by Jess Bryant
Luckily, the one number she had memorized was that of her best friend. If she’d wanted to call anyone else she would have been hopelessly out of luck since the numbers were all saved in her cell phone back in that church in Tennessee. Thankfully Kelsey hadn’t changed her cell phone number since they were thirteen and Ashtyn still remembered it along with a lot of other useless middle school information.
She used the old phone to dial, cringing when she had to put the thing to her ear. If she got some sort of infection or disease from this, she was going to strangle Tyler. In that moment, she would have killed for a speaker-phone button on this old thing just so she wouldn’t have to put it so close to her face.
The water continued to run and Ashtyn bit her lip as the ringing went on and on. She silently prayed that Kelsey wouldn’t ignore the unknown number. It felt like she sat there for half an eternity, the dull ringing in her ear, before she finally heard the click and a breathless voice that made her heart swell from the other end of the line.
“Kelsey Casablancas speaking.”
“Kels.” Her voice came out as barely a whisper, tears pooling in her eyes for reasons she couldn’t begin to explain.
“Ash?” Kelsey gasped, “Oh my God. Ashtyn? Is that you?”
“It’s me.”
“Oh thank God, I was so worried. We all were. Where are you?”
“Um…” She swallowed hard and cleared her throat, “Some hotel in the middle of Arkansas?”
“Arkansas?” She could practically see Kelsey’s face pinch like she smelled something rotten. “What the hell?”
“I decided I had to get away for a little while and you know how I have my bucket list? Well, I figured now was as good a time as any to start checking things off the list. So I’m on a road trip, to Las Vegas.”
“Uh…okay.” Kelsey’s voice was unusually calm, “That sounds fun.”
Ashtyn snorted, “I thought it would be.”
“Wait? Is it not? Is something wrong? Do you need me to come get you?”
“No. No.” Ashtyn shook her head even though Kelsey couldn’t see her. “It’s not that. It’s just… different than I was imagining, I guess. Not quite as magical as I pictured it being on the back of a motorcycle for 6 plus hours with a man that I barely know.”
“Whoa, wait, back up. Who and what in the God almighty are you talking about?”
“I met a guy outside the church. I think he’s a friend of Aaron’s actually. He was there for the wedding but when he saw me sneaking out the back of the church, he got me out of there. He offered to drive me to Vegas.” She winced, “Okay that’s a lie. I totally conned him into it and he’s been a really good sport about all of it.”
“Girl! Are you serious?” Kelsey giggled loudly, “You bolted from your wedding and met another guy in the parking lot?”
Ashtyn sighed, “It’s not like that.”
“Well, why ever not?”
“Kels!” she managed a laugh. “I just met the guy.”
“And?”
“Don’t. He’s a nice guy and he’s helping me and taking care of me and, I owe him a lot.”
“So he’s dog ugly then?”
Ashtyn laughed again, “God no. He’s gorgeous. Like, full-on movie star handsome.”
“Let me get this straight, gorgeous stranger picks you up, in your wedding dress no less, helps you make the great escape, offers to drive you to Vegas on the back of his motorcycle where you’ve spent all day clinging to his no doubt rock hard body… and you’re not thinking about jumping his bones?”
“Kels, I was supposed to be walking down the aisle with another man like, a day ago!”
“But you didn’t, because you knew it was wrong, so I don’t see the issue. You want an adventure? This guy seems willing to give it to you. He’s giving you a ride. I say you take him for one too.”
“Oh my God.” Ashtyn groaned, “This is not why I called you.”
“Are you sure?” Kelsey’s voice was teasing now. “Maybe you wanted permission to get down and dirty and knew I’d give it.”
“He’s Aaron’s friend, Kels.”
“So? He clearly took your side in the break-up.”
“God. The break up.” Ashtyn sighed, heaviness filling her back up at the mention of what she’d done. “How is Aaron? Is he holding up? Is Daddy taking care of him?”
“Uh… kinda.”
“What does that mean?” Ashtyn tensed, instantly wary.
“Well, turns out you’re not the only one that felt they needed to get away. Aaron went on your honeymoon.”
Ashtyn gaped, “By himself?”
“Not exactly. Your father sent one of the security guards to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”
“Aaron would never.”
“Maybe not before, but he wasn’t the super calm, collected guy you were supposed to marry when he left here, Ash. He was angry. Like, visibly angry. I’d never seen him like that.”
“God. Do you think I should call him?”
“Definitely not.” Kelsey snorted. “Leave him to put himself back together and you focus on you for a change. Enjoy your trip. Have your wild adventure. Just be safe and come home to us in one piece okay?”
“I will. I promise.”
“Good.” Kelsey sighed, “And I’m glad you called. Please check in with me again tomorrow so I know you’re still okay?”
“Yeah, of course.” Ashtyn bit her lip, “My parents…”
“Are dealing the best they can. I’ll let them know where you are and that you’re safe. That should help calm your father down a bit. I don’t recommend you call him either just for the record. He’s only going to demand you come home immediately and you’d let him guilt you into it. Let me deal with your father for you and just focus on having fun for once in your life.”
