Chapter 32 Allie
ALLIE
I wake up warm with something hard pressing against my back. I stir, and Ashton mumbles behind me, “Just ignore it. It’ll go away.”
I’m about to laugh and suggest we don’t have to ignore it when I hear that godawful rooster crowing in the distance.
“You have to be kidding me,” I yell, shoving a pillow over my face.
Ashton laughs. “I knew he was annoying, but I never realized Juniper would be this much of a cock block.”
I peek my eye out from underneath the pillow. “For the sake of ever having sex with you again, I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that.”
“Do whatever you gotta do, Chaos.” My heart soars at the nickname.
I never thought I would be the type to swoon over a silly pet name, but I love it when he calls me that.
I noticed recently that he doesn’t call me Alexandra anymore.
I started not to mind it as much, especially coming from him, but there’s still a tiny piece of my heart that breaks at the sound of it.
“Hey, I want to take you somewhere,” Ashton breaks through my thoughts.
“Do you think your mom would mind hanging out here today? I have a really good security system.” It’s Saturday, so we don’t have to go into work.
I had planned on taking my mom back to my house, but I guess a few hours wouldn’t hurt.
“Sure,” I say. “I’ll ask her, but she’ll probably be okay with that.”
She’s more than okay with it, as it turns out.
She practically shoves me out the door while winking at me.
My mother has never wanted me to give up on the notion of love before I even had a chance to experience it.
I know she feels responsible for my resistance to being in a relationship, and she hates that she set such a bad example for me.
I get it. The love of her life left her alone with a baby and no one to help her.
When she finally allowed herself to let a man in again, she was starved for affection.
I give her a small smile and make her promise to call me if she feels unsafe, even for a second.
Ashton doesn’t tell me where we’re going, but he keeps his hand on my thigh for the entire ride.
I’m still wearing his shirt from last night, and I borrowed a pair of leggings I had packed for my mom.
We sit in comfortable silence as the trees blur together on the side of the highway.
It looks like we’re headed to Baybridge, and I can’t help but remember this same ride months ago when the silence wasn’t so comfortable.
He picks up his phone and hands it to me. “Put on whatever you want.” His smile is easy, and God, I could get used to seeing it every day.
I pull up the music app and search for the song I most feel like listening to. The first bars of “Story of My Life” by Social Distortion come pouring out of the speakers, filling my soul. This song always does.
“My dad was into this music,” I blurt out.
Ashton tilts his head to the side, raising his eyebrows.
“You asked me how I got into punk rock. That day we drove to the Baybridge Inn together,” I explain, leaning my head back to look up at the sky through the sunroof.
“Apparently I cried a lot when I was a baby, and somehow my parents figured out that when my dad played his music, I would calm down. Even after he left, my mom would still play it for me.”
Ashton smiles, and I’m glad he thinks of it as a good memory. I may hate my father for leaving us, but I’ve always secretly liked that we share a love of the same music. “It’s the only thing I've ever really known about him.”
His smile dims, a sadness shining in his eyes that wasn’t there before, and I’m not sure what to make of it. “Thanks for telling me,” he says before I get a chance to analyze it any further.
“Yeah, well, don’t get too used to it.”
“I would never.” He forces a quiet laugh and clears his throat.
We spend the rest of the ride listening to music, but we don’t talk again. We pull off the Baybridge exit, but instead of making the turn toward the main town, we go in the opposite direction toward the residential area. Is he taking me to his family’s home?
Sweat starts to bead at the back of my neck at the thought. I know he just met my mom, but I’m not ready to meet his parents. Especially knowing his dad is trying to find my mother’s abusive piece-of-shit boyfriend. That makes a potential meeting more than a little awkward.
We drive for a while before turning down a long, winding road.
When we come to a large iron gate, Ashton leans out of his window and pushes a button.
He gives his name to the person on the other end, and the gate opens toward us.
We drive through until we come to a large circular driveway in front of a massive estate.
Shit. I knew he was rich, but this is like rich rich.
Ashton puts the car in park and hops out, coming around to open my door. I take his outstretched hand, and he leads me past the house.
“Where are we going?”
“Now, what kind of surprise would it be if I told you?”
