From Ashes

I was just slipping off my apron and punching in my code when Stacey walked in with an older woman I’m assuming was her mother. Stacey looked amazing; she was glowing and couldn’t stop smiling, exactly the way a girl should look the day before her wedding.

“Hey! Didn’t expect to see you today, but I must tell you, you missed one awesome day.”

“Really?” she asked, her eyes getting bright.

“No. It was awful, be glad you weren’t here.”

“Oh.” She scrunched up her nose at me and smiled. “Well, we’re meeting up with my girls to get our nails done but I’m glad I caught you before you left. I was wondering if you’re going to bring a date tomorrow. I know things with Tyler ended a few months ago, so I didn’t know if you pla

“Huh. I hadn’t even thought about that. I guess I’ll just go by myself. If this is about the price for catering, I’ll totally eat for two if you want me to.”

She and the older woman both laughed. “No, it’s not that. Well, I was talking about you with Russ, and he said there were a few guys from his fraternity coming who are single, and that I should set you up with one of them.” My eyes got wide but she kept talking. “Obviously, I would have rather talked to you about this first, but Christian, one of his frat brothers who’s coming, was sitting right there and one thing led to another, they got on your Facebook page . . . safe to say Christian is dying to meet you now.”

“Uh . . .”

“He’s really cute, Cass, he’s twenty-two, he’s a baseball player—”

“I’m taking Gage,” I blurted out when I saw his truck pull into a parking spot.

Stacey sucked in a deep gasp and her eyes got wide. “Oh my God. Really?” She squealed. She actually. Freaking. Squealed. “How come you didn’t tell me about this? Oh, Cass, when I get back from my honeymoon you are telling me everything!”

Oh crap. “Um, well, it’s new.”

“Cassidy, this thing with Gage is not new. It may have taken forever, but it sure as heck isn’t new.”

Gage got out of his truck and started making his way in, so I hurried around them so Stacey wouldn’t get a chance to say anything to him, especially since Gage knew nothing about Stacey’s wedding or our relationship, which was so new, you could practically say it was nonexistent. Since it was. “Yeah, well . . .” I smiled and hugged her hard. “We’re being kind of quiet about it right now because of Ty, so—” I broke off when Gage walked in and smiled his heart-stopping smile, dimples and all. “See you tomorrow, Stace!”

Gage’s arm had just settled around my shoulders when Stacey called out in a singsong voice, “Good-bye, Gage Carson, I’ll see y’all later.”

His smile stayed but you could see the confusion in his features at the way Stacey was speaking. “Bye, Stacey.” It came out more of a question and he cocked his head to the side as I hurried us out the door. “She seemed like she was in a good mood,” he stated as he opened the passenger door for me.

“Uh, yeah . . . something like that,” I mumbled, and tried to figure out how I was going to ask him to the wedding and keep him out of the loop about our “relationship.”

“GAGE?” I TIMIDLY called from the hallway. I knew he would come with me, but if I was being honest with myself, I was afraid he’d see just how much I wanted him to be my date to this stupid thing.

“Yeah, Cass?” The door to his bedroom swung open to reveal Gage in nothing but mesh shorts, his hair still wet from a shower, a few drops of water ru

I failed at stifling a gasp and tried to focus on his eyes. That didn’t help either; I could get lost in those dark green-and-gold eyes. “Um . . .” I realized I was biting my lip and looking at his well-defined stomach again. Get a grip! This is not the first time you’ve seen him half-naked. I mentally shook myself and looked at the floor instead. “So Stacey’s getting married tomorrow, and before everything happened, I’d already RSVP’d with a plus-one for Tyler. But since that’s obviously not an option, I was wondering if you’d maybe be my date? As a friend, I mean! Go with me as a friend.” Okay, this was going exactly how I hoped it wouldn’t. I’d managed to get lost staring at his body, I’d asked him to be my date, and I knew my entire face was beet red from embarrassment.

He didn’t say anything, but I could practically feel his silent laughter making its way through my body. I sighed and turned back toward the living room. “Don’t worry about it, I’m sure you’re busy tomorrow.” No, he wasn’t. Tomorrow was Saturday, our movie night.

“What time is it at?”

I stopped walking but didn’t turn around. “Starts at five.”

“Well then, it’s a date.” His next laugh wasn’t silent.

I grimaced thinking about our “date” misunderstanding last week when it came to our movie night and actually smacked my face as I walked into the living room, groaning into my hand. “Awesome,” I mumbled to myself.

Flopping onto one of the couches, I closed my eyes and tried to think of anything but Gage’s amazing body. I’d seen him without a shirt on hundreds of times, and of course my pulse had started racing every time, but I’d always been in control of myself. Unfortunately, I was once again letting myself believe a relationship could happen between us and stupidly thought that Gage wanted me too. I silently cursed myself for the thousandth time for thinking that living with Gage could possibly be a good idea.

CRACKING MY EYES open, I glared at the sun coming through my window. I grabbed an extra pillow and put it over my face. Wait . . . extra pillow? I was in my bed, and it was now morning. Gage. Didn’t matter how many times he put me in my bed, I was thoroughly embarrassed each morning after I woke up. Who knows if I was snoring, drooling, or talking when he did it? I dragged myself out of bed and toward the kitchen, where I could smell fresh coffee.

“Morning.”

“Ugh.” I slumped into his chest as he pulled me in for my morning hug. Not go

He chuckled and kissed the top of my head. We both stiffened for a moment and I had to rein in my smile before I stepped out of his arms. It wasn’t the first time Gage had pressed his full lips to me since the ranch, but usually it was a peck to my cheek or forehead when he was putting me in my bed, and even then I was still mostly asleep, so I always figured I was dreaming it.

“Coffee ready?” I asked while scrounging around the fridge for the creamer that was hiding.

“Yep.” He leaned over me to pluck the creamer out of the fridge from directly in front of my face. “Looking for this?”

“Whatever, it’s too early.” I grabbed my mug and went to sit on a bar stool.

We drank our coffee in silence as I continued to mull over the kiss and stress about Stacey saying something to Gage about our “relationship” tonight. After he was done, Gage went to his room to get ready.

“I’ll be back in a while, but after I’m heading out for breakfast with Ty.”

“All right, I may not be here when you get back, I have some errands to run. But so you know, we need to leave around four fifteen, ’kay?”

“I’ll see you later then.” He smiled at me as he picked up his iPhone and headed for the door.

One of these times, that smile was going to make me come completely undone.

I GLANCED AT my phone and cursed the speeding time. We needed to leave in ten minutes and I still hadn’t tried on my dress. After Gage left that morning I’d taken a shower, gone with Jackie to get our nails done, and done some quick shopping for a new summer dress since it was the middle of March and the weather had been in the mid-seventies all week. I would’ve had more than enough time to get ready, but I’d spent twice as long on my hair trying to make it look perfect. I couldn’t think of one time in my life that I’d ever spent so much time on my appearance. The entire time I told myself I was just trying to look nice since we were going to a wedding, but I knew I was doing this for Gage. And that was a bad thing.