Double Update, because I really intended this to be part of the last chapter but it got too long. This is the flip side of Leed's day-- coming home after the tension of the Colossus meeting
I hope you'll check out the song - Anderson East's "House Is A Building." It's one of my favorite songs and I debated using it for the recent Trace POV chapter, but I felt like, ultimately, this is a Lash song. I love Anderson East's voice...he has one of those rich, rough voices like I imagine Leed might have at some times .(Like when his throat is a little tired, or he's smoked out, lol. Most of the time I imagine his voice a little smoother.)
Leed
Coming home has never felt like this.
When I walk in the door, it's a full sensory assault. I smell marinara, cheese and basil wafting warm through the air. I hear the soulful strains of modern roots music playing softly, and Ashlynn singing along. As I hang my keys in the mudroom, I note she found her gift after all, and I snatch it up and put it in my pocket, rubbing my thumb over the new item that I hope will find a frequent home here. Then I round the corner and see my girl standing in my kitchen. She's turned away and I'm glad, because it gives me a longer moment to enjoy the sight.
Her blond hair falls in ripples down her back, and her pink sweater is long—I can only see the frayed edges of her short shorts beneath it. Slanting sun from the windows stripes her bare legs and feet as she pads softly around the walnut floor, dancing with my son. Ollie sees me. I put my finger to my lips—not because I want to sneak up on her but just because I want to watch this amazing scene for as long as I can. Ollie's still learning the cool cat signals, so he doesn't play along. He squeals at the sight of me.
Which is gratifying. And so is Ashlynn's smile as she swings around, lifting Ollie slightly.
"There's Daddy! We missed him today, didn't we?" Ollie pats her head, grabbing a fistful of her hair and she laughs, despite the fact that he's tugging pretty hard.
"Hey now, get your own woman to drag around by the hair, Little Man. This one's mine," I tell him, as I reach my hands out to him. He automatically lunges for me, in the process releasing her hair. I pelt him with exaggerated kisses and hold him to the side, out of reach of golden locks as I pull her to me in a one-armed embrace.
"Where are my kisses?" she teases me.
"Here," I kiss the top of her head. "And here." Her temple. "And here." Her cheek. "And the best for last," I lose myself in the taste of her lips. God, she's so sweet. Like a vanilla dessert warmed by the sun. I dance with her and Ollie while I kiss her, until Ollie loses patience with being ignored. His squeals turn to whines.
"We know you're here, Ollie." I meet his eyes and he immediately quiets. "Hey, how about you check out your toys? Cool? Cool." I give Ashlynn one last smooch before I plop Ollie into his bouncer seat on the kitchen table and attach the toy bar. He's already learned that kicking makes lights and music, so he goes to town, swinging his legs and bringing his heels down heavily. I spend a couple of minutes naming the colors that light up the toy bar, and when he starts to bat at the toys, I ease away.
"Something smells delicious," I peak in the oven. "Italian?"
"Yep. Eggplant lasagna." Ashlynn is chopping vegetables for a salad.
"Daaaaaaaamnnnn." I swing to the island and move behind her, quickly braiding her hair so Ollie won't grab another fistful in a few minutes. While she chops, I molest her a little bit, feeling her booty and her belly and running lightly down the seam of her thighs, but she likes it. She giggles as I ask, "How was your day, Sunshine?"
"Great. After yoga and my ninety-second search for my gift, I came over and got to know Miranda a little bit, did a little grocery shopping, took a walk down to Trace's with Ollie to water his plants and stuff, and then started dinner Now you're here, which is the best part of my day."
"Hmmmmm, sounds good." I hold her present up before her. "You can have a day like that any time, you know. You have a standing invitation, anytime you want to come over, stay over, whatever. You are always welcome."
She looks at the ornate sunflower locket that I had made into key chain, complete with a bright yellow leather tassel. It has a single key on itthe key to front door. Really that's just a symbol. The locket is inscribed with the gate and door codes.
She fingers the tassel. "Thank you. I want to stay tonight. I missed you so much."
"Ditto," I envelop her in a chaste hug. "I missed all of you. Your laugh, your light, your wit."
"That's so sweet." She wraps her arms tight around my neck and delivers a soft suck and bite below my ear.
"And your tits," I add. "Missed your tits a lot. And obviously, I've already demonstrated to my Honeypie how much I missed her. I also missed your mouth, and your ass, and—"
She slaps me on the ass. "You just couldn't leave at it sweet, could you?" She's smiling, though.
"I'll show you sweet, all evening, and all night." I turn to the beverage cooler. "I'll start by making you a drink. What would you like?"
"Surprise me."
