Page 42 of For Better or Hearse
Ash paces the chaotic space, phone to her ear. When someone knocks into her a second time, spinning her around like a top, Nathaniel stifles a growl and trudges her way.
Unbelievable. Can she be any more oblivious?
“What are you doing?” he asks tightly.
“Trying to get service.” She props one of her boots on the edge of a rock. “I have a standing appointment. If we’re late, we text.”
He bristles. Heat floods him. Excellent. She has a boyfriend.
Not like it matters. The guy, whoever it is, has his hands full.
Still, his idiot mouth opens, and he asks, “With who?”
An honest kind of happy crosses her face. Her smile wide and full.
Startled, Nathaniel falls silent, and the burn in his throat intensifies. It’s like the parting of a curtain. A special glimpse into Ash Keller.
“The one,” she says.
His gaze jerks to her. “The one?”
“Theone.” Her face brightens, and she holds a hand up, palm out, to the sky. “It’s like your soul sister. The crème to your coffee. The Nancy to your Sid. That one person who’d bury a body for you or take a bullet.” Her voice is earnest as she asks, “Don’t you have that person?”
Nathaniel has never known a person like that, let alonehadone. Not his brother, sure as hell not his father. Even his so-called best friends from college were little more than acquaintances. Even his relationship with Camellia was mechanical. Nothing saysour love is for showbetter than a paid article bragging about their engagement in theLA Times.
Ash’s husky voice breaks through his thoughts. “Sometimes I think it’s all you need in the world. If you have that one right person in your life, you can survive anything.”
Curious now, Nathaniel keeps at it. “What have you survived?”
She looks at him, sharp. “What makes you think I have?”
Then she’s turning. Pulling herself up on a rock, using a tree branch as both leverage and balance.
“Anyway, Tessie is my cousin. Love of my life. Apple of my eye. Currently pregnant and incubating an absolutely feral fetus. And if I do not reply ASAP to this name suggestion, her baby will be called Leviathan and I will forever have this on my conscience.”
“Is that who you were talking to last night?”
She freezes. “You heard me?”
Of course he heard her. She’s the loudest living thing on the entire planet. Her jovial and smoky laughter. Soft muttered swears. Whispers with his grandfather. Every word from her mouth, regardless of its volume, annoys him.
“Walls are thin.” He presses on. “And you’re extremely loud.”
A smile blooms across her red mouth. She laughs, the boisterous sound filling the air like fireworks. “I am truly an elephant at heart.”
It totally fucking works.
He smiles.
He can’t fucking believe it. Christ. What is it about her? Her weird. Her quirk. Her brazenness to justbe. HerIDGAFattitude and ballsy demeanor antagonize and intrigue him all at the same time.
She’s a fucking Rubik’s Cube. No, strike that. She’s more of the puzzle box fromHellraiser.
He spears a hand through his hair, watching as her laces tangle. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“Do what? Harness the power of the satellites for service?” She stretches higher. Scoots farther back on the rock.
In a flash of foresight, Nathaniel sees it coming. Too close to the edge. Her boots have no traction. The rock’s slick as hell with morning dew.