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“Of course.” She turned to Nash. “Will that work for you?”
“It does,” he said to her. And then to Kevin, he said, “You did a great job today.”
“Thanks,” Kevin said. “So did you.”
They did a manly fist bump that made her grin.
Five minutes later, they pulled up to Kevin’s friend’s house. Normally, Kevin would have run inside without Sammy’s mom coming out to the car.
“Sorry about this,” Ashley said to Nash in a low voice as Louella approached, looking as giddy as a teenage girl. Clearly, she had been hoping that Nash would be with Ashley. The news about his being in town certainly had travelled fast, hadn’t it?
“Don’t worry about it,” he said as he rolled his window down. “It comes with the territory.”
“Oh. My. God. I swear I am your biggest fan!” Louella looked like she was about to burst with excitement. Louella didn’t seem to care one whit that Nash had been to prison. Nope, all she cared about was seeing her idol live and in the flesh.
“Thanks, it’s nice to meet you.” Nash was as friendly as could be and didn’t seem the least bit put out by her fawning adoration.
“You wouldn’t mind signing this T-shirt I picked up at one of your concerts, would you?”
Nash obliged with a smile, and Ashley had a feeling Sammy’s mom was going to sleep in the T-shirt from this day forward.
At last, Louella acknowledged Ashley’s presence. “Thanks so much for letting Kevin come over to spend the night.”
“He’s excited about it. Thanks for having him. I’ll be by at 8:45 tomorrow morning to grab him.”
“Okay, sounds great.” Louella shot one more adoring look at Nash. “Bye-bye.”
Nash rolled his window up, and as they were driving away, Ashley said, “I know you said it comes with the territory, but I’m still sorry about how awkward that was.”
“That wasn’t awkward at all. Now, if she’d asked me to sign her underwear instead of a T-shirt, it might have been a different story.”
“Her underwear?” Ashley was scandalized. “Does that actually happen?”
“More often than you would think.”
She made an ick sound in the back of her throat, then quickly changed the subject from strangers’ underwear. Because, ew. “Today seemed to go well, at least according to Kevin. How do you think it went?”
“Great. Just like I knew it would.”
“You’re remarkably good with him. Have you spent much time around kids?”
“No, but he’s easy to be with. Just like you are. You’ve done a really great job with him.”
“You’re so sweet.” She sighed. “And I need to apologize to you.”
“I’ve already told you I’m fine with signing autographs for people in town.”
“Not about that. It’s about what you heard me say to my brother this morning. It’s not that I don’t think you’ve overcome your past. I was just trying to explain to Rory why we’re not a couple and are just friends. But since he was pushing my buttons, it came out all wrong.” At a stop sign, she shifted her gaze to meet his. “I’m sorry, Nash.”
“You have nothing to apologize for. I understood what you were telling him. And I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said. I screwed up too many times before I finally learned my lesson. And I am going to leave Bar Harbor once I’m done with the van. You weren’t wrong on any of those counts. The thing is, Ash, I’m the one who should be apologizing to you. I didn’t mean to upset or frighten you over the work I let Kevin do today. If you’re still against it, I won’t let him use the power tools.” He paused before adding, “But I do want you to know that he is a very capable young man. Capable of doing a lot more than he even knows he can.”
“I know I can be overprotective,” she said softly. “It’s just that he’s everything to me, and I can’t stand the thought of anything bad happening to him. When he was little, if he crashed his bike, or fell off the jungle gym, or another kid was mean to him, it felt like my bruise, my scare, my broken heart. I know I need to do a better job of letting him experience life, good and bad, but…” She shook her head. “It’s so hard to let go of him when I’ve held him tight for so long.”
Nash put his hand over hers on the gearshift. “You’re the best mom in the world. He’s going to get hurt and have his hopes dashed from time to time, just like everyone else, but I have no doubt whatsoever that he’ll always be resilient. Just like you. Strong and smart and full of heart and brave as hell. So don’t you dare beat yourself up for anything you have or haven’t done. Because you’ve done a damn good job raising your son.”
