Trace actually smacked his hand down on the table so hard that Ash jumped. “Sorry.” He acted on instinct and covered her hand, which had fluttered downwards, with his. There was no wild spark that leapt up his arm, but her hand was soft and warm, and he imagined it doing crazy things to him and that got his heart pumping. His pulse spiked and suddenly it was overly warm in the place.
“Uh- it’s okay,” Ash said.
“No. No, it’s not. I didn’t mean to get angry- actually, yes I did. I want to kick that piece of shit’s ass. He didn’t deserve to go to prom with you. You deserved to have an amazing date, a great time. You deserved to have a blast, the whole pretty dress and corsage experience.”
“Would that include the drunken after party experience as well?”
“It sure as hell should have. Even I had that, and I didn’t even deserve to graduate, since I skipped school all the time, fought like a banshee and flipped off more than one teacher.”
“You flipped off your teachers?” Ash’s eyes were round as saucers, but she giggled like a little kid. She laughed so hard, but kind of silently so that it wasn’t obvious, that her nostrils flared. Even that was beautiful.
“Yup. The bastards had it coming.” Trace slowly withdrew his hand and Ash stared at her fingers as though something magical just happened. Like suddenly there was fifteen of them instead of just five.
“I have one more thing to confess,” she said quietly. She tugged her hand back into her lap. She studied it and refused to meet his gaze.
“What’s that?” Please don’t tell me you’re secretly a dude. Please, please, please…
“So- I work at this tiny comic book shop. I told you that, I think.”
“Yes.”
“Well- it’s not nearly enough to make ends meet. So, I- well, you said I should be a writer earlier. I guess I have to confess that maybe I am. And maybe my classmates know it too. I actually write paranormal romance. Where the bad guys win, more often than not. Actually, no it’s more like the bad guys discover that they have some good in them and that they can be redeemed and are lovable. They’re complex, like every villain. They’ve been through all this heartbreak, had some terrible past and that broke them. The heroine comes and puts them back together. Anyway, I may have made the mistake of writing them under my own name when I started. I- I thought nothing would come of it. I just decided, on a whim, to publish a book to this free site and then it took off and I kind of started selling lots of them. Like lots of copies of lots of books. I’ve published over forty in five years and uh- okay. So, this is the real reason I need you to come with me. My hometown knows that I’m a successful romance author. It’s going to be completely humiliating to show up single.”
Okay, so that was news. Not only was Ash smoking hot and clearly confident enough when it didn’t come to thoughts of her reunion, or the mother she mentioned, she was successful in her own right.
Damn. His balls just pulled so far up they were in his throat.
“I don’t get it,” Trace admitted. “What’s wrong with showing up single as a confident, sexy, woman who was her shit together?”
“Because!” Ash leaned forward, her sparkling emerald eyes pleading with him to understand. “I’m a successful romance writer. I have won the hearts of millions of readers, but I haven’t been able to give mine away. I’m a romance writer who has never fallen in love. My characters confront their demons and overcome their fears, but I can’t do that in my own life. Do you understand now…”
Trace frowned. “Would be bad to admit that I didn’t? I mean, you’re young, sexy, confident, and successful. What’s wrong with being a single, empowered woman and being happy with that?”
Ash’s lips trembled as she made a valiant effort not to cry again, but she lost. A single tear traced its way down her cheek when she blinked. He wanted to lean in and kiss it away before he devoured her lips and battled her sorrow for her, but again, he forced his ass to remain in that seat.
“I’m- I’m scared they’re going to tear me apart. That they’re going to see right through me. It’s easy for me now, to be who I am here with you, when it’s safe. I’m not going to be able to do it when I’m back there, transformed into a girl no one would go to prom with. I- I just can’t do it.”
Ash looked up at him and his heart stopped. He suddenly realized what she meant. It was easy for him too, to sit there as the man he was, with power and wealth at his disposal- well… no. He was actually pretending, with his beard and longer hair and his online profile, to be someone else. To hide from that man as well. He wasn’t afraid of it though, he just needed a damn break. That was different.