“Thank you Kels.” Ashtyn’s throat felt tight with emotion again. “I don’t know what I ever did to deserve such an amazing best friend, but I love you.”
“Love you too babe. Now, go enjoy your trip of a lifetime and remember, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“That’s a short list.” Ashtyn teased in their usual way.
“Exactly.” Kelsey blew an air kiss through the phone. “Talk soon.”
“Bye.”
Ashtyn hung up and then put the big orange telephone on the vanity. She dropped her head into her hands and let a couple of the tears that had been clinging to her lids fall. She wasn’t sad. It wasn’t that. But she did feel bad knowing she’d caused Aaron so much pain that he’d gone on their honeymoon alone. She hated that she’d let him down, let her father down, let them all down. But she knew that Kelsey was right.
She had to do this. She had to make this choice for herself. She couldn’t put what anyone else wanted ahead of her own needs. Not anymore.
With a deep breath to bolster her energy, Ashtyn stood back up and began to peel her clothes off. They were dusty and dirty so she tossed the outerwear into a heap on the floor, unsure what else to do with them. She couldn’t put them in her backpack with her clean items. That would defeat all purpose.
She was more careful with her bra and panties. She rinsed each of them beneath the warm water of the shower and then hung them up on the towel rack to dry as she finally climbed into the shower with the small supply of personal items that she’d purchased at Target the day before. Since this bathroom seemed to offer a small bar of soap as it’s only amenity, she was glad she’d prepared in advance for this at least.
The lilac scented shower gel soothed her as she washed away the dirt and grime of the day. The shampoo she’d bought wasn’t anything special but she’d splurged and gotten a small bottle of conditioner too and by the time she rinsed her hair under the slightly more than lukewarm water, she’d managed to get all the tangles out. She did a quick shave and felt more than halfway human again by the time the water turned icy and she was forced to leap out of the shower or risk freezing her tits off.
There wasn’t much she could do about her hair since there wasn’t a blow dryer in the bathroom so she piled it into a messy bun and hoped it would pass as stylish instead of sloppy. When she reemerged from the bathroom, she had no idea how much time had passed. She half expected for Tyler to be sitting on the edge of the bed, ready to berate her for using all the hot water but she paused when she caught sight of him.
He looked as though he’d all but collapsed face first onto the sheets. He’d removed his shirt after she left the room and she swallowed hard as she glimpsed his broad back and the tattoos that had been hidden from her view all day. He was still wearing his jeans and she wondered if he’d left them on for her modesty or if he’d only been planning to rest his eyes until she came back out of the bathroom, except she’d taken so long he’d fallen into a deep sleep.
His head was turned to the side, facing her, and his dark lashes fanned his cheeks. He had a dark five o’clock shadow that covered his hard jaw now but despite the edges, he looked peaceful and soft in sleep. His back rose and fell with deep, even breaths and she bit her lip, not wanting to wake him when he clearly needed some rest, not even when her stomach growled with hunger.
She had a feeling if she tried to sneak his wallet out of his back pocket that he would definitely wake up and it wouldn’t be in a better mood. She glanced out the window of the motel, wondering what to do next, and caught sight of a small neon sign on a little shack of a building she hadn’t noticed before across the street.
The blue letters simply said BAR.
Ashtyn glanced at Tyler again and then made her decision. He’d given her shit about not having ID or money and she’d told him that girls like her didn’t need it. Now was her chance to prove it. She slipped her boots back on and then her leather jacket. She checked herself in the mirror, adding a dab of lipstick from her bag before confirming that she looked as good as was possible in these circumstances.
“You got this, Echols.” she whispered to her reflection, trying to bolster her courage.
She found a pen and a pad of sticky notes on the table next to the bed and scribbled out a quick message for Tyler in case he woke up before she returned. She gave him one last look and then she opened the door as quietly as she could and slipped out into the cool, dark night. She held her breath for a moment, waiting to see if Tyler would come awake and yell for her once the door clicked shut loudly behind her, but when everything remained quiet, she grinned and headed across the road.
She had said she wanted adventure. She’d said she wanted to cross items off her bucket-list. Well, this bar seemed like as good a place as any to get drunk for the first time. She just had to find someone willing to buy her a drink and some food and really, how hard could that be?
She grinned as she stepped inside, the sound of loud honky-tonk music blasting at her eardrums. There was a decent sized crowd, mostly men, and they all turned to look at her as she walked to the bar. Yes, she decided as the bartender raised an eyebrow and gave her a leering smile that showed a missing incisor. Yes, this would do just fine.
8
Tyler groaned as his eyelids slid open and for a moment he was hit with complete disorientation. It took him precious moments to remember where he was and why. A shithole motel in Arkansas because he’d stupidly agreed to escort Tennessee’s most famous runaway bride ever on a road trip cross country. He scrubbed his hands over his face, staring at the stained popcorn texture ceiling.