I make her a tropical juice combo with a splash of seltzer, and reverse the quantities in mine...mostly water, just a little juice. We clink the fancy glasses. Ollie has fallen asleep in the bouncer. "Where's Miranda, anyway?"
Ashlynn bites her lip. "Okay, don't be mad..."
I wince. "You didn't fire her?"
"No!" Ashlynn's eyes widen.
"Accidentally run over her with the Mercedes?"
"No," she swats at me.
"Tie her up in the yoga studio in some kind of lesbian bondage fantasy?"
She just rolls her eyes at that one.
"Awww, shit. You totally intimidated her with your fantastic babycare skills and she quit, huh?" I'm only partially hopeful this isn't the case.
"No. I spent hours with her, and I can assure you, she's fine with Ollie. I think she's just nervous around you, because you don't talk to her."
I say nothing. I haven't cold-shouldered the girl, but I haven't gone out of my way to make her my bestie, either. I'm not stupid like Adam. I don't need a Marley situation. It's best if I keep things professional with the nannies. Especially if Ashlynn is going to be jetting off every few weeks and leaving me cohabitating with them.
"Okay, well, actually...that makes me feel better." I snag a cucumber slice. "Mmm...glad you leave the peels on. I like the peels. So where is our entirely proficient nanny? She can put Ollie down and we can have a romantic dinner for two, maybe get in the hot tub."
Ashlynn bites her lip again. "I gave her the afternoon off. She'll be back by nine. We can take the baby monitor out to the hot tub when we put Ollie down, though. That sounds great."
I munch slowly on another cucumber, trying to come up with most diplomatic way to ask Ashlynn why she gave the nanny the afternoon off. I don't mind, exactly. I trust Ashlynn with Ollie, but I know that Tamara has her reservations. And maybe Ashlynn just wanted some one on one time with Ollie, but that can only serve to amp Tam up, too.
She stops cutting and sighs. "I should have checked with you. I know that. I also knew your meeting was important and I didn't want to interrupt. And once I understood that the reason Miranda has been so uncomfortable around you all week is because she really needed the afternoon off and was afraid to ask you, well...I made a command decision."
"What was the big important reason?"
Ashlynn smiles. "She got a call-back for a tv series. It's a big deal, she's only been in LA six months and it was her first one."
"Really? Wow, she must have the spark to be such a noob and get a call-back. That's...that's great for her. But also shit for us, because if she gets the part, we will have to replace her and she's just starting to figure things out."
Ashlynn gives me a disappointed look and points the large chef's knife at me. "Leed, think about what you're saying."
I sigh heavily. "I know. The girl's following her big dream, just like me and Trace, Madam and Bodes. Of course I would have let her go, how could I not?" I smile at her. "You made the right call, and actually I'm proud of you for doing it. I trust you with Ollie, and Tam's going to have to get used to that."
She beams. "Just so you know...I didn't drive with him to the grocery store. I made Sawyer drive us. I just had a seizure two weeks ago. I feel confident enough to risk myself driving, but not confident enough to drive Ollie."
"Okay, cool. Just for the record...I'm not thrilled about you driving yourself. Especially at high speeds."
"I know. I'll just stick to Calabasas and residential Atlanta, and try to stay off the highways, until I'm sure the seizure was an isolated thing."
I squint at her. I know she needs to be able to drive, I don't want to make her afraid, and like her, I think the seizure was an isolated thing. "Okay. But if you die, I'm gonna kill you."
"Deal," she giggles. She moves on to chopping a colored pepper.
"How was your meeting?"
"Sort of shitty," I confess. "I didn't exactly mean for it to happen, but the things I said are getting Arabella released from her recording contract. And we can't tell Bodie right now...we all think he should focus on himself and not Bell's problems."
She nods. "So you defended Bodie by explaining how he was in a downward spiral with Arabella and Moran decided to cut her loose?"
"Not Moran. Slade, the President of Colossus. He came to the meeting."
Ashlynn puts the knife down when I reach near to snag a piece of pepper.
"I'd never met him," I add off-handedly. "Not sure what to make of him."
She tips the vegetables into the salad bowl and palms a crown of broccoli. "Kitchen shears?" she says lightly. I reach in a drawer and hand them across to her, as she snips tiny stems of broccoli neatly into the salad.
"I'd never thought of cutting it like that."
"Less messy," she says neutrally, glancing over at Ollie, then behind me to the oven. "Can you take the food out?"
"Sure. So anyway, Slade...he's pretty intense."
"What makes you say that?"
I rummage the drawer by the oven for mitts. "He didn't just fire her. He called somebody—like the Wizard of Fucking Oz or someone—and had her blacklisted. Industry blacklisted. I didn't even know that was real. Riley says that means no other label will pick her up. Then he had Marcy shut down all her press. None of the major outlets will post any social shots of her, or do any formal press with her, if they want to keep Colossal good will. Which means her days of tv appearances and made for TV movies are over, too. It's like he's...disappearing her."
