Chapter Fourteen
Fanny
“You don’t have to do that?”
“Do what?”
“Um, put your hand on the small of my back.”
“Yes I do.”
“Why?”
“You’re a lady. You’re walking at my side. My mother would hand me my ass if I didn’t act the part of a gentleman with you.”
Ok, there was a lot of information there. That led to me wanting to know even more. I wished I felt brave enough to ask it. I wondered what his mother was like. He respected her. I could hear it in his voice. And I certainly liked the part about me being a lady. He had definitely been gentlemanly with me in a lot of ways. “We’re supposed to be exercising.”
“We are.”
“I’m not breaking a sweat. Are you?”
“No, but it’s fifty-five degrees right now. I would have insisted you wear a jacket if I didn’t know you’d just have to ditch it later when it warms up. But if you wanted to break a sweat I could recommend other things.”
“Like what?” I narrowed my gaze.
“Surfing.” His blue eyes danced. “What’d you think I meant?” He gave a long side glance and waggled his brows.
“Stop teasing me, Ash.”
He grinned. “Stop being so cute when I do.”
“I’m not cute. My face is a disaster, and I’ve got no hair…”
He grabbed me by the upper arm before I could finish my list and whirled me to a stop in front of him. “You look insanely cute with that cap on. No one can tell your hair is gone. Your bruises just draw more attention to your eyes which are an incredible color by the way. I’m not even going to get into how distractingly well those clothes Karen picked out fit you.”
“Oh.”
“Oh-dorable is more what I was thinking.”
I grinned.
“Strike that. I’m bumping you up to beautiful now with that smile.”
I threw back my head and laughed. The world was against me. I’d taken it in the kisser and then some from a bunch of hoodlums. I had an evil stepfather looming over my future. Yet momentarily I had forgotten all of that because of him. I felt my companion’s sudden stillness and realized he was staring at me as if transfixed. Maybe I was staring at him the same way.
What was it about Ashland Keys? The man seemed to put a spell on me.
“Oh stop.” I shook it off. “No more. I get what you’re trying to do, and it’s working already. I barely feel self-conscious anymore about the way I look.” Actually, barely was downplaying it. I hadn’t even really thought about how I looked until then. Walking along the streets of Ocean Beach with Ashland-Ash-beside me I hadn’t thought of anything else but him and my surroundings in relation to him. How large his biceps were and how tightly they had flexed when he had held open the door for me to exit his building. How he had paused to look at the ocean at the pier. How his chest had expanded when he pulled in a deep breath of bracing ocean air. How dark his blue eyes had seemed beneath the shop awnings downtown. How genuine his smile was when people waved at him, treating him like a local instead of a celebrity. The warmth of his hand on my back when we turned right onto Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. The warmth of both his hands right now on my upper arms.
“Well, I’m glad you always know my motivations before I declare them.”
“That’s not the way I meant that. You’re so thoughtful, considerate and caring.” I swallowed hard. The way he was staring at me so intently made my heart race, too.
“Now you’re trying to turn the tables on me.”
“No. It’s true,” I disagreed. “About you and your friends. But it’s you who took Hollie and me in and put your very busy life on hold to take care of us.”
“Alright. How about I say I’m glad you think so, and how glad I am that you and I seem to be turning not just a physical corner here at Sunset and Newport, but a friendship one, too. And that we resume our leisurely walk as friends, but at a little faster of a pace because I can sense that Karen’s going to text me any minute now. She doesn’t like it when people are late.”
His phone blooped.
“And there she is.” He grinned.
I laughed again.
Ash texted back.
And we continued on as friends.
With both of us moving faster than we had before.
~ ~ ~
Karen gasped when she opened the door for us. So oh-dorable was in reality ah-dorable, something less than delightful. But I grabbed both her hands before she could apologize. If Ash could see past all the bruises to say the nice things he had said earlier, I was good. Really good.
“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable…” she began.
“I know you didn’t,” I bailed her out.
“It’s just that it’s terrible to think about how you must feel, and how scared you must have been. I want to know who did this to you so I can make them answer for it.”
“Exactly,” Ash concluded for Karen while giving me an expectant look.
“Hey, all.” Ramon appeared at the top of the stairs above where the rest of us stood. The handsome Hispanic guitarist with a head full of ebony curls had a dishtowel over his shoulder. “Holy shit, that looks bad!” he exclaimed when his eyes landed on me.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “But it’s better than it was.”
“Well that’s good at least. C’mon on up. Main living area’s on the second level. I’m just cleaning up from breakfast, but I can heat you guys up some migas if you’re hungry.”
I shook my head.
“Frances made a frittata,” Ash explained.
“Whoa. Fancy.”
“It’s really not all that hard.”
“That’s not what my pop says. Eggs are tricky to get right.”
“It just takes practice. Does your dad still work at Neto’s?”
“Yeah. How’d you know that?”
“Um, because I’m a huge fan of the band.”
“That’s major minutia.”
“Yeah, well…” I shrugged. “And I saw you coming out of his restaurant with your brother the day…the day…” I trailed off.
“The day those guys were chasing you.”
“Yeah.” I swallowed hard, my gaze darting to Ash. Karen. Everyone had gone noticeably still and quiet.
Shit.
“Those are the guys who did this to you. Aren’t they?” Ash guessed.
I closed my eyes, squeezed them shut. Wishing I could reverse time.
“Frances,” Ash said, and his hands glided along my jaw line, framing my face as he gently lifted my head. “Open your eyes and tell us the truth.” A command not a request. I opened my eyes, noticing two things at once.
