Chapter 14
March
Following the GPS instructions, Roman pulled his rental car into the driveway of the Spanish style bungalow in West Hollywood
where Ashton was staying while he and Jasmine were filming a movie in Los Angeles. A slew of texts had come through while
Roman was driving, so he took a moment to reply before he climbed out of the car and strode up the path to the front door.
After a day full of meetings, it was a blessed relief to leave his suit jacket and tie in the car.
The one-story house, with its signature white walls and red tiled roof, was charming, and the small front yard featured a
profusion of desert plants. What might have once been a lawn had been replaced by gravel. It was a sunny spring day, not a
cloud in the sky, but the cooling breeze marked the evening hour.
Roman had tried to invite them all out for dinner at a restaurant owned by another of Nigella’s clients—someone Roman wanted
to talk to about stocking Casa Donato rum—but Ashton had said Jasmine and Yadiel needed a quiet night in.
Roman suspected it was Ashton who actually wanted to stay home, but he didn’t call his friend out on it. Besides, it would be nice to have a meal that wasn’t also work .
After ringing the bell, he heard the pounding of running feet before the door swung open, revealing Yadiel’s grinning face.
“Tío!” the boy yelled, launching himself into Roman’s arms.
“Whoa!” Roman braced his legs as he caught the boy, who at ten was all long limbs held together by rubber bands. It was hard
to believe this kid had only been in his life less than two years.
“Yadi, cuidado con tu tío,” Jasmine said in mild warning as she joined them in the entranceway. “Hi, Roman.”
As Yadi slid back down to the floor, Roman leaned in to kiss Jasmine on the cheek. “Thanks for having me over,” he said.
“Thanks for being flexible.” She shot him a grimace. “We’re both on production diets. I hope you’re okay with high protein
and low carb. Although of course we have French fries for this little monster.”
At the word “monster,” Yadiel bared his teeth and emitted an exaggerated growl.
“I’m okay with whatever you’ve got,” Roman said easily. He let Yadi drag him by the hand into the house.
“Ashton’s outside at the grill.” Jasmine paused in the arched doorway that led into the kitchen. “Yadi, you want to spear
the vegetables on the skewers?”
“Yeah! Stabbing vegetables!” The boy bounded into the kitchen ahead of her.
“I’ll try to keep him occupied for a bit,” she said. “Let you two chat without a shadow.”
Roman nodded his thanks and slipped through the sunroom and out the sliding glass door to a covered patio area. There was a low table, outdoor chairs with dark gray cushions, and a grill. Beyond, the surface of a turquoise pool sparkled in the early evening sun.
The sight of it immediately brought to mind the last time Roman had been in a pool.
With Ava.
Whom he hadn’t heard hide nor hair from in three weeks.
“Nice pool,” he said, coming up behind Ashton.
Ashton turned, breaking into a smile. “I thought you were Yadi,” he said, setting down the tongs to give Roman a quick hug.
“Thanks for coming by.”
“Not a problem.”
Fifteen years ago, they’d been tearing it up in South Beach. Now, Ashton was opting to stay home on a Saturday night with
his son and soon-to-be wife, grilling chicken cutlets in a guayabera shirt and ratty cargo shorts. Hard to believe this was
the same guy who’d once done tequila body shots off a model’s bare stomach.
But then, Roman wasn’t the same person he’d been back then either.
Roman eyed his friend, noting the differences since the last time they’d seen each other. “You’ve bulked up.”
“Working with a trainer. El novio de la prima de Jasmine.”
Roman raised an eyebrow. “Got anything you want to tell me? Maybe a certain superhero franchise came calling?”
Ashton’s mouth twisted in a smirk. “No se nada.”
“ Riiight .” Roman crossed his arms and dialed up the sarcasm. “You’re training with Jasmine’s cousin’s boyfriend to put on twenty pounds of muscle, but you don’t know anything about it. All right, don’t tell your best friend. I see how it is.”
Ashton grinned and elbowed him. “You of all people should know how NDAs work.”
Roman sighed. “Wish I didn’t, sometimes.”
Ashton’s brow creased. “?Qué pasó?”
Sometimes Ashton was too perceptive for his own good, but Roman didn’t have an easy answer for what was wrong. He just shrugged.
“Nothing specific. Just tired of the grind.”
“How’s Dulce’s apartment hunt?”
Roman blew out a breath. “She’s looked at a few places but says she hasn’t fallen in love with anything yet.”
“She’s still not letting you help?”
“Nope.” Roman ran a hand through his hair. “She won’t even give me a list of the specs she’s looking for, or what neighborhood
she wants. Just keeps saying she’ll know it when she sees it.”
