecone engagement ring rested. “I’m not afraid anymore.”
This man. He was going to kill him one of these days. How could he make Ash fall deeper and deeper when he thought there was no depth left to reach?
Ash leaned up and pressed a gentle kiss against Logan’s lips. It didn’t take long for the kiss to grow from gentle and appreciative to hot and wet. Logan had a way of taking over his body and molding it to his will. Ash couldn’t complain, though. Few things felt better than Logan’s exquisite kisses; when he shoved his tongue so deep in his mouth and squeezed his ass like that.
They snapped apart gasping for air, and Ash laughed as he grasped the pendant and brought it to Logan’s eye-level. Then he grasped the silver pinecone he’d given Logan as a present and rocked them gently between them. “Now we both have one.”
Logan chuckled and pecked him on the lips. “Yeah. Now we both have one.” He leaned down and let his lips linger a few moments longer.
“Alright.” Ash pushed him off gently. “If you start that again, I’m not going to Jeff’s house at all.” He spun around and went on his way to the bathroom.
“Maybe that’s the right choice,” Logan shouted from behind him, back in the bathroom. “Diana is arriving tomorrow. You don’t know when we’ll have enough privacy again.”
“You’re im
possible, Logan Bishop,” Ash shouted back, laughing.
He had to fight Logan off when he got into the shower, naked and hard, and tried to start things.
And then again against the front door, after breakfast where even Ian, Duke and Henry saw the come-here eyes the man couldn’t stop throwing at him.
Duke drove Ash to Jeff’s house and Ash couldn’t stop smiling like an idiot all the way there.
manifestation
ASH FOUND HIMSELF smiling to himself, like a total idiot, as Duke snaked his path along the mountains that connected Hardcliff to Hoofslope. He let his eyes drift from the gray skies outside back to the necklace, shining under the faint sunlight filtering through the Mercedes darkened window.
It had comforted him this morning, during his meeting with Arthur and Wicked Wish’s design and marketing teams. Logan couldn’t be there with him, since he had to collect Diana in the airport back in Frozenbone, but the weight of the platinum necklace on his neck through all of it had made Ash feel less alone; like Logan was there right next to him.
Henry was sleeping beside him in the backseat as Duke and Ian talked animatedly about today’s NFL game. Ash couldn’t even compute what the hell they were talking about other than it’d be an important game between the Chargers and the local Broncos. Both men had lived in LA long enough to be attached to the Chargers, and they were animatedly talking about all the ways they’d just smash the Broncos in tomorrow night’s game.
The worst of all was that they were planning on going to O’Farrell’s to watch the game with the locals. Ash wasn’t looking forward to seeing what’d happen to the two security guys when Tom or Jeff caught a whiff that they were Chargers fans. He only hoped they’d actually get to watch the game, taking account the events of the morning.
Ash had almost forgotten it’d been scheduled weeks in advance, what with the impromptu trip to Italy and the whole nightmare that followed with Trav and all. But yeah, yesterday night Arthur had called him to confirm their meeting this morning. Ash had been caught off guard and thanked the heavens for Logan having a jet at his disposal, just waiting at Frozenbone’s airport, because he’d forgotten to buy tickets and it’d have been hell to find tickets to Denver with the massive blizzard that was expected to hit in the next few days.
Ash had thought Arthur just wanted to get Ash’s final opinions on last-minute adjustments to his songs before starting production for worldwide distribution next month.
Nope. It wasn’t just that.
Arthur went ahead and designed t-shirts for his first tour, which was to follow a few months after the album was released. They were sick. The lead designers had thought of a concept that the fans could wear everywhere; nothing too on your face that’d let anyone know it was about Ash and music at a first glance. The t-shirts were all white with a triangle that resembled a guitar-pick and Ash’s initials filling the inside, while the sleeves had been embroidered with his full name and the words ‘fist US tour’. They were just so sick that Ash hadn’t resisted and smuggled one out of the boxes and was wearing it right now under his woolen sweater and heavy coat.
As Arthur had explained, the t-shirts would be sent to the fans who had bought the first lot of tickets, the ones who’d bought VIP tickets that included a meet & greet, and also to those who’d agreed to pay a bit more to donate a little percentage of the ticket’s price to a LGBT Youth Center that Wicked Wish supported. And just that concept alone had Ash forgetting all thoughts of whining about having to spend hours and hours, through the next few weeks, signing thousands upon thousands of t-shirts.
The only problem was that the dozens of boxes were too much for Hoofslope’s humble post office. They’d have to collect them at Hardcliff’s much larger and better equipped one tomorrow afternoon when they were set to arrive. Ash had discussed it with the guys and they’d agreed that the best move was for Logan and Ash, Ian, and Duke to go in different cars, so they’d have more room for boxes. And even then, maybe they’d have to do a second trip to collect the remaining ones. There was really no way around it, since Jeff was too busy taking care of his family after what had happened. He’d actually taken a rare break from O’Farrell’s so he could do just that. Peter was up to his neck buried in work at Dalbelo’s too, and Cass didn’t know how to drive. And no, he would never ask for Tom to leave work to help him. He’d taken advantage of that man enough for a lifetime. Plus, it was the winter season and the place tended to be packet as the influx of tourists unfailingly crammed the mountains. Two hours of missing work at this time of the year meant a lot of money lost to the old man.
