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Aubrey, my supervisor, eyed me as I handed in the sheet. She snatched it from my hands, then waved me off like a fly. Fine by me. I didn’t want to look at her pinched, raisin face anymore, either.
With that done, I looked at my phone on the way back to my cubicle and glared.
Mom: No family dinner this Friday. We have a guest over.
Not only had I never been uninvited to dinner at Mom and Dad’s house, but usually when they have friends over, they insist that I come even more. Who was this new guest?
Obviously my mind went directly to Ashton, but how freaking unlikely was that? Was it the other guy? The one I talked to on the phone who’d denied me Ashton’s number?
Maybe. Then again, was Dad actually friends with him? Not that I knew of.
Although, two years changes a lot of people. Maybe they became friends over the times they talked about Ash. That was definitely a possibility. And they wouldn’t want me meeting him.
Sorting through possibilities in my head, I couldn’t imagine that it was anyone else, so that option settled. That was likely the guest they’d invited who they didn’t want me seeing. And honestly, I was ok with that.
Sitting on my chair inside my tiny little cubicle, I tried to ignore the clacking of fingers on keyboards next to me and focused on the next financial packet.
Digging into all those zeros, I felt at home. It was so easy to do numbers. Numbers didn’t betray you or leave you. Numbers didn’t laugh when you said that you loved them.
God damn that man.
Staring down at the screen, I saw issues already with my numbers, and I cursed, then backtracked and started over, trying my very best not to think about Ash the asshole.
Ok, I couldn’t stay away. Maybe it was curiosity, maybe it was my masochistic tendencies, but I had to fucking know.
It could be Ash.
It wasn’t, but it could be.
Despite the fact that I was so angry at him, and I was so done with him, my heart was still reaching for the broken, scarred man that just wouldn’t go away.
After work, I went right to Mom and Dad’s house, like I usually did on our family dinner Friday. There was a motorcycle I’d never seen before on the road, so the guest had definitely arrived.
Time to find out who it is
I meandered up the walkway after parking behind the unknown bike on their curb and let myself into the house. They were already in the dining room, and I heard Dad’s bawdy laugh and Mom’s amused titter.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Dad groaned, sounding so happy.
That was when I heard his low chuckle.
Ash…
I entered the dining room and my body stilled, freezing up as my eyes caught sight of him. Everything went silent.
“Oh, Freya,” Mom squeaked when she saw me.
Dad’s eyes flew my way, and Ash’s head whipped up from where he sat across the table, grinning down at his meatloaf.
Surprise was the general reaction, but Ashton stood, his hands fisting the tablecloth on either side of his half-empty plate and his eyes zeroing on me like a predator finding his prey.
My heart immediately started pounding, head getting a little dizzy as the world spun.
Ashton literally vaulted the dining room table until he was standing in front of me, hands gripping my shoulders as I started to sway.
How was he there, right in front of me?
“You ok?” he ground out, trying to look me in the eyes.
