Page 46 of Get A Fix

“Well, Coop is going to walk me. You can come along with us if you like.”

She looked so harried, even in her Dior gown and with her hair and makeup done immaculately. She seemed halfway between trying to keep up a brave face and ready to cry.

“We would love it if you showed us the way, Aunt Elaine,” Ash suggested.

Her exhale told me she appreciated his words, and when he offered her his arm, she stared at him like he was an angel.

“You’re Ash Lennox, the actor,” she said softly. “When Bitsy told Odette, that’s my daughter, that you were going to be at the wedding, neither of us believed her.”

“Is Odette in the wedding party?” he asked kindly.

“She is, yes.”

“Wonderful,” Ash commented, making conversation.

“It’s lovely to meet you. I’m a huge fan. And I know you’re the executor of the estate, but I’ve never understood why Coleman⁠—”

“Why Coleman what?” Sophia asked. “Put one of his bastards in charge of everybody’s money?”

Elaine gasped. “Mother, I⁠—”

“He is one of many of your brother’s illegitimate issue,” Sophia insisted, as though Elaine had argued with her. “There were at least five that I know of, plus, he paid for a lot of abortions back in the day.”

“Oh God.” Elaine sounded mortified, and if Ash hadn’t been holding on to her, she would have gone right down.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Sophia chided her. “You know there have been others the company paid off. Coleman told me that Ashford’s mother was different, not a gold digger at all.” She turned to look at Ash then. “I think it’s marvelous she raised you all alone.”

“Well, she had help, and it was the eighties, not the nineteen fifties,” he told her.

“That’s so true. Things were harder back then. It would have been difficult for you to be a successful actor and a homosexual then.”

And while she wasn’t wrong, it was a lot to absorb in polite company.

“I’m so sorry,” Elaine blurted out, staring at Ash. “She hasn’t been herself since⁠—”

“It’s fine. We’re fine,” he assured her, not wanting, I was guessing, to learn any more stories or secrets about the family than he already had.

When we reached their table, everyone stood up to meet Ash. He was a huge star, and more importantly, to them, the man holding the purse strings, so I understood their interest. Thankfully, his half brother Hunter wasn’t at the table with his grandmother, just her children. Ash’s siblings and most of his father’s ex-wives were scattered around the room at other tables.

Unfortunately, the next table over was the one with Damien and his lovely fiancée, Sienna, who immediately got up to reach Ash and I.

“Cooper,” she said, smiling, and kissed my cheek. “It’s so lovely to see you again. I need your phone number so I can make sure we get to have that meal while we’re here.”

“Absolutely,” I said, not even glancing Damien’s way. “What’s yours? I’ll text you.”

Once I sent her my number, she turned to Ash, whom everyone else was meeting. “I’m so sorry we don’t have room at our table for you two.”

“Me too,” he lied smoothly, “but it looks like you have a great bunch.”

“We have room here,” a woman at the next table over from theirs said. “Ashford Lennox, I might faint.”

“Oh, that’s great,” Sienna said, gazing at Ash. “We’d love to talk and⁠—”

“Cooper!”

Several people moved quickly to make way as Gemma Cushing—who had mashed potatoes and gravy on her face and hands—came rushing up at me as though running from a burning building. Her arms were waving in the air, and I couldn’t stop smiling.

“Don’t touch me,” Sienna shrieked in horror, jumping back to get away from the toddler. I understood—her dress was a white Valentino. The volume was a little much, though.