Page 60 of Fall Into Me

“Thank you,” Ash said quietly, his words wavering under some new weight that hadn’t been there a moment ago. “For last December, I mean. And, um”—Ash shifted slightly on his feet, still cradling Bri—“for the last few months, too. You’ve become a really good friend. I’m glad we could meet today.”

Cass’s breath caught. He’d been having such a great time the last hour that he’d almost forgotten the intensity of Ash’s struggles. He hid it well, Cass realized.

It was hard to make his voice work, but he managed a nod. “Of course. I hope we can do this again sometime.”

Ash’s smile seemed to recover slightly. “I’d like that.”

“Yeah?” Cass asked, trying to stem his enthusiasm. Ash was not saying he wanted anything more than to hang out again, and Cass needed to remember that.

But when Ash nodded, his blue eyes soft and eager, Cass’s heart thrummed again.

Ash tipped his head down the street. “I should go. She’s gonna get heavy pretty soon.”

“Of course,” Cass said, dipping his chin in acknowledgement. “Goodbye, Ash.”

“Bye, Cass.”

Ash gifted Cass with one final smile, and even though it only lasted for a brief flicker of a second, Cass took it all in, quickly memorizing every inch of Ash’s beautiful face. When Ash finally turned away and started down the street, cradling his niece in his arms, Cass let out a breath, stared after his friend for another moment, and then turned in the opposite direction and headed toward his hotel.

Shaina (Tuesday, September 20, 2022 – 9:58 p.m.): How’d it go? Can I call you? I’m gonna call you

Chapter Twenty-Three

Ash

“No, really. It wasn’t a date, Shai.” Ash closed his eyes as he collapsed onto the couch, holding his cell phone up to his ear. A familiar scoff came through the speaker.

“You keep telling yourself that. Exactly how many dates have you been on, ever?”

Ash sighed. “None.”

“Well, now you’ve been on one, but that’s the whole argument—you wouldn’t know what a date is because of your extreme lack of experience.” Shaina cleared her throat. “Answer these questions for me: did he—”

“Shai, really,” Ash cut in, but Shaina ignored him and kept going.

“—meet you there at the time and place you chose?”

“Well, yeah, but—”

“And did you pay for both of you?”

“Again, yes, but—”

“And—maybe the most important—when you showed up, did he sort of smile shyly and say something like”—Shaina’s voice softened and turned quiet and sweet—“‘Hi, Ash.’”

With a loud groan, Ash rolled his eyes. “Of course he said hi.”

“No, no, but like, how did he say it?”

The tease in Shaina’s words was unrelenting and unmistakable, but the worst thing was that she was right. Cass’s voice had sounded like that when he’d greeted Ash at the café.

“I should never have come out to you, you know that,” Ash retorted, and he rolled onto his side and stared across the messy living room.

“Aw, you don’t mean that,” Shaina said, and some sound like a door closing echoed through the phone speaker.

Ash sighed again. “No, I don’t,” he said. “But it wasn’t a date. I just wanted to thank him, and that’s what I did.”

Shaina let out a breath, and there was some more rustling over the line. Then, she asked the question Ash had been avoiding letting himself think about for some time now. “Do you like him, Ash?” All the tease was now gone from her voice, and she followed up with a quick, “Honestly, do you?”