Chapter 17 Ash
ASH
Ash stood at the corner of Maple Street and Bear Avenue the next morning, with Allie by his side and Maya between them. All three of them looked out over the park, taking in the incredible sight.
The picturesque square that had been a silent moonlit blue last night was now alive with the sounds and activities of townsfolk, all bundled up in their colorful coats and scarves—more people than he would have thought even lived in Sugarville Grove.
He could hardly believe this was the same quiet park where he’d proposed.
Pretend proposed.
“Everyone’s here,” Maya murmured, her eyes scanning the crowd. “Everyone.”
Ash wondered if maybe that was a little bit scary for her.
“It definitely looks that way, doesn’t it?” Allie asked her, smiling gently. “How do you feel about it?”
“I want to go,” Maya said with a big smile.
Relief flowed through Ash’s veins at her confidence.
“Okay,” Allie told her. “But if you get tired or you just want to go get a hot chocolate, you just let me know.”
“Can we do the snowball fight, Daddy?” Maya asked, tugging on his sleeve.
“You might be too little for that,” he warned her, looking to Allie since he didn’t really have any clue how it all worked.
“They don’t technically have age requirements,” Allie said. “But it’s every man for himself and there are a lot of teenagers and grownups playing. So, if you join in, they’ll probably get you out right away unless you’re super good at hiding.”
“I’m great at hiding,” Maya said with shining eyes.
She was right, back in the city she had managed to play hide and seek with Ash in the penthouse and squeeze herself into cupboards and under furniture.
“Then you’re going to have so much fun,” Allie told her.
“But I won’t win,” Maya said.
“Probably not,” Allie agreed. “But winning isn’t the fun part. Playing is the fun part, right?”
Maya nodded and Ash felt proud of her.
As much as he wanted to see himself as a balanced person, winning had always mattered a lot to him. Of course he wanted Maya to be driven to do her best when it came to important things, but he was glad that she didn’t seem to have inherited his overly competitive nature.
“Are you going to play too?” Allie asked him.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” he said as lightly as he could.
“Why not?” she asked.
“I’ve got a competitive streak a mile wide,” he said, trying to make it sound like a joke, but realizing too late that the truth was evident in his tone. “I’m better off cheering on the sidelines.”
She nodded slowly, a thoughtful expression on her face.
“Hey, little sis,” someone called out.
Ash turned to see that half the park was smiling as a very familiar figure in ripped jeans and a black leather jacket jogged across the street to join them.
“Is that…?” he murmured.
“That’s my brother,” Allie said lightly.
“Your brother is Cash Law?” he asked, as the famous rockstar approached.
“Yes,” Allie said quietly. “But don’t make a thing out of it. He never knows what to do with that.”
Ash just blinked at her, stunned, as she turned to her brother.
“Charles Cash,” she said fondly, giving him a quick hug.
“Alice Lee,” the rockstar replied, earning himself a light smack on the shoulder. “And is this the fiancé I’ve heard so much about?”
Cash let go of his little sister and stuck out his hand.
“Ash Tailor,” Ash said, taking it and shaking.
“Cash and Ash,” Cash laughed. “Great brother-in-law names—I should write a song about us throwing a bash.”
“Maybe after the wedding,” Allie said firmly.
Ash couldn’t help laughing at that.
“And who is this beautiful young lady?” Cash asked, turning to Maya and bending a little.
“I’m Maya,” she said. “Your pants have holes.”
Ash tried not to laugh. She wasn’t wrong. Cash’s signature torn jeans looked super cool, but leave it to Maya to look at things sensibly.
“They sure do,” Cash said with a big smile. “That way my legs won’t get too hot while I’m running around making snowballs for my son to throw.”
Maya laughed at that idea.
“Bella and Cody are meeting up over at the ice cream shop with Cody’s friend Annika when we’re done with the snowball fight,” Cash said, turning back to Ash and Allie. “If you guys want to join us.”
“You’re really playing?” Ash couldn’t help asking.
“Oh, definitely,” Cash said. “Cody and Annika too. And Bella’s hanging out at the shop if you’d rather join her.”
“It looks crowded over there,” Ash said.
“We’re family, so there’s a table reserved for us,” Allie said. “What do you think?”
“Well, Maya wants to play, so I’ll stick around to keep an eye on her,” Ash said. “But we’ll definitely meet up afterward.”
“It’ll be a while,” Cash said, winking. “Cody really wants to win this year, and I think he’s got a real shot.”
“May the best man win,” Allie said with a smile.