“?Y tu hermana?”
“Mickey’s fine. I think. Teenagers, am I right?”
Ashton gave a shudder. “I don’t want to think about it.”
“Aside from spending too much time on her phone, she’s focused on finishing high school and prepping for her summer internship.”
“College?”
“Still waiting on her acceptance letters.” At Ashton’s piercing look, Roman narrowed his eyes. “What?”
His friend pointed the tongs at him. “Why is this bothering you so much?”
Roman scowled. “Who says it’s bothering me?”
Ashton’s famously expressive face said don’t bullshit me .
“Fine, it’s bothering me.” Roman shoved his hands in his pockets and wished he were wearing comfortable shorts like Ashton instead of ridiculously expensive trousers. “I don’t want them to move out.”
“?Por qué no?”
Restless, Roman began to pace. “What if something happens? And I don’t know about it? I can’t stand the thought of not being
able to protect them.”
Ashton was quiet while he checked the grill. In Spanish, he murmured, “I didn’t realize they needed you to protect them.”
“Don’t give me that. You have a family. You know what it’s like.”
“Yadi’s ten . I can’t even trust him to keep his shoelaces tied. Your sister, on the other hand, is almost eighteen, and your mother has
already handled the worst life has to throw at her.”
“That’s exactly my point. I don’t want anything else to happen to them.”
“Maybe you’re not giving them enough credit.”
Before Roman could dispute that, the screen door opened and Yadiel came out in a pair of orange swim trunks.
“I want to go swimming,” he announced.
Ashton gestured at the pool. “Dale.”
As the boy walked to the steps in the shallow end, Roman opened his mouth to point out that the air was getting cooler, but
Ashton shot him a quelling look.
There was a quiet splash as Yadi stepped in, followed by an indignant squawk. “It’s cold!”
Roman bit back a laugh at the sight of the kid standing ankle deep in the water, hugging his skinny chest with his arms.
Ashton just shrugged. “Bueno. Use the hot tub.”
Shivering dramatically and making brr noises, Yadi hurried over to the hot tub, leaving wet footprints on the concrete.
“Wait for it,” Ashton whispered to Roman.
Sure enough, a second later, Yadi yelped. “It’s hot!”
“Called a hot tub for a reason,” Ashton said mildly.
Yadi climbed out and glared at his father. “Are you trying to boil me alive?”
“You know we’re on a high protein diet.” Ashton tossed the boy a towel. “Don’t get the floor wet.”
The sliding door slammed, and Ashton sighed. “We go through that exact exchange once a week.”
Roman grinned, glad to drop the conversation about his family. “Not your fault your son is Goldilocks.”
Ashton snorted. “You have no idea. He only speaks in complaints these days.”
“I believe it.” Roman’s phone had been buzzing in his pocket, so he finally checked his texts. In the ten minutes since he’d
arrived, he’d received messages from Camille, Nigella, Mikayla, his accountant, and his estate lawyer, in that order.
No Ava.
“Do you need to use the office?” Ashton jerked a thumb toward the house. “There’s a third bedroom with a desk in it.”
Roman shook his head and put the phone away. “Just waiting for some news.”
Ashton snorted. “Waiting? That doesn’t sound like you.”
Roman cracked a smile. It was true.
It had been three weeks since he’d seen Ava, and true to her word, there had been no communication in the interim.
And the waiting was killing him.
After what she’d shared about her ex-husband and hinted about her family, it was easy to see why she needed rules to feel like she was in control of the situation. But it had also become obvious that Ava pulled back after opening up.
He thought about the way she’d refused to let him upgrade her phone, which triggered a memory, or maybe it was the fact that
he was standing next to Ashton. “You remember Cassie?” he asked.
Ashton made a face as he turned the chicken over. “Why? Did she call you?”
“No. Just crossed my mind.”
After the language app took off, Roman had been flush with cash for the first time in his life, but he’d also been a dumb
guy in his mid-twenties. He’d met Cassie, an Italian model, at New York Fashion Week, and she’d been living the kind of glamorous,
jet-setting lifestyle he was just starting to taste. They’d gone on vacation, partied at clubs, took lavish shopping trips—until
Ashton had told Roman point blank that Cassie was using him for his money. Roman hadn’t believed it at first. Sure, he didn’t
see Cassie often, but they were both busy, and when they were together, they had fun.
Then he started to notice how she’d drop subtle hints when she wanted something, or only came around when she wanted him to
take her somewhere. When he stopped buying her things and made himself less available for first class flights to Europe, she
disappeared pretty quickly.
