He sighed and closed his eyes in defeat. “Fine, give me a damn line,” he muttered. I smiled, thinking of a line he could use. I didn’t want to give him one that was too good; after all, I didn’t actually want her to fall for it. “Okay, how about you say; do you mind if I hang out here until it’s safe back where I farted?” I joked, knowing he wouldn’t ever say that to a girl. He looked at me in disbelief. Seth and Wayne both burst out laughing. I grinned and shook my head at his gullibility when he’d had a few drinks. “I was kidding. Okay here, say this; do you have sunburn or are you always this hot? That’s an oldie but a goodie.” I shrugged; believe it or not, that corny line had worked for me in the past. He groaned and looked back over to her nervously. “She’s going to shoot me down.” “That’s the point, I want her to shoot you down.” He rolled his eyes. “You owe me for this, Jace.” He turned and walked off, and we watched as she laughed and shook her he
“Wow, now I feel a little like a hooker,” she replied. I burst out laughing at her randomness. “A hooker, really? Does that mean you'll put out if I take you home with me?” She moved closer, raising one eyebrow. “What do you think the answer to that question is?” I blinked a couple of times. I’d never had a girl behave like this with me, usually once I’d made my move they were hanging all over me, listening to me talk, or just checking me out. It was refreshing to meet a girl that could hold her own against me. I decided to go for the honest answer. “My guess is I’m going to bed with a mental image of you, some lube and a box of tissues.” She burst out laughing and shook her head as she slapped my chest playfully. “You just get cruder and cruder the more I talk to you.” I did a little bow as if it was a compliment, which caused her to laugh harder. “So anyway, change of subject; why would your parents name you Ashley if your surname was Right? I mean, tha
I glanced in the mirror, messing with my hair for another couple of minutes, trying to make myself look the best that I could before heading over to Bryson’s. I really needed to give it my best effort tonight. Finally satisfied, I sighed and looked myself over; jeans and a plain, white T-shirt. I didn’t want to go there dressed to the nines and make it too obvious that I was desperate for her attention. “Get your game on, Jace,” I mumbled, as I slipped on my sneakers and headed to my best friend’s apartment to crash their dinner party. Well, ‘crash’ wasn’t exactly right because I’d called this morning and managed to talk Anna into inviting me over; whining that I hadn’t eaten properly for ages and how I'd had a hard week. As always, she fell for it. In reality, she probably knew the reason I was angling for an invite. On the way there, I stopped at the gas station, buying a bunch of flowers for Anna and a bottle of wine. By the time I pulled up at their apartment, I felt a
Laughing, she pushed the door open, holding it open for me to go in after her. I followed her in eagerly, looking around. The apartment was basic, and half unpacked boxes were stacked all over the place. “Coffee?” she offered, as she headed towards her poky little kitchen. “Sure.” I followed her in, watching as she made it. I couldn’t keep my eyes away from her ass. Every time she turned around, my hands were itching to grab her, so I shoved them in my pockets to remove the temptation. “So, it looks like you’re almost done moving in,” I observed, trying to distract myself from staring at her body. Ashley sighed and nodded, frowning at the two boxes in the corner, labelled kitchen non-essentials. “Yeah, jeez, I hate moving. It’s such a pain. You don't realise how much crap you hoard until you’re boxing it all up,” she muttered, handing me a mug of coffee and nodding towards the sugar pot for me to help myself. I shook my head, smiling. “I’m sweet enough.” “Of course you are,
Throughout the following day, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. It annoyed the hell out of me that she was so hot and unavailable. I’d always wanted what I couldn’t have. My mind flicked to Ashley again, and a strange excitement resided in the base of my stomach. I knew tonight was just a friendly dinner, of course, but I was seriously hoping to sweep her off her feet and make her change her mind by the end of the night. My preparations were already made. A table had been booked at a fairly nice and romantic restaurant, the flowers and chocolates had been bought – I was all set. All I needed before I went was to get my game back, and then I’d be able to charm her straight into bed. A punch to my shoulder made me wince, and I looked up at Russell, frowning. I’d been off in my own little world thinking about her again, and forgotten I was in the middle of a training, sparring session with one of my teammates. Shaking my head to clear it, I brought my hands up to protec
Minutes later the waitress came over to take our orders. Ashley was chuckling to herself quietly as the lady tried to flirt with me, but I wasn’t in the mood – well, not unless the little gorgeous brunette sitting opposite me was up for it. “So, what does it feel like to be the most beautiful thing in the room? I’ve always wondered,” I asked, once the waitress disappeared. Ashley smiled weakly. “Look, Jace, I know you’re trying really hard, and I honestly appreciate the effort, but this just isn’t going to go your way. I don't sleep with guys unless I’m in love with them, so you’re fighting a losing battle if you're trying to get me into bed. Let’s just cut the act, and maybe we could be friends?” she offered hopefully. I blinked, taking in her words. She didn’t sleep with guys unless she was in love with them? She had to have been yanking my chain with that. There was no way that could be true; she was probably just trying to scare me away from her. I nodded and t
