Chapter 8: Ashton

eight

ASHTON

After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations.

— OSCAR WILDE

“ I don’t care what you say.” I bit the insides of my cheeks so Tally wouldn’t know I was close to breaking. “Edward and Bella’s relationship is a terrible example to girls everywhere. Hello, codependency? And he’s like a hundred years old! People who let their teenage daughters read that shouldn’t be surprised when they bring alpha-holes home for dinner.”

I was fully aware that we were, once again, putting on a show for my entire family. Sans the grandparents who were outside playing with the grandkids. But everyone else was there, bright-eyed and grinning, stuffed full of Dad’s ribs, and Mom’s key lime pie. Blue was super stuffed since Mom had made an entire extra pie just for him.

Tally had eaten her entire meal in silence, clearly hurt by what I’d said in the library. But I couldn’t go back to the way things were. Not after that kiss. It didn’t mean I wanted things to be stilted between us though.

After watching Tally throughout the meal with an expression of worry, Anna had purposely baited me by saying that Twilight was the best fantasy book ever written. A completely ridiculous statement she knew I couldn’t keep quiet about. And of course, Tally couldn’t resist being the voice of opposition if I had any opinion on a book. So she’d thrown her hat in the ring immediately.

But she was smiling again and her eyes were bright.

Smart, Anna. I’d thank her later.

Years ago, Holden had titled our “show,” The Ashton-Tally Smackdown. Said it was better than Friday night wrastling. Yes, wrastling with an A. We live in the south. Truthfully, our literature “discussions” were more like a game of You Laugh, You Lose.

And I was determined not to lose.

Tally’s eyes flashed dangerously. I fought not to stare at her poison-tipped lips. Those things looked sweet but I knew better than anyone how savage they could be. The metaphor almost cracked me. Now that I’d kissed them it took on an entirely new meaning.

“First of all.” She propped her elbows on the table. “It’s a book. It’s not real . So maybe the conversation parents need to have with their teenage daughters is about separating fiction from reality.” She smacked the table, making everyone giggle. “And do not get me started on alpha-holes. Edward is a proper gentleman compared to some of the guys I’ve met. He’s the one guarding her chastity. Not the other way around.” I gave a conciliatory nod at that. I did have to give it to Edward on that one point. “He’s protective. He’d take a bullet for Bella. What woman doesn’t want that for herself? Or her daughter? You need to get off Reddit and use your own brain.” Her words bit but her eyes were playful. “And second of all, toxic relationships aside, The Twilight Saga changed the young adult genre for-ev-er. Blew it wide open. You cannot argue that.”

“Harry.” I coughed into my hand. “Potter.” Another cough.

“We’ll argue that another time.” She widened her eyes. “May I finish?”

I waved for her to resume.

She sighed as if this was a waste of her time. It was all a show. Tally lived for this as much as I did. The sparkle in her eyes told me that. “And lastly.” She picked a wilted piece of lettuce up from the edge of her plate. “The fight scene with the Volturi at the end of Breaking Dawn was straight up genius. So back off my girl Stephenie.” She flicked the lettuce at me. It landed on my left eyebrow.

Blue snickered and Anna hooted. Christy giggled and leaned her head on Holden’s shoulder looking utterly blissful.

I peeled off the offending Romaine and dropped it onto my napkin. My nostrils flared and I rolled my jaw, working out the smile that was trying to do me in. I should not be getting a kick out of any kind of interaction with Tally. Not after that kiss and her I made a horrible mistake message. But when she was getting snarky over books, I couldn’t help myself. It was so freaking sexy.

Her gaze narrowed. “And stop acting like you don’t love every one of those books. I’ve seen them at your apartment.”

I threw her a withering glance. “You have not.”

“Have.”

“Have not.”

“ Have . And I have proof.” She reached down into her purse and pulled out her phone.

What was she doing?

“Uh oh.” Ford shook the table in excitement. “Ash-hole’s about to go down.” He tapped the table with too much enthusiasm. “See, this is why we invited Tally in the first place. She livens things up.”

“Hear, hear.” Silas chuckled.

