Something New by Sean Ashcroft

Author:Sean Ashcroft [Ashcroft, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: A gay-for-you/out-for-you romance novel
Published: 2018-01-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Declan took a deep breath as he got his keys out, his stomach in knots as he unlocked the door to the bookstore.

The normally quiet bell above it seemed deafening in the silence of the store and the apartment above. If he’d been hoping to sneak in, there was no chance of doing that now.

Not that he’d really wanted to. He didn’t want to end up avoiding Ash.

He had nowhere he could go to avoid him. They lived together now. They were married.

This was definitely the kind of thing he had to talk about, like an adult.

The light in the stairwell flicked on, the creaky third step warning Declan that Ash was coming down to meet him.

It might have been the light, but Ash looked exhausted.

A lump formed in Declan’s throat.

“I have pizza. It's the biggest pizza I’ve ever seen. I figured you’d be hungry by now,” Declan said, desperate to stop his voice from shaking.

He couldn’t just forget what he’d been running away from. He didn’t even want to.

It was just hard to know what to say. He wasn’t even sure what outcome he wanted right now.

All he was sure of was that he’d wanted to come home, and that meant dealing with this.

“No olives?” Ash asked, his voice small. He suddenly seemed tiny.

And a lot less scary than Declan had made him out to be in his head. Ash was still his best friend of the past decade. This was new, but… they could handle it.

Somehow. Declan had no idea where to start.

“No olives,” he confirmed.

“I guess you can come in, then,” Ash said. “Is that garlic bread?”

Declan smiled to himself. He knew what Ash liked. “I figured I needed a way to get back into your good books, so yeah.”

“You can definitely come in.” Ash turned to head up the stairs, leaving Declan to catch up with him.

He felt a little as though he was always catching up. To Ash, to his own feelings, to whatever was going on here.

He still didn’t know. He didn’t know anything, not for sure.

But he needed to be honest about that. He hated to admit that he had no idea what was going on, but for the sake of his friendship with Ash, he had to.

Ash flicked on the light in the kitchen as Declan approached, closing over the lid of his laptop on the kitchen table.

Declan was used to finding Ash working in the dark, oblivious to the passage of time.

“I was starting a spreadsheet,” Ash said. “Of what we still have in storage. I guess I need one for what’s already on the shelves, too. I want this to succeed.”

Declan swallowed, the lump in his throat back with a vengeance. “So do I. And I already know I couldn’t do it without you.”

“I wasn’t saying that.” Ash wet his lips. “I was just saying… I’m not packing up and leaving, or anything. If you were afraid I would.”

Declan looked down at his feet, sighing. Of course Ash was still looking out for him.

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