“See you down at the beach this evening?” Bits said, still coddling Lady Anne. “It’s our ‘Welcome to Maine!’ clambake to officially kick off the wedding.”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Ashton said with a smile, waving goodbye to Bits. Sure, she’d be at tonight’s party, because she’d promised Tyler…and her parents…and long-suffering Hawk…that she’d be on her best behavior during the five-day traditional East Coast wedding week.
Though she’d much rather be hanging at the pool with Hawk instead of with a bunch of Laurel’s college besties, whom Ashton didn’t know, or with that one weirdo branch of her own extended family that thought being direct blood relations to Jesse James made it hilarious to creep up behind total strangers, stick a finger gun in their backs, and hiss, “This is the James Gang. Stick ’em up.”
Hopefully there’d be none of that this weekend. Because of the attendance of Senator Ramsey and the former veep, Virtue Cove was locked down like Fort Knox. Uniformed security guards were at every paved or unpaved entrance onto the property, additional fences had been constructed to keep paparazzi at bay, and she’d even spotted a few private security earpiece dudes roaming around.
If this were any normal occasion—and not the upper-crust, navy-blue, pearls and nautical-attired social event of the summer—Hawk, in his Working Joe suits and ties, would feel perfectly at home.
Hawk. She couldn’t help smiling as she ran the name through her head. Then she glanced at her phone. At the text.
Sure, I’ll bail you out at the wedding. What are friends for?
Friends.
Sometimes it caught her off guard when she’d think how freakishly close they’d become over the years. She’d never forget that fourteen-year-old boy Tyler had brought home from school. Little had eleven-year-old Ashton known then that shy George Hawkins was destined to be the closest friend she ever had.
Using her hands to shade her eyes from the afternoon June sun, she scanned the parking lot—oops, driveway. The Ramsey estate was so dang huge that the acreage off one side of the house was being used as a valet lot for wedding guests.
Because she’d been at the house/compound since yesterday, her rental was buried in the very back. Didn’t matter. If she needed wheels, she could use Hawk’s. For a while, she watched the energetic parking attendants—background-checked down to their eyeballs—never having seen bigger smiles or more polite manners.
They must be paid out the wazoo, she thought. The Ramseys can certainly afford it. Not for the first time, she wondered if Tyler fully grasped the legacy he was marrying into.
Ashton was not in favor of opposites attracting. In the years she’d been studying and researching family therapy, she’d seen too many couples fight and break up because those cute little opposing quirks often warped into intolerable irritations. And then relationship killers.
And don’t get me started on incompatible sex lives! In her professional opinion, that caused swifter and more damaging challenges than financial issues.
No, the more in common you had with your partner, the better the chances for staying together, and for being the kind of happy everyone was at the end of a Reese Witherspoon movie.
Good thing Hawk and I aren’t a couple; we get along magically as friends, but when it comes to speaking frankly about things like his sex life, the guy clams up faster than an ex-con at a drug bust.
Frustrated, but not really—because no one was ever truly frustrated with Hawk—Ashton checked the slim watch on her wrist, then lifted her head when she heard tires on gravel.
Without being able to see through the semi-tinted windows, Ashton bet even money that Hawk was behind the wheel of the standard silver rental sedan driving into view. Sturdy and practical, attractive but in a non-eye-catching way, it was so…Hawk.
At first sight, she couldn’t stop the grin from smearing across her face. Tall and broad, and never self-conscious about rocking the same red hair as the Outlander, he wore mirrored Aviators and a dignified expression as he grabbed his hanging bag from the backseat hook and began that confident, purposeful stride.
“Ashton?” he said in an overly quizzical voice. “Oh. Excuse me, young lady, but I’m looking for an old, old friend.”
It was still a wonder how the boy she grew up with had turned into a twenty-nine-year-old pile of muscles and jaw lines. Mother Nature is such a badass.
“Shut up,” she said, swatting his arm. “You’re three years older.”