“Because the Duprees aren’t lively enough on their own.” Christy laughed.

“Stop encouraging her,” I said. “Traitors.”

Tally laid her phone down and gave it a gentle shove. It coasted to a stop in front of me. “Does that table look familiar?”

I looked down to see a picture of the entire Twilight series on a completely ordinary coffee table that anyone could easily pick up for $399 at Target. $275 if you waited for the Labor Day Sale. I knew because that’s when I’d gotten mine. And yes, that was a picture of my table. I could tell by the V-shaped scratch in the bottom left corner. But I wasn’t going to admit that.

I slouched down in my seat, feigning to be unimpressed. “This proves nothing.” I sent the phone gliding back. “You could’ve siphoned that picture off Pinterest.”

“Try again.” The phone came flying toward me so hard that this time it dropped into my lap.

I cocked a brow and picked it up. “What am I looking at?”

She patted a fake yawn against those freaking gorgeous lips. “The open laptop right next to New Moon . Go on. We’ll wait.” She waved to everyone at the table as if this was a courtroom and I was on trial. “Zoom in if you need to, Gramps. Or did you remember to bring your spectacles for once?” Okay, she got half a point for using an old-fashioned word in her ageist jab.

I sneered at her and did exactly that. And dang if the Word document didn't have my name right at the top of the screen. I squinted at the date and scoffed. “You’ve been keeping this in your back pocket for a year and a half? Who does that? ”

The room erupted in laughter. But she only shrugged, looking pleased with herself. “I knew it would come in handy someday.”

My lips twitched and my nostrils flared. “You’re a psychopath. You know that, right?”

She let go then, belly laughing, as she shoved her fists in the air victoriously.

“I checked them out from the library, okay? I can’t be a professor of literature if I haven’t read the books my students are talking about.”

“Sure, sure.” She grinned, and the perfection that was Tally Hawkins’s smile did embarrassing things to my insides.

Lemon sat up straighter, a devious look in her eye. “You know what book you should debate?” Her head bobbed from side to side. “Not technically a book…yet.” She caught my gaze, giving me a millisecond’s warning. “But have you all read the Spy vs Sigh series on Incognito?”

Silas, Holden, and Christy perked up, glancing at each other. It took everything in me not to glare, squirm, or cough, even though there was a hard tickle in my throat.

“We ‘debate' it all the time.” I used quotation marks around the word.

Ford’s face twisted in confusion. “What’s Incognito?”

“An online site where writers anonymously post their stories. Here, I’ll show you.” Lemon pulled out her phone.

Tally’s dark eyes grew surprised. “You guys read that?”

Anna smiled but she was clearly surprised too. “Tally and I read it every week. We talk about it nonstop.”

Blue shifted in his seat. “It’s so good. But like seriously, when are Leggolas1012 and Austentacious119 ever going to get on with it?”

My head snapped back. “You mean Jack and Raven.”

“No.” He pursed his lips, annoyed. “I meant what I said. When are the authors going to get them together? It’s taking way too long.”

Tally shot him a glare. “Jack and Raven are playing it safe. Neither of them wants to be the first to let their guard down.”

Christy’s fingers trilled on the table. “C’mon, Tally. How many times can a couple almost kiss before it’s laughable?” Her tone was unusually cutting. “The series may have started as a spy romance but it’s tipping perilously close to becoming a comedy. Are we actually supposed to believe they don’t know?”

Tally made a noise that was half-squeal, half-growl, like she was personally affronted. “I fully buy that they don’t know.” It was adorable how she was defending my book.

Normally kind Christy rolled her eyes. “There’s no way you can have that much chemistry and not know.” Heh. She just gave me and Austen an amazing compliment. “Which is exactly why everyone is howling about it online. You can only suspend your disbelief for so long. Enough is enough. People are threatening to stop reading if they don’t hurry up.” She raised her hand. “And if it doesn’t happen next week, I’ll be the line leader.”

Tally’s mouth fell open.

“Nah.” Holden grinned and folded his arms behind his head. “I hope they drag it out forever .” He winked and blew Christy a kiss.

