Ash lay next to Hunter on the bed in the guestroom. She felt tired from her head down to her toes. She had cried for a long time, maybe twenty minutes. Twenty minutes of grief for a childhood lost.Ash"s mother didn"t have a funeral. She had no living relatives in the country where she died, so no one came forward to make funeral arrangements for her. Even after her death was reported on the news, no friends or coworkers came forward looking for her or her daughter. Her own husband was still missing.
Narra Flores Parker had died alone, leaving behind her only daughter.
Ash didn"t know where her mother"s body was or what happened to it; she never thought to ask. The matter had been taken care of and Ash had been too young to know to ask any questions.
Ash was eighteen now. She was an adult. She had a right to know where her mother"s body was buried. She would demand this information of the orphanage immediately when she returned.
Ash buried her face in Hunter"s chest. He wrapped both his arms around her and squeezed.
"Thank you," she said, squeezing her eyes shut.
"I love you," Hunter said.
Ash squeezed her eyes shut even harder. It felt good to hear his words. It felt good to hear that somebody in this world loved her. She didn"t know for sure what he meant by it, but it didn"t matter. Being cuddled and hearing that she was loved was enough.
Hunter, on the other hand, was panicking quietly. Ash hadn"t said she loved him back. He felt the empty seconds tick away, hearing no echo of his professed love being returned.
[Isn"t she supposed to say it back? It"s not like it"s hard to say.]
"Do you mean that?" Ash asked him quietly.
Hunter"s panic went from a hard 10 to a less than average 4. She still hadn"t said "I love you" back, but at least she was speaking to him.
"I mean it. I love you," he said.
Ash rose from the bed and wiped her eyes.
"I"m going to take a shower," she said. She climbed off the bed and headed for the bathroom.
Hunter covered his face with his hands and groaned into his palms. She didn"t say it back! He told her he loved her and she went to take a shower? Did she do that just to leave the room? Did his words make her feel dirty?
As the sound of running shower water rushed into his ears, he flipped over onto his stomach and buried his face into the pillow. [Maybe it"s my turn to cry now,] he thought dejectedly. He wished so hard that he could take his words back.
The sound of the water finally stopped and he heard Ash moving around in the bathroom. She was going to come out soon and he needed to decide whether he would stay in the guesthouse with her or slink back to his room in the main house with his tail between his legs. It was so embarra.s.sing, being shot down like that. He turned his face away from the bathroom door.
The bathroom door opened and closed. He listened to the sound of Ash"s feet padding on the floor going toward the bed. He squeezed his eyes shut, thinking to pretend that he was asleep. Ash sat down next to him on the bed. He felt her skin on the tips of his fingers and immediately whirled around to look at her.
She was sitting naked on his bed.