I lined up my tools and protective gear, deciding I’d push Ash to start the garage renovation. I’d insist he work slowly, but knowing him, he wouldn’t. Either way, it would keep him close while I was working on my pieces. We’d spend more time together, not to mention the project would be a distraction from Lily’s arrival and, hopefully, her equally swift departure.
I was about to switch on my band saw when I heard a car pull up in the driveway. Lily couldn’t possibly be coming over this early. Maybe it was Keenan, drunk and on the prowl for more trouble. I wouldn’t have put it past either of them, but whichever one it was, I’d had enough. They needed to get out of our lives.
I stomped to the garage door, ready to tell whomever to turn around and leave, but when I got there and pulled it open, my feet rooted themselves to the ground.
It was Lily. She stood in my driveway with another huge, sugar-sweet smile on her tanned face, and Ash was with her. With her. Not upstairs in the house where he was supposed to be. He was in the driveway, staring at Lily, neither of them noticing me behind them, openmouthed and in the doorway. How the fuck had this happened, and when? I’d hidden the car keys in my closet after he’d gone to bed. Besides, my Nissan was still where Ash had dumped it when he’d come home from his late-night escapade.
Transfixed, unable to move, I watched as he whispered something to her. She touched his chest and put her head back, laughing. The intimacy between them. The proximity. The way he stared at her. I knew that look, had seen it a thousand times. First with Celine, and again when he’d been with Kate. Entranced, mesmerized, whatever you wanted to call it, but I knew what it meant. She’d got to him. And he’d let her.
How could things be moving so quickly when until yesterday he hadn’t remembered Lily existed? I knew the brain and heart could do strange things at times, and not always in conjunction, but she’d ensnared him overnight. The burning fury bubbling at the surface made me choke. He must have sneaked out again after our argument. They’d spent the night together, no question, but had he been with her? Ash had never seemed interested in one-night stands, had once told me he needed to feel a connection with someone to sleep with them. Did he feel something for Lily? Was he going to leave me again? Go back to Brookmount with her?
I wanted to shout at her to leave, scream at Ash, remind him I’d been the one whose number he’d remembered when he woke up on the beach, I’d been the one he’d called. Even through my rage I knew it wouldn’t work. That kind of behavior would rally them against me. I had to be smart. Whatever was going on between them had only just begun, and Lily had instigated it. Ash was vulnerable. She’d taken advantage of him, and if the encounters between her and me thus far had been battles only I had known were being fought, as of now I’d wage an outright war. Wars meant collateral damage. But that was on Lily. It was her fault. She was the one who’d come here. She was the one who wouldn’t leave things alone. Anything and everything I did would be her responsibility.
Ash and Lily disappeared into the house, walking close together, still chatting, not even throwing a backward glance. I counted slowly under my breath, forcing myself to get to at least thirty and to keep going until I couldn’t stand it any longer. At fifty-two I strode to the house, repeating I had to keep my cool. Fake it ’til you make it. This was a long-term play.
I opened the front door and walked into the kitchen with a well-honed smile slinking across my face. Ash had his back turned and was in the process of digging two mugs out of the cupboard while Lily flicked on the kettle as if she’d been here, in my house, a million times. She must have heard me come in, and when she turned around, had a startled look on her face.
“Maya,” she said, her grimace easing as she took in my relaxed expression. “We, uh—”
“I spent the night at the Harbor Inn,” Ash said, matter-of-fact.
“I didn’t hear you leave again. I thought you were still asleep.” I congratulated myself on how calm I sounded, not aloof or indifferent, but curious. “Ash, can I talk to you?” I gestured to the hallway and as he followed me, I decided to change tack. Making him grovel with Lily around wasn’t going to work. “About our argument last night,” I said, bowing my head. “I was worried when I got up and you weren’t home. I was scared.”
“I understand,” Ash said. “I shouldn’t have shouted at you like that, it was wrong.”
“So, we’re okay?” I said, looking up at him.
“We’re fine, I promise.” He glanced toward Lily, smiling. And just like that, as he headed back into the kitchen with me following behind, I became the proverbial third wheel, exactly as I had when he’d started hanging out with Celine and then Kate. More anger bubbled beneath my cheery facade, threatening to crack it clean down the middle.
“I’ll get back to work in a minute and I have a shift at the Cliff’s Head later,” I said, trying not to grit my teeth. “What are you doing, Ash?”
“Not sure,” he said. “Out for a drive or a walk somewhere. Maybe check out the beach.”
“The beach?” I said. “Considering what happened?”
“Yeah.