A crash behind me makes me turn quickly from the stove where I'm placing the lasagna. The sound startled Ollie, and he's squawking. Ashlynn has already crouched with a towel, wiping at the spray of spilled mocktail and gathering glass way too quickly for safety, cursing under her breath.
"Hey, hey, hey," I say grabbing her hands away. "Chill." I take the glass-filled towel from her and kiss her hand. "I'll get this if you'll talk the Cub down from his freak-out."
She nods and floats away to rinse her hands at coo at Ollie. He settles easily under her touch, but we decide to try to keep him up while we eat, so that he'll go down at his normal bedtime. I make plates and another drink for Ash while she carries him around the house, talking and teaching, and then we eat off the coffee table, while we rotate Ollie between our laps and a playmat on the floor.
It's nice. So fucking nice to just be with Ash and Ollie. Ashlynn looks like an angel in the soft lights of my living room and we talk mostly about Ollie—all the new things she's noticed he's doing in the week she was away. I rave about her eggplant lasagna—which is excellent—but she modestly tells me it's just a recipe that she found on Pinterest.
"Girl, Mac and I have a current Pinterest recipe fail rate of 65.1%. And yet somehow you managed to slay the recipe, watch a baby, and pre-clean the kitchen? There's nothing but a casserole dish, a salad bowl and our plates and cutlery shit to put in the dishwasher. Mac and I can't cook without it looking like a post zombie apocalypse house. We have to leave the housekeeper a bonus and a bottle of wine for each meal we make."
I don't even think I'm that funny, but Ashlynn always laughs at the stupid shit I say. We linger over the dinner, just talking about nothing and snickering. When Ollie fusses, Ashlynn suggests I give him a bath while she tidies up the kitchen, but I reverse the tasks because I know she loves taking care of him.
Thirty minutes later, Ollie is dressed in his Simba pj's, has had is bedtime bottle and, if all goes according to plan, is down for the night. Ash and I are chilling in the hot tub with the baby monitor when Miranda arrives. I gently chastise her for not telling me about her call-back and she blushes and says she bombed it anyway.
"Everyone feels that way at an audition," I tell her. "Soundcrush had so much buzz in Athens, and five big name scouts took a pass on us before we were signed. By the time Angelo Moran came to see us, we didn't even give a fuck anymore, and something in our rebellious attitude won us the gig. You never know what they might see in you. And anyway, I know what it's like to pray for a shot. They don't come around very often. Don't throw them away by not speaking up for yourself."
I tell her if she'll take the baby monitor duty til 3 am, I'll set an alarm and turn our monitor on for the early morning but she insists she'll cover the whole night. "He'll probably sleep anyway, he's such an easy baby."
"You're a star already in my book, Miranda!" I give her a thumbs up as she beams and waves goodnight.
Ashlynn kisses my cheek, and then pretends to slap me. "That was sweet. Don't make it a habit."
I laugh. "Goddamn, you're hard to please. You said be nice to her."
"Being nice is different than being charming."
I throw my arms wide. "I can't help it, baby. I'm naturally charming."
She straddles me, raking her fingers my wet hair. "That you are."
"Hmmmm...do you think I can charm you out of your bathing suit in this hot tub?" I ask, nipping at her ear.
She laughs at me. "Not with Sawyer and Miranda lurking on the premises."
"Oh well. Another night then."
We dry off and I keep one eye on Ashlynn's bedtime yoga practice and one eye browsing YouTube on my phone. A little later, in the dark warmth of my bed, we make love almost lazily, but it feels incredible. Every time with Ashlynn is different; every time is special. I'm still holding her, thinking she's fallen asleep when she says, "Arabella. She'll be hurt and angry when she realizes her career is lost. And she has a drug problem. She'll be very vulnerable."
I realize what Ashlynn means. Arabella will be vulnerable for someone to prey upon, like Ashlynn was.
I sigh. "She has an Uncle. Country crossover star, had a couple of top 40 hits back in the nineties. He understands the underworld of our scene, and I think he cares about her. He'll help her. I hope she takes her dismissal gracefully, though. Slade doesn't seem like a dude you want to have a vendetta against you."
"No, I suppose not."
She presses kisses into the tats on my shoulder and I press circles into her spine with pads of my fingers, and I'm not sure which one of us falls asleep first.
So I'm sure my loyal readers will have some things to say about Lash's conversation in this chapter. Spoiler--a new character is coming up soon. We will be meeting John and Ben's boss--the head of Sentinel Security.