For the Love of Gracie (9 page)

She twirled me around then gave me a dip.  I laughed as she winked at Ashton and pushed me backwards. I screamed as I fell off the bar into his arms. He looked down at me and smiled.

"Hey, beautiful." 

I giggled as he set me on the floor. 

The next song that came on was a slow one. I grabbed his wrist, pulling him against me. I had danced with Cameron like we were a couple before, so why couldn't I do that with Ash?

"Dance with me?"

He didn’t hesitate for a second. He slipped his hands around my waist, as mine went around his neck. Cameron and Gavin followed our lead. He secured me tighter in his arms as I laid my head against his firm chest. My body had the impression that this was more than just friends dancing. 

It was beyond my control
as to how aroused I was by being so close to him. He leaned down, pressing a soft kiss to my cheek. His breath at my ear made a light whimper escape my lips. 

With a questioning tone, he said, "Gracie?"  I looked up into his eyes as he continued, "I think…" 
As he spoke, something caught our attention, distracting us both momentarily.

A man ambled over to Cameron. He placed his hand on his shoulder as he said something I couldn't make out. Cameron jerked his arm free of the man's hold.  Gavin put his hand on his shoulder as if attempting to calm him. Cameron didn't get upset very easily.

I strolled over. "Is there a problem?" 

The man replied, "I was asking these two to leave.  This bar isn’t for that kind of thing." 

Offended, I spouted, "What kind of thing? Dancing?" 

The man gave me an odd look. "Miss, you can resume dancing with your boyfriend over there." 

This angered me; I moved only inches from his face. "You didn’t seem to have a problem with your female bartender grinding up against me on the bar a few minutes ago." 

He stepped back slightly. "Two women dancing together is
considered sexy to our male customers. This," he pointed to Cameron and Gavin, "is not." 

Ashton lifted me up and put me over his shoulder as the curse words started spewing from my mouth. Cameron and Gavin followed us out. 

The bouncer stopped us. "Ash, man, leaving so soon? What's up with your girl?" 

I was still so mad I was yelling obscenities.

"Your manager is a homophobe. You don't mind working for that, Bobby?" 

Bobby, the bouncer, shrugged. "I got bills to pay. I don’t bring my boyfriend in here because of that guy. If you hear of someone hiring though
, let me know, man." 

Ashton shook his hand. "Definitely. We'll talk. I gotta get this girl home before she gets herself arrested." 

Bobby nodded. "Good luck, she looks feisty."

Ashton replied, "You have no idea."

Once outside, Ashton set me down. I promptly turned to walk back into the bar, and he grabbed my wrist. 

Angrily
, I pointed at him. "Let go of me! No one makes my friends feel bad! I'm going back in there to give him a piece of my mind."

Ashton laughed. "I think you already did that, Gracie." 

Cameron wrapped his arm around mine. "Forget about him. I love you for coming to my rescue, but he's not worth it." 

I kissed his cheek. "I don’t like anyone hurting you." I turned to look at Ashton and Gavin. "Any of you." 

Gavin spoke up, "You're an awesome friend, Gracie." He kissed my cheek. "We're all lucky to have you. Let's go home. I've had enough fun for one night." 

Ashton reached for my hand. "I can take you home, if you'd like?" 

I nodded. "Yeah, sure." I hugged Cameron and Gavin before following Ash to his bike. 

"I thought maybe Cam and Gav would want some alone time," Ashton said, mounting his bike. 

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense." 

He reached for my hand again, "Plus, selfishly, I wanted to spend some time with you." 

The grin on my face couldn't speak louder to the joy I felt hearing those words.  "Are you sleepy?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Where do you want to go?" 

Pressing my body against him, I breathed, "Anywhere, as long as I'm with you." Ash's body didn’t tense at my words or the emotions they insinuated. 

We pulled into a nice neighborhood, just north of Nashville. Ashton pulled into a driveway and I stepped off the bike first. I removed my helmet and shook out my hair. 

"Where are we?" 

He reached for my hand, guiding me to the front door. "My house. I thought we could just hang out." 

His house was red brick with blue shutters that matched
a blue front door. He unlocked it and moved aside for me to enter. The front door opened into a living room with a marble mantled fireplace across from the couch. 

"No TV?" I asked, surprised. 

He laughed. "Of course I have a TV, silly. Big screen is down in the den, and I have another one in the bedroom. " 

I laughed
.  The response I really wanted to give was to ask if I could see the one in the bedroom. 

We passed through the living room as he gave me a tour. The next room was the kitchen, then he waved at the bedroom door as we passed it to go to the basement
into the den. The downstairs was set up like a movie room with a big screen television, a small couch, recliners, and DVDs.  Lining the walls were neon beer signs, a dartboard, and in the corner, a pool table. 

Oh holy sweet love, the fantasy on the pool table started again in my head. 

"You wanna hang out down here a bit? Watch a movie?" he asked, with a twinge of nervousness it seemed.

"Yeah, I'd like that." I sat on the couch,
and then patted the seat next to me. He sat down and I leaned against him to watch the comedy he had chosen for us. He slid his arm around my shoulder and held me close.  Cameron and I watched movies like this all the time, but this felt so much more intimate.  

"I'm proud of you for standing up to that guy tonight," he said. 

I glanced up at him. "Like I said, I don’t like people hurting my friends. Cameron acts tough about it. The truth is, every time he deals with people like that, it kills him a little more and I hate it." 

He kissed the side of my head. "I hate jerks like that. I'm glad we're friends, Gracie. I feel very protective of you myself."

If he added that he thought of me like a sister, I would seriously die right here of heartbreak. He left it at that, though. 

