Storm Front (The Charistown Series) (Volume 2) (26 page)

You Hurt Me First

PLEASE BRING HOME flowers for
Lyla - A

Ashley heard the front door click shut as she hit “send” and
knew she should have texted Ryan the message earlier—as in before he came
home—but she was so frustrated with him. He hadn’t come home last night after
work. She’d had to watch while he chatted up some little bobble-head of a woman
all night, including the part where the little tart giggled at his jokes while
she planted her boobs all over the bar. Then she’d kept watching, unable to
tear her eyes away, as he left the bar with the twit and never came back.

So when he’d come home this morning, she’d made sure to have
her earbuds in as she passed him in the hallway on her way to the gym. When she
got back, she’d showered and gone straight to the soup kitchen. According to
the Post-it note she’d read when she got back, he was at the gym.

Her head told her she was being a bitch—that he had wanted
her for years but she’d turned away from him time and time again. She truly
believed she wasn’t entitled to happiness after what she’d done to her brother,
but her heart…God, her heart ached every time she saw him look at another
woman. It splintered every time she thought about his lips on another woman’s
lips, and it cracked when she thought of him making love to another woman’s
body. She knew she was becoming bitter, but it didn’t stop her from tapping out
that text.

“Nice try, Ash,” Ryan bellowed from downstairs, the
playfulness evident in his voice.

“Oh, you’re home.” Her tone was buoyant with fake brightness
as she bounced down the steps.

“Cut the crap, Princess, you didn’t send that text until you
heard the door open,” he chuckled, his smile near splitting his face in two.
Ugh. When he smiled like that, she couldn’t help but melt. And that pissed her
off.

“We’re gonna be late for dinner and now we’re going empty
handed? That’s just great, Ryan.” She perched her hands on her hips and walked
out the door. When she slid into Ryan’s car and saw the case of beer sitting on
the back seat the warmth of her embarrassment rose to her cheeks.

“Kind of feel like an idiot right about now, huh?” Ryan
buckled his seatbelt and leaned over to place a kiss on her head…the same way
Leo always had. Ashley froze. Her senses immediately heightened and she heard
the faint sound of him breathing in her scent. When she remained still he
pulled back enough for her to start breathing again. Pulling her lip ring
between her teeth, she felt the blood run from her face, and her skin prickled
with anxiety. Ryan’s own face lost its color as he murmured, “I’m sorry, Ash. I
forgot.”

“It’s okay, Ryan.” She inhaled deeply. “It’s been so long
since I had a
Leo
kiss, but it was nice.” She nodded her head, trying to
convince both of them that the kiss didn’t faze her. One brief glance at Ryan
told her the attempt was an unsuccessful one.

After a few seconds though, the initial shock wore off and
Ashley realized that the contact had actually felt nice. She’d loved Leo’s head
kisses and had forgotten how special they’d made her feel. Something so small
as a brush of lips to the top of her head made her feel loved and appreciated.
Ryan’s simple gesture created another small fissure in the huge dam around her
heart, but it also scared the shit out of her. When Ashley got scared, she got
sarcastic and ornery.

“Ryan,” she snipped, “stop staring at me like I’m gonna
break. It’s fine.
I’m fine
. Now drive our asses to Lyla’s before we’re
even later.” When Ryan’s smile lit up his face, Ashley shifted her body to look
out her window because there was no way she’d let him see her smile.

Even though she was.

“See, we’re the first ones here,” Ryan whispered in Ashley’s
ear. “Now, either tell me what your problem is or drop your attitude because I
haven’t done anything to deserve it.” The feel of his soft breath on her neck
had her nipples pebbling inside her bra and his clean scent had her mouth going
dry as her mind drew a blank. She just looked back at him, unable to speak.

This was it, the time to tell him how much it gutted her
every time she saw him with another woman. He was giving her the opportunity to
come clean with her feelings for him and her fears of losing him or even worse,
trying to start something only to see it fail again. However, as he stood
before her with the case of beer under his arm and his eyes penetrating what
felt like her very soul, she realized she wasn’t ready, she wasn’t able, and she
wasn’t deserving. So she did the only thing she knew how to do. She hid in
silence behind her mask.

“Okay, Ash, you’ve got nothing to say?” When she responded
with only silence and a slight shrug of her shoulders, he walked away. “Good
talk, Princess, good talk.”

Sunday dinners were one of the highlights of Ashley’s week.
Growing up, almost all of her “family” dinners had just been her, Leo and the
hired help, so these nights filled her with a renewed sense of belonging. After
the encounter she had with Ryan, she needed to belong somewhere. She felt like
she could be herself around Lyla and Janie, a feeling that she both loved and
loathed. Her spirit felt like when you got pins and needles from sitting in one
position too long and then you try to move. Little pieces of her were waking up—it
was scary and breathtaking all at once.

