Page 27 of October

The first: Ash

The second: With an apology

The third: By the pool

A knot forms in my throat just as Casey takes my hand. “Come on! You have to go outside now.”

I barely have time to comprehend what’s going on before I step out onto the deck and find Ash waiting on one of the pool chairs by the water.

When he sees me, he rises to his feet.

“Hi,” he says quietly.

“Hi,” I reply.

“Casey,” he says. “Go watch some cartoons while Wren and I talk, okay?”

“Ugh, I have to miss everything,” she grumbles, but ultimately goes back inside, but we both know she’s spying through the windows.

He reaches his hand out to me. “Come sit with me?”

I nod and close the distance between us and take his hand. We sit in two different chairs, facing each other.

“Ash, I…”

“I have some things to say and I just need to get them off my chest. Is that okay?” he asks and I, of course, oblige.

“Wren, first and foremost, I want to say what I should have said the other day, but I was too scared. I love you. I love you so fucking much that it scares me. I think I’ve always felt this way, for a while. I’m sorry that it took me so long to realize it. I’ve grown so attached to you and I was worried if we did this, and really tried to be together, and it went south, Casey would get hurt in the process. It took her drawing a picture of our family that included you in order to make me realize how insane I was for that. This won’t go south because you’re already our family. You’re already a part of us. If we try and this doesn’t work, Casey will still have you because family doesn’t leave. You’re so good with her and she loves you as much as I do.”

Hot, wet tears are streaming down my face with every word that leaves his mouth.

“Be with me, Wren… officially. I need you in my life. I got a taste of how our life could be together and a taste isn’t enough. I need it all. I want it all. Please. Be with me.”

With a quick intake of breath, I throw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders and pulling him in for the deepest, soul-curing kiss of my life.

“I love you,” I tell him. “I love you so much.”

He clutches my face and kisses the tears away.

Casey doesn’t wait for a signal or for us to come back inside. Instead, she comes running out of the house, cheering. “Did it work, Dad? Did it?”

He pulls her in to hug both of us at once.

“Yeah.” He smiles at me. “I think it did.”

Later, after Casey is long asleep and Ash is on shift at the firehouse, I grab my overnight bag from the foyer and head up to get ready for bed. I open the guest bedroom door, only to find a note resting on the pillow.

Nice try. You sleep in my room now.

-Ash

I roll my eyes and smile before going down to the primary bedroom on the first floor, where I spent all last week with him.

I undress down to tank top and shorts and slip into bed before snapping a suggestive selfie and sending it to him.

A reply comes within minutes.

Ash: Next item of order, watching you make yourself come in that bed.

I grin and type out a response.

Me: I have a confession. I’ve already watched you do that very thing.

He replies with a string of shocked emojis.

Ash: We will discuss this later.

Me: I’ll be waiting for you at home, dear.

Ash: Yeah, I’m liking the sound of this already.