Page 179 of Hot Mess
“And as you know, it’s not my mom I’m worried about.”
“HowdidMadeleine handle him?”
She madehandlesound like a dirty word, and it had the intended effect. My aunt Madeleine was a very sexual being, to put it mildly. I didn’t even want to think about her handling Ashley in any way.
“She handled him with kid gloves, actually,” I admitted. “They were all rather… polite.”
Taylor snickered. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. Too bad I’m not a hot dude. Maybe they’d be polite to me, too.”
“It’s not just Madeleine,” I said. “You know how they are. It’s the deadly combustion when Madeleine, Margo, Dani and several bottles of champagne get in the same room.”
“But you’re telling me Ashley survived, yes? The worst assault he’s suffered so far has been by your hand and his own zipper?”
“Ugh. Yes.” I glanced at the dude at the next table, but he’d put in earbuds. “Unfortunately. But he handled that pretty well too, as you know.”
“Well, then. Hate to say it,” my best friend said, “but I think you may have found yourself a keeper.”
Akeeper.
Hearing those words out of her mouth? Thrilled me… and freaked me right out at the same time.
Isowanted him, it was doing strange things to me…
I thought about him, like all the fucking time.
I’d never thought about a guy this much. I’d neverfeltquite this way about a guy before, either.
And we weren’t even in an actual relationship yet.
“I gave him a ring,” I blurted out.
Taylor blinked at me. “You… what?”
“Damn. It sounds so crazy. It was just that onyx ring. You know, the Art Deco one?”
“Which ring?”
I sighed. “You know. My great-grandpa’s ring.”
Taylor stared at me, her mouth opening in a stunned little O. “You… gave your great-grandfather’s ring to Ashley Player?”
“Well… Dani never wanted it, and it just sat in a drawer. I’ve never met anyone else who even came close to being cool enough to wear it. Why shouldn’t he just have it? And why are you looking at me like that…?”
“Uh. No reason,” she totally lied.
“Grandpa Percy would want him to have it,” I insisted, “or maybe I wouldn’t have even thought of it. Maybe… the ring chose him.Shit.” I planted my face in my hand. “I sound like Marie.”
It did sound like something my mom would say. Something floofy and lame.
“You sound like Gandalf, actually. What is this,Lord of the Ringsor something?” I peered up at her. “Is he reallythatspecial?”
“Yeah,” I squeaked out. “He really is.”
He was.
And I was right. My great-grandpa Percy was the coolest person in my family, ever. He was a political cartoonist during the Second World War, and I knew I got my creativity from him. He was artistic and eccentric and I adored him.
And I knew that if he were alive, right now, and he met Ashley Player, he’d want that crazy rock star to have his ring.
