Burn(34)
“Hey, man.”
Ash looked up to see Jace standing in the doorway of his office. Ash motioned him in and Jace sauntered toward the desk, closing the door behind him.
“You’ve been quiet lately. Anything wrong? How has the fallout over Brittany’s defection been?”
Ash rolled his eyes. “Predictable.”
“Meaning what?”
Jace took a seat across from Ash and pinned him with an inquisitive stare.
“Oh, you know my dear old mother and father. Dad is too much of a spineless wimp to do or say much of anything. He just toes the line with Mom and whatever she says goes.”
“They been giving her shit?” Jace asked with a scowl.
“Well, they showed up at the apartment you’re letting her use. Ordered her home and told her to quit being a child. This is a thirty-year-old woman my mother was dressing down, mind you. When Brittany refused, Mom wanted to know how she afforded the apartment she was living in and how she was making it on her own. Brittany told her it was none of her business how she got the apartment and that she was making it like most people made it. By working.”
Jace chuckled. “Good for her. Wouldn’t have thought she had it in her to stand up to the wicked bitch of the east.”
“Me either to be honest,” Ash admitted. “But she seems determined to make a break from the family. I’m proud of her. Mom can be intimidating and you have to understand until recently Brittany has always done what Mom wanted her to. No questions asked.”
“Must be a hard adjustment for her,” Jace said in sympathy.
“I’m having dinner with her tonight. You and Bethany want to join us? I’d like Brittany to meet Bethany. Brittany hasn’t associated with the best female friends. They were never her real friends and Brittany knows that. When the chips are down, they aren’t riding to her rescue. They dropped her like a hot brick.”
“Sure. I’ll call Bethany and make sure we don’t have other plans.”
“Thanks. Will be nice to take my mind off other things.”
Too late he realized how telling that statement would be, and the last thing he wanted was to discuss it with Jace, who would most definitely latch on to it and wouldn’t let it go.
“Anything you need help with?” Jace asked, his brow wrinkled with concern.
“Nah. Not unless you have a way of making a woman acquiesce to your demands.”
At that Jace’s eyebrow lifted. “A woman? Do tell. This has to be worth the price of admission.”
“It’s complicated,” Ash muttered. “She’s being difficult.”
Jace laughed. “Show me one woman who isn’t!”
“Bethany,” Ash pointed out. “You’re a lucky son of a bitch to have her. She’d give you the moon and you know it.”
“So what’s the problem with your woman du jour?”
Ash scowled. “That’s just it. She’s not just any woman. I don’t know, man. She hits buttons that a woman has never pushed for me.”
“Oh shit. It’s happened,” Jace crowed. “The smug son of a bitch who gave me and Gabe so much grief has finally fallen hard and from the sounds of it she isn’t exactly reciprocating.”
Ash flipped up his middle finger. “It’s too early for that. She just intrigues me. I want her,” he said bluntly. “And I’ll do whatever it takes to get her in my bed. The problem is, she isn’t exactly tripping over herself to get there.”