Chapter
20
“This
is so relaxing, isn’t it?” Brian asked.
“Yeah,”
Ashalyn agreed, sinking lower into the hot tub.
“I’m glad I didn’t go dancing with them tonight. I hope they don’t think I’m some kind of
party pooper, but I really didn’t feel like it.”
“I
know,” Brian said. “I didn’t want to go
either. I’m not much of the clubbing
type anyway, but still…” He let his
sentence trail off.
Ashalyn
nodded. “Mike and I used to go dancing
together,” she murmured. She glanced up
to see him studying her intently, his eyes fixed on her. She gazed up into their blue depths for a
moment, realizing what beautiful eyes he had.
And then, suddenly, she tore her gaze away in shame. What am I thinking? she wondered. Her eyes filled with tears.
“Ash?”
Brian asked. “What’s wrong?”
Ashalyn’s
whole body began to tremble, as she cried.
“I… I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she said, her voice thick with
tears.
Brian
rested his hand on her back. “Ash, I
understand,” he said softly. “You
haven’t gotten over Mike yet, and that’s perfectly normal. It’s only been a month since it
happened. You think I’m over Leigh yet? I’m not.”
Ashalyn
nodded, but that was only part of the reason she was crying. It was true, she was still mourning for Mike,
but there was something else. Looking
into those blue eyes of Brian, she had felt things that she hadn’t felt since
the last time she looked into Mike’s hazel ones. And it scared her. How could she be having feelings for another
guy when her true love had been killed only a month before? That was why she was crying, but of course,
she could never tell Brian that.
Luckily,
he didn’t press. He rubbed the back of
her neck with tender, soothing hands and comforted her without words at
all.
Lost
in her thoughts, Ashalyn didn’t see two people enter the pool room. In fact, she didn’t even realize anyone was
there until Brian jerked his hands off her neck abruptly.
Startled,
she whirled around in the hot tub to see AJ and Elyssa standing there, their
eyes wide.
“Hey,
sorry, guys, we didn’t mean to interrupt anything,” Elyssa said, stepping back.
AJ
just stood there, smirking devilishly.
“Having fun, kiddies?” he asked.
Brian
shot him a dirty look. “We’re just
hanging out together,” he said, but his face had turned bright red.
“Uh-huh,
sure, Rok,” AJ said, grinning wider.
Brian
just rolled his eyes. “Come on, Ash,” he
said, climbing out of the hot tub. He
offered her his hand and helped her out.
They walked around to get their towels and sandals. As Ashalyn wrapped her towel around her
waist, she watched AJ and Elyssa walk off side by side, his hand around her
waist.
She
elbowed Brian lightly. “Hey, look at
that,” she whispered, motioning to them.
“You think there’s something going on between those two?”
Brian
looked amused. “Looks like it to me,” he
said. “Of course, I’m sure they think
that about us too.” He rolled his
eyes. “Geesh, there’s nothing wrong with
just being friends.”
“Yeah,”
Ashalyn said, but in her heart, she was a little disappointed. If only we could be more than that, she
thought. Mentally, she scolded herself
for thinking that. Brian was a friend,
and that was all. He could never be more
to her… could he?
***
“So,
Bri, tell us what you and Ash did tonight,” AJ said, later that night. The guys were in the hotel room that Brian
and Nick shared, having a Playstation marathon.
“Yeah,
Brian, I hear you and Ashalyn were havin’ some fun in the hot tub,” Nick said,
grinning playfully at his best friend.
Brian
rolled his eyes, but his face grew red once again. “Aw, shut up, guys,” he said. “Ash and I are only friends. There something wrong with that?”
AJ
scoffed. “Oh yeah? Well if you’re only ‘friends’, then how come
you had your hands all over her?” He
exchanged a mischievous glance with Nick and snickered.
“I
did not have my hands ‘all over her’!” Brian protested. “Look, she got upset about Mike again, and I
was just trying to comfort her!”
That
shut them up for then, but later that night, as Nick and Brian lay in the
darkness, trying to sleep, Nick’s voice cut through the silence of the
night. “Brian?”
“Yeah?”
Brian asked groggily.
“Do
you like her?”
“Who?”
“You
know. Ashalyn?” Nick asked.
Brian
was silent for a moment, trying to sort out the thoughts and emotions that
jumbled his mind. Finally he spoke.
“Nick,
I dunno,” he said. “I mean, I like her
as a friend, but…” He trailed off.
“Brian,
you sound like a twelve year old. ‘I
like her as a friend’,” Nick mimicked, chuckling softly in the darkness. But then his tone turned serious. “Really though, Bri, do you like her? In that way?”
Brian
sighed. “Look, Nick, you can’t tell AJ
any of this cause he’ll never let it go, but I think I might.” Nick was silent, letting Brian continue. “But I’m scared to, ya know? It’s not her, really. I mean, she’s a great girl. But it doesn’t feel right, liking another
girl only a month after my own wife is killed.
And it’s even worse because her boyfriend just died. It’s not like we could ever hook up anyway. I would never be able to replace Mike, and I
would be afraid she would think I was using her to replace Leigh. But that’s not true! No one could ever replace Leigh!”
“I
understand, Bri,” Nick said. “Just give
it awhile. Maybe she feels the same way
about you, but she’s too afraid to pursue it too.”
Nick
had no idea how right he was.
***
