For the Love of Gracie (26 page)

My phone kept me from answering.

"Hey Gorgeous. I'm fantastic." I burst out laughing and said, "Yes, Cameron, I made it up to him good and proper with some naked happy fun time." 

Ash snickered. 

"Hold on a sec." I whispered to Ash, "Can I invite them over to eat?" 

He nodded and said, "Of course." 

Back on the phone, I said, "I made some lasagna if you and Gavin want to come over and eat. Great, that sounds perfect. Love you too."

I turned to Ash. "Does it bother you the way I talk to Cameron? Or the fact that he kisses me on the lips?" 

Ash's face scrunched up, confused. "No, of course not. He's your best friend and that's the way your relationship has always been. I'd never ask you to change that part of your life. Why would it bother me?" 

I shrugged. "No reason." 

He leaned over, checking me out under the table. "You might want to get dressed."

He cleared the table while I put my jeans back on. I twisted my hair into a bun and stuck a pen in it. When I turned, Ashton was propped against the door watching me. His face was clean shaven, except for the soft trace of beard that I loved so much on him. His lips turned up in a beautiful, gleaming white, smile. 

"Hey gorgeous," he said. 

I smiled as I sauntered over to him. "Funny, I was thinking the same thing." 

Chapter Twenty

There was a knock on the door, Ashton answered it while I grabbed the food. Ashton had warmed up a plate for Cam and Gav, so we sat down to chat.

"Guys, there's sort of a bigger reason I asked you over here.  I wanted Gavin here, too, since he is important to both of you. And he's becoming an important part of my life because of his connection to my two guys."

Cameron smiled at Gavin, squeezing his hand. 

"I went to see Hudson yesterday." 

The moment the words left my mouth, Cameron and Ashton stood up, slamming their hands on the table yelling, "What?!" 

Gavin put his hand on each of their shoulders. "Calm down, let Gracie explain. The last thing she needs is to see you two so angry." 

I mouthed 'thanks' to him; he nodded. 

Cameron mumbled, "Gracie Walker, I swear you're going to kill me one day." 

Ashton remained quiet, patiently waiting for an explanation. 

"I went to his house."  I watched Ashton's fist clench harder with each sentence. "I followed him to see what he does in a day. I don’t know what I was doing truthfully.  I guess I was hoping he was feeling guilty or something. Anyway, I followed him to a coffee shop. He met someone there, a man that he hugged."

Cameron exclaimed, "Well, we all know it wasn’t his boyfriend; he's a freaking homophobe. So who was it?" 

Gavin interjected again, "Will you let the woman finish, please?" 

Cameron threw his hands up in mock surrender.  

I replied, "I'm not sure how they know each other, but he was one of the police officers that took my statement." 

Ashton and Cameron both yelled, "Shit!" 

I pointed from one to the other and said, "You two have hung out too much lately."  Neither of them laughed. 

Ashton spoke up, "Gracie, this is serious. We have to find out how they know each other. This cop is obviously a conflict of interest in your case against Hudson. I'll be damned if I'm going to let anyone jeopardize you getting the justice you deserve." 

I choked back tears. "There's more."

I pulled the text up on my phone and passed it to Ashton.  Cameron leaned over to see what it was. Ashton clenched his fists tightly. His teeth were clamped together as he said, "We need to go to the police station and report this, today." 

"How will that help? They aren't going to believe me over a cop."  

Ashton's face was red with anger. "We can use this text to get a restraining order or something against Hudson. He threatened you!" 

I nodded. "After he stated that I was following him around town. He isn't stupid. He knew that I couldn't use that without explaining why I was following him. It would add to his accusation that we were harassing him that day."

Ashton stood up and paced the room.  He tugged on his earlobe alerting me he was deep in thought. He pressed his hands against the mantel of the fireplace, his back bent, leaning his head down in defeat.  Cameron nodded his head towards Ash and whispered, "Go to him." 

