Teasing you, p.22
Teasing You, page 22
Leo made a dramatic zipping motion over his lips as he sat back.
“Now you,” she said with her full attention on Reid. “I’m not going to force my sister to talk to you. If she needs time, then you need to give her time.”
He nodded. “I fully agree.”
“However, I also know how stubborn Ashlynn can be and I think you should have a timeline in place for how long you should wait before maybe giving her a little nudge.”
“O-kay…”
“Right now, she’s definitely feeling emotional and vulnerable, but more than anything, I think she’s embarrassed by this entire situation. She stopped coming to work here at the coffee shop because she got tired of people commenting on whether or not she was guilty.” She paused for a moment. “I almost wish something else would happen to get everyone to focus on something else.”
“I’m sure everyone’s talking about Becky and Sandy being arrested and how Ashlynn was cleared,” he reasoned. “Isn’t that enough?”
“It might be, but it’s still talking about the fire and…” Pausing, she sighed. “Everyone who came in this morning wanted to talk to me about it so I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like when Ash goes out today. I’d kill for some good gossip right now. Like someone making a complete spectacle of themselves to shift the focus.”
They sat in silence for a few moments when inspiration hit.
“If I give Ashlynn the rest of the weekend, do you think Monday is too soon to approach her to talk?”
“I’m not sure. Why?”
“Let’s just say I might have the perfect spectacle in mind.”
Billie’s smile was slow, but he could tell she was intrigued. “Anyone in particular going to be involved?”
“Just tell me if Monday is too soon,” he replied vaguely.
“I’m totally on board with groveling publicly to Avery if that’s what you have in mind,” Leo offered.
“Dude, you’re going to grab her a cup of her favorite coffee and maybe a brownie or two and go over and grovel right now,” Reid said firmly. “There’s no way you’re waiting any longer on that. She knows Ashlynn’s okay, and you can clearly see that I’m fine and that your advice totally sucked.”
“Damn. That was a little harsh,” he mumbled.
“No, he’s right,” Billie agreed. “Your advice was terrible. Like you shouldn’t even be allowed to talk to people without checking with Avery first. Trust me.”
With a huff of annoyance, Leo stood. “Then if you’ll both excuse me, it appears my groveling plans have moved up.” Then he grinned at Reid. “And good luck.”
“Thanks, man. You too.”
When it was just him and Billie again, he felt oddly confident. “I’m not sure what I’ll do if Ashlynn reaches out before Monday, but…”
“I’ll take care of that. We’re supposed to go over to the salon today once I’m done here. I can get Chloe, Jade, and Levi involved to keep her busy all weekend. But on Monday, you’re on your own.”
He nodded. “I do have to work, but if you can make sure she’s at the salon around four, I’ll take care of the rest.”
She was silent for a moment. “Look, Reid, I’m sure you’re a good guy, but you need to know that we’re not big on trust in our family. I know Ash has shared our family history with you so I’m not going to bore you with it. If she’s willing to give you a second chance, then you better make damn sure that you don’t mess it up. I’m very protective of my siblings, and I don’t like it when someone hurts them.”
“Understood.”
With her arms folded, she certainly didn’t look like she was ready to trust him just yet.
“If you’re looking for some sort of guarantee, Billie, I can’t honestly give you one. All I can give you is my word that I’m going to do everything in my power to prove to Ashlynn that I love her and that I’m in this for the long haul.” He laughed softly. “And until she’s willing to sit and listen…”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah…I know.” She got to her feet and stared down at him. “Monday at four. And I don’t even want to know what you have planned…just make sure it’s something that’s going to get the people around here talking about something other than Lavish Locks.”
Standing, he grinned at her. “Oh, believe me. If it all goes the way I hope it will, this town’s going to have something brand new to gossip about.”
Chapter Fifteen
The weekend flew by in a crazy flurry of activity. Between finally having the time and the enthusiasm to work on the salon and everyone wanting to talk with her and find out all the details about Becky and Sandy’s arrest, Ashlynn didn’t have a second to herself. Chloe had invited her for a sleepover Saturday night so they could have a little one-on-one time away from everyone else, and it was the highlight of the weekend.
The best part about it? Her sister just knew how much Ashlynn didn’t want to talk about herself anymore, so they spent almost the entire night talking about what was going on in Chloe’s life.
“So I caught that lingering look between you and Evan King,” Ash had teased. “I didn’t think he was your type.”
“You mean tall, dark, and stupidly handsome?” Chloe asked with a giggle. “I mean…I felt a little flustered every time he looked at me, but it’s not like anything is going to happen there. He was only here as a favor to Ryder so…”
“And if he happened to come back to town you wouldn’t be interested in going out on a date with him?”
Her sister gave her a bland look. “Ash. Come on. Do you think a super rich lawyer like Evan would ever even want to go out on a date with a small-town kindergarten teacher? Be real.”
“What’s wrong with being a kindergarten teacher? For all you know, that’s his catnip.” She winked. “And by the way he was looking at you, it just might be.”
Chloe was blushing pretty much from head to toe. “Stop. He was not.”
