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Not at all what I was expecting. “You know, there are tattoo artists in Virginia. Really good ones, probably.”
He shrugs. “This tattoo is the most important one I’m ever going to get. I want it to be done by the best.”
“Okay. I’ll ask Heidi to try to get you an appointment while you’re here. If she can’t fit you in, I’ll fly you back out when she can.”
He runs a hand through his hair. “You don’t need to do all that. I’m not asking you to pull any strings or pay for anything. It’s just something I want to try to do while I’m here.”
“I know.” Oddly, my eyes are damp. “You don’t need me to pay you to be my friend, but I have the means to help you out and I want to do it. Isn’t that what friends do?”
“Yeah. Thanks.” He slaps his knees. “Now, what about you? Need a shoulder to cry on? Want to go to a gym and work out so hard you forget your own name?”
Now, I feel awkward. “Actually, I was hoping you might just want to hang at my place. Maybe grill up some veggies for dinner, play some cards, give me some real world advice?”
He stares at me for a long moment. “You want advice? From me? Did I forget to mention I’ve done jail time?”
I laugh. “You’ve mentioned it.” I stare out at the passing cars on the freeway, before turning back to him. “I’ve got friends. Not very many, but they’re good friends and I trust them. But they’re in the business. They’ve lived in this celebrity bubble I’ve lived in my whole life and they don’t know how to see past it any better than I do. I need someone who’s on the other side. Someone I trust. You and Clover and my aunt are it, but you’re the only one I feel like I can really talk to about this.”
He beams. “You want to get Honey back. I knew it.”
“No.” I’m thrown for a minute. “That’s not really the kind of advice I’m looking for. I’m not what Honey needs and I’m pretty sure she’s figured that out, since I haven’t heard from her.”
He shrugs. “The woman doesn’t confide in me or Clover, as far as I know. But can you honestly say you want to live the rest of your life wondering if you could have made it work with her?”
“It’s not that simple.” I stare out at the amazing view, but all I want to see is the mountains of Catalpa Creek. I’ve missed that place before, but never like this. “There’s a lot you don’t know and you’re just going to have to trust me when I say it’s best for Honey if we don’t get back together.” Not that I’m sure we were ever really together as far as she was concerned.
“I guess I was wrong,” Asher says in a tone that suggests the opposite.
And I’m not going to take the bait. “Seems likely.”
Luckily, Kane drives us through the gates and up the drive to my house, distracting Asher.
“Wow,” Asher says. It’s not a gargantuan place by Hollywood standards, but it is ten thousand square feet on three acres. It’s never seemed more ostentatious to me than it does now. “You live here by yourself? You sure you don’t have a harem hiding in there?”
“It’s an investment property.” I repeat what my agent said to me when I was considering what to buy. “And it’s hard to find a smaller property around here that will include the kind of security I need.”
Asher frowns. “Like a prison.”
I laugh, though it feels hollow. “I don’t know anyone else who would call my home a prison.”
“Dude.” Asher gives me a solemn look. “I’ve been in prison and it’s a total shit show. I’m not being literal, but you’ve got armed guards and, no matter how big your cell is, it still looks like solitary confinement from where I’m sitting.”
I stare at him. “Are you just trying to put the worst spin on everything out here to convince me to move back to Catalpa Creek?”
His grin makes my heart warm. No one else in my life has ever wanted me in their lives bad enough to suggest I should just leave this life behind. Most of the people in my life are only here because I’m famous.
“You’re a good friend.”
His expression turns serious again. “Are you happy here? Because I’ve seen you living in a cottage that’s one hundredth of the size of this house and you seemed happy. You seemed free.”
“I couldn’t leave the house unless I was wearing a Bigfoot costume.”
“My bad.” Asher smirks and waves a hand. “I get confused sometimes. I thought if someone smiles and laughs all the time, they’re happy and if they’re frowning and scowly, like you were at that photo shoot, they’re miserable.”
We park in front of my house. “Everyone’s miserable at a photo shoot.”
Kane opens Asher’s door, but before he gets out, he pretends to toss his ridiculous mess of hair over his shoulder. “Not me. I love a photo shoot.”
I laugh. Since he’s arrived, I’m happier than I’ve been since I got back to LA. But that’s probably just because I’ve been catching up on work and haven’t had time to get together with friends.