Ashton
sighed as I wrapped my arms around him, laying my head against his back.  He placed his hand over mine. "My ladybug."  He moved to face me.  He kissed my hair. "We'll get through this, together, somehow."

Cameron and Ashton wanted a moment to talk. They stepped outside, leaving Gavin and I to clean up.  "Ashton is pretty crazy about you, you know?" Gavin said, taking a dirty dish from me to load the dishwasher. 

I smiled. "I'm pretty crazy about him, too.  How long have you two been friends?" 

Gavin turned the water on in the sink to rinse some of the dishes off first.  "We met in high school," he said. 

"That's right, he told me that once. So, you knew Addison then?" 

He stopped and glanced at me a little confused. "Ashton didn’t tell you that?" 

I shrugged "All I know is how they met and how she died."  His face became grief-stricken.  "I'm sorry, Gavin. Were you good friends with her, too?" 

His eyes glistened with fresh tears ready to spill.  He turned away "Addison was my sister."  I dropped the plate I was holding; it shattered on the floor.

I gasped. "I'm so sorry." 

He grabbed a broom to help me sweep it up.  "Sweetie, you're fine, you didn’t know."  We dumped the broken plate in the trash. 

He leaned against the counter with his arms folded across his chest.  "Addison started dating Ashton Junior year.  I was a sophomore. The year they became seniors was the year I came out to my parents.  They went crazy, spouting off religious mumbo jumbo about my destiny to go hell, etcetera.  Addison protected me.  She was worried that Ash would react the same as my parents. The next day, she prepared to break up with him.  She told him about me and how my parents had reacted, expecting that he would end things with her over it.  He asked if he could talk to me about it, instead.  My dad had never met Ashton.  When he saw us together, he flipped."  

"He ran at me, calling us both abominations.  Ashton shoved him away from me and told him that he should be ashamed of himself.  Ashton told him that it was his job as a father to love me, unconditionally.  My father threw me out, told me to never come back.  Ashton's family welcomed me with open arms.  They are my family now. He was the best thing that ever happened to Addison." 

I smiled, adding, "And vice versa." 

Gavin patted my arm, "No, you're the best thing that ever happened to Ashton. You're his saving grace." 

We both snickered at that.

"Sorry, no pun intended. What I mean is, Ashton was destroyed a
fter Addy died. I didn’t think he'd ever find anyone to fill that void.  Then he met you.  He has talked about you non-stop ever since." 

Feeling self-conscious, I wrapped my arms across myself. "Really?  And it doesn’t bother you to see him with me?  As though it's offensive to her memory or something?" 

Surprised, he said, "What? No, of course not.  You and Addison would have been great friends if she was still here. She'd love knowing that you're making Ashton happy now."  I wrapped my arms around his neck.  He squeezed me tight. 

Cameron's voice from behind me teasingly said, "Get your hands off my man!" 

I turned to him, leaving my arm around Gavin. "This man is fan-fucking-tastic." I kissed Gavin's cheek. Turning back to Cameron, I narrowed my eyes and pointed a finger in his face. "Don't screw it up." 

His lips turned up in the most genuine of smiles. "Never." 

Ashton came in the kitchen and saw the broken plate in the trash. "Everything alright?" 

I nodded. "Yep, Gavin just shocked me when he told me he's Addison's brother." 

Cameron was confused. "Who's Addison?" 

Gavin replied, as Ashton looked at me sadly. "My sister. She passed away a few years ago." 

Cameron was still confused. "Yeah, Gracie said you were Addison's brother, so I deduced that she was your sister from that.  I'm pretty smart that way. Why is it so shocking to Gracie?" 

Ashton walked over, lifted my hand and said, "I wasn’t keeping it from you.  We just haven’t talked about her much." 

I kissed his lips softly. "I'm not mad, just surprised." 

Ashton glanced at Gavin. "How did it come up?"  Gavin responded, "Gracie wanted to know how we met. I told her what you did for me." 

Smiling up at Ashton, I added, "Makes me love you even more."  His face softened from worry into a smile. 

