Chapter 9
Felicity
“Wait. He did what?” Keely asked as she popped up from my brand-new-used couch and began to pace. “He just came over, and you ended up coming? Wow. I did not expect that. Callum? Wow.”
I ran my hands over my face and let out a groan. “I can’t believe I just told you that.”
“I thought we were new best friends. I think you should tell me when a very growly, very large, very bearded, very sexy man makes you come with just his tongue out of nowhere.” She paused. “It was out of nowhere, right?”
I bit my lip, and Keely took a seat next to me and blinked.
“Tell me everything.”
It was the morning after everything had changed.
Yet, I wasn’t sure precisely everything had changed.
After all, I had no idea what the hell I was doing.
But once Callum had left me panting and feeling pretty useless on the counter, I’d scrambled and tried to calm myself.
Yet the only thing I could possibly do at that moment was continue unpacking.
Promise and Keely had shown up soon after, and while I loved Promise, I wasn’t sure I could tell her exactly what had happened.
After all, it felt weird, considering she used to date Callum’s younger brother.
Not that Promise and I weren’t friends, because we were, but she’d always been off with Finnian and Sterling, and I’d had my own friends when we were growing up. We were friends now, but slow ones.
Keely and I had just clicked, that moment in Summit Grill, like a bright spot in a somewhat dismal friendship life of mine.
But both women had taken one look at me, at my swollen lips and disheveled hair, and had known something had happened. They just had no idea with who. And both of them were too polite to outright ask. At least at that moment.
We continued to unpack as Keely organized my kitchen, ever the chef, and Promise had figured out the best ways to make what space I had work. After all, she had been in the hospitality business her entire life and now ran the cutest bed and breakfast.
The two women weren’t anything alike. With Promise in her business suit attire, having taken off her suit jacket to help me out, and Keely in leggings and a top since she had changed out of her work clothes to come over and help me.
Their staff was running the bed and breakfast right now, and I had so many questions about how they were working together as friends, but they were. They just got each other.
Promise looked prim and proper most times, but I knew she was covered in tattoos and had a tiny little nose ring.
It was the same nose ring that Finnian once had.
They’d gotten them in high school and had caused quite a stir with our classmates—and everyone’s parents.
I remembered it fondly since I’d nearly done the same thing with them, after all, I was only a grade behind them. Only I’d chickened out in the end.
Perhaps I should get one now. Most of my friends and family had gone down that road long ago. While Finnian had gone on to get a brow ring and, from what I heard, even more piercings, Promise had stuck with the nose, and both of them had ended up the parents of two.
In the end, both of them had helped me organize, and my parents had brought over dinner, aiding me even more.
Then I slept my first night in my new home, knowing Callum was right across the street.
And he hadn’t texted. Hadn’t come over to borrow a cup of sugar, not that I had a cup of sugar yet. That was on the list.
So when Keely had shown up the next morning, complete with a few kitchen staples, including that sugar, I had blurted out what had happened the day before.
“Tell me everything,” Keely repeated.
“Oh, it all started two years ago.”
“Two years! You two have been seeing each other for two years? Oh, wait. No. Because you’ve been going on dates. I’m confusing myself.”
“You’re confusing me. No, it’s not like that. I mean, well, I’m going on dates so I can get over Callum Ashford.”
“So you dated both of your brothers’ best friend? That is awesome. And amazing and insane.”
“We didn’t date.”
“What did you do? Wait, am I going to need to write this down so I have details later?” she asked, teasing. I knew she was just trying to calm my mind because I had been slightly, okay, overly, panicking before, but still, I had no idea how I’d ended up here.
“Two years ago, on my twenty-first birthday, I was with my college friends. We had decided to come here because I wanted to spend my birthday with my family as well, and my friends had come along.”
“The four LS, right?” Keely asked. I had explained to her about my former friends and the fact that none of us talked.
It wasn’t that things had gone badly; they had just puttered out to the point that I wasn’t in their lives anymore.
I had been needed for those few moments in time and then tossed aside.
Something I had been used to in my friendships.
But I wasn’t going to allow this to happen with Keely.
And maybe even Promise. And, of course, there was Teagan, but Callum’s sister scared me.
Okay, scared wasn’t the right word. More that she intimidated me.