“Two and three quarters,” he corrected. When he whipped off his shades and laid that smile on her, from out of nowhere, Ashton’s heart turned a minor—and perfectly innocent, psychologically speaking—flip.
It had been almost a year since she’d seen him in the flesh. Before that, they’d lived up to nine hundred miles apart—him in Detroit, rocking it as the greatest twelfth-grade social studies and econ teacher the inner-city school system had ever known, and her in school at Virginia Tech.
Over the years, there’d been countless long weekends when they both happened to be at home in Charleston, or visiting Ty at Columbia, or just meeting up to catch a play or game in some random city. Other than that, their incredible long-distance friendship was based on phone calls, FaceTime chats, and Instagram. Somehow, though, she was tighter with him than anyone, and her whole body was bathed in a kind of comforting warmth whenever she’d think about him.
Long distance on the same continent was one thing, but Ashton couldn’t help wondering what would happen when she was teaching abroad in the fall, an entire ocean and several time zones away. Hawk knew all about her teaching job in Switzerland. In fact, he was the one who’d given her the idea.
But what Hawk didn’t know was that they wanted her early. Two months early.
“Come here.” He dropped his bag, opening his arms wide.
Without a thought, Ashton stepped in. “You smell like the woods,” she said, sticking her nose to the front of his shoulder for a deep inhale.
“Really?” He pulled back and frowned. “It’s what you gave me for Christmas. Haven’t heard any complaints.”
“The woods are good,” she said, returning his grin. Jeez, she’d missed him—this big, stupid giant of a social conservative.
“Know what?” he said. “You look tremendous. Same girl in the cheerleader outfit that was hemmed way too short.”
Ashton snorted. “You sound like my brother.”
He gave one of his classic slow shrugs. “You’re the little sister I never wanted to have.” He touched her chin then stepped back. “Where’s Tyler, anyway? Gotta start my many best man duties.”
She narrowed her eyes playfully. They’d already been over this. “Like you have any duties. Didn’t I tell you about the meanie wedding planner who isn’t even the wedding planner? Laurel’s best friend, I guess. Girlfriend needs to chill like whoa. Anyway, the latest scoop is you’re in charge of the hen/stag party tomorrow night—correction, you’re in charge of one toast. Yours. The Meanie pilfered the rehearsal dinner from my family, so no need for you to help out with that. At the ceremony, you have to hold the rings for ten minutes. Other than that, you may spend your free time bringing me drinks and rubbing my feet.”
“I will not stand for such conditions, woman.”
Ashton rolled her eyes and looped an arm through his as they began walking up the long path toward the house, following huge bouquets of flowers tied to the wrought iron fence posts. “When’s the interview?”
The instant she asked the questions, she felt his muscles tense to the point that her arm was losing blood flow. She’d dealt with this side of him before and knew what to do. Glancing up, she asked, “Bangor’s an hour away, yes?”
“About,” he said, staring forward, then lifting his hand to examine his wrist where a watch used to be. A nervous habit he’d always had.
She patted his arm while also trying to regain circulation in hers. “It’s fine; you’ll be fine. Just relax.”
“I am relaxed.”
&n
bsp; “Sure.” She couldn’t help laughing. “I’ve known you a thousand years, Hawk. Relaxing in the face of an important event isn’t your style. And what kind of name is that for a town? Bangor. Sounds more like an invitation. Or a command. Get it?” She leaned into him. “Bang-her?”
Just as she’d hopped, Hawk started to laugh. It was slow coming at first, like a rumble in his chest, but by the time it made it up his throat, it was a proper chuckle.
“Where do you come up with this stuff?” he asked, bright hazel eyes smiling.
“The dark and scary recesses of my mind. Where no man has gone before.”
They laughed together, and Ashton gave herself a mental high five.
As they grew closer to the house, guests and extended family members from both sides began to look familiar: second cousins and great-uncle whoevers she hadn’t seen in eons. And yep, off to the side were two of the “stick ’em up” cousins. Ashton steered Hawk away from them.
“Okay. Time to talk.”
“About what?”
