Page 38

I ignored him and looked back at Ash. He had headphones around his neck rather than over his ears, which told me he wasn't actually trying to avoid conversation. He was staring out the window while Cole scrolled through something on his phone, and although there was nothing obviously wrong with him, the tension in the set of his shoulders hadn't disappeared.

His phone lit up on the tray table.

Ash grabbed it so quickly that Cole glanced over, and whatever he saw on the screen drained the color from his face before he locked the phone and shoved it into his pocket.

Keegan had noticed too.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

The answer wasn't remotely convincing, and Keegan's expression said as much, but one warning look from me stopped him before he could push.

“Fine,” he muttered, holding up both hands. “Not my circus.”

That made me smile. “You literally play for the circus.”

“True, but I’m one of the attractive acrobats. You’re management.”

I was still considering whether that deserved a response when I reached for my seat belt.

Keegan stared at my hand. “We're taxiing.”

“I’m aware.”

“And the flight attendant already looks like she could kill you with one of those tiny bottles of vodka, so perhaps wait until we're airborne before you go charging over there.”

He had a point.

I waited until the seat belt sign went off and Keegan disappeared toward the bathroom. By then Cole had moved across the aisle to argue with Dante about something on his laptop, leaving the seat beside Ash empty.

I took advantage of the opening before anyone else could.

Ash glanced over as I sat down. “You lost?”

“No. I found a better seat.”

His eyes narrowed, but before he could tell me to go back to it, I picked up the coffee on his tray and checked the label.

“This isn't yours.”

“It became mine when they handed it to me.”

“You hate hazelnut.”

His expression went completely blank, and I knew immediately that I'd made some kind of mistake, although I had no idea what it was.

“How do you know that?”

“Because you complain every time Keegan brings hazelnut creamer into the locker room, and two years ago you said it smelled like someone had melted a candle into coffee.”

The surprise in his face deepened. “You remember something I said about coffee two years ago?”

“I remember things.”

“Apparently.”

I put the cup back on the tray. “Do you want me to get you another one?”