He owed her an apology. He’d been an asshole when they got to the motel. He’d been tired and frustrated and he’d taken it out on her. He’d told himself he wouldn’t make this trip easy for her but that didn’t mean he had to be a dick. He’d just spent the whole day on that motorcycle with her wrapped around him and he’d needed some space to breathe, to think, to rest and get his head back on straight because every time they’d stopped to get gas and food or use the bathroom he’d become more and more aware that what they were doing was weirdly intimate for two complete strangers.
Spending days and nights together, never having a break from one another, sharing meals and small talk and wrapping their bodies around a motorcycle and each other was intimate in a way he’d never experienced with anyone else. And he didn’t want to think of intimacy and Ashtyn Echols in the same sentence.
She was a job. That was all. A job that he felt more and more guilty for not telling her about, but still just a job.
He forced himself upright and squinted around the room. A frown instantly marred his well-rested mood. The small hotel room was empty. The lights were still on. The A/C unit was whining just like it had been when he passed out but there was no sign of Ashtyn anywhere.
“Ashtyn?” He pushed himself up off the bed and headed towards the bathroom, the last place she’d been before he fell asleep.
He knew before he got there that she wasn’t inside. The door was open and the room was dark. He flipped the light on anyway and scowled at the delicate bra and panties dangling from the towel rack. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered if those items being there meant wherever she was she was going commando but he pushed that thought away and instead returned to the room.
Her precious backpack full of all the items she’d bought during her Target adventure was on the dresser next to the old television. She’d left it behind so she must not have gone far. He’d barely been able to get her to part with the bag of her precious necessities when they stopped to use a gas station bathroom but she hadn’t taken it with her wherever she went. That soothed some of his worry because he knew it meant she hadn’t just up and left him, not without her stuff.
He took in the stack of dirty clothes on the floor and then scanned the room again for any sign of where she’d gone and when. A quick glance at the old school digital clock on the nightstand told him he’d slept for at least three hours. Shit. She could’ve gone anywhere in that amount of time and he silently cursed himself for letting her out of his sight for even a minute.
Tyler pulled his cell phone out of his pocket but remembered belatedly that she wouldn’t have been able to call him. She didn’t have a phone and even if she did, she didn’t know his number. He’d never given it to her and even gone so far as to refuse letting her use it earlier because he’d worried that she would stumble onto the text messages from his brother checking in on them about the trip.
He remembered her using the large landline phone so he walked over to it, thinking maybe he could use that old *69 trick and figure out who she had called. Maybe they’d convinced her to come home? But surely, she would have woken him up if that was the case.
His concern for her safety was beginning to turn into a knot of fear in his gut when he finally saw the scribbled note on the pad of paper next to the bed. He snatched it up and read it quickly. He glanced from it to the window and back again before he rounded the bed and shifted the curtain enough that he could see exactly what he was dealing with.
Ashtyn’s note, written in bouncy feminine curls, told him only that she was going across the road and he should join her if he woke up before she got back. She could have written it three hours ago or fifteen minutes ago. He had no way of knowing. All he knew was that she wasn’t back and from the looks of the place across the street, she could just as soon be bleeding out in the back lot for mouthing off to the wrong person as she could be huddled in a corner booth eating greasy bar food that she had no way to pay for.
“Son of a…” Tyler bit off a curse as he searched for his shoes and began shoving his feet into them.
What the hell was she thinking going to a place like that alone? It looked rough, rural and with the grizzled me
n he could see smoking in the parking lot, more than a little bit dangerous. A girl like Ashtyn who had grown up with money and a country club membership wouldn’t have any idea how to handle the kind of men that frequented a bar like that one.
He was pulling his shirt over his head when his phone buzzed in his pocket and he groaned. Somehow, he knew without looking, that it would be Vaughn. He swore his oldest brother had some sort of sixth sense. He always knew when Tyler had fucked something up and was the first to call him on it. Reluctantly he picked up the phone, already preparing himself to be berated, even though there was no way Vaughn could know that he’d lost the precious princess. Right?
The name on the screen surprised him and he smiled as he answered, “Tatum?”
“Why do you sound shocked that I’m calling you?” His sister demanded instantly.
Tyler snorted and leaned over to tie his laces, the phone trapped between his cheek and his shoulder, “I was expecting Vaughn.”
“Vaughn’s busy with the all-important Senator scandal.” Tatum made the sentence sound like the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard. “That’s why I’m calling you.”
“Uh, hate to break it to you, but I’m dealing with my own part of that situation so I can’t help you with whatever it is you need.”
“Seriously?” Tatum whined. “Why do you all assume I need something when I call?”
“Because you always do.”
Tatum harrumphed, “Fine, I do need some help but Hunter’s on his honeymoon, Vaughn’s got his nose so far up the Senator’s ass I’m sure he can smell what he had for dinner, now you’re too busy to deal with me too?”
Tyler winced at the accusation in her voice. He knew, probably better than anyone, that Tatum could be a spoiled, demanding brat. He was the closest to her in age so he’d been around for more of her drama than anyone. But he also knew that beneath her sorority girl swagger, there was just a girl that felt as unsure about her place in their weird family dynamic as any of them did.
