He brought her hand to his lips and her cheeks went pink.
“Excuse me, ladies, I need to take care of something, but I’ll be back. I just wanted to introduce myself.”
He placed a soft kiss to my lips and stepped away. Gretchen sat there, nodding dumbly. I snapped my fingers in her face, trying to get her attention. When her eyes returned to mine, I couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped my lips.
Her expression. Not often was Gretchen speechless. Her eyes were practically popping out of her head when she looked back at me.
“That’s him?”
“Yeah, that’s Ashton.”
She gave her head a quick shake. “Holy shit. It’s about time you found someone like him.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m glad you approve, but he’s not exactly mine.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” She watched me for a moment. “Although, I’m kinda liking this new snarky attitude you’ve got going on.”
Watching my finger trace patterns on the tablecloth, I said, “I’ve learned a lot in the last two months.”
“Hey.” I looked up into soft, understanding eyes. “It’s never easy to see what’s wrong when we want it to be right.”
Tears blurred my vision. “I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you.”
She shook her head. “It’s not your fault. That jerk had your mind so warped and twisted with his bullshit and lies that you couldn’t see what I was saying. What matters now is that you finally see the truth.”
“I do. Ashton helped.”
Gretchen peeked over at him and smiled. “Now I’ve seen for myself that he’s not abusing you in some underground room of pain, I want to know what you’ve been up to. You have so much time now that you don’t have to take shifts at the diner—what do you do all day?”
I hadn’t thought about those early mornings in a long while. For the longest time, the only thing that kept me going was my routine. Not that I didn’t still have a routine; this one was just markedly different. The corners of my mouth lifted.
“Actually, Ashton got me an audition for the new musical opening up in the theater district in a few weeks.”
Her head tilted to the side. “An audition?”
“I guess I never told you what I went to college for.”
“I didn’t even know you’d been to college.”
“Dominic and I got married right after graduation. Up until then, I wanted to sing on Broadway.”
“Really?”
“From the time I was a little girl.”
“Okay,” she said nodding. “When is this audition?”
The waiter came over, interrupting the conversation. In his hand he held a bottle of wine, resting in an ice bucket. He set it up on a stand next to the table before presenting me with the bottle and popping the cork.
“Compliments of Mr. Hawes.”
I glanced over my shoulder; Ashton’s eyes were on me. He lifted his chin slightly, gave me a wink, and turned back to what he was doing. When I turned back to the table, the waiter had poured a glass. He held it out to me. Swirling the liquid like Ashton taught me, I took a sip, savoring the flavor.
“Perfect. Tell Mr. Hawes he has good taste.”
The waiter took our lunch order and after handing over the menu, I looked at Gretchen, who was gaping at me. “Look at you being a flirt.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Oh yes you were.”
Maybe I was, but I wouldn’t admit that to her. “What were we talking about before?”
She laughed. “That quickly that man fried your brain cells.”
I ignored her comments. “Auditions, wasn’t it? Well, I already auditioned and got the part.”
“You did?” she squealed, my reaction to Ashton completely forgotten.
“Yes. It opens in two weeks. Will you come?” I asked, shyly.
“You bet your ass I’ll be there.”
“Thank you. I could use some familiar faces in the audience. It’s been a long time since I’ve been under those lights.”
The waiter brought over our salads and Gretchen picked up her fork to eat. Pointing it at me, she said, “I’m sure Ashton will be there.”
“He will, but the more the merrier.”
She studied me for a moment. “What aren’t you telling me?”
I shook my head, hoping she would see how it was so much more than flirting with Ashton for me. “Nothing.”
She gave me a dubious look. “Okay, fine. Since you won’t ’fess up, tell me more about Ashton and what you do outside your time between the sheets.”
My face flamed. “I never said we’d slept together,” I whispered harshly.