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More cheers and applause.
“I think the fire marshal would agree that we have far too many people in here and have exceeded capacity, so…have a great day!” And with a wave, he slowly sauntered over to where Ashlynn was sitting on the floor and held out a hand to her.
Thankfully, she took it.
“What in the world possessed you to do this?” she asked and was still laughing a little bit. “And where on earth did you get those shorts?”
What he wanted most was to pull her into the back room away from prying eyes—and cameras—but he was here to make a spectacle of himself and that’s what he was doing. “So, um…yeah, Frozen isn’t as popular as it used to be, so I had to get creative. These are actually women’s sleep shorts, but they had dancing Olafs on them, so I figured you’d get the symbolism in that.” He shifted uncomfortably. “They’re just not very supportive, so…”
Snickering, Ashlynn buried her face against his shoulder. “I cannot believe you did this.”
“Great dancing, Baylor!” someone called out.
“Nice legs!” someone else added.
The comments went on for a few minutes as the room began to empty.
When she finally lifted her head, her expression was serious. “As much as I appreciate all of this, you need to go. We’ve got inspections waiting to happen and I don’t think your little striptease song and dance helped, so…”
“The inspections are done.”
Her beautiful eyes went wide. “What?”
Nodding, he took her hand in his and led her toward the back corner. “All the inspections were done earlier and they all passed! Things are really moving along.”
She stared at him blankly for a moment. “I don’t understand. I was supposed to be here for them. Tanner told me to come back with Billie at four.”
With the way she was looking at him, he was suddenly more nervous than he was just minutes ago while he was taking off his clothes in front of fifty people. “Um…”
“That was some show you just put on,” Billie said as she walked over to join them. Then she eyed him from head to toe. “Now would probably be a good time for you to put on pants. I’ll explain the rest to Ash.”
“Um…”
“Seriously, Reid. Pants,” she repeated, and fortunately his duffel bag with a change of clothes was right beside them.
“Don’t be upset,” Billie was telling Ashlynn. “I was here for everything and it was incredibly boring. I still don’t know why Tanner suggested we be a part of it.”
“Okay, but…I was still looking forward to it,” Ashlynn argued lightly. “This was the first day that I was able to come here and be excited and have my head clear!”
Now he felt bad.
Zipping he jeans, he knew he had blown things again. “It’s my fault,” he interrupted. “I wanted to do something big—something to give everyone here in Sweetbriar something else to talk about other than…well…everything they’ve been talking about for weeks. However, I didn’t even take into consideration that you would be excited about inspections, so…I’m sorry.” Raking a hand through his hair in frustration, he turned and grabbed the rest of his clothes from his bag and quickly finished getting dressed.
“Ash, come on,” Billie said quietly. “You can’t seriously be this upset. His heart was in the right place.”
Reid awkwardly put his sneakers on before picking up the bag and tossing it over his shoulder. “I’m gonna go,” he said, unable to even make eye contact with Ashlynn. “I promise not to bother you again. If you want to talk to me, you know where to find me.” He gave Billie a weak smile. “Thanks for all your help.”
All the guys who were hanging around were still razzing him as he walked out the door and it wasn’t until he was halfway up the block that he realized what a colossal jackass he’d just made of himself and it was all for nothing.
The entire walk back to the firehouse to get his truck, he called himself every name in the book. He’d pushed too hard, too fast, and basically, he was lucky she didn’t throat punch him or something. She was finally able to have a day to enjoy being a new business owner and he had stolen her thunder.
“I’m an idiot,” he murmured as he climbed into his truck.
And then continued to pretty much chant that to himself the whole way home.
Grabbing his stuff, he kept his head down as he walked up to the building and up the stairs. Luckily, no one who lived in the complex had been at the salon—or hadn’t seen the video that was probably up on the town website by now. Either way, it felt good to walk unnoticed up to his apartment, except…
Ashlynn was standing in front of his door. “We need to talk, Reid. Now.”
