‘So … he hasn’t been those places?’
‘He’s been to New Zealand. To ski. That’s it. Seriously, this guy is the biggest wanker!’
‘Maybe he was intimidated by you …’
‘Or he’s just a wanker.’
‘Or he’s just a wanker,’ Ashley agreed.
‘You stink. Fire?’
‘Thanks,’ Ashley laughed, sniffing his shirt and sighing because despite his efforts to shower at the station he did still stink. ‘Yeah, it was pretty bad. Keller broke his ankle. But I saved this little girl, Louisa, and her pet duck, Quacky.’
‘Like … a real duck? As in, it was alive?’
‘Yup, still alive,’ he confirmed, smirking.
‘Wow. Not every day you get to save … a duck …’ He was trying so hard to keep a straight face, Ashley shoved him sideways and forced himself to get back up. He went to shower, since apparently he hadn’t done it well enough the first time. He could understand why so many guys shaved their heads; it was hard to get the stench out of your hair.
When he re-emerged, Dave had closed his laptop and replaced it with a beer, but he was still on the couch.
‘No Freya?’
‘One of her mates broke up with their boyfriend, so she was sent to pick up ice cream and wine for a Netflix and chill night,’ Dave shrugged, as if that sounded entirely normal. It sounded like the girl needed a good night out on the town, but what did Ashley know? He’d been single … pretty much his whole life. A few girls had been tempted, but the moment they met his brothers they’d either decided they would prefer the older version, or they’d been too terrified to come near him again.
‘So, Tay and Clay were at the hospital,’ Ashley said quietly, and Dave sat up and smirked, knowing there was more to the story.
‘What did they do this time? Please tell me they got shot again. Your Mum is a complete psychopath when that happens! It’s amazing!’
‘She’s not that bad,’ Ashley attempted to defend her, but only able to picture her sitting by Clay’s bed and bellowing at anyone who dared try and tell her he was okay. He was never getting shot, because no way could he handle that.
‘I’m sorry, you do remember Taylor getting shot, right?’
‘Yeah, I was there …’ He’d been in a rush to get home for the Saturday lunch obligation they were somehow all signed up to. He’d been at a fire that had destroyed his car but he’d made his first save and he’d been so excited to tell everyone and all they could focus on was Taylor getting shot. He’d been annoyed … sort of. He’d also been really scared for his brother, but Taylor was fine, while Ashley was still copping shit for destroying his car.
‘Do you remember your mother coming over here that night to make sure you were fine, because she’d forgotten to check while she was looking after your brother?’
‘Um …’ She had done that. She’d gone completely nuts, demanding a full account of what had happened, and then demanding he strip to his underwear right there in the lounge to prove he wasn’t injured. He’d done it mostly to shut her up, but it turned out he had a bruise down his lower back he hadn’t known about. She’d lost it again, screaming at Dave about ice packs and then going to the bathroom and hauling Freya out of the shower, wrapping her in a towel and then showing her the bruise and giving her instructions on how to take care of Ashley until he was better.
He was surprised Freya hadn’t kicked him out of the apartment. Instead, Freya had laughed hysterically, given him extra chores for a month, and now told the story whenever she felt the need to humiliate him in front of their friends. Chloe was Freya’s hero. How these things happened was still beyond Ashley. He was cursed, or something.
‘Yeah, your mum’s nuts. I think she’s awesome, but she’s nuts,’ Dave swigged his beer. ‘So did they get shot again?’
‘No, they’d been on a raid and Hale got stabbed in the thigh.’
‘What?’ Dave was immediately serious.
‘I don’t know if he’s okay, I mean I guess he must be? But I had no reason to go see him, you know? I wanted to ask more questions but Taylor would’ve known something was up.’ He sighed, slumping and picking at the label on his beer.
‘You’ve got to do something about this crush, man. It’s out of control.’
Ashley knew that, but he couldn’t stop. There was something about Finn Hale that made his skin feel too tight and his blood boil in the best possible way. Maybe if he could get to know him he’d realise he was an even bigger jerk than his brothers and the crush would fade, but every tiny interaction made him sexier in Ashley’s imagination. But Dave was right, it was getting ridiculous. He was pining like a teenage girl over a TV crush.