“Ash.” He was angry, scary angry. I gulped. His friends were staring at us and both had astonished looks on their faces. “Yes. It was them.”
“What are their names?”
“Nieto. Carlos. They call the other one El Jefe.”
“Ramon.” Ash snapped his head to the side. “Gonzolo was there when you saw those dudes, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah.”
“Call him. Ask him if the guys at the station have seen them over on his side of town. We’ll look for them on ours.”
“You got it.” Ramon slid his cell from his pocket and brought it up to his ear.
“No,” I whispered. “Please. Just leave it alone.”
“No. Retribution. They’re about to find out they fucked with the wrong people.”
“But I don’t want you guys getting into trouble on my account. It’s not worth it.”
“Justice will be served, little one.”
“No.” This was what I knew he would do. He was going to end up in jail on my account. “I don’t want the police involved.” I tried a different tack.
“Why are you protecting those assholes?”
“I’m not protecting them. I’m protecting Hollie.”
“Hollie? Is she in trouble with the law?”
Shit. Shit. Shit. Frustrated tears flooded my eyes.
“Ok, guys,” Karen said. “Let’s dial it down a notch. Our girl’s had enough for the moment. How about we sit down in the living room and have some of Ramon’s lemonade? Enjoy the view and settle for a bit?”
I shot her a grateful look. “Thanks, Karen.”
“You’re welcome, honey.”
“Cielo. You sit down. I’ll get everything and bring it over.”
“Thanks, Ramon.”
“Por nada.”
I took a seat on the middle of the sectional. Ash plopped down right beside me, his knee touching mine. His skin to my jeans. He was in another pair of cut off sweats. I set aside how my pulse leapt from his closeness and focused on settling for a bit, hoping a bit turned out to be a good long while.
Karen sat in the chair and a half opposite us.
“What does cielo mean?” I asked her after I acknowledged that the view out the windows from their place in the Cliffs was nearly as compelling as the one from Ash’s penthouse.
“My heaven,” she replied while tucking her perfectly tanned legs underneath herself.
“Oh, that’s pretty.”
“Yeah.” She lifted her gaze to Ramon as he brought in a pitcher in one hand and a stack of red plastic solo cups in the other. She gave him a scrunched nose look. “Babe, we have nice glasses.”
“Sí, but I didn’t want to miss anything.”
She bumped his shoulder after he sat beside her. “Ramon says pretty things,” she said looking at me. “But I’m still working on domesticating him.”
“I very much like living with you, but you’re not cutting my balls off, cielo.”
“Not planning to. I’d like them to remain right where they are, handsome.”
He grinned. With his curly black hair, bronze skin and gorgeous smile, he was one of the most popular guys in the band. It was understandable why she had fallen for him. It seemed he was every bit as smitten with her.
“So Frances,” Karen asked, after talking a sip from the glass Ramon handed her. “What brought you to OB?”
I froze solid. “Uh, I told you about the trouble I was in,” I reminded her.
“So those guys followed you here?”
“No. They’re locals,” I cut in, my hands fluttering. I could feel Ash leaning closer. “There’s other…stuff… involving my sister. It’s complicated, and not something I really want to talk about.”
“Oh, ok,” she stumbled, and she and Ramon exchanged a look. “Well, tell us something about yourself that you feel comfortable sharing then. Did you have a job before you came here?”
“I used to be a musician, but I own my own business now.” I dashed a glance at Ash to see if he had picked up on those clues to my identity. His expression gave no indication that he had.
“Do you play any instruments?” Ramon asked while pouring, then passing me a solo cup filled to the brim with lemonade.
I took a big sip, sweet relief for a mouth made dry by the stress and the cross examination. “This is delicious.” I lifted my glass in the air to thank him.
“Gracias, Roja.”
I glanced again at Ash. Again no indication of recognition. I swiped a hand over one of my auburn brows and sighed. My encounter with the Dirt Dogs drummer at the Oscars had registered less than I imagined.
You were probably just one of a hundred fans he mingled with that night. Why did you think you were anything memorable?
Ignoring the familiar barbed tangle of hurt inside my chest, I returned my attention to Ramon and answered his question. “Acoustic guitar, mainly. The banjo some. The mandolin poorly.”
“You’re a strings girl.”
“Yeah, I guess.” That’s what Tristan liked to call me.
Ramon set down his cup and stood. “I’ve got a few guitars downstairs. I was actually going to run some things from my solo project. You wanna have a look at my collection?”
“Absolutely.” I stood and followed him as he headed toward the stairs we had taken up from the ground level entrance. I hesitated when I realized Ash wasn’t beside me. I had gotten accustomed to his presence at my side.
“Aren’t you coming?” I cringed at the unmistakable neediness in my tone.
“In a minute,” he replied as he and Karen exchanged a weighted glance.
Uh-oh. Had I said something or done something to lose Karen’s or his favor?
“Alright.” I dipped my chin to acknowledge Ash’s delay, though that tangle inside my chest twisted tighter as I turned to follow Ramon alone. I suddenly desperately missed my sister.
The two of us against the world.
Easier.
Safer.
Simpler.
I’d told Hollie our situation wasn’t simple. Far from it. But I hadn’t admitted how complicated things were truly becoming. Not to her. Barely even to myself. Being here at Karen’s house wasn’t simply about finding allies for our fight against our stepfather, though we seemed to have found them.
It was also about new friendships.
And way way too much about Ashland Keys.