Heartthrob ✓

fourteen

F O U R T E E N

"HE SURE SOUNDS LIKE A CATCH."

For the first time in a month and a half ago, I had finally gotten Katie on the phone with me in hopes that she could bless me with some of her sage advice about Luke and Ashton, but that was all she gave me. It was deflating to say the least because besides Bretton and Elijah, Katie was my go-to person to solving problems. Also, Katie's parenting books were specifically geared towards how the actual mother should be treating the infant child, and not for the personal assistant of the delinquent teenage child's older and handsome brother with an evenly-handsome security guard. If I were a writer and if I knew what I was doing here, I would've written that book, but that just happened to not be my case.

"Which one sounds like a catch," I asked. "I described both of the guys."

I was taking this call in Ashton's spacious living room since I was the only one there, but I still had no clue who was in earshot or exactly how soundproof this place was. I wouldn't exactly find that out until bedtime when I would be able to listen for any snoring or late-at-night conversations. Because of my paranoia about either of them overhearing this conversation, I had described the two men in terms of guy one - which was Ashton - and guy two - which was Luke - and from there, Katie had to keep up with it for herself.

"Both of them."

I frowned, seating myself down on one of the couches. I really needed to get a grip if this was what I had been reduced to, my internal conflicts in life being over which boy I should like when I didn't even know if they liked me back. Ashton was someone I knew to be a natural flirt with a compassionate side, while Luke just generally had a big heart from what I've seen of him. I clearly knew Ashton better, but Luke was just one of those people who you couldn't help but trust, even if he had a criminal record. I still didn't know what kind of skeletons Ashton had in his closet.

"But, Fiona," she said cautiously, "you know that you can only choose one? If you're sure that these men are into you, then you should pick the one who makes you feel the most."

"I know, I know that already," I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. This was complicated enough and he last thing I needed was boy problems when I had an angsty teenager that I had to handle.

"Fiona," I heard a voice say towards the doorway, "why aren't you asleep?"

Craning my neck so as to look into that direction, I found Ashton Baldwin standing in the doorway of the foyer, wearing only his pajamas - which consisted of a thin tank top that complemented his torso well and a pair of silk boxers that hung loosely off his hips. When looking him over, I definitely made sure I didn't stare past his shirt for too long, but even that was deadly by the way his muscular arms hung freely from them and I could see a generous outline of his body from beneath it.

"Oh my god," Katie all but exclaimed into the phone, "he just sounds sexy, pick him or I might just leave my husband."

I rolled my eyes, not wanting to get into how someone had done that for Ashton already. I pulled the phone away from my eye and put a hand over the microphone before telling him, "it's just my friend."

He just nodded and walked past me to get to the kitchen where he started rummaging through his fridge for something to eat, I assumed. It was that, or Emilie had somehow snuck in and was demanding that he ate food off of her body.

"Hey, Katie," I said urgently, "I need to go, but I'll call you back."

After I hung up, Ashton strode back into the kitchen with a smirk on his face as well as a large bag of chips with dip in his hands. "Who's Katie? Should I be jealous of someone trying to hire you out from underneath me."