Obsession

Ch 36 - Smash

Ashton laughed a little, but he sounded kind of nervous, like maybe he was afraid I wouldn't want him at my house. I asked him if he was serious, and he said, "I'm not kidding, Aubree. I just bought the plane ticket. All by myself, I might add. I'm leaving in just a couple of hours. I hope I actually manage to make it there by myself. I haven't done much traveling on my own."

"Holy crap. I can't believe this."

"You're not mad, are you?"

"Not at all! I'm just pleasantly surprised."

"I wanted to surprise you by showing up on your doorstep, but thought you'd rather know ahead of time. I don't want to intrude, but I really want to see you, if only for a little bit. I have to see for myself that you're okay. I'll stay at a hotel and rent a car and all that. I'll figure it out on the way."

"You'll do no such thing. The nearest hotel is nearly an hour from my house. I live in the middle of nowhere. We'll figure something out. Just tell me what time you're landing, and I'll be there to pick you up."

"Wait. Can you even drive?"

"Yeah, I haven't needed any painkillers in the past couple of days. It'll be fine."

Thank God my mom had felt bad for me and helped clean the house the day before since I hadn't been able to do much other than watch the kids run wild all week. I swear, she's the best ever.

I went on and got up and showered and everything, and spent a little time stressing over what to wear. As though Ashton even cared.

I left the kids with my mom while I picked up Ashton at the airport. It was the best feeling to have his arms around me again, though he was afraid he'd squeeze too tightly. It was a quick but sweet reunion because we didn't want to linger out in the open in case someone recognized him.

I wasn't quite ready to introduce him to my mother, but since I had to pick up the kids, there was really no way around it. She had offered to keep them overnight, but she'd done so much for me recently that I didn't want to burden her any more than I already had.

As expected, Ashton was a perfect gentleman with Mom. I could tell she was taken with him right away. But I had no idea what to expect when I called the kids down from the playroom. I had told them that I was going to pick up a friend, who was a boy, and he was going to spend the day with us. I found that having that kind of conversation with your own kids is kind of tricky. You don't really know how much information to offer at first. It was just downright weird and hard to explain.

They scrambled into the room, anxious to meet this mystery friend of mine. But once they were standing in front of him, they played the shy game.

I introduced them, saying, "Molly, Ashton, this is... well, his name is also Ashton. Ashton, this is Molly, and the little guy is Ashton. I'm gonna have to do something about your names. Like call you Big Ashton and Little Ashton or something."

Little Ashton tugged on my arm to get me to lean down so he could whisper in my ear, not so quietly I may add. "Mommy, he looks like Smash."

I was blown away that he recognized Ashton as Smash. He loved watching the video for Don't Stop, so it shouldn't have surprised me. When Molly heard what he said, and it registered in her little brain who Ashton was, her eyes got big and she covered her mouth in surprise.

Ashton bent down to get on their level and he said, "That's because I am Smash, little buddy. It's awesome to meet you." He gave each of them a high five, and that was all it took for them to become best friends. And from there on out, Ashton was known to my little family as Smash. My mom was lost, so I explained this Smash character to her. And Molly was simply smitten. Like mother like daughter, I guess. She couldn't stop smiling.