As I turned, I saw her standing just behind me. I grinned as I set my hands on her hips and lifted her onto the counter. A sexy little squeak of surprise left her lips as a blush coloured her cheeks. While she busied herself pulling on the bottom of her dress, trying to cover up her legs where it had risen up, I grabbed two mugs from the cupboard that I’d seen her get them from last time. We took the coffees into the lounge and when she sat herself on the sofa next to me, instead of one of the two other free chairs, I decided to take that as a good sign. Now, if I could get her to agree to come out with me again, then maybe I would have a real chance with her. I’d just have to be patient for a few dates until she was ready to give it up. I could be patient; well, I was pretty sure I could anyway; I’d never actually tried. We talked easily about movies that we’d seen recently or things that she wanted to see. She was gushing about some crappy sounding romantic comedy that s
All through the next few days I couldn’t stop myself from texting her. Thankfully though, she obviously didn’t think I was coming on too strong because she replied to every single one, plus she hadn’t cancelled for Friday. Throughout the week, my mind would wander to her as soon as I had free time. I’d be sitting watching TV and something that she’d said or text me would spring to the front of my mind and I’d just sit there laughing. I’d had such a busy week, working twelve hour shifts, that by the time I got home all I wanted to do was eat, sleep and text Ashley. On Thursday night I called her just to make sure we were still set for our date. It was the first time I’d actually spoken to her since Monday and the sound of her voice made a goofy smile slip onto my face. We’d ended up talking on the phone for over an hour. Usually talking to girls bored me, but with Ashley I just seemed to enjoy her company and her personality. When I finally disconnected the
I was shaking. No, that wasn’t right, the bed was shaking. Or someone was shaking me which was making the bed shake? “Daddy!” I cracked my stinging eyes open to see DJ bouncing on the edge of my bed with a grin stretched across his face. Groaning, I rubbed my eyes and pushed myself up on one elbow. “Hey, Kid. What’s up?” I rasped. “Momma saids I needed to wake you up,” he replied. I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. “Where is Momma anyway?” Yawning, I glanced around the room. I usually got a better wake up than that if I’d been on sixteen hour nights all week! He beamed up at me. “She’s going out to buys a new dress for the party tonight. You gots to look after me.” His smile told me he was pleased about it. I remembered Ashley mentioning something about having to buy a new dress. “I do? Well maybe we should think of something fun to do today then, huh? How about we go play catch at the park or something?” I offered, knowing he wanted to test ou
She giggled and gripped my shoulders, rolling me over onto my back as she sat up on top of me, holding one arm across her chest, keeping her dress in place. “You didn’t have to get me anything; it’s not a tradition or anything. I just really wanted you to have this tonight,” she assured me, bending and kissing my lips softly. When she pulled back, my hands instinctively tightened on her waist. I didn’t want to let her go, I felt whiny and needy and I just didn’t want her to get off me even if it was only to get something from her bag three feet away from me. She smiled and pushed my hands off her, climbing out of the bed and heading over to the bag. While she was busy, I took the opportunity to slip off my shoes. As I pulled it off, something white caught my eye on the sole of it. I turned it over to see I had two big letters: L and P, written on the bottom of one of my shoes in white marker. Frowning in confusion, I grabbed my other shoe and looked at the sole of that one
“I love you, Mrs Roger,” I whispered, looking into her eyes. My whole future was mapped out before me. It didn’t matter what happened from here on out, as long as I had this girl in my arms every single day I could cope with anything. Instead of replying, she just crashed her lips back to mine again in a scorching hot kiss that was seriously inappropriate for people to be watching, especially standing at the front of the church. The vicar obviously thought so too. “I think your guests are getting impatient,” he said tersely. Ashley broke the kiss immediately and stiffened, as if she forgot where we were and that we weren’t on our own. She blushed and hid her face in the side of my neck as I wrapped my arm around her tightly. “We’re just starting as we mean to go on,” I joked, winking at the vicar. Ashley pinched my stomach playfully as she giggled against my neck. That was a typical Jace and Ashley moment. In my eyes, if the wedding had gone beautifully, then it wo
