Page 29 of Hauling Ashe

“Marriage. You mentioned your kids, but what about your wife?” Her voice lowers, hinting that she knows I’m a widower.

“What did Jane tell you?” My tone is defensive. Mae’s sister has been around long enough to know a few things but not the full story. The office once indulged in speculation, but Mach was always the first to shut that shit down.

Mae is equally quick to defend her sister. “Jane didn’t tell me anything. All I know about you is you own Impact with Volde-Mach. She mentioned you were a widower and you told me you have two children. You live in Chicago. That’s it.”

“Isn’t that enough?” I question, knowing full well it’s not.

“Because we can’t be friends,” Mae states, with a huff and a weak grin.

Are we friends? I don’t even know what that would mean, but we’re definitely something. I’ve touched her breast. I’ve wanted to kiss her. I want something from this woman, I just don’t know what.

“I’m an ass. I get it,” I chuckle.

“Yeah, well, that and you have a nice one.”

“What?” My face heats although I’m not prone to blushing.

“And that wasn’t hitting on you. It’s just an observation.”

Has Mae been checking me out? I’ve warned her not to hit on me but is she actually attracted to what she sees?

“Volde-Mach?” I change the subject, fighting the warmth in my face.

“Machlan Wright.”

Ah. “Jane doesn’t like him?”

“Oh, she likes him alright.” Mae’s eyes widen as the words slip out and she covers her mouth with her hand. Mumbling between her fingers, she says, “You did not hear that.”

“Hear what?”

Mae watches me, wondering if I’m kidding or playing along. Jane wants to be partner one day, but our firm isn’t there yet. She would definitely be a candidate, if we offered the position, but an affair between Jane and Machlan couldn’t happen. We don’t forbid office romances, but we don’t encourage them either. Mach and I are the exceptions. No fraternizing with employees is our personal policy. None. Ever.

When we finally finish our lunches, I take a phone call from Mach before we re-enter the car. Mae has already told me the next leg is ninety minutes or so on the road. For many portions of our drive, the original route has been covered by interstate highway, but Mae has us pull off where we can.

The next section veers through small town after small town, and Mae is quiet. With the windows down and the music up, her bare feet rest on the dashboard. If this had been my car, I might have told her to take her toes down, but I like Mae’s enthusiasm and her free spirit. She doesn’t give a shit about some things. She definitely isn’t all over my money.

We fought only briefly about lunch and while I was on the phone with Mach, she learned I’d covered our rooms at the motel last night.

“The hotel issued me a refund. Do you know anything about this?”

I simply shook my head.

As we travel, Mae eventually talks more about her small town and mentions again her business, telling me how she grew it from the dirt up, as she puts it. She doesn’t mention her ex-husband, but she does talk a bit about her boys. They sound loyal to their mother, if a bit aloof, being teenagers.

“Sounds like you have a good relationship with them. I was close with my mother, too.” Some might say I was a mama’s boy, but I didn’t mind. I loved Hestia Ashford with everything I had. She was in my corner against my father and his disapproval of my love of music. He wanted me to be a sports man.

“Are your parents still around?” she asks.

“They died in a plane crash.”

Mae’s head turns so fast, I’m worried she might have hurt herself. She stares at me, but I keep my eyes forward, focusing on the road. My hand swipes over the leather braided band on my wrist before reaching for the metal on the leather strap around my neck.

“Tucker, I’m so sorry.”

I don’t want to discuss my parents’ tragic death or the reasons they were on that plane in the first place. They were coming to see me. A million scenarios have run through my head at what they might have wanted to discuss with me. I’ll never know now what kind of conversation they intended to have, but I have a strong suspicion.

Instead, I turn my head briefly toward Mae. “You know, that might be the first time you’ve said my name.”