Cameron whistled. "Um, hello! Can someone fill me in on why we love Ashton even more?" 

Gavin pulled him aside to tell him.  While we had a moment alone, Ashton stepped in front of me and pressed me against the sink.  His hand stroked my cheek as he lowered his mouth to mine.  His soft lips glided against mine as his beard tickled my face.  I giggled.

He pulled away smiling.  "What are you giggling about?"

I ran my fingers over his beard. "It tickles my cheeks." 

He grinned. "You sure you don’t want me to shave it for you?" 

My mouth fell open. "I'm positive. I love it."

Cameron stepped back in the kitchen. He raised his hands up defensively.  "I don’t want to know what
you want to shave for her.  Sculpt it, brush it, trim it, shave it, hell, tattoo a lawn mower on it and die it green with a sign that says 'Keep off the grass', just don't tell me about it.  I wanted to thank you guys for dinner.  We're heading home.  Ash, we'll talk?" 

Ashton nodded. "I'll walk you guys out." 

I busted out laughing. "Keep off the grass, Cam?" 

He shrugged. "You laugh, but I've seen it done."  Cameron faked a shiver as if creeped out.

While Ashton walked the guys out, I had an idea.  I wrote a note stating to meet me downstairs.  I ran to the bedroom and slipped off everything but my panties.  I slid on a button-down shirt of Ash's, leaving the top few buttons open. 

I ran down the steps.  I leaned forward and shook my hair out, giving it that sexy messy look.  I boosted myself up onto the pool table, sitting on the edge with my legs crossed as I leaned back and waited for him.  The door opened. I fixed my shirt to show a little cleavage and a whole lot of leg.  "Gracie?" 

I smiled and said, "Down here, Ash." 

His feet came into view and I prepared to seduce him, leaning forward so that he could see straight down my shirt.  Ashton stopped when he saw me. "Wow. Um…" He glanced up the stairs, and then I saw a man peer down at me. 

I sat and covered up quickly. "Hi?"  Ashton pushed him back up the stairs. He came down a few minutes later with pants for me.  "I'm mortified, who is that?" 

He smiled. "My little brother has perfect timing as always.  Baby, I want you back here after he leaves. You have no idea how many fantasies I've had of you on this pool table, especially since that night we played pool together."

I smiled. "Probably as many as I've had." 

He grabbed my collar and pulled me in for a kiss that made my body ache for him.  His hands were on my naked thighs; I wrapped my legs around his waist, tugging him closer.  His arousal pressed against me, causing me to whimper against his mouth. 

My hands tugged at his belt, but he stopped me. 

He groaned. "Damn it, Derrick.  Why did you show up now?"  He moved away  and tossed my jeans to me. 

I smiled. "You sure we can't have a quickie?" 

He grinned. "Don't tempt me." 

I followed Ashton up the stairs, once I was wearing pants again. I kept his button up shirt on and just tied it in the front, to keep it from being so long on me.  Derrick sat on the couch, playing on his phone.  He stood up when he saw me enter behind Ashton. 

He held his hand out. "You must be Gracie, I'm Derrick." 

I took his hand, shaking it firmly.  "I'm so sorry about what happened downstairs."  Derrick grinned, looking exactly like Ashton when he did.  "It's not the worst thing I've ever walked into. Actually, it wasn’t bad at all."  He winked at me.

Ashton's palm landed on Derrick's chest. "Watch it, kid." 

Derrick laughed. "Not trying to offend you, Gracie.  I like giving my brother here a hard time."

Derrick was very attractive.  Of course he was, he looked like Ashton.  His hair was longer than Ash's, and his face was clean shaven.  He was slightly shorter, same build though
, which was rock-hard sexy goodness, at least from what I could tell. 

"I've heard a lot of great things about you, Gracie.  This guy hasn't shut up about you." 

Ashton spoke next, saving me from having to lie and tell him I've heard tons about him. "What brings you by, Derrick?"  I took a seat on the couch, Ashton sat next to me.