Ashton sighed, indulgently, patiently. “Oh, man. You’re doing it again.”
“Doing what?”
“Repressing.” She tossed her heavy hair over one shoulder so it would stop blowing in her face. “You know what they say about repressed personalities?”
“Long, happy lives?”
“Repressed in the bedroom, too!” she replied in a clear, projected voice, right as they passed her mother’s sister, wearing Chanel and a rope of pearls. “Hi, Aunt Trish,” she added with a breezy wave. “Anyway, all the human sexuality research says so. You get too wound up and…contained. Perfect example of chronic sexual frustration.”
Hawk pulled to an abrupt halt. “Ash—” He locked eyes with her, opened his mouth, but then closed it and sighed. “Must you talk about it in public?”
His serious expression made her want to giggle.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not…”
“Proper?”
Their typical pattern.
She tipped her chin back and snickered up at the sky, giving his arm a tug. “With me as your plus one, you’re in for a very improper ride this weekend.”
“That’s what I was afraid of…”
One of their biggest differences had always been their philosophies of what was “proper” and what was not. Their opinions had become even more polarized while Ashton progressed along her career path.
If displaying her beliefs openly while around Hawk made him uncomfortable, perhaps she should tone it down. Then again, it was her career, her personality and life. Why should she not be herself around her closest friend?
“Speaking of wild rides,” she added. “Are you dating anyone?—Wait, that’s not the right question. Are you sleeping with anyone? Being intimate?”
“Ignoring you…”
“You need it, ya know—to loosen up. In fact, hey…” She tugged him to a stop in front of the rose garden. “You should’ve before you flew out here; get you relaxed for the job interview. That’s why you’re so tense.” She bit her lip and scanned the grounds. “If you have time now, I’ll fetch one of the single bridesmaids for you to knock boots—”
“Don’t,” Hawk cut in. For a moment, he looked sincerely worried, but then his face broke into the same indulgent smile he always wore when she got carried away. “Tell me, Ash. When you become an actual licensed therapist, will ‘knocking boots’ be the exact prescription you’ll be giving your patients?”
“If it fits the bill—which it usually does. And you know I don’t intend to practice as a counselor, not for a career. I’m all about academia and research. But hey!” She poked his chest with a finger. “Don’t try to derail the subject. Are you dating?”
“I date a lot,” he said, rubbing his chin.
“You’re a machine,” she concurred. “But sex? It’s a professional question!”
“And a loud one.” He cleared his throat and looked around, making Ashton want to tease him about the bashfulness she’d never broken him of. “No one at the moment. Not since the lawyer from Ann Arbor.”
Ashton’s mouth fell open. “That was six months ago.”
Another of his slow shrugs.
“Hawk, sweetie, no wonder you’re a bundle of nerves.”
“I’m not.”
“Ha-ha, yeah—trust me. I’ve been studying this for years, and I’m sorry to tell you, but you’re so textbook sexually repressed.”
“You’re sorry to tell me?” he deadpanned. “Ash, you tell me that every chance you get. It’s your mission statement.”
“True,” she replied, giving him the big eyed, fluttering lashes.
“What about you? Seeing anyone?”
“Jeez, no. Being in a relationship sucks and I want no part of it.”
“Sure.”
Stopping dead in her tracks, she peered up at him. “You don’t believe me?”
Slowly, he unwrapped a piece of gum and began to chew. “Nope.”
“Well, you’re wrong. You know I don’t trust anyone outside my family but you. And what? Does that mean we’re supposed to date?”
His left eye twitched, which meant he was trying not to smile. “You could do worse. Not all women find me repulsive.”
Now she was trying not to smile. Before she could reply, she caught sight of Bits Ramsey. Sheesh, had the number of dogs with her tripled? “I wasn’t thinking repulsed, but seriously, can you imagine us…” When a vision popped into her mind, she couldn’t help bursting into laughter. “I mean, could you really picture us tearing each other’s clothes off?”
“Being a guy, I can imagine anything.”