‘You don’t have his number? You could just text and see if he’s okay?’
‘No … I mean, I could get it, but I’d have to get it off Taylor …’ Which he was not going to do. He shrugged, sipping his beer and trying to get back the happy feeling from rescuing Louisa and her pet duck instead of the queasy feeling of not knowing if Hale was okay.
His phone did a funny dance as it vibrated across the table and he blinked at the screen as it came to life.
‘What’s he want?’ Dave frowned at the phone and Ashley shrugged, picking it up and sipping his beer.
‘Sietta?’
‘Hey. Wanna come see me play?’ Just like that. No ‘how are you’, ‘how was your day’, ‘do you like fondue’? The guy spent way too much time around Taylor. Which was obvious, they were practically married, but still. It wouldn’t hurt to ask how he was, or how his day was or anything before launching into the purpose of his call. But Sietta wasn’t like that. He was awkward, in the best possible way.
‘Sure …’ He didn’t have a shift until tomorrow afternoon, so he could even have a few drinks, if he didn’t have to drive. ‘Where?’
‘Not far from you; it’s in one of those swanky bars at the north end of Newtown.’
‘Newtown has swanky bars …’ Who the hell said swanky anymore? But he had to give the guy some slack, he’d been kept prisoner in a wine cellar most of his adult life.
‘Well, I think it’s swanky …’ Yeah, but he also thought Taylor was the best person in the world. Still, Newtown was only one bus ride away if he was lazy. He could walk if he really wanted to.
‘Sounds good. Send me the name of the place. What time?’
‘Two hours we start, but it’s only one set so we can have a drink afterward! Tay’s out with the squad having beers after a big day, so it’s just us!’
Just them. Great. No buffer between him and his brother’s impossibly hot boyfriend. Totally what he needed. Sietta was a good guy, and Ashley wanted to be friends, but it was hard sometimes. He wanted someone to look at him the way Sietta looked at his brother.
‘I’ll see you there.’ He hung up before he could say anything stupid.
‘So. You’re going to watch Salisbury play,’ Dave smirked, knowingly. Even Dave had a crush on Sietta, and Dave was straight and dating Freya.
‘Better than sitting here moping all night about not knowing how badly my crush got shanked,’ Ashley clipped, forcing himself to get up and go to his room. He had to put on some decent clothes if he was going to go to a ‘swanky’ bar. Whatever the hell that meant.
‘What do you reckon swanky means?’ He called out, rolling his eyes at Dave’s raucous laughter wafting through the apartment.
‘Salisbury was rich, and his duo play whacked out modern versions of classical music. It sure as shit isn’t a pub.’
True. Ashley grabbed some tighter dark indigo jeans he knew matched his eyes and paired it with a white shirt and a tailored vest. It was his go-to outfit whenever Ben, one of his father’s law partners and unfortunately also his Godfather, wanted him to go out for dinner, and he was the only other rich guy Ashley knew who might still use the word swanky. If it turned out to be too formal, he could always take the vest off, undo a few buttons, and roll his sleeves.
Dave stalled in
the beer drinking when Ashley emerged from his room, bottle halfway to his lips and eyes running up and down Ashley’s body.
‘What?’ He was sure he looked okay and there was nothing on his face.
‘You … I am straight, and I still think you look like sex.’ Dave ran an embarrassed hand over the back of his head and blushed as he hurriedly drank down the rest of his beer. It was the only reason Ashley realised he was serious and not teasing. He looked down at himself, knowing he filled out the tailored shirt perfectly and that the last few years at the firehouse were finally making him resemble his older brothers a little more. He grinned, feeling good.
‘No, don’t smile like that … Jesus,’ Dave choked on the last of his beer. ‘I gotta take a pic …’ He pulled his phone and snapped a quick pic, sending it to Freya. Neither of them was surprised when his phone starting ringing a few seconds later.
‘Oh my God, he cannot leave the house like that! Someone is going to eat him! Or send him here and we will eat him! Jacki needs some of that. Seriously, send him over here. We’ll keep him busy for the night. Holy shit, what is that vest?’ Freya’s voice came over the speaker and Ashley laughed harder than he probably should have.