I fell asleep at some point. When I woke up, I was curled up against Ashton's chest with my arm around him. His head was
lying back against the couch as he slept, snoring lightly. He looked adorable. I ran my hand along his chest, wanting to wake him up with my lips pressed to his, but I had to hold back. His body shifted slightly. His arms wrapped around me, pulling me closer. 

I sighed with content
ment. 

He muttered,
"Mmm…Gracie," and it made my heart race.

I glanced up to see if he'd awaken. He was still sound asleep, but muttering my name.

My phone beeped, alerting me of a text. I jumped, causing Ash to jump too. 

He rubbed his eyes. "Hey gorgeous, guess I fell asleep." 

I cursed my phone. "I'm sorry that woke you up. You were sleeping so peacefully."

He grinned. "Were you watching me?" 

I shrugged. "Couldn’t help it, you're so darned cute." I moved away from him to read my text. I rolled my eyes and sarcastically said, "Yay. Hudson misses me." 

Ashton stood up, stretching his body, his shirt riding up slightly as his pants dipped a little at the same time. I licked my lips as I watched him. 

He held his hand out to me. "Come on, I'll fix you breakfast." 

"Thanks for bringing me back here, I enjoyed it," I said as we walked upstairs.

"Me too. If you want, you can grab a shower while I make breakfast."

I'd rather us grab a shower together
, I thought naughtily.  He showed me to the bathroom and set me up with towels and everything I'd need. 

After breakfast, he drove me home. "You busy today?" he asked as I got off the bike.

"Nope, no plans actually. Why?" 

He grinned. "Go put on some comfortable clothes. Jeans, t-shirt, tennis shoes kind of thing. I'll be back in an hour and we'll spend the day together. If you want?" 

I nodded. "Definitely! What are we going to do?" 

He revved the engine on his bike. "You'll see." 

A
shton texted me an hour later, letting me know that he was outside waiting. I skipped down the stairs excitedly. Locking the front door, I turned around and discovered him sitting in a pick-up truck. He jumped out and opened the passenger door for me. 

"What is this?" 

He laughed. "This is called a pick-up truck. They're vehicles that require gas to run. They're also known to carry beautiful women in them to fun places for the day." 

I smirked. "Nice. I meant whose is it?" 

He smiled. "It's mine. I can't ride my motorcycle all the time." He held his hand out to help me up into the truck, and then ran around to get behind the wheel. He still refused to tell me where we were going. 

It was an unseasonably warm November day in Nashville. Lately it didn't matter what time of year it was, any temperature was possible. Today the high was in the low seventies. We drove the back roads from Smyrna, past the lake, into Mount Juliet. 

As I glanced around, I realized we were in a local state park. I hadn’t been there in years. I used to come and walk the trail for exercise with Cameron when we were in high school.  

After parking the truck and getting out,
Ashton went to the bed of the truck and pulled out two fishing poles.

“Um, what is that?”

He shook his head with a laugh and said, “Fishing poles. You’ve been fishing before, right?”

I snorted and covered my mouth embarrassed. “Sorry. No.”

He laughed again. “I’ll teach you.”

I crinkled my nose.
“Do I have to touch the worms or the fish?”

He smirked. “I give you permission to touch only what you want.
  I’ll take care of the rest.”

Touch what I want, huh?
He didn’t know how dangerous his statement could be.

We walked toward the nearest dock. The park was empty considering how pretty the weather was today. Ashton carried a tackle box and
the two poles for us. As we set up, he took a fisherman’s hat out of his tackle box and put it on.

I snickered. “Hey grandpa.”
 

He chuckled and put the hat on me instead. “It looks better on you. It’ll keep the sun off your face.”

I crinkled my nose again. “It’ll mess up my hair.” I laughed. “I’m playing, I’m not
that
girly.”

It was a little big on me so I twisted my hair up on top of my head and placed the hat on top. The extra hair inside tightened it and kept me cool too. He motioned for me to sit first. I eased myself down onto the edge of the dock. I slipped my socks and tennis shoes off and rolled my jeans up to my knees so they wouldn't get wet. Ashton rolled his jeans up and sat beside me.

He picked up a Styrofoam cup. When he opened the plastic top, I squealed, “Gross!” There were several fat slimy worms crawling through dirt inside the cup.

He chuckled at my
girly-ness,  “Not that girly at all,” he teased, bumping his shoulder against mine. He baited the hook for me and handed me the pole.

“Do I just plop it in the water now?”

He smiled. “No, honey, I’ll show you.”

Oh-to-the-freaking-my, him calling me honey gave me chill
s all up my arms.

I waited patiently while he baited the hook to his pole. He slid behind my back with his legs sitting on either side of me. I bit my lip as his arm reached for mine to show me how to handle the fishing pole. His arm pulled mine back and to the right gently. He instructed me on flinging the pole forward to cast my line. I did as he said and the line shot straight out across the lake.

He whispered in my ear, “Great job.”

His lips grazed my ear, causing me to suck my bottom lip in with a gasp. I turned slightly and smiled when I saw his face so close to mine. He moved away from me and cast his line next.

“Do you come here often?” I asked.

He smirked. “Is that a pick-up line or small-talk?”

I laughed and said, “You know what I mean.”

He grinned. “I haven’t been out in a while. My dad took me as a kid every weekend in the summer. He taught my brother Derrick and me. The three of us used to camp once a month and he made us live off the land during that time.”

I had an image of an old black and white TV show with the father and son whistling as they carried fishing poles to the lake. The thought made me smile.  Everything about Ashton made me smile.