Lips forming into a smile I nodded. “Sounds like a plan, babe.” I noticed she was giving me an odd smile. “What are you smiling about?”
She smiled again and whispered, “I love you, Derrick Miles.”
I felt like the wind was knocked out of me. No one outside my family had ever told me that before. Closing my eyes, I dropped my head and just took steady, even breaths. I didn’t want to have a mental breakdown in front of all of these coffee fanatics.
I felt someone wrap their hands around one of mine. Opening my eyes, I looked over and saw Ash kneeling down in front of me with tears in her eyes. I tried to make light of the situation. “Do people always cry this much in a coffee shop?”
Quietly giggling, she shook her head back and forth. “Probably not.”
She started to get back up on her feet when I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and squeezed. Hearing her gasp, she then wrapped her arms around my middle and rested her head on the middle of my chest.
Kissing her on the side of her head, I said, “I love you too, Ashlynn Miller.”
We held each other for a few minutes and then we both slowly unwrapped our arms from around the other. Helping Ash up from where she was kneeling on the floor, I watched as she turned around, and being the devil I was, I lightly slapped her on the ass.
“Ouch!” Turning around, she said, “You slimy son of a bitch,” with a huge grin on her face.
Shrugging my shoulders, I jokingly said, “I couldn’t help it. You have a nice ass.”
Turning around, she took a step toward her chair and I couldn’t help but smile at her. I knew it was a struggle for her coming to that conclusion. I mean, hell, it was a struggle for the both of us. I had to deal with jackasses on the football team always asking me why I was never getting the pretty little *. Meanwhile, Ash had to deal with Jason never being able to man up and grow a pair.
I knew the little shit had feelings for her. Fuck, you saw it whenever she walked into a room and he was there. His eyes would light up and he would always smile at her. I didn’t think anybody else had noticed but me. I just didn’t understand why he had never done anything about it. But that’s his mess, not mine.
We sipped our drinks in a quiet state of contentment—that’s exactly where we both were with our lives. We were both content with our decisions. With who we were. Looking down at my watch, I looked up at Ash and asked, “You want to go to the gym with me?” I grabbed my pudge of a belly. “Lord knows I don’t need this extra cushion for the pushin’.”
I knew that comment would get her to laugh. I loved hearing Ash laugh. It was like birds singing, rainbows shining, and stars twinkling. It was a rare treasure and anybody who heard it, felt it. Anybody who witnessed it automatically loved her.
Ash just deserved someone amazing, and I honest to god wished that Jason could be that guy. But then it got me thinking that maybe, just maybe, he had to deal with his own sort of mess. I wanted to help him out but that would give mine and Ash’s dirty little secret away and I knew I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him. Ash had to tell him in her own way, whenever that was.
In the beginning when we first started “dating,” I tried to convince Ash to just go for it with Jason, but she wasn’t like that. She was shy, quiet, and timid. But when she loves something, it’s amazing. She’s kind of like a nut that’s really hard to crack. But trust me. When you crack that nut, it’s so worth it in the end. I just hoped Jason would see it someday. Hopefully soon.
***
I was drenched when I collapsed on the mat. Ash and I had really kicked our asses at the gym tonight. Lying down on my back, I lifted my arms up and over my head and closed my eyes. I was trying to catch my breath from the cardio class we had just taken. Even though I was fit from playing football my entire life, that class was brutal as shit.
I placed my arms underneath my head. Ash was too busy fixing her hair and taking sips of water here and there to notice, but this beautiful guy walked by with this blonde twit of a girl.
I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I got up to get a better look. He was gorgeous and I just wanted to know his name. Ash must have said something to me because she then slapped me on the arm and said, “Earth to Derrick. Come in, Derrick.”
Breaking away from staring at the beautiful man in front of me, I looked over at my best friend. “What?”
“You think he’s cute?” She let out a giggle.
Looking over at the guy, I took him in. He had beautiful brown curly hair and dark brown chocolate eyes. He was pretty tall and really thin, but he had on a tank top so I could see he had some muscle and definition to him. Looking lower, he was facing away from us, so I got a look at his ass. It was small, but it was… cute. It had a little meat to it and I just wanted to take a bite out of it.