“Fine. Don’t believe me. But I bet if you asked Avery or Billie, they’d say the same thing.”
“Anyway…we need to start planning Jade’s bridal shower. I think her mom and Billie have started working on things, but I really want all of us to be involved. And I’d really like to do something for Silas too. Maybe we can do some sort of weekend camping trip or something!”
“Camping? Wait…what? Who are you?” Ashlynn laughed. “And what have you done with my twin sister?”
“What are you talking about? I thought it would be fun!”
“Chlo, you hate camping. I hate camping. We both hate sleeping in a tent and on the ground. What’s gotten into you?”
“We’re gaining a nine-year-old nephew! I just want him to think we’re cool and for him to know how excited we are to have him in the family.” Then she pouted. “I thought it was a fun idea.”
“It would be if it weren’t something we both hated. Hmm…” Pausing, she gave it some thought. “Maybe we could ask Mom if we can set up her yard like a mini carnival! You know…a bunch of games, a bouncy house, one of those blow-up movie screens so we can watch something after dark…and lots of fun food and snacks! We’ll all be there and maybe even ask Dad to come for the weekend so he can be in on it. After all, he’s gaining a grandson.”
Chloe’s eyes filled with tears.
“What? What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
Her sister launched herself into Ashlynn’s arms. “I just love how you thought of Dad. I’m so proud of you! And I think your idea is amazing! You can even do face painting on all of us!”
“Oh my goodness! Yes! Definitely!”
That had set a whole bunch of plans in motion and this morning when she stopped at Books & Beans on her way to the salon to check on the progress, she ran the idea by Jade, who promptly burst into tears.
“Are those happy tears, or…?”
“Happy! Definitely happy,” she said as she tried to dry her face. “Your entire family has just been so amazing and I love how you want to do this for Silas.”
“He’s a great kid, Jade, and we want him to be comfortable with us and maybe think we’re the cool aunts.”
“Are you kidding? You’re the one who painted his face so he looked like a Stormtrooper at the Fourth of July festival. He hasn’t stopped singing your praises since!”
It was crazy how much that meant to her. “Well, we figured everyone’s been focused on you and Levi—between the engagement party and then there’s gonna be bridal showers and bachelor and bachelorette parties—but Silas isn’t getting anything that’s just for him. So we’ll have to come up with a really cool name for it so he knows it’s just for him.”
“I really love this. Thank you.” She stepped back around the counter. “What can I get you to take over to the salon? A muffin? Coffee cake? A scone?”
“It would be wrong to pick a brownie, wouldn’t it? I mean…it’s only 10:30 in the morning.”
“Pfft…it’s practically lunch time. And you can have whatever you want!”
“Then let’s go with that center brownie please!”
A few minutes later she was out the door. It was a beautiful day out, unseasonably warm, and it felt like the perfect way to kick off the week.
When she got to the salon, there was a lot going on. Drywall was up. The electrician was doing something up in the ceiling, and the plumber was working on the sink station. The general contractor was on the phone and Ashlynn felt a little guilty that she didn’t bring anything for him.
“Afternoon coffee break is on me,” she murmured as she happily looked around.
Then she kind of felt like she was in the way. There was so much happening that she wasn’t sure where she was supposed to stand or what she was supposed to do.
“Hey, Ms. Donovan,” Tanner Reese, her general contractor, said as he walked over. Smiling, he explained everything that was being worked on. “We have inspections scheduled today at four, so if I were you, I’d come back then so you can walk through it all with us. Right now, I’m trying to keep everyone on task.”
“Oh, um…sure. No problem. I guess I should have checked with you before just showing up.”
He was still smiling. Tanner was her dad’s age and she looked at him as an uncle rather than just someone working for her. “It’s your business so you can show up any time you want. I just figured you’d want to be here for the important stuff.”
“That I definitely do.” With a soft sigh, she nodded. “Then I’m going to take off and I’ll see you later this afternoon. I’ll probably bring my sister with me too if you think that’s okay.”
He chuckled. “Ms. Donovan, you are both allowed to be here. You don’t have to ask.” Someone called out to him from the back so he excused himself and walked away, leaving Ashlynn wondering what she was going to do with herself for the rest of the day.
Or…until four.
Reid immediately came to mind, but she knew he was back at work today. She’d been so busy all weekend that she never had the time to reach out to him.
Liar.
Okay, she still wasn’t ready to talk to him, even though she needed to.
Tonight. I’ll call him tonight.
That was one decision made; now all she needed to do was figure out the rest of her day. She texted Billie to let her know about the inspections and then tried to think of who else she could call or hang out with. Everyone was at work, so as she made her way back to her car, she decided to take care of some of the things she’d been neglecting, like shopping for groceries and doing laundry. Neither was very fulfilling, but she knew that later on, she’d appreciate the clean clothes and the ability to eat food that was already in her pantry.
After eating a sandwich, Ashlynn watched a tutorial on a new hair coloring technique she really wanted to try. The butterscotch ribbons would look awesome on Chloe’s hair and Ashlynn knew she was going to have to twist her sister’s arm a little to convince her to let her try it out on her.
