CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Beau
I asked Beau if he wanted to hang out today, but he said he had plans. For the first time, he didn’t offer to cancel them for me, and that made me happy. Whatever Beau was doing must be important, and I wanted him to have a good time. ~ Love, Kenny
I parked in the half-circle driveway in front of Ash’s house around eight in the morning. We’d wanted a fairly early start to get a lot of the teardown done before it got too hot. It was so strange, spending time with him again. Spending time with him where I wasn’t telling myself I hated him when in reality I’d wanted him to fuck me. Not anymore, but the deeply closeted, self-denial Beau had likely been jonesing for Ashton Carmichael’s dick just like everyone else had been back then.
Just like they were now. Not me, of course, but everyone else.
Fuck. How had I gotten on the subject of Ash’s cock?
Grumbling at myself, I got out of the truck. The window shook when I slammed the door a little too hard. I adjusted my cap backward on my head.
“What’d that door ever do to you?”
My heart did an embarrassing lurch as Ash walked around the side of the house and toward me. “Shit. I didn’t see you there. Being a stalker is creepy, ya know?”
Ash grinned, a deep dimple forming beneath the left side of his mouth. He hadn’t shaved that morning, and dark stubble covered his jaw. If Ash were someone else, I’d wonder what it would feel like as it scraped my skin—my neck, my face, my groin, my ass—but this was Ashton Carmichael, so I didn’t wonder.
“Okay, who’s creepy now? Why are you smiling at me like that? I’m so confused. You used to be all frowns around me, and now I get unexplainable smiles? What are you up to, Campbell?”
Well, shit. I shouldn’t have been smiling while thinking about stubble burn that didn’t belong to Ash. “Don’t you wish you knew?” I threw in a wink for good measure. Nodding toward my truck, I added, “I brought some tools. I wasn’t sure what you had or might need.”
“Ugh. You’re so responsible and always prepared. I guess that means we really have to work today.”
The comment made me wonder what Ash planned to do now that his football career was over, but I didn’t want to ask. It felt rude, and I’d been that to Ash too often in our lives. “Yes, we’re working. Now help me get this shit out of the truck so we can get started before it gets too hot.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I like that better than Cranky Campbell. I think that should be your nickname for me.”
“You wish.”
“A man can try.”
We unloaded my truck and carried everything around the back side of the house. The pool I’d swam in with him as a teenager was still there, but it surprised me that it was running. It couldn’t have been all this time, so he must have had it serviced when he moved back.
The patio cover was over a slab of concrete behind the house. It had definitely seen better days, and I could understand why he wanted it torn down. The shed too, years of damage and sitting there having caught up with both of them. I wouldn’t have expected him to do it himself, though. Someone with his money…hell, it still surprised me that Ash even chose to live in his family home. I hadn’t thought about it since that first day. Early retirement or not, Ashton Carmichael had to have more money than I’d ever see in my lifetime. He could have had anything, yet when he’d left his home in LA, he’d come back to Fever Falls, back to the small, ranch-style home he’d grown up in.
“Why are you here, Ash?” I hadn’t meant for the question to slip out, but now that it had, I couldn’t take it back.
“Huh?” He used his hand to push his hair off his forehead and shield his eyes from the sun.
“Back home…Fever Falls, same house. I don’t mean to sound like a dick when I ask that. I’m just curious. You could go anywhere, have anything, yet you’re here.”
He rubbed that same hand over his face before dropping his arm to his side. “Because this is my home. This is the place the parents who chose me raised me, and if there’s anywhere I can figure out who in the hell I am, I guess I figured it was here.”
He went to turn around, but my arm shot out, my fingers wrapping around his large wrist. His skin was hot, sun-kissed, the heat from his body penetrating mine. How could Ashton Carmichael not know who he was? He was what people strived to be—smart, confident, funny. “I don’t think you give yourself enough credit.” Those weren’t words I’d ever imagined myself saying to Ash. He’d always seemed too full of himself, too over-the-top, which should have told me something right there. Maybe it had, and I hadn’t wanted to see it.
“I can’t believe you just said that to me.”
“I was just thinking the same thing.” I grinned, hoping to lighten the mood.
“Maybe hell’s frozen over?”
“I’m sure it’ll thaw out in a little while and things will be back to normal.”
“Thank fuck for that. I’d hate to have you being nice or giving me compliments all the time. That’s not us, Cranky Campbell.”
I shook my head. Fucking Ash. Of course he had to go there. “No, I guess not, Cocky Carmichael.”
His eyes darted down to my hand, and I realized I still held on to his wrist. Dropping it immediately, I said, “Sorry.”
“No, no. It’s fine. If you wanted to hold my hand, you just had to ask.” He winked, and I rolled my eyes.
“Let’s get started before I change my mind and refuse to help you.”
“Please, let’s not pretend you’re not the guy who’s always there to help someone in need. You’re a hero, Beau.” He moved toward me, and I sort of froze, wondering what in the hell he was doing, but then Ash stole my dark-blue Fever Falls Fire Department cap, fitting it over his head. “Sun was getting to me,” he said before walking to the shed, and damn Ashton Carmichael, because I didn’t even ask for my hat back.