Chapter 6
A month later
It was getting close to Christmas, and I was thankful to have Josie and Alex in town.
They had come for Henry and Amelia's surprise wedding at the ranch.
I didn't have Luna with me, so their trip was perfectly timed.
Lu had gone with her grandparents for a few days.
Last night was the first of three that she would be with them.
I had gotten accustomed to being with her all the time.
It had only been one night, and I already missed her.
She would celebrate an early Christmas with Kai's family because she would be with me on Christmas.
It worked out for me that Josie and Alex were in town and would keep me company while Lu was gone. Josie did make sure to plan their trip so that she and Alex could spend a day with Lu when she got back.
I was currently at work, and I had left Josie and Alex at my house, sleeping.
Alex was in my spare bedroom, and Josie was in Luna's room.
The two of them were in a committed relationship, but not married yet or even engaged.
Alex had plans for when he would do each of those things, but he hadn't yet.
Until then, they lived in separate places in L.A.
, and they slept in separate beds when they traveled.
Kai and I had no such restraint, and I respected my sister's approach and thought it was sweet. Now that I had Luna, I would do the same thing if I ever started seeing someone again.
It was 10am, and I figured Josie and Alex were up by now and would arrive here for breakfast sometime soon.
They had said they would come by about this time.
I was literally thinking about them when Carly came to the back and told me my sister and Alex were there.
She said she had just put in their orders.
I told her to send them back, and within a minute, I turned and saw my sister in my kitchen. Josie was grinning broadly when she came back. She was younger than me, but she was wise beyond her years, and I looked up to her in a lot of ways.
"Do you miss it back here?" I asked her since she had worked for me while I was at rock bottom.
"I do miss it sometimes," she said. "It's good to be back. Do you need any help?"
"No, you don't need to work. You guys just get comfortable. Just make some space on Lu's table. Hey, Alex!" I added when my sister's boyfriend came far enough into my kitchen that I could see him.
"Sup, Audrey," he said. "You're coming with us tomorrow night, right? To the wedding?"
"I thought so," I said, smiling and nodding at him. "Why?"
"Ash Adams was asking, and I told him you were coming."
"Ash who?" I said, even though we both knew I knew I had heard him.
"Adams," Alex said.
But I said the same name at the same time as him, and we both smiled.
"What other Ash do you know?" Josie said, with a silly face.
"When'd you talk to Ash?" I asked, staring at the eggs that were poaching on my stove.
I had timers set and a specific process for each pot that I was watching and each plate that I was completing.
I listened for Alex's answer without looking at him.
I was instantly nervous at the mention of Ash's name, and I looked down, tending to the food and trying to appear normal.
"Just now. I saw him a few minutes ago at the hardware store."
"Why were you at a hardware store?" I asked, plating some eggs. I rang the bell for Carly to let her know an order was ready.
"Ash was there because he's doing construction on a flip house, and I was there getting a new showerhead."
"For me?" I asked. I looked at Carly when I saw her come to get the plates. "Thank you, Carly. Can you ask Cal to make two scrambled eggs for Josie?"
"I heard her!" Cal called from the other side of the kitchen.
"He heard you!" Carly said, teasing me.
I cracked three more eggs into pots, and then I was at a place where I could coast for a minute, so I looked at Alex again.
"I hope you didn't get a showerhead for me. I'm so sorry that one wasn't working. I should've got a plumber to come out before you guys got here. Luna always takes a bath, so I don't even think about it."
"He was up this morning, so I asked him to replace it for you," Josie said.
"Yeah, you don't need to call a plumber for that. It took me five minutes to switch it out."
"Well, thank you. and let me know what I owe you," I said. I leveled Alex with a stare. "You ran into Ash there?" I asked, since I was too curious to drop the subject.
"Yes. He was asking me what I was doing in town, and I told him about Henry's wedding tomorrow night, but he already knew because he's going to it."
"Ash is?" I asked, looking confused.
Alex shrugged and nodded. "Yeah, I guess Henry's mom asked him to play the guitar during the ceremony. He was surprised that I had come all the way from L.A. for it. He also told me about a gig he has tonight with his band. They're playing in town."
"Pub Station," I said, nodding since I knew about it. Ash had mentioned it to me, and his band was popular enough locally that I had heard three different people talk about it.
"What's his band's name?" Josie asked, snapping her fingers and making a face like it was on the tip of her tongue. "It's something about a day of the week," she said. "Tuesday something?"
"No, that was his other band. This one is called Down the Hatch."
"Yeah, that's it," Alex said to me.