‘Am I on speaker? Oh my God, Ash! You’re like the less scary, dirty version of your brothers. How are you single? Can you do a calendar? You’ve gotta do a calendar. We’ll make a fortune …’
‘I’m not so bad myself,’ Dave grumbled into the phone.
‘Oh, honey, I adore you, but you’re clearly pulling the wrong hose. I gotta go drool on my phone some more.’ And she was gone, leaving Ashley blushing a dark rose and Dave shaking his head.
‘Go pick up, man. Someone other than Salisbury! I’ve gotta … go to the gym, or something.’ He was shaking his head and muttering about unreasonable expectations and genetics as he disappeared into his bedroom and shut the door.
Ashley scooped up his phone and keys, shoving them in his pocket and locking the door as he left. He opted for walking over to Newtown instead of driving or getting the bus, since he was running early and it wasn’t so late that walking was asking for trouble.
Their apartment was in the north of Erskineville, right on the border of Newtown anyway, and the night breeze was turning the right side of cool so he wouldn’t be a sweaty mess by the time he got to the swanky bar.
Le Corridor was a boutique bar, aptly named, and not at all what Ashley was expecting. It had a nice collection of craft beers and boutique wines as well as a well-stocked liquor shelf on a hardwood, beautifully polished bar toward the front of the long, thin room. At the back was a small stage with an upright piano pushed up against one wall and a cello on a stand. There were a few tall round bar tables and stools scattered around, but for the most part the bar was standing room only. And it was packed. A poster on the wall showed Sietta and his equally attractive cellist, stating they were playing tonight.
‘You made it!’ Sietta appeared at his side and Ashley grinned down at him. Sietta wasn’t short, but compared to the Jamesons he was usually a head shorter than everyone. Ashley felt like a stray gorilla next to his slender form. Sietta looked good, as always, dressed in simple skinny black jeans, a form fitting black tee-shirt and his hair loose around his shoulders like an inky shadow. He had on his famous black Gucci nerd glasses, but that was as far as the nerd image went. Was chic geek a thing?
‘Wouldn’t miss it,’ Ashley assured him quietly. ‘Can I get you a beer?’
‘After. If I drink too much I’ll slip on the keys,’ Sietta grinned at him and Ashley took his word for it. He knew nothing about playing piano except that Sietta was impossibly good at it.
‘Hi.’ Ashley turned to find Jamie Turner, the cellist, behind him. He moved aside so they could all stand in a circle, but he was a little unnerved by how close Jamie chose to stand near him, very aware of the man running his gaze up and down the length of him and swallowing hard.
‘Hey,’ Ashley acknowledged him, nodding in greeting but otherwise not paying a lot of attention. He didn’t like it when people looked at him like that, not when they were basically strangers. It made him uncomfortable. He also wasn’t stupid enough to think anything good could come of sleeping with his brother’s boyfriend’s music partner. Even if he was interested, which he wasn’t. Turner was cute, in that trying slightly too hard to be a hipster way. He was a nice guy, by all accounts, and he’d always been friendly to Ashley at gigs he’d shown for, but there was no chemistry there. He was simply not Ash’s type … whatever that was.
‘So this is swanky, huh?’ He had to agree, that was a good way to describe it, but the term still amused Ashley. He smirked down at Sietta, who looked around the place as if he wasn’t sure if Ashley was agreeing with him, arguing or making fun of him. It was, sadly, the latter.
‘Yeah … I mean, it has that speak-easy kind of vibe, but up market, you know?’ Sietta shrugged, at a loss for any other way to describe it.
‘That makes sense,’ Ash agreed, reaching out to ruffle his hair and laughing at the scowl he got before Sietta tried to fix it. ‘I’m gonna get a beer. You guys starting soon?’
‘Yeah. Sorry, we’ll be over there. You okay by yourself?’ Sietta looked pained for a moment.
‘Course. I’m not a child,’ Ashley chuckled at him. ‘Go play, I’ll watch and save you a seat or something.’ He pointed to an empty table and chair against the wall in the back corner and Sietta nodded and left him to it.
