I shake my head, furrowing my brows. “Why didn’t you tell me?” It makes sense now. Why he’s so close to Theo. Why he stepped in to take overThe Lanternso quickly.
“We both decided it would be best if no one knew. I didn’t want special treatment or anyone to feel uncomfortable.”
“I see.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t honest about that.”
“No, I get it. So, this is his house?” It seems like a lot more than what the editor-in-chief of a small-town newspaper can afford.
“Yeah.TheLanternwas a passion project of his, but he was the sole heir to a multibillion-dollar company,” he explains, reading my mind. “He inherited it when he was young, but he has other people running it. He used some of his inheritance to start the paper in the seventies.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize he owned it.” Ashton nods, walking over to one of the benches and motioning for me to sit.
“How did they meet?”
A smile stretches across his face. “At the coffee shop.”
“You mean the one you forced me to go to get the espressos you never drank?”
“That’s the one.” His face lights up at the memory. “He got her drink by mistake, and the rest is history. They spent the whole day together, and they had their first date that night at Olleto’s.”
I bite back a smile. “The dessert.”
He blinks. “What?”
“Nothing.” I wave my hand in the air, but I smile at what Theo said to me that day on the phone.
How did you know that I ordered dessert so my first date with my wife wouldn’t end?
“He was heartbroken when she died,” Ashton continues. “Obviously. But he told me once that he was better for having known her. That he would do everything in his life the same if it led to her. He’d make the same mistakes. Feel the same pain.”
“He really loved her, huh?”
“Yeah.” He blows out a breath. “I always wanted a love like theirs. My parents didn’t marry for love. I’m not even sure that they like each other. So I looked up to my grandparents instead. When my parents started setting me up on dates, I would take them to Oletto’s in the hopes that it had some sort of magic. I even took Em there on our fake date.”
“Oh, yeah! I remember her telling me about the burrata,” I say excitedly, earning a soft chuckle from Ashton. “So I’m guessing there was no magic?”
“Nah. The magic was them.” My eyes fall on the rose bush again.
Love and new beginnings.
We sit, just breathing each other in. I watch the way his shirtripples with each inhale, and when I look at his eyes, they’re bright like the sun spilling onto a leather chair through the windows of an empty room. No one is supposed to see it, but I do. It’s a secret meant just for me.
“Ash,” I start, but his phone rings, shattering the moment.
He slides it out of his pocket. “It might be my dad.”
When he looks at the screen, he nods and stands, walking toward the edge of the garden. I hear bits and pieces of his muffled conversation, but he’s too far away to hear anything of substance.
When he returns, his face gives it all away. He would be a terrible liar. I can read him like a book.
“Nothing good?” I guess.
“He hasn’t found anything yet, but he’s still looking. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. Maybe we should just report it.”
“I think that might be for the best.” He sits back down, resting his hand on my back.