She watched as Max tried none-too-subtly to get Janie alone
so he could talk to her. Ashley understood why Janie was avoiding him. She
would have avoided him too, if he’d pulled the same disappearing act on her.
She let her gaze move over to Danny and Julie. They were such an amazing
couple—married close to thirty years and still crazy in love with one another.
She could see it in the way they spoke, touched, and even looked at each other.
A small pang of jealousy zipped through her body. The shock was quick, but
unforgettable.

Kyle sat in his chair drinking his vodka, his eyes glassy
and his skin gray. She’d spoken to him about his drinking the week before but
he told her—albeit lovingly—to mind her own business. Each of the guys had
tried to talk to him but had earned the same response. Ashley sighed. She was
really worried about him.

Then there was Lyla.

Lyla buzzed around the dining room, serving and removing
platters. She wore a smile on her face and was always prepared with the perfect
comment or sarcastic retort. Lyla was still somewhat of an enigma, but there
was a mutual respect between the two women and Ashley loved their budding
friendship. Yet she knew in order to have an honest friendship she was gonna
have to be
honest
with her friends. That meant telling them about Leo. A
shiver ran through her body.
What will they think of you then?
She
wasn’t sure she ever wanted to know the answer to that question.

After dinner, the whole group sat in the cozy family room
and shared silly stories, filling Lyla and Janie in on the bloopers and
practical jokes that they’d played on one another over the years.

Ryan enjoyed Sunday night family dinners. While he and his
dad spoke regularly on the phone, he didn’t get down south nearly as often as
he’d like. It was during these dinners that he really saw Ashley’s light begin
to shine. As dim as it had become it was still there, and it gave him hope for
her. Their earlier conversation weighed heavily on his mind. He knew that she’d
seen him leave with the woman from the bar the night before, and he knew she’d
assumed that he’d gone home with said woman, but the truth was although he had
left with her, he’d been bored to tears within the hour and ended up meeting
Kyle at an after-hours club. He hadn’t gone home because he’d crashed on Kyle’s
couch. Could he have told Ashley then where he’d spent the night? Yes, but at
the risk of sounding like a dick, he was enjoying her snit—it was nice to actually
see her give a shit for once. So he’d let her assume. Then, when he called her
out on her behavior, he thought for a brief moment that she was going to give
him honesty, that maybe she would tell him what was actually going on in her
mind. But once again, he was wrong, and all he got was more of the same.
Silence.

He was lost in thought when the raised voices caught his
attention. His turned to face Ashley, who looked…
angry
, and he was
immediately curious as to what in the hell would spike true anger from a woman
who had been dancing around her emotions for years. He followed her gaze to
Kyle, who had spent most of the evening in such an altered state that there was
no way it was just alcohol running through his blood.

“What’s not to love?” Kyle sneered, “She writes some advice
in a column twice a month, and she doesn’t have to worry about employment or
money. But not everybody is lucky enough to win the lottery.” Ryan watched on
as Lyla stared at Kyle, muted by the shock his words had caused her.

Kyle, however, had no such problem as he continued his
drunken rant. “We know everyone loves you. We know you love yourself. It’s the
world according to Lyla Dalton. You always need to put your two cents into
everyone else’s business. And speaking of cents, yes, Lyla, we
know
you
have money. Jesus, could you rub it in our faces anymore?” Kyle spat his words
and then tried to stand up but the effects of the alcohol, added to whatever
else was still pumping through his system, caused him to stumble.

“Kyle, goddamn it!” Danny shouted. “What the fuck is wrong
with you?”

Lyla cut in, her voice raised and her fist clenched. “It’s
fine Danny. Kyle,” she said, turning to face him head on, “I’m glad we are
finally close enough to share how we really feel about one another. I’ve had
thoughts about you too. Frankly, I’d been thinking that you were sexy—so hot in
fact, that I’ve spent weeks thinking of all of the ways I wanted to fuck you.
Thanks for curing me of those notions.” Lyla’s face was blazing red, making her
sky blue eyes burn brighter. “As for me sticking my ‘rich’ ass into everyone’s
business, you’re gonna wish I did. You’re gonna wish I stopped you from saying
all of the shit that just spewed out of your drunk fucked-up mouth.”

Kyle’s face was blank as Lyla continued her verbal lashing.
“I’m not going to hate you for saying those things,” Lyla began to rein in her
temper and with that her voice, “because tomorrow when you wake up, you’re
going to hate yourself enough for the both of us.” She lowered her face to Kyle’s
and dropped her voice to a level that Ryan knew to be lethal. “But I will say
this and trust me, if you forget what I’m about to tell you, there are six
people who are here to remind you. You can try, but you will never be able to
take back those words. They are out there. You said them. Now live with them.”

Lyla turned to face the rest of the group who stood silent
and in awe. “I’m leaving,” she said calmly, “please lock up on your way out.”
With her back facing the group and one foot out the door she stopped but didn’t
turn around as she said, “Before you ask, Janie, no, you can’t come. I need
some time. I love you.” With that, Lyla walked into the night, alone.