They were already playing before Ashley was served, and he took his passionfruit beer to the back corner and settled in to listen. They really were good, perfectly in sync and everything they played had that hint of familiarity to it, but at the same time felt fresh and new. They took classical pieces and turned them into anthems that sent shivers down your spine. And they were funny, telling little historical facts about the pieces and their composers in naughty, interesting ways. Everyone was listening avidly, a very attentive audience, rare in a bar. Usually people talked over the entertainment.
‘Ash!’
The last person he’d expected to see was Taylor.
‘Baby boy!’ And Clay. They had definitely been drinking, which immediately made Ashley nervous. His brothers were not to be trusted when they’d been drinking. Awful things tended to happen. He shouldn’t have been surprised they were there though; Taylor never could stay away from Sietta for long.
‘Look who’s all grown up.’ Harris whistled at him, grin huge as he came through the doors, followed by none other than Ashley’s walking wet dream. Or hobbling, since Hale was on crutches and looked tired but equally tipsy. How he managed to make dirty jeans and a black t-shirt look sexy when adorned with crutches and a darkly bruised jaw was beyond Ash; he only knew he wanted to lick the man. He was so doomed.
‘Seriously, kid, you’re looking fit,’ Clay clapped him on the shoulder then headed for the bar while Taylor headed to the front to stare besotted at his boyfriend. Harris yelled after Clay to get him a beer, but scanned the room before waving at the chair Ashley was sitting on.
‘Mind if I …’
‘Shit, yeah, of course!’ Ashley hopped off and watched Harris move aside so Hale could carefully manoeuvre himself onto the stool, sighing heavily when he settled on it. The smile he sent his way made Ashley blush a dusky pink.
‘Thanks. My leg’s killing me.’
‘Should you even be out?’ He had to ask.
‘What? Oh, yeah … The booze is helping actually. I’m allergic to Codeine, so can’t have any pain medications. This is nice.’ He looked around the bar and couldn’t seem to wipe the smile off his face.
‘You … you got stabbed!’ Ashley reminded him, as if he had forgotten. Harris left them suddenly, going to help Clay with the beer glasses and without any warning Ashley had all of Hale’s attention.
‘Were you worried about me?’ Hale was soft and sincere, gaze fixed on Ashley’s face.
‘I … yeah.’
Hale’s smile erupted again, all p
erfect straight white teeth and dimples for days. He leaned in before Ashley could react and kissed Ash’s cheek before turning and taking the glass offered by Harris, who didn’t seem to have noticed anything.
‘So, I heard you had a big fire today?’ Harris asked, looking genuinely curious. Hale frowned and looked from one to the other, but didn’t interrupt.
‘Uh, yeah. That building’s totally going to be condemned, it was crazy. But I saved this little girl, Louisa …’
‘Ew, Louisa is Sietta’s mother’s name,’ Taylor moaned, appearing with Clay and looking like Ashley had kicked him in the balls.
‘It’s just a name,’ Ashley scowled. ‘And the girl was super cute.’
‘Well, I don’t like her,’ Taylor said petulantly and Ashley went to argue but stopped himself because Taylor was clearly well on his way to being drunk, and if he actually arrived there, who knew how the night would go.
‘Well, you don’t have to like her. I liked saving her. It was good.’
‘And her duck. Don’t forget the duck!’ Clay was laughing at Taylor’s side and they shifted closer together, heads bowed, whispering, chuckling and then disappearing again. Ashley thought someone should probably go after them, but he couldn’t be bothered. And the worst that could happen was they’d all be kicked out, so what harm could they do, really?
‘Good job,’ Harris assured him, blinking after the twins. ‘Was there really a duck?’
‘Yeah, her pet duck. I ran into the bathroom and there she is in a bath full of water, with her damn duck swimming around her.’
Hale and Harris were laughing and Ashley shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot because Hale had one of those laughs that made his belly flip flop. It was soft and mellow and far too easy to listen to. Ashley wanted to stand there and watch him laugh all night, regardless of how stalkerish and weird that was.
‘So … this raid of yours didn’t quite go to plan?’ Ashley couldn’t help looking down and noticing one of Hale’s thighs was bigger than the other due to the bandage under his jeans. How bad it was, he still had no idea, but the guy was at a bar instead of the hospital so it couldn’t be too horrendous.
Rhino Ash (Saturday Barbies Book 2) Page 6