He smirks, the freckles on his nose crinkling, and I roll my eyes.
We walk for what feels like several minutes before we come to a tiny thatched-roof cottage. This has to be the edge of the property.
“Close your eyes.”
“What?”
“Allie,” he sighs. “For once, can you do something without questioning it?”
“Fine.” I let my eyes fall closed, and he guides me forward. We only walk a few more steps.
“Okay, open them.” I do, and my jaw almost hits the floor.
I’m surrounded by every flower imaginable in one of the biggest gardens I’ve ever seen.
There are large planters with vegetables, several white benches scattered throughout the area, and even some fruit trees on the perimeter.
I walk further beyond the archway we must have entered through.
To my right, there is a large patch of daisies, and on the other side of me is a sea of lilacs.
“Ashton, this is—”
“Do you like it?”
“It’s incredible. Is this your family’s?”
“My grandmother’s.”
I look back at him. “I thought—”
“My grandfather hired someone to take care of it after she passed. He never had much of a green thumb, but he wanted to keep her memory alive.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“You haven’t seen the best part yet.” He smiles and takes my hand again, leading me past rows of lavender until we stop at a rose bush. Pink roses spill out of a mass of thorny stems, and right next to it is a neat little row of white daffodils.
“She kept them next to each other,” he says, tipping his chin. “Love and new beginnings.”
Tears spring to my eyes.
“Love doesn’t always have to hurt, Allie. She knew that more than anyone.”
A single tear falls down my face, dripping over my lips. “What do you mean?”
“My grandfather was her second marriage. He’s technically my step-grandfather.
Her first husband, my dad’s father, died when I was pretty young.
I don’t really remember anything about him, other than that he was cold.
I don’t know the specifics, but I know they didn’t have the best marriage.
” He rubs the wetness on my cheek with his thumb.
“She was only twenty when they first got married, and after he died, she preferred to be alone. She finally had the freedom to live her life the way she wanted. Then one day when she was least expecting it, Theo came into her life.”
My eyes widen. “Theo? As in…”
“Theo Aldridge,” he confirms. “My grandfather.”
I shake my head, furrowing my brows. “Why didn’t you tell me?” It makes sense now. Why he’s so close to Theo. Why he stepped in to take over The Lantern so quickly.
“We both decided it would be best if no one knew. I didn’t want special treatment or anyone to feel uncomfortable.”
“I see.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t honest about that.”
“No, I get it. So, this is his house?” It seems like a lot more than what the editor-in-chief of a small-town newspaper can afford.
“Yeah. The Lantern was a passion project of his, but he was the sole heir to a multibillion-dollar company,” he explains, reading my mind. “He inherited it when he was young, but he has other people running it. He used some of his inheritance to start the paper in the seventies.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize he owned it.” Ashton nods, walking over to one of the benches and motioning for me to sit.
“How did they meet?”
A smile stretches across his face. “At the coffee shop.”
“You mean the one you forced me to go to get the espressos you never drank?”
“That’s the one.” His face lights up at the memory. “He got her drink by mistake, and the rest is history. They spent the whole day together, and they had their first date that night at Olleto’s.”
I bite back a smile. “The dessert.”
He blinks. “What?”
“Nothing.” I wave my hand in the air, but I smile at what Theo said to me that day on the phone.
How did you know that I ordered dessert so my first date with my wife wouldn’t end?
“He was heartbroken when she died,” Ashton continues. “Obviously. But he told me once that he was better for having known her. That he would do everything in his life the same if it led to her. He’d make the same mistakes. Feel the same pain.”
“He really loved her, huh?”
“Yeah.” He blows out a breath. “I always wanted a love like theirs. My parents didn’t marry for love.
I’m not even sure that they like each other.
So I looked up to my grandparents instead.
When my parents started setting me up on dates, I would take them to Oletto’s in the hopes that it had some sort of magic. I even took Em there on our fake date.”
“Oh, yeah! I remember her telling me about the burrata,” I say excitedly, earning a soft chuckle from Ashton. “So I’m guessing there was no magic?”
“Nah. The magic was them.” My eyes fall on the rose bush again.
Love and new beginnings.