“Do we really get ice cream?” Maya asked suddenly.
“It’s a Sugarville Grove tradition,” Allie told her. “We always get ice cream after the snowball fight.”
Maya turned to Ash, and he got a little pang. He did try to feed her healthy foods most of the time, but hopefully that didn’t mean she thought he’d never give her a treat.
“We wouldn’t want to miss out on any traditions,” he told her. “So of course we’ll have ice cream.”
“Yay,” Maya yelled, dancing in place.
One or two people looked over, but they were smiling indulgently at her happy energy, not judging.
Ash felt his shoulders go down in relief, amazed that he was at his most relaxed in forever while standing with a rockstar in the middle of a town he had just moved to this month.
“Maya, Maya,” two little voices called out.
Ash looked up to see Eloise running across the park with a little boy who wore thick glasses.
“Timmy,” Maya called out, skipping in place. “Eloise, you’re here.”
Ash felt his heart melting at this hard evidence that Maya had actually made a friend group out of the child she had shoved and the one she had protected.
He glanced at Allie, but she was gazing at Maya with such pride and warmth it almost hurt to see it.
“Hi, kids,” she said.
“Hi, Miss Lawrence,” the two replied, stopping in their tracks to politely greet the teacher.
“The three of you aren’t all doing the snowball fight, are you?” she asked.
“We’re a team, Miss Lawrence,” Eloise said proudly. “We’re playing as a team.”
“Cool, an allegiance,” Cash Law said, grinning at the kids.
“What’s an allegiance?” Maya asked.
“A team,” Allie said, rolling her eyes. “Except that if all three of you make it to the end, then you’ll have to go after each other for the big prize.”
“If all three of us make it to the end, we’ll share,” Timmy said firmly. “We already decided.”
“Exactly,” Eloise added. And both girls nodded.
The prize was an enormous and surprisingly realistic horse stuffed animal, so it would be a tough thing to share, but he didn’t think there was any chance of it actually being an issue, so he let it go.
Ash chuckled as the thought about how sweet it was that they had a plan. The fact that they’d already decided to include each other no matter what touched him.
“Well, if you’re determined to make it to the end, let me give you some advice,” Cash said, leading the kids just into the park and crouching, presumably to demonstrate his snowball making technique.
“Nice guy,” Ash said, feeling a little surprised.
“Weird, right?” Allie said, her eyes on her brother. “You’d think after all those years on top of the world, he’d be full of himself. Instead, all he wants to do these days is hang out with his son and noodle around on his guitar.”
“His son is a teenager, right?” Ash asked. “The one he found on social media? I read about that.”
“Last Christmas,” Allie said dreamily. “What a wild ride that was. But Cash only tours on the east coast now, so he spends most of his time here, which is just how he wants it. Makes the rest of us happy too.”
“You guys are super close,” Ash said.
“Yeah,” Allie laughed. “For better or for worse.”
She stopped smiling suddenly and he couldn’t help noticing that her right index finger stroked her left ring finger gently through her glove.
She’s wearing my ring, he thought to himself with a sense of greedy satisfaction he hadn’t earned yet.
“My family isn’t super close,” he told her, hoping to distract her from worried thoughts about their situation. “I was an only child and my parents both worked a lot of hours. My grandfather was the one I spent the most time with.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Allie told him.
“Anyway, I want things to be different for Maya,” he said. “Even though it’s just the two of us. For now.”
Allie looked down at her hand again and he wanted to kick himself for reminding her about what might or might not be in the cards for them.
“It’s really nice that you’re spending so much time with her,” she said softly. “That will matter more than how big your family is or where you live. We can tell at school when a kid has the confidence that a grownup will listen. It means the world.”
“Thank you,” he said, moved.
A makeshift wooden stage had been set up in the park, and someone on it began speaking to the players, letting them know the rules and lavishly describing the prize.
Ash glanced over to see Maya, Timmy, and Eloise clinging to each other’s hands. Maya was trotting in place and the other two didn’t seem to mind a bit.
“She’s doing a great job listening,” Allie said. “Even though she’s excited.”
“They look so happy together,” Ash couldn’t help saying out loud.
“Whatever happens with the snowball fight, those three have already won,” Allie said, a fond smile on her face.
A moment later, the whole park erupted into action. Ash and Allie stepped back to the sidewalk so as not to make anyone think they were part of the fight.
The kids mostly hid behind benches, which Ash thought was very smart. They whispered and formed snowballs here and there, but mostly they watched and giggled as the bigger kids and teens walloped each other with hunks of snow.