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She looks up over her glasses and smiles when she sees Ashton and pushes her chair out.
“Hey,” Ashton says, coming around the side and giving her a hug.
“How are you?” she asks, smiling at me kindly.
“I’m okay, Gen,” Ashton says. I know from what he told me in the car that Genevieve has been one of the few people in his dad’s businesses to support him during this difficult time. “By the way, this is Maddison,” he tells her, nodding towards me.
“Nice to meet you,” Genevieve says, holding out her hand.
I notice she has a warm handshake as I smile and shake it. “Nice to meet you, too.”
“The package your Father’s lawyer sent over for you is on his desk,” she says. “He said it was important you got it, so I left it under lock and key.”
She walks over to his dad’s office and unlocks the door.
“Thanks, Gen,” he says. I can tell he likes this woman. She has a calming ambiance to her. She seems very kind.
“Things look pretty quiet around here,” he says.
“Yes, it has been. The board will meet next week, as far as I know.”
Ashton nods and leaves the door open as he walks inside and retrieves the package from the desk. We don’t hang around long, though I do see him look around his dad’s office with vacant eyes, still processing that fact he isn’t here.
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow about the funeral arrangements,” she says. “We can get together, perhaps, to go through the details?”
“That’s a good idea,” he says, then glances at me. “We should go.”
I nod, and we say goodbye. Ashton takes my hand again and we leave the building.
“I’ve no idea what any of this is or what it means,” he tells me. “But there’s something I wanna do first to take my mind off all of this.”
I glance at him, and he smiles. For the first time, it reaches his eyes. “Notthat.” He grins. “Though it would be nice, there’s something else.”
I flush a little from my thought. It’s probably the last thing on his mind right now.
He drives me over to the ice rink instead and pays for us to have a casual session of ice skating. I find it terrifying; even if I have always marveled at ice skaters, I don’t see how it’s possible to stay upright.
“I can’t do that,” I murmur, shaking my head.
He smiles and bites his lip. “Won’t you at least take one lap with me?”
“I would if I could actually ice skate!”
“I’d love to teach you.”
I contemplate this for a moment, staring up at him. Who couldn’t trust deep ochre eyes like the ones he has? It’s like they can see right into the deepest parts of me.
“You can’t look at me like that!” I admonish.
He bites his lip and tilts his head lightly. “Like what?”
“You know, like what.”
He grins. “I don’t know what you mean.”
I smile because he knows exactly what I mean. My heart flutters at the way he is looking at me. It’s the first time he hasn’t looked so tense since I arrived.
I know now that coming here was the right thing to do. I’m glad that I’m here, and I’ll stay for as long as he needs me.