Christy smacked him in the arm. Hard. “This is your fault.”

His mouth opened in mock offense. “How could it possibly be my fault? I didn’t write it.”

“You know what you did. What you do .” She swung her narrowed gaze on the rest of us. “Every morning he wakes up and manifests it into the universe.” She said the word like it was a pile of steaming dog crap. “Jack and Raven will not get together this week,” she did an impressive impression of Holden—super cocky and totally brainless. “Jack and Raven will never realize they each feel the same. They will dance around it until the end of eternity.” She slumped down in her seat and folded her arms, glowering. “He’s even praying for it now. Like actual prayers.” She threw out her arms. “First, he teaches our kids how to flip the bird, then the other night, I caught Maddie, her little hands pressed in a prayer pose. ‘Pwease, dear God,’” she mimicked their daughter’s high-pitched voice. “‘Pwease don’t let Jack and Waven we-uh-wize their wuv for each ov-uh.’ She doesn’t even know who Jack and Raven are.” She poked Holden in the bicep. “If our kids don’t make it to heaven, I blame you.”

Silas was red-faced from laughing. But Lemon’s mouth was hanging open, her eyes quarter-sized. Christy never lost her crap. Ever. The fact that she was losing it over my book was mind-boggling. But it made me wonder…how many arguments had there been around other dinner tables caused by my characters’ inability to seal the deal?

Holden held his stomach, gasping for air.

Christy bit back a smile but her eyes were still weapons of mass destruction, trying to cut him in half. “You think I’m kidding? Try me tonight.”

He laughed harder. It was contagious. Everyone was laughing. Everyone but me, Christy, and…Tally, who looked ashen. I knew she didn’t like arguments. Not real ones. Surely she could tell Christy and Holden were playing around.

Someone pounded the table and everyone went quiet. It took a second for me to realize I’d been staring at Tally. My gaze darted to Christy to find her glowering at me. “ Somebody better fix it,” she seethed through gritted teeth. “I am tired. Very, very tired.”

Holden, who looked like he’d lost all his strength, was laid out in his chair, practically sliding off his seat. He made an unattractive noise that sounded like a strangled chicken trying to cluck its last breath.

Christy shoved him with a heave, pushing him onto the floor where he lay, laughing even harder. She stood, hands on her hips, towering over Holden. I didn’t know a woman as tiny as she was could tower, but she was. “Get up, you evil man. I’m grabbing the kids.” Then she strode over and opened the sliding door to the backyard with a bounce in her step that said she couldn’t be happier that her husband was laid out on the floor about to pass out from lack of oxygen.

Silas stood, reached down, and offered Holden a hand.

Holden staggered to his feet, cheeks beet red. “Sorry, y’all. We gotta go. It’s our annual visit with Dahlia and Randall.” Savannah’s grandparents. Holden’s high school girlfriend had passed away their junior year but Holden had kept up a relationship with them. Christy supported that because, truly, she radiated goodness. Just not when it came to my book apparently. Holden leaned over me, hands on the back of my chair. “But seriously. Who wants to start manifesting with me?”

“I heard that!” Christy said as she came in with Liam and Maddie in tow. She quickly made terrifying eye contact with each person at the table. “If y’all like getting good birthday and Christmas presents you better not.”

The four of them walked out of the room. Ford’s front door slammed with a bang.

The remainder of us glanced at each other for two seconds. And then everyone started to laugh.

Still not Tally though.

Judging her expression, she seemed as worried by the whole thing as I was.

But there’s no way she was thinking what I was thinking.

Because I was thinking that if Austen and I couldn’t figure out a way to placate our readers, we were in big trouble.

“Well.” Ford rubbed his hands together. “It looks like I better start reading this Spy vs Sigh book.” His brow lifted and he grinned. “Does Peyton read it?”

“Yes,” Lemon said. “But if she finds out you do, she’ll stop.”

Ford deflated, a scowl replacing the smile.

Lemon’s head tilted. “ I love you, Fo-shiz.”

He blew out his lips in forlorn resignation.