“No—I mean, yes. I do do that. But that’s not what I do. I’m a film producer.”
“What? No. You’re an inside trader, surely?” She smirks at me and I kick her under the table until she giggles.
“I just finished a reality show that starred Rook and my other best friend Spencer. He owns Shrike Bikes, ever heard of them?”
Her mouth gapes open. “Wait, your best friends are Ronin the model and Spencer f**king Shrike, the hot-ass biker whose show will be on TV next month? The one the Biker Channel’s been advertising non-stop since November?”
“What? He’s not hot. I’m hot. He’s lame. He paints Elvis costumes on naked girls. I make films. I produced that show. In fact, I’m in most of the episodes in Season One.”
She smiles coyly as she sighs. “I’m wet, Ford.”
I beam at her.
“I can’t believe you know Spencer Shrike. You should introduce me.”
“What?”
“Kidding, you jealous nerd. That’s pretty cool though. I pegged you as a banker when I saw you in that suit on New Year’s. But since then you’ve only wore jeans and t-shirts. And after you talked about skiing, I conjured up an image of you as some kind of X-Gamer. But now… I’m not sure anymore. Who are you, Ford Aston?”
The waitress comes with our food so I wait to answer her question until she’s gone and we’re both eating. “Maybe I’m both of those guys. I do normally wear suits. I like to look professional. People treat you differently when you wear a suit. When I wear casual clothes the weirdness seems to stick out. Or maybe people just make quick judgments instead of giving me the benefit of the doubt because I appear wealthy.”
“That’s very rational, Ford. But if I were you, I’d wear the shit that makes your package look big.” She takes a big bite of burger to hide her smile.
“I hope you realize I’m gonna get even with you for all this dirty talk.”
“Oh, I’m counting on it,” she says with her mouth full. “I’ll agree to a background-checked babysitter in Vegas if you stop by the drug store and buy some condoms. How’s that?” She flashes me an exaggerated wink.
“Wink all you want, Miss—wait, what’s your last name?”
“Li,” she says with her mouth full again.
“Li? Your name is Ashleigh Li?” I laugh a little at her expense. Serves her right. “Whose bright idea was that?”
“I know, tell me about it. My name was originally Ash Li in Hong Kong, it was like a cute play on the spelling—of course, it’s not Chinese at all and now that I think about it, it kinda made me sound like a p**n star. Plus everyone still knew I was American, so stupid, right? And then when we moved back to the US my parents changed it so it was less Chinese, and maybe less p**n star. And now I’m Ashleigh Li.” She rolls her eyes and bites into a French fry. “I can’t wait to get married.”
We sit and eat in silence for a while, maybe both of us thinking about how nice Ashleigh would sound in front of Aston.
“So anyway, back to the condoms.”
Or maybe that’s not what we were thinking after all. I grin at her. “I’m still in control and as long as you keep asking for it, I’ll never give in. So keep it to yourself and let me handle things.”
“But you’re slow.”
“You owe me so big for all this unladylike behavior, your ass cheeks will be bright red when I’m done. Don’t think I’m not adding it all up. I have a photographic memory.”
“Wait. We never had an agreement about unladylike behavior. I have no spankings coming.”
I laugh. “Miss Li, you have no idea what you’ve been begging for. And if you want it, then you owe me an entire night of submission.” She bites her lip and tries not to smile. “You’re smiling now, but just wait.”
She just takes another bite of her food and then leans in to coo at Kate when she starts to fuss in her seat.
“When do they crawl?” I ask.
She leans down and kisses Kate on the nose and gets a smile and some feet kicking for her effort. “Crawl?” She looks up and thinks. “Six months maybe. Why?”
I lean back in the booth and stretch my arms out as I study them together. Ashleigh might be a mess. And this road trip of hers was probably a monumentally bad idea. But she’s not neglectful of her daughter. “I guess I never thought about how needy babies are.”
She shoots me a dirty look.
“Not in a bad way, just a literal way.”
Ash puts her hand gently over Kate’s head. “They are the most helpless creatures on the whole planet when they’re born.” And then Ash looks up at me and smiles. “She changed my whole life. You might not realize this, but I was a little bit on the wild side a year and a half ago.” She gently tickles Kate’s little chin and gets some arm-flailing this time.
“Yeah, I can see it.”
Ashleigh straightens up and grabs some fries. I’m not sure if she wants to be wild or calm, so I prod. “But you can be calm when you want to.”
“Which do you like better?” She watches me, studies me almost. Her eyes go to my hand draped casually across the top of the booth, then traverse my arm, my chest. Finally her heated gaze stops on my face. Like she’s seeing me in a different light right this very moment.
“Calm,” I say softly.