“This would definitely look amazing on her and she’ll thank me later,” she murmured before taking the last bite of her sandwich. “And now I can finally have my brownie! Yay!”
Another perk to finally getting her life back on track? Not sitting at home all day. Between all the boredom and snacking, her jeans were starting to feel a little snug. Not that this meant she was eating her last brownie, but it would be nice to have a job to go to every day that kept her on the move more than she’d been for the last few months.
So she took her laptop into the living room and sat down to watch a few more hair tutorials for inspiration and at 3:30, she texted Billie to remind her to meet her at the salon for the inspections. After quickly refreshing her makeup, Ashlynn brushed her teeth and grabbed her keys, phone, and purse and was out the door with a bounce in her step. One more set of inspections meant one step closer to her taking ownership of the space and opening.
As usual, it was a quick drive, but there were a lot more cars parked out front so she had to park a bit farther down the block. A minute later, Billie pulled in right next to her. “Hey! Perfect timing!”
“I actually saw you drive by the coffee shop while I was in my car,” her sister said before walking over and hugging her. “Wow! Lots of cars here today. I wonder if they’re working on the other shops too?”
“Maybe, or it could be the different inspectors, right?”
They walked along the sidewalk until they stopped in front of the salon. “Are you ready for this?”
She shrugged. “Just inspections, right? Although, it means things are getting done and we’re getting closer to being able to get in there and start decorating and getting everything ready!”
“That’s going to a very exciting day when you get to go in and really turn the place into a salon.” She gave Ashlynn another hug. “I’m so happy for you!”
“Thank you. But I wouldn’t be here without you, so thank you.” She squeezed Billie tight before they stepped apart and walked into the salon.
As expected, Tanner was in the middle of the space on his phone while everyone was cleaning up around him. It took a solid five minutes before he was done and walked over to greet them.
“The inspectors are next door and will be right over,” he said with a big smile. “The guys are just cleaning up so nothing will be in the way.”
“Great!”
He led them around, showing them all the work that had been done that day and pointed out what specifically was going to be inspected.
“And we wired all the sprinkler systems and the smoke detectors, so the fire squad will be here too,” Tanner went on before heading toward the back where her office was.
“Um…the fire squad?” she squeaked.
“Oh, yeah,” he said with a nod. “It will be a breeze.”
Ugh…so maybe I’ll be talking to Reid sooner rather than later…
He showed her where the electrical panel was and where the main water shutoff valve was, and they were just about to turn to walk back out to the main part of the salon when music began playing loudly.
“What the…?” Ashlynn walked out of the office and noticed there were a lot more people in here than there were just minutes ago. She looked around and tried to figure out where the music was coming from and why no one was shutting it off when Reid strode into the center of the room. He was dressed in his full bunker gear, like he was ready to walk into a burning building.
Oh my…
Swallowing hard, she was about to ask what he was doing there, when he held up a hand to stop her and began to dance to the music.
Oh God…
It was some instrumental piece that seemed made for all kinds of bumping and grinding and…that’s what Reid was doing.
Billie came and stood behind her and laughed softly. “Wow…I thought this sort of thing only happened at bachelorette parties! Do you think we can hire him for Jade’s?”
“Shut up!” Ashlynn hissed, but her eyes never left Reid.
“Ashlynn Donovan, we need to talk,” he said over the music, and she couldn’t have uttered a single word even if she wanted to. He slowly peeled his coat off and tossed it at her feet. “Since you didn’t seem in any rush to come to me, I thought I’d come to you.”
Next, he tugged his suspenders down with some sexy hip thrusts. He was shirtless under it all and she felt her mouth water at the sight of him.
Don’t lick your lips…don’t lick your lips…
He toed off his boots and kicked them aside with far more grace than she thought possible and she was practically breathless waiting for what was going to go next.
“I screwed up,” he went on while doing a little spin and shaking his ass. When he was facing her again, his helmet landed at her feet on top of the coat. “I never should have left the way I did; I should have come and talked to you. I should have told you how much you mean to me. I should have said I love you instead of sending a lousy text. I was a coward and I hope you can forgive me.”
He danced a little closer and she was fairly certain her cheeks were on fire. Everyone was looking at them—well, mostly at Reid and his ridiculous dance—but she had no idea why he was doing this.
Clearly, he wanted your attention and this definitely got it…
His hands went to the waistband of his pants at the same time the music seemed to be building up to something big.
Uh-oh…
She knew what was coming…almost couldn’t wait for him to do it…even while she was inwardly screaming for him to stop because he was going to humiliate himself even more than he already was.
“Tell me you’ll give us another chance,” he said loudly with a rather lewd and graphic thrusting motion. “I promise to make it up to you in any way you want.”
Another thrust had everyone hooting and cheering.
Then the music changed drastically and…
“Wait…is that from Frozen?” she whispered.
And then…it didn’t matter how prepared she thought she was, when he dropped his pants and kicked them aside…she burst out laughing and nearly fell to the floor hysterically.
