Ash had to giggle. “Yeah, I know. Jason is crazy. He does it on purpose. He’s always been crude like that. It’s our brand of humor. He only turns it on thick when we’re with our parents. If we were out by yourselves it probably would have been different. Although, maybe not. He knows it drives my mom crazy.”
“It sounds like you enjoy it a little bit too.”
Ash flushed. “I do. I can’t help myself. Sometimes it’s just nice to unwind and be extremely politically incorrect. I’m actually surprised Jason said you did another workout in the evening at your home gym when he was talking about a day in the life of Trace.” She grinned against the soft cotton of Trace’s shirt. “I could tell what he actually wanted to say was that you get your workout in with me. I can’t believe he didn’t go there. I thought for sure he was going to do it.”
“He must have seen your dad melting on the spot and taken pity on him.”
“Probably. My dad is so mild mannered. He’s nice. He loves us a lot. We were his whole life when we were growing up. I mean, my mom too. They actually still love each other. Even though they’ve been married for like, thirty-two years now, they still make it work. And I know they don’t just tolerate each other. I can tell by the way they look at each other that they’re still in love.”
There was a pause and Ash realized what she’d said. She wished she could take it back, in a way. Another part of her wasn’t sorry at all.
“Do you believe in love? I mean, love like that?” Trace smoothed his fingers through her hair again. She should be talking about their plan for the reunion tomorrow, but she couldn’t bring herself to start. It just felt so good, what Trace was doing with her hair. They were fully clothed, yet what they were doing was somehow far more intimate than anything they’d done so far.
Ash wanted to answer, but it was hard for her to force words past her jammed up throat. Sudden tears pricked the corners of her eyes. “I…” she’d never had so much trouble just trying to form words. “I- I don’t know,” she finally said. Thankfully, her tongue unglued. “I write romances and stuff, but I don’t know about real life. It’s different. It’s more complicated. A romance is just a snapshot in time. It has a plot. We don’t get to see any more than that and we just hope for the best after. I- my parents made it work, but I think that’s pretty rare now.”
“Yeah.” Trace’s voice sounded so much further away than the mere inches his mouth was from her ear. “I know. Honestly, if I could, I’d buy my own island and take my love to grow old there. It would be like one of your romances. That’s probably wishful thinking, though, since it’s hard to imagine people actually growing old together. It’s a nice sentiment.”
“A nice sentiment,” Ash breathed. “I like that. Maybe I’ll write that into one of my own books.”
“I still haven’t looked one up and read it yet. Although, I should. Has your brother?”
“Please don’t! I’d make you promise you wouldn’t read it, but that sounds too extreme and I know it will probably just have the opposite effect. And my brother… oh my god I hope not. He says he’d never read anything I wrote, especially about romance, because it’s too disgusting. I really hope that he meant it.” The thought honestly made her want to panic. She remembered her family’s horror when she published her first book. They’d quickly grown accustomed to the fact that she wrote explicit romance and just got over and on with it. It wasn’t like she was famous or anything.
“I bet even if your brother hasn’t read it, since it’s probably not his thing, but I am willing to put my money on him using it to get with someone else. I’m sure he’s dropped your name a couple times. Men probably don’t know who you are, but women- that’s entirely possible.”
Ash shivered. “Oh gross. I don’t want to think about my brother using me to get laid in any capacity.” She made a gagging noise. “Totally gross.”
“I think it’s hot that you write romance. I think it’s hot that you’re a writer period. I especially think it’s hot that you work at a comic book store and that you and your brother are complete nerd ass kicking geeks when it comes to board games.”
“If you think that’s good, you should see us when it comes to trivia.”
Trace laughed softly and her head moved up and down with the rumble. Ash smiled to herself. It felt so good to have Trace’s hand in her hair, massaging her scalp, the warmth of his body pressed into her, solid and comforting and real, that she’d forgotten all about the stupid reunion.