It was a lot, but they’d figure things out.
When they finally got home, Logan burst through the doors, all sexy with his five-o’clock shadow and a navy-blue woolen sweater that made the sapphires pop. He practically ran to Ash, beaming, and received him with a deep kiss that got Ash’s knees weak and his brain all mushy. So mushy that it took a few seconds to register Diana standing a few feet behind his man. When he finally did, Ash jumped back from their kiss, cheeks flushed.
“Oh,” he said, “hi, Diana. Hope you had a good flight.”
God, only Diana would be able to pull off a the icy-queen look in the middle of freaking Hoofslope. Her platinum, straight hair shone under the faint morning light, not a single strand out of place. She was wearing jeans and high heels like she’d been born to it. A cream blouse over what was probably a thermal complemented the outfit. At Ash’s greeting, a corner of her full lips, covered in some probably expensive neutral lipstick that went perfectly well with her bronzed skin, lifted as she pierced him with those intelligent, always-judging brown eyes. They were probably of a height, but the added inches of her heels got her looking down at him, which helped nothing with the way her sole presence was already enough to intimidate him.
“Hello, Ash. Nice to see you again,” she replied, sounding like seeing him was the last thing she’d choose to do ever.
“What’s all that?” Logan asked, prompting Ash to spin around to see what he was talking about. Duke, Ian and Henry, plus the other four guys in the other car, were unloading the two dozen or so boxes of t-shirts they’d decided to bring from Denver, to save time, from the two vehicles. Ash had decided to start on them today, since he had the whole day free and wasn’t planning to do much. Maybe the manual labor would be good for him; to get his mind off things. Off things he couldn’t even understand, like what had happened at the hospital — like why his arms now were filled with rings of symbols he didn’t fully know or understand.
Ash couldn’t contain the grin that stretched his cheeks. “It’s my merch.”
“Merch?”
Ash shrugged, trying not to sound too boastful. “Arthur made me tour t-shirts. I’m supposed to sign all of them for my fans.” Yep, he’d failed miserably on not sounding too boastful when he got to that last part.
Logan laughed, throwing Diana a look. “Alright, then, Mr. Celebrity.”
Ash’s cheeks warmed and he looked down, not knowing what to do with himself. “Actually,” he said to his feet, “there’s a lot more coming. We’ll have to set kind of an operation to get them from Hardcliff tomorrow afternoon.” He finally lifted his gaze to Logan, who was smiling at him and looking like a complete idiot. “Would you maybe be able to help? We could go us both in the Lexus and have Duke, Ian, and Henry in separate cars. The more, the better.”
Logan rolled his eyes. “Of course I’ll help. I wouldn’t miss it.”
“Thanks,” Ash beamed. “I was thinking on calling Billy, as well. See if he can help, since he already lives there; he could just meet us at the post office before we drove back down here, then he could go to O’Farrell’s after dropping the boxes off here. I’m afraid just four cars won’t be enough and we’ll end up having to do a second trip.”
“Yeah, totally,” Logan said as he squeezed Ash’s arm and then scurried away to help with the boxes. “You could go call him while we carry all of this inside.”
�
�But I should help. They’re my merch.”
“No way you’re carrying this stuff,” Logan replied firmly. “Just go.”
Ash just smiled, trying not to feel too emasculated, and turned around to get inside. It was cold. He was dying to stick his feet up in their couch and enjoy the heat from the fireplace he just knew Logan had lit as soon as he got home from the airport with Diana.
She was still there, arms folded at the front door, watching the whole scene unfold.
“There’s no point in arguing with him when he gets like that,” Ash threw at her with a smile as he passed by her at the door.
“Believe me, I know.”
Yeah, she probably knew it, having worked with Logan for so many years. Having been so close to him.
Ash shook his head to try and get rid of the idiotic thoughts. He’d promised Logan he’d never doubt the way he felt about him again, and that’s exactly how things would be. Damn, he was wearing a freaking engagement ring. There was no way he’d let Diana’s presence intimidate him.
“Let’s come inside,” he told her. “It’s too cold for chatting outside.”
She smiled a tight smile at him and followed him through the foyer and into the living room.
“Please, take a seat. I’ll just make a call real quick. Be right back.”
She nodded at him, all polite and rigid, and took a seat. She’d probably been doing just that before they’d arrived, for he immediately settled and brought her MacBook to her lap. Then she fished a pair of glasses Ash hadn’t realized were next to the laptop and put them on, then focused on the screen.
Ash left her to it and headed upstairs, already plucking his cellphone from the confines of his coat’s side pocket.
It rang a few times before Billy finally answered.
“Hey, Billy boy!”
“Ash? Hi! How are you? How were things in Denver?”
“Fine, fine. Listen, I kinda need your hand with something.”