I didn’t feel nervous at all. Not when Seth started talking about never sleeping with another girl again. Not when he was teasing me that half of all marriages end in divorce. Not when he was telling me that once you got married you only had sex on birthdays and anniversaries. I didn’t even get nervous when Bryson started humming the wedding march. But as soon as I stepped into the church, my legs weakened and my throat seemed to close up as my tongue felt like it swelled to twice its normal size. I was getting married today. I was actually terrified of that thought – not because I didn’t want to marry Ashley, but because every single person from my family was going to watch me stand up the front of the church congregation and say my vows. I’d heard it was normal to get cold feet, but that wasn’t what this was; I was just terrified of screwing it up for Ashley. This was her one and only wedding day, because there was not a chance I was letting her get away from me to marry som
“Are you sure it’s straight?” I asked, frowning at the homemade banner with the words ‘Welcome Home’ emblazoned across it that was now tacked to the wall of the lounge. “It’s straight. The same as it was straight before you climbed on the chair and started fiddling with it. Will you stop stressing?” Anna teased, chuckling. I hopped down off the chair and nodded, forcing myself to take a couple of deep breaths. I’d planned this day out for the last two weeks that Jace had been stuck in the hospital for, I just could hardly wait to have him home so I could fuss over him and treat him like the hero that he really was. Seeing him for an hour at a time at the hospital just wasn’t enough for me. “How much longer do you think they’ll be?” I asked, checking my watch for the hundredth time today. I could barely wait another second. Anna shrugged, selecting a cupcake from the table that was laden with buffet style welcome home afternoon tea we’d made. “Shouldn’t be too much longer, Bryson sa
After a couple of minutes of us just sitting on the bed, talking about what pictures I was going to ask Anna to draw on my casts, Ashley poked her head in the door. She looked a little nervous as she chewed on her lip. When I smiled reassuringly and waved her in, she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “You two okay in here?” she asked, stepping in. DJ grinned and nodded. “Momma, Jace wants to a-dot me and Woody. He wants to be my daddy,” he boasted. “We all getted new names!” Ashley laughed to herself, her eyes sparkling as they met mine. “He wants to adopt both of you? Wow, that’s nice of Jace, huh? Roger is a pretty nice name,” she said breathlessly, heading over to sit on the bed with us. She took my hand and I interlaced our fingers, grinning. “DJ likes the idea of us getting married,” I told her proudly. “That’s a coincidence, because I like the idea too,” she replied, blushing. She sighed and nodded towards the door. “My parents want to come in a
After a little while, Ashley had to excuse herself to go back up to DJ. My parents and Bryson kept me busy, fussing over me for a few hours, before they left too so I could get some rest. Once I was alone, I tried my hardest to sleep, but sleep didn’t come easy, and even when it did, I was plagued with dreams of the fire. Memories flooded my brain, images of Ashley shaking and mumbling words that I couldn’t understand while she was standing by the ambulance. I dreamt of DJ and the look he gave me when he understood that we were going to die. Thankfully, the hospital was busy, so I was woken often by talking or doctors banging around. The noises brought me out of my nightmares before they reached the climax. That afternoon, after I’d finished choking down some hospital garbage that they called ‘food’ the door opened and my beautiful girlfriend stood there with a huge smile stretched across her face. “Hey, you,” she greeted. I smiled, happy to see her again. “Hi.
I took a deep breath, willing myself not to mess it up. “As soon as you said those three words to me, I was going to drop down on one knee and propose to you.” I said it quickly before I wimped out and didn’t do it. She didn’t react how I thought she would though. She didn’t gasp and look at me shocked. Instead, she burst out laughing, shaking her head. “That’s a good one,” she replied around her giggles, settling herself back down onto the bed next to me. I remained silent, waiting for her to catch on that I wasn’t joking. Slowly, I saw it sink in. The giggles stopped, and the smile slowly faded from her face as her eyes widened. “Oh God, seriously?” she asked breathlessly. I nodded in confirmation. “Seriously. But your timing ruined that for me too. I can’t exactly get down on one knee right now because one’s busted and the other leg’s broken, so that plan’s out of the window.” I laughed at my choice of words. Out of the window – yeah, it literally was. “Jace, wh
I pulled the mask off my face so I could talk. “There goes my dancing plans this weekend,” I joked, shifting uncomfortably on the bed. The doctor laughed quietly. “Because of the burns to your legs, we can’t cast it straight away. We need to let the skin heal a little before we can cover it. We’ll have to leave the temporary one on for a few days, then see how you’re getting on after that. You’ll have to stay here for a few days, I’m afraid. The burns need monitoring, and you’ll be started on a two week course of antibiotics to ward off any infections.” I frowned. I really didn’t want to stay here, I hated hospitals. “Will the burns heal or…” I trailed off, wondering what my legs were going to look like after this. The worst of it was on my right leg, covering most of my shin. He nodded. “We’ll move you to the burns centre as soon as we’ve dealt with your other injuries. They’re more equipped to deal with it there. You were very lucky though. The dampness of your cloth