She was just so put together and knew what the hell she wanted.
She ignored the busybody gossips, who loved to talk about the Ashford family.
They loved to discuss the downfall of the legacy that came with being an Ashford, and they did everything to put it on the kids’ shoulders.
Though they weren’t kids anymore, and Teagan didn’t take any shit.
I loved her for that. But I was a little scared of her.
There were a few other women in town that I had known for a while, and I was trying to grow a friend group with them.
After all, there were just so many men in Ashford Creek that sometimes they became overwhelming.
I never really noticed as a kid, but the number of single dads in Ashford Creek was pretty much an epidemic.
“Your brain is going off on a tangent again,” Keely said dryly.
“I was just thinking about how many single dads we have in town. And that there aren’t that many women. Which makes the whole dating tourists thing a little more concrete. Because there are no men to date that aren’t related to me or an Ashford,” I said with a laugh.
“Oh. I guess that’s true. I mean, the single dads things. There are a lot of them. And not all of them are related to you. There was that hot fireman guy, Thatcher, right?”
“No. I mean, there is. But I used to babysit his kids. That would be weird.”
“So I guess Dr. Kellan is out.” She wiggled her brows.
“Yes. I’m not going to date anybody that I was a nanny for their kids. I mean, I love reading those books, but well, I don’t know. I suck at this.”
“You don’t suck at this, but you are avoiding the whole story.” She shook her head. “So two years ago, you came back to town. Did he give you a birthday present that I should know about?”
I shook my head. “No, not that. He didn’t even buy me a drink when I asked.”
“Jerk.”
“He’s just grumpy all the time. Which makes sense, considering he usually is the one picking up his dad’s messes.”
“Mr. Ashford does scare me,” Keely whispered.
I stiffened. “Wait. You’ve met him?”
“A couple of times. He just looms around.” She shrugged. “Your brother was actually the one who told me about him, considering I was walking down the street alone when the guy came out of nowhere to be a jerk. But your brother and the fire captain, Thatcher, they physically pushed the guy away.”
“Keely! When did this happen?”
She waved me off. “A couple of days ago. It’s really not a big deal. I promise. The guy was just drunk. I can deal with drunks. I’m in food service, after all.”
“Keely.”
“No, it’s fine. I promise. Anyway, Callum? He is grumpy for a reason.”
I wasn’t okay with what she’d said, but clearly, she didn’t want to speak about it.
For now. “Yes, he is grumpy. Family things, and I don’t know.
When the town gets in a mood, those that aren’t the greatest usually decide to pick on the fact that he used to play in the NFL and then was forced out early. ”
“Wait. He was in the NFL? Did I know this?”
“Yes, I think. No. Well, he was a tight end and played for the LA Ruins for a while. Then he got hurt. He came back and opened up Ashford Brews. But the old biddies and drunks like to remind him that he failed in their eyes.”
“Well, fuck them. Getting into any professional sport is difficult and unheard of for most people. The fact that your brother and Callum did it, that’s fantastic.”
“And Gray is in the NHL too.” At her confused look, I continued. “He’s a friend of Sterling and Finnian. And I guess, well, the others. The Ashfords all have a big friend group that they slowly collect people in. Like my brothers. And then I sort of latched on.”
“And that’s how you and Callum come into the picture?”
“I don’t think there is a me and Callum. I mean, I don’t think there can be. Which sucks, but anyway, two years ago, the four LS came, we were all dancing, having fun, got a little drunk, and Callum did nothing.”
“And now I’m disappointed.”
I shook my head. “The next day, I was planning on staying home and just relaxing, you know, old fuddy-duddy.”
“There’s nothing old and fuddy-duddy about you,” Keely said with a laugh.
“Well, sometimes it feels like it. Anyway, I ended up being dragged out somewhat willingly to a cinco date.” I rolled my eyes at the memory. “It just means that the girls met some guys, and there was a free one, and to make the numbers even, I showed up.”
“That’s always fun. Being the eighth wheel. Or fifteenth wheel.”
“I don’t know what I was expecting, but I thought maybe I would have a nice time, meet a couple friendly faces, and go home. Only it wasn’t like that.”
“You don’t have to continue if you don’t want to,” Keely whispered as she gripped my hand. “I know that face.”