Page 47 of Tailwhip
Shrugging his shoulders, he says, “It’s all good. She made the right choice!” He says this with a cocky grin. We stay and hang out at the bar for a few more hours and by the time we leave, it’s late.
Pulling into the driveway, I notice the light is on in the room Ashlynn uses as her writing room. I'm happy to see she's still awake, so I can talk to her. Opening the front door, I make my way inside. I close it and lock up for the night. I peek in the room, and she is not in there. I head to the den–maybe she is watching TV and didn’t hear me come in, but she is not in there either. I don’t hear any water running, so she isn’t in the shower. Coming up to her bedroom, she has the door cracked. Quietly pushing it open, I see that she is there, asleep, holding onto a book that is laying on the mattress. I love this girl and, to be honest, I would move back here to be with her.
I jump in the shower really quick before I get in bed. Once out, I grab the book from her grip and when I lift it, a picture falls out of the spot she was on. It lands on the mattress, face down. I recognize the handwriting and the words I wrote on it. I whisper them. “You are my forever.”
I flip it over and it is a picture of us from high school. Setting the book on the nightstand, I crawl into bed. Pulling the blankets over us both, I try not to disturb Ashlynn, but she wakes up and rolls over to look at me. Leaning in for a kiss, she takes my lips lightly. “I’ll come to Greenville,” she says.
Pulling back, I’m shocked with her agreeing to move to my home. “Baby, I don’t want you to do that unless you really want to. I’m sorry for being so rude earlier.”
Ashlynn moves and nuzzles into my neck, and I wrap her up in my arms tight. Laying in the quiet and dark room, I whisper to her, “I was thinking while driving home, that maybe we should buy a house together and make it our home! What do you think?”
I hear Ashlynn take a sharp inhale and she tightens her arms around me, “Okay, I like that idea! Making a home with you.”
She can’t see me, but I do have the biggest smile on my face. I can make out the silhouette of her profile; I tilt her chin up, and whisper, “I love you!”
I take her lips and give her a slow deep kiss. Pulling back from my lips, she whispers, “Always, always!”
28
Anthony
What You’re Doing to Me – Trevor Something
It’s been a week since we have been back in Frisco and decided to find a house to buy together. We are having a harder time narrowing down where to buy the house. “So, no Seattle for you, right?” Ashlynn asks me.
“No, babe. I don’t think I could handle that rain and fog all the time!”
Looking over and smiling at me, she says, “That’s a bummer! That’s my ideal weather.”
Pulling Ashlynn into my side on the couch and kissing her temple, I say, “You are crazy, to always want gloom.”
“How about Texas?” Ashlynn says and I am a bit surprised she suggests that.
“Texas would be nice, where we started again! What city?”
Letting out a sigh and throwing her hand up, she says, “Not sure–we can figure it out at some point.”
After our usual daily talk about where we should move, I let Ashlynn convince me to go for a walk around Dillon Reservoir, even though it's freezing outside. It doesn’t seem to faze her. I guess living up in the mountain town gets you used to walking around in the cold and snow. After walking for a little, Ashlynn stops and turns to me. “Can I ask you a question?”
“You can ask me anything.”
She brings her hands up and blows into them to warm them up. Then, she finally asks, “How are we going to get a house, when we each already have one?”
I honestly haven’t thought that far yet. “Well, my house is paid for. So, we would only need to worry about your house. If you wanted to, we could keep it and use it for our vacation home when we come to Colorado.”
Ashlynn nods her head in agreement, then gets a confused look on her face. “Wait, your house is paid off? Haven’t you only been in it for three years?”
Here is something we haven’t talked about; Ashlynn doesn’t know just how well off I am financially from my riding and company. “Well, I have Chase to thank for it, really. He is smart when it comes to investments. After every competition, my winnings go right into one of the accounts he has set up. I have a total of three. One for me personally, another for Overbear, and the last one for the team.” She grabs my hand, and we continue walking. “Let’s go home, it’s freezing out here,” I tell her.
Rounding the corner to our house, I see Nick’s rental car parked out front. I asked them to come over and surprise Ashlynn for an early birthday, since hers falls on Thanksgiving this year. She also doesn’t know that Noah and Mateo are here. I invited them out for Thanksgiving, but told them to come earlier if they wanted, too. Before Ashlynn steps up to the door, I grab her hand to stop her from opening the door. “What’s wrong? I am freezing, let’s go in!”
I place my hand over her eyes, just like I did in Seattle, “I have a little surprise for you, so you need to close your eyes.”
Laughing, she says, “Anthony, you do way too many surprises for me!”
Leaning down, I say, “It’s because I kind of like you!”
Full on laughing, she says, “Only kind of?”