Series: Fever Falls Series by Riley Hart
Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 85157 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85157 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
“Ew,” I replied.
“Ew, what?”
“Sweet potato fries, for one. Eating healthy in general, for two.” I was exaggerating…at least a little bit. I wasn’t the biggest fan of healthy eating, but I did try to do it enough to help me stay in shape.
“I’m getting fries and a burger. I think we’re going overboard by calling it eating healthy.”
I chuckled because it was true. “Point taken. If you’d gotten a salad, I might have had to leave.” It was surprising that I didn’t already feel like leaving. My emotions didn’t want me to enjoy spending time with Ashton.
“I’ll remember that for future reference.”
Future reference? As though we would be doing this again?
The waitress approached and took our orders, Ash getting what he’d said, plus another beer. I got an order of boneless buffalo wings, regular fries, and a sweet tea.
“So…tell me about your life, Campbell.”
Ugh. Campbell. It felt like such a straight-guy thing to do, always calling me by my last name. Forget that I sometimes called him Carmichael; that was different. “There’s not much to tell. I’m a firefighter, I’ve been doing it for years, and I love it. I have a house on Hickory Lane.” Not very far from Mom and Kenny, which was important to me. Maybe most people wouldn’t understand it, but that was how I felt.
“You live close to them,” Ash replied.
“Huh?” I asked, not because I hadn’t heard him, but because I was surprised he’d said it—surprised he remembered where my family lived and that he would think to mention it.
“Your mom and brother. They’re only two streets away, right? Unless I’m not remembering correctly.”
“You are.” My pulse did this strange dance, for absolutely no reason.
“You’re good to your family, Beau. You always have been. You treat them right…take care of them…sacrifice for them… Those are admirable qualities.”
My eyes darted away. It was too hard to look at Ash right then. He was saying something we both knew was true, something many people knew was true but never said it out loud—that I could have gone away to college, played college ball, had been offered scholarships, but I hadn’t done any of it. And the truth was, as much as I’d wanted that dream, I didn’t regret it. How could I?
“I made you uncomfortable.”
A laugh jumped out of my mouth, even though a moment before I hadn’t felt like laughing. “You still say whatever’s on your mind…no-holds-barred.” Though that didn’t feel a hundred percent true anymore. I thought maybe Ashton Carmichael had secrets.
“I’ve been known to stick my foot in my mouth a time or two,” he replied. “I’ve been told it can be a bit much. Actually, that’s a lie. No one ever tells me that, except you. They just pretend it doesn’t bother them.”
Well, shit. Now I felt like an asshole. “It’s an admirable quality too, Ash. You’re honest, confident. Those aren’t bad things. But if you tell anyone I said that or speak of it again, I’ll deny it. And I’m sorry I always call you on it.” In some ways, maybe I wasn’t so different from Ash. I didn’t know what it was about him that made me act the way I did, but it had always been there.
“Oh, I’m going to remind you every fucking day. You can bet on that. And…thanks, Campbell. That means a lot coming from you. Don’t apologize for it. I appreciate always knowing where I stand with you, even if it’s not the best place.” He chuckled. “At least I know it’s real.”
My brows pulled together as I looked at him, and Ash glanced away, taking a drink of his beer. There was something incredibly sad in what he’d said, in the lower tone of his smooth, confident voice, in the way he wouldn’t look me in the face. It was also sad that I’d always given Ash a hard time, always been standoffish with him in some ways. Hell, we hadn’t seen each other in ten years, yet he was thanking me for how I treated him because it was real. How many people hadn’t been honest with him? Had used him for who he was and what he had? It wasn’t something I’d ever thought about before. “I—”
“Who got the low-carb burger?” a Fever Pitch employee asked.
“That’s me,” Ash replied. She set his plate down, then mine, and gave us our drinks before disappearing again. “Perfect timing. That could have been awkward.”
That easily, I knew the conversation was over, and while part of me wanted to keep it going, to ask him what he meant, the other part was glad. I wasn’t sure I could handle getting too close to Ashton Carmichael. Subconsciously, I’d known it since I was a teenager, but it had taken his kiss to make me see it.
“I heard through the gayvine that you had dinner with a gorgeous football player you supposedly hate.”