I position the phone on the coffee table and tap to change to speaker. “Say hello to Danny.”
“Hi, Danny,” Ashley says, doing her best impression of sunshine.
Danny is silent for a second then he says in an incredulous tone, “Did you find her?”
“I did and now she's here and there's lots of news to share but I'll save that for later.” He looks down at Zeke cradled in his arms and smiles at the sleeping boy before he continues. “What I was calling for was to tell you I need my million dollars back. I am no longer the loser in the group.”
Danny laughs, though it’s more of a snicker. “Not so fast. I have news of a tweak to the dating rules.”
“What kind of tweak? Are you changing the rules because I won?”
“Of course not. I’m changing the rules to make it more fun. I’m upping the ante. Increasing the skin we have in the game. Making—”
“Okay, we get it. There’s been a rule change. Why didn’t you send a group message?”
“Because that wouldn’t be any fun. I’m enjoying telling each of you separately.”
“You didn’t want us to gang up on you and make you change it back.”
“That I did not.” He laughs again and I hear Tina telling him not to be such a smart ass. She’s a clever woman.
“So, what’s the change that’s got you so excited?”
“Hang on. Do you know about this Ashley?” I hear the worry in Danny’s voice. We all remember what happened when Jillian found out by mistake. None of us wants a repeat of that.
“She knows about the bet. Relax.”
“Okay. Good. Well, the old rule was that everyone had to get a date. It turns out each of you have exceeded my expectations on that one. So, the new rule is you have to have the date and you have to get married.”
“Wow,” Ashley says.
“Wow is right, my dear girl.” Danny puts on a voice that makes him sound like he’s stepped out of an old book. “Of course, now I’m on track to win. Purely coincidence, I assure you. I wish I had recorded Everett’s reaction for you all. He lost his mind saying he had one more person forcing him to get married.”
I laugh, and Ashley stares at me, her face full of questions. Her trusting eyes give me a wicked idea. I raise my eyebrows and tilt my head with a shrug of my shoulders as if to say, ‘how ‘bout it?’ She laughs, glances at Zeke, then nods. I can’t tell if she knows exactly what she’s agreeing to but the fear that has been tickling at the edge of my brain all day drifts away.
She’s mine. I’m hers. And anything we decide to do, the other will support, no matter how crazy.
There’s an exhilarating freedom knowing you have support like that. That someone has your back.
I slouch over the phone to make sure Danny hears me loud and clear. “Well, Danny. I’m still gonna need my million back. I still win.” Instead of waiting for a reply, I disconnect the call and sit up straight. Danny will be freaking out at the other end, and the knowledge pleases me no end. This is exactly what he’d do to me if he had the chance.
Zeke hiccups in my arms and it sounds like a squeaky toy. Ashley pushes the blanket away from his mouth and kisses his head. “Did we just agree to get married?”
“I think we did. How do you feel about that?”
“Well.” She stares at the baby. Our baby. I smile every time I think of him being ours. “I’d rather take a chance at us and fail, than spend a lifetime wondering about what could have been. I need something from you, though.”
“Anything.”
“I need to know why you’re talking about a million dollars.” She frowns and squints as though she’s had a new thought. “And did I hear you offer the security guy fifty thousand dollars at the club last night?”
“Uh… I,” I stutter. That only ever happens when I’m nervous. Being nervous about secret billionaire confessions is normal, right? I’m ashamed to admit that I use the baby to deflect attention from her question. “I’m reluctant to put him down but does Zeke need to go in his bed?” I bat my eyelashes at her and grin. Ashley sees right through me, of course.
“I’ll let this subject change go for now.” She tuts at me. “He probably does need to go down. He loves to snuggle, though.” Ashley stands up and retrieves Zeke from my arms. I stretch out my elbow and rub it and she smiles. “He gets heavy, doesn’t he?”
“I don’t know how that’s even possible.”
“Me either.” She moves toward the hallway and I follow. “But if you hold him long enough, you’ll discover muscles you never knew existed.”
