Out of Bounds - Quick Snap

I’d only just touched the top of the ice cream with my spoon when she gasped. “You dirty little bluebird. If you’ve got the holy grail in your home, you announce it the second someone walks through your door.”

Setting the box between us on the floor, I passed her the other spoon. “Pizza wasted was a fail, but this kind of wasted is a go.”

When she just blinked and looked back down at it, not digging in like I’d expected her to, I explained, “I used to work there when I was in high school. Gloves are a must for everyone, and their hygiene policy is strict, so it’s all good.”

The grin that she gave me left me momentarily stunned, and then she was digging in, getting a huge spoonful and groaning when she bit into it.

“I’ll take that as it’s good,” I snickered, eating the chunk on my spoon.

Going back to watching her movie, we ate the cake in companionable silence, giving me time to think over my Ashley Wilkes epiphany from earlier.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how little I actually knew about her.

“Hey, Ash, how old are you?”

“Twenty-six, why?” she asked, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye. Eyes that I only just realized had different shades of blue and green in them. The main color was definitely a mid-blue, but there was a green ring closer to her pupil. They were unusual and gorgeous, and totally perfect for her.

“Just wondering. I’m twenty-nine,” I told her, wondering if she already knew that.

Shrugging, she put her spoon on top of a napkin and leaned back against the couch. “Do you run over kittens?”

Shocked by the random question, it took me a second to answer. “Uh, no?”

“Laugh when someone gets hurt? Think that world famine is amusing?”

“Negative to both.”

“Then what relevance does age have to anything?” she asked, sounding like it was a simple conclusion.

I loved how relaxed she was around me, and the fact that she was in my home now totally didn’t suck.

“You’re definitely a one in a million, Ashley Wilkes.”

Smiling widely at me, she winked. “And don’t you forget it. Plus, you’re not exactly normal yourself, Kip Sutherland.”

She had a good point there.

Deciding now was the best time to address the pink elephant in the room, I asked, “So, where are we going on our date?”

She didn’t know that I’d already paid the charity for her bid. There was no way I’d let her foot that bill, especially after she saved me from the she-devil. I’d also been raised to pay for dates. This was a different situation, but I’d bent the rules and paid anyway.

I had a good idea where I was going to take her, I just wanted to see if she had any ideas herself.

When she just blushed and shrugged, I said, “Leave it with me and I’ll make the plans.”

I knew just where to take her, and as luck would have it, we’d have access to wheelchairs there so she wouldn’t have to walk.Three days later…Glancing out of the corner of my eye at the simmering bundle of fury sitting with her arms crossed in the passenger seat, I drove toward the place I was taking her for our date.

Why was she pissed at me? Not because I wouldn’t buy her what she wanted, not because she didn’t want to go out, not because she wasn’t getting her own way or anything Missy-like, but because she’d just found out I’d paid the charity for her. It was the opposite to anything I’d experienced before, but I’d learned Ashley liked to pay her own way.

That said, fifty thousand dollars was a league of its own.

Something else I’d noticed about her—she wasn’t unreasonable with her anger. She might snap or react, but it wasn’t vicious, and she got over it quickly.

Which is what she did right then.

“I’m sorry,” she sighed, dropping her hands down into her lap. “I really appreciate you doing that for me, but it just seems like cheating, you know? Plus, I was meant to pay it for you, not you pay it for me for you.”

Grinning, I stopped at a red light and looked over at her. “I get it, but it was a lot of money. I donate to charities every year, and this one’s a huge deal to Seattle so it’s an honor to pay it.”

Seeing that the light was on green, I pulled away and indicated to turn onto the street that would take us to where our date was starting.

“I was going to ask Hayden to loan me the money,” she snickered.

Laughing, I pulled into the parking lot of the hospital Meg worked at and looked for a spot. “I’ll bet he’d have loved that.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to tell him for a while what the money was for,” she mumbled, realizing where we were. “Do you have an appointment? I can stay in the vehicle if you need me to.”