I had cooked these dishes so many times that I didn't even think about it when Cal came into my space, placing four plates under my warmers. I thanked him and went right on cooking and talking to my sister.
"Do you want to go to the show tonight? That might be fun," Josie said.
"I have play practice," I said.
"Just until six, right?"
"I'm surprised you guys are even doing that this close to Christmas," Alex said.
"It's our last one, and then we have two weeks off," I said.
"Well, Ash said the show doesn't start until nine," Alex said. "But I told him you might be tired after work. I had forgotten you have a rehearsal. He'll be bummed."
"Wh-he specifically asked about me?" I asked, carrying on cooking.
I dropped my sister's and Alex's eggs into their pots as I listened nervously for his answer.
"Is it okay for me to move these?" Josie asked, talking about something on the table where they were about to eat.
"Of course, move it all," I said in a quick tone before looking at Alex.
"Yes, he specifically asked about you," he said with a grin. "I thought you two might… I don't know what I thought, but he asked if you were coming tomorrow, and then he asked about us coming tonight, and he mentioned you again. At least twice in the conversation."
I thought about how I didn't have Luna for the next two nights, and knew it would be fun to go to the gig.
Seeing Ash's band wasn't the worst decision I could make.
I was way too affected by the news of him asking about me, and I pretended to be busier than I was in the kitchen, leaning and stirring and plating in a more exaggerated way to distract both them and me.
"Do either of you want to go to that?" I asked in an even, measured tone that I hoped was super normal sounding. "Oh, never mind. It's sold out, I think. I heard somebody talking about it at rehearsal the other day. I heard it's sold out."
"I didn't know he had so many songs on Spotify," Josie said, looking down at her phone.
"He said he would leave our names at the door," Alex said.
I glanced at Josie, but she was still looking at her phone.
"He's got three albums with this band," she said, telling me something I already knew. I focused my attention on cooking.
"So, are we going?" Alex asked.
"I think it would be fun," Josie said, causing my heart to beat faster. I wanted to say something to agree without seeming overzealous.
"I mean, as far as sleep goes, we can sleep in tomorrow, right? I don't have work in the morning, and we don't have to be in Deer Lodge until tomorrow evening, right? Amelia has to drive from California."
"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking," Josie said, putting her phone down. "It would be fun to go see Ash play tonight. I've never heard any of this music. I only got to hear that old-timey stuff you had him playing on the series," she said, talking to Alex.
"It's good, I've listened to it before," he said. "They had one or two albums out before I ever even asked him about doing the series. I had listened to it before I met him. He's really versatile. I think Sam's talking to him about being in a movie—or at least auditioning for it. "
"Yeah, I think I heard Sam say something about that," my sister said, answering him.
I had no idea what they were talking about, and I was glad my hands and my brain were busy with the food.
I was mostly busy. I had enough brain capacity to explore thoughts of Ash auditioning for a movie.
I tried not to be curious about him or what he was doing, but it was useless. I liked him, and I wanted to know.
"What did you say about a movie?" I said. "Ash is auditioning for a movie in L.A.?"
"That's what I heard," Alex said. "Sam's in a movie, and I think they need his co-star to be someone who fits Ash's description—singer, guitar player, and everything—right down to the long hair and blue eyes."
"Is he moving to California?" I asked, nonchalantly. I glanced up, and Alex shrugged and shook his head.
"He's not even sure if he's auditioning right now. I think Sam's telling him more about it at the wedding."
"When are Sam and Judd getting here?" I asked.
"They'll fly in tomorrow in time to follow us to the wedding."
"What about Cameron?" I asked.
"She'll be with them," Alex answered, nodding.
I plated their eggs and came around my work table to deliver them to the small table that shared my workspace.
"Oh, you don't have to serve us, you should've told me those were mine," Josie said, half-standing when she noticed me coming over.
But I was already approaching them, and she sat back down. "Whoa, thank you for this, sister, it looks delicious."
"You're getting double eggs today because Cal's scrambleds are popping off lately," I said.
"You're welcome, everybody!" Cal called in a deep voice from the other room, making us all laugh.
"Lu loves Cal's scrambled eggs," I said.
"Where is Miss Lu today?" Cal asked, hearing me.
"She's spending Christmas with her grandparents. Her Nana's sister lives up in Polson, so they took her up there with them for a few days."
"Oh, I know she's going to have fun," Cal said.
"Yeah, she has cousins up there and everything. She was excited about it." I crossed back to the kitchen since I had to get back to my food.
"So, are we going tonight?" Josie asked. "Are you going to feel up to it after your rehearsal?"
I nodded and glanced at her. "Yeah, I'll be fine."