Zeke’s room is decorated in blue. Everything he owns is blue by the look.
“Did you know what you were having?” I ask. Despite how thrilled I am to be here I still can’t shake the longing for all that I’ve missed. Baby shopping looks like a huge task. There must be one of everything in Zeke’s room. It bothers me that she did all this on her own.
Ashley settles him in his crib and pats his bottom. “I wasn’t going to find out, but in the end I had to be practical so, yes. I knew he’d be a blue one.” She smiles at me and there’s something different about her. She’s kind of… serene. Like a weight has lifted off her shoulders in the last few hours. I’m a selfish bastard but I’m tempted to coax her back to bed while the baby sleeps. I’d like to bathe in that glow of hers.
Instead, I ignore my urges and take her hand. We walk back to the living room like that, our fingers entwined, smiles on both our faces. We sit across from each other, the coffee table in between us as I spread my hands out on the glass.
“Alright. I don’t want you to freak out, okay. Promise?”
“I semi-promise.” Ashley grins. “Until I know what you’re going to say how do I know I won’t freak out?”
“You just agreed to marry me so I could win a bet. I think you’ll manage.”
She slides her hand over mine. “It wasn’t so you could win the bet. Not for a second.” Her face is serious; her eyes searching. We have so much to learn about each other.
Funny how I shared Danny’s silly bet with her right away but I waited to explain the money. Ashley will handle the news, just like she handles everything. She’ll take it all in stride, ask some questions, then move on. I wish we didn’t have to discuss it, though. For me, the romance kind of dies with a discussion like this. At least I know I have her heart.
“Okay. The crux of it is this. When we get married, you’ll become a millionaire.”
“Err. What?”
“I don’t want a prenup and I’m extremely well-off.”
“Define extremely.” She’s frowning at the table when she should be smiling and calculating how much she can get me to spend on a ring. I’m beginning to realise that Ashley never reacts the way I expect. She’s a mystery to be discovered one clue at a time.
“It’s a lot. The deal I was doing in the club last night made me thirty million dollars. And it’s one of many deals. I’ve bought and sold businesses and created some from scratch.” Her eyes are round as saucers, her fingers hanging limp in mine. “Also, Danny who you spoke to before and my other friends. They are similarly well-off.”
A low whistle slips from her lips. “So, when you offered that guy fifty grand, you meant it?”
“I did.” I click my fingers. “Which reminds me. I owe the other guy a cheque. The last one you spoke with.”
“Slav?”
“If that’s his name. I paid him to let me through.”
“How much?”
“I promised him the value of his club. He said that was two million.”
“You can’t be serious. You’re not going to pay him two million dollars to let you out a side door to run after me. That’s crazy.” She wiggles her head. Her mind is blown.
“But I got you so, to me it was worth it. If he hadn’t let me through, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now. I’d be on a beach in Vanuatu, crying over my lonely life. And you’d be searching for work instead of relaxing and feeding your baby. Our baby.” I’m quick to correct myself and she smiles.
“I can’t believe this. It’s like something out of a movie.”
“Imagine how things would have been different if we’d just exchanged numbers. All this news would be a distant memory.”
“Hmm. What happened to the flight you had booked for today?”
“No idea. I didn’t show up.” I laugh. I miss international flights all the time. “I guess they’ve figured out I’m not coming.”
“You didn’t cancel?”
“Nope. I was kinda busy chasing my girl up the street and convincing her to be mine forever. And right after that, I was having my mind blown by the introduction to a tiny human.”
“Fair enough.”
“There are a few other details that we’ll discuss over time, but you get the idea. Also, that trip to the Maldives will be the perfect way for us to celebrate the anniversary of the day we met. It’s like Danny planned it just for us.” We grin at each other and finally I can’t stand the distance between us anymore. I pull her to a standing position and wrap my arms around her. “Ashley Harris. You’ve made me the happiest man alive today. Now can I please undress you and take you to bed?”