It had been a wake-up call, and looking back with the benefit of hindsight, Roman could see that he’d stopped dating seriously
after that.
Still, he wanted to help the people he cared about, so when Ava had remarked that her phone didn’t hold a charge anymore, he hadn’t thought twice about offering to get her a new one. She had a problem, and it was within his power to fix it, so he would. End of story.
Except Ava clearly wasn’t used to people spending money on her.
In some perverse way, it only made Roman want to indulge her more.
Jasmine came outside then, her chancletas scuffing the concrete as she carried over a tray of vegetable skewers.
“These are ready,” she said.
“I’ve got it.” Roman took the tray and began laying the skewers on the grill.
Ashton moved aside and pulled Jasmine close before dropping a kiss on her forehead. “Is he sulking?” he asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Already forgot about it. He’s playing Mario Kart in his underwear.”
Ashton sighed. “I’ll make him get dressed before dinner.”
“Don’t stand on ceremony on my account,” Roman murmured, watching them from the corner of his eye and noting the way Jasmine
slid an arm around Ashton’s waist. Her other hand patted his chest, as if offering comfort.
They fit , Roman realized. In less than two years, they’d met, fallen in love, and fit the pieces of their lives together to form a
cohesive family unit. Jasmine had stepped in as the mother Yadiel had never had, and as the perfect partner to Ashton. And
they’d made room for her, expanding their family to absorb her seamlessly.
Maybe not seamlessly. Roman remembered Mikayla at ten, a know-it-all who thought all adults were idiots. As if on cue, Yadiel
came out then, wearing only tighty whities and flip-flops.
Ashton and Jasmine sighed in unison.
“When are we eating?” the boy asked.
“Soon.” Ashton released Jasmine and hustled Yadiel back into the house. “Get dressed. You don’t want Tío to think you were
raised in a cave.”
Yadiel chortled at that, but he let Ashton bring him inside.
“He talks about you a lot, you know.” Smiling, Jasmine joined Roman at the grill.
“Ashton?”
“Yadi.”
“Does he?”
“He remembers every gift you’ve ever given him, and he asks when we’re going to see you again.”
Warmth suffused Roman’s chest, and it wasn’t from the grill. “That so?”
Ashton came back out alone. “I promised we’d all play Mario Kart after dinner if he put on pants.”
Jasmine groaned. “I always lose.”
While Ashton monitored the grill, they sat on the patio, enjoying the cool breeze as they chatted. Roman filled them in on
the latest developments with Casa Donato—his ideas for expansion, the connections he was making, and the upgrades in the distillery.
In the back of Roman’s mind, he was hoping to bring Ashton on as a celebrity spokesperson, or maybe even as a partner. But
he didn’t want to come on too strong.
Eventually, they also discussed the wedding.
“Are you going to use an event planner?” Roman asked. “Bellísima has an excellent wedding planner attached to the resort.”
Jasmine pursed her lips. “Probably. But I still want to be involved, you know?”
Ashton raised his eyebrows but didn’t look up from the grill. “It’s a lot of work,” he said in a mild tone that made Roman think they’d covered this topic before.
“Turning all the decisions over to a planner makes it impersonal.” Jasmine shifted like the idea alone made her uncomfortable.
“I want it to feel like an intimate family gathering, not a flashy celebrity wedding.”
“An intimate gathering with two hundred and fifty people,” Ashton muttered under his breath.
“And that’s just my immediate family,” she said with a laugh.
When Ashton declared the food was done, Roman was surprised by the way they all leapt into action as a unit, each of them
working together and fulfilling their roles without debate. Yadiel set the table with barely any prodding, even going so far
as to fold the paper napkins beneath the utensils, and Ashton piled food from the grill onto the serving dishes Jasmine brought
him. While she filled a pitcher with filtered water and opened a bottle of seltzer, Ashton and Roman carried the food into
the dining room and set it out on trivets.
Seeing the three of them together was fascinating. They didn’t have a normal life, by any means. Jasmine and Ashton were famous
actors who worked long hours, and Yadi traveled with them, studying with a team of tutors in person or online. But despite
the unusual structure, they’d formed a family.
The boy’s bond with Jasmine was undeniable. And when Roman looked at Ashton, he didn’t see the party guy he’d once known. There was a steadiness about his friend that hadn’t been there before, as if Jasmine balanced his ambition with her compassion. From the way Ashton focused all his attention on his fiancée and his son, he looked like a man who had everything he’d ever wanted.
An uneasy feeling spread in Roman’s gut as he wondered if maybe, in his quest to have it all, there was something important
he’d missed along the way.