“Well, at least there’s that.” She rolled her eyes. “Maybe you’re not utterly and hopelessly as sexually repressed as I thought.”
Before replying, Hawk touched his tie and glanced over his shoulder. “Would you mind raising your voice? I don’t think Canada heard you.”
“Congratulations again on choosing me as your plus one for this week’s festivities.”
“I don’t remember being given the choice,” he said, sending her his mock-annoyed expression and an arm squeeze in return. “Not that I’d have it any other way.”
Hawk didn’t have enough legs to kick himself in the ass for spouting such a corny line. After all these years, Tyler’s sister continued to produce the lamest, most out-of-character behavior from him.
Dammit. How much longer could he keep thinking of her as the little sister of his oldest buddy? And not something else.
“Gee whiz, Hawk,” Ashton said, doing that eyelash flutter that always made him crazy, “you’re still a total cheeseball.”
“Some things never change,” he said, gagging again at his lame-ass remark. Their online relationship was easier—he could control it better. Ponder what he was going to say, think up things to make her laugh.
“Oh, I know,” she said. “But I did swear to be your perfect date, on my best behavior.” She paused to snicker at her own promise that was sure to be broken.
Damn, he’d missed that. Laughs couldn’t be heard online. Arms couldn’t be touched. Mouths couldn’t be—
“Even I can’t say that with a straight face,” she continued.
For just a moment, he let himself fall into those bright blue eyes—which was an indulgence he did not allow very often. He’d made the decision a month ago: the week of Ty’s wedding was not the right time. In a few weeks, however, he was going to surprise her, fly out to Virginia, and tell her how he really felt.
He could only hope she felt the same way.
Losing Ash would colossally blow; it made his gut hurt to even think it. The tall, dark-haired beauty had become like an additional appendage, a part of his skeletal system. As he looked at her now, he knew there was no way he’d be able to wait another few weeks.
It was time to take a chance. No stalling. Period. Now to find the perfect moment, the perfect words…
“Psst,” Ashton whispered, suddenl
y right at his ear. “See that guy with the pink sweater draped over his shoulders?”
“Salmon.”
“What?”
“That color’s salmon.”
She stared at him in a way that made him feel about as manly as a unicorn.
“I only know this because one of the teachers at school makes us look at paint swatches whenever we’re in the lounge.” He shrugged one shoulder. “She’s remodeling her kitchen.”
“Salmon,” she repeated, shaking her head incredulously. “Anyway, he’s my second cousin’s new husband, and we’re not supposed to know he just got out of rehab for something random like Velcro addiction.”
The way her breath tickled his ear and warmed his cheek made it challenging to breathe normally, though it wasn’t at all unpleasant. While asking pertinent follow-up questions, Hawk made a play of needing to regrip his bag so she’d give him space.
Four little girls wearing matching dresses carried baskets, and were handing out lapel pins. “Bride’s side or groom’s side?” they asked each guest they approached.
“Groom’s,” Ashton said to the girl, seizing Hawk’s hand as he reached for the incorrect pin. The insufferable huff and eye roll that followed made Hawk want to pull her in for another hug and never let go. “You’re the best man,” she added. “Remember your oldest friend, Tyler? Who’s getting married…?”
Honestly, he had forgotten. It was a battle for his brain to go anywhere else when he was with Ashton. But as she was fastening his pin, Hawk had no choice but to go there.
Tyler… Oh, yeah. His buddy had no idea how Hawk felt about Ash, hence, Hawk had never thought about clearing the idea with him first. Maybe he should.
In fact, there was no maybe about it.
“What’s up with you? I mean, besides the normal?” she asked, stepping back and tucking the side of her dark brown hair behind one ear, showing off a sparkly earring. “You’re being quiet. Did I freak you out with the sex talk?”
“Psh—no,” he replied, playing it off, even though, well, yeah, it always did kind of bug him. Not that he was repressed, he just didn’t ramble in public from the top of his lungs. “Must you shout about it, though?”
The Last Plus One Page 14
