Staying Grounded [BXB]

Miscommunication

CRAIG:

"Hey you," Ashleigh's sat at the table when I enter the kitchen through the back door to wash up.

"Hi." I don't know where the time's gone, but it's very late. My back is aching, and my eyes are stinging. "What're you still doing up?"

"Waiting for you," she admits unabashedly.

"Oh."

"You manage to fix it?"

Not even close. "I think I've figured out what the problem is."

Sebastian and Dobby follow me in as I reach the sink and Ashleigh yawns. "Good," she says through it.

I haven't been left alone out in the chilly shed all evening. While I worked, Sebastian watched, and Dobby mostly dozed in the corner. Little was made in the way of conversation, but loath though I am to admit it, it's unlikely I would've kept at it so long if not for the company.

The door slams shut behind them and the dog makes a beeline past me for his water bowl. 

"What the hell are you still doing up?" Sebastian echoes my greeting to Ashleigh with added zing. "Your dad's expecting you at, what? Eight tomorrow?"

"Eight-thirty. And shut your face."

I douse my grubby hands with washing-up liquid and stick them under the heavily running faucet. It's been a long while since they've required this much scrubbing, and a rogue smile tugs at one corner of my lips. I'm dirty, tired, and hurting in more places than I can fathom, and that's pretty much all I've achieved from my efforts. The old truck is a whole other difficulty level entirely from Roxy. Yet, even so, I feel an odd sense of accomplishment I'm unable to shake. "Could one of you, please, pour some sugar on me?"

"Ooh, in the name of love," Ashleigh sings, bouncing from her seat to oblige.

But Sebastian beats her to me. "Say when." He holds the sugar pot over the basin and tips it, avalanching my cupped hands.

"Think I'm good now, thanks," I side-eye him, not fool enough to believe that to be anything other than an intentional stunt.

Sprinkling a final dash with his fingers, he smirks as he sets the pot down and, then, abruptly turns away. "So is Judy giving you a lift in the morning, Ash?"

"Haven't asked," I hear her reply at my back. "She'll have just got home from work. It wouldn't be fair." Too intent on my sugar scour, I don't register just how close she is until an arm stretches around me, and I barely pull back from elbowing her in the chest. "Honestly," she continues into my ear. Grabbing the dish soap, she squirts some extra onto my palm, puts the bottle back, and retreats a step. "I had kind of hoped you'd be willing to taxi me?"

For a confused moment, I'm thrown by her bold request. My mouth opens to respond — with what, I don't know.

And I don't find out. "Ah," Sebastian mutes me in the nick of time. "I'm meeting Bree at six. I've promised to help her out at the stables, and I have a feeling ditching her again would cost me more than my life's worth."

"Seriously? Damn. Okay, so peasant wagon it is then, I guess."

"Unless your dad wouldn't mind waiting an extra while for you?"

Her sigh is heavy. "No. We're booked in for a therapy session first thing."

"I didn't think, Ash. My bad. But I'll sort it with Judy to have the car Sunday, and I'll come to pick you —"

"I could take you," I blurt.

"What?"

My head snaps around to Sebastian's bewildered stare, and I can only shrug because I've no more clue than he does where that came from. "Yeah, I mean..."

"Really?" Ashleigh asks, a slow grin spreading across her face.

"Sure."

"That would be amazing, Craig, thank you!"

"It's my fault you're not through there already, anyway, right?"

"Right," Sebastian agrees, and as Ashleigh's grin catches on him, there's something about seeing him smile without the slightest hint of his usual derision or disdain that makes me feel acutely unwound. "Good."

Turning back to the sink, I try to process the sudden loss of tension in my body as I attend to rinsing off the grimy soap and sugar mix from my hands. "Could I please...?"

"But, of course." A tea towel lands on the bench beside me, my request correctly preempted by Ashleigh. "So you're okay to be here for, like, quarter to eight tomorrow, yeah?"

I shut off the tap and snatch up the towel before I nod. "Yeah."

"And you realise it's an hour round trip?"

"Now I do."

"I'll chip in for petrol, obviously."

"No need. Don't worry."

"Tell you what." Sebastian's steady gaze draws me back to him. "If you're willing to come back here after, do a bit more work on my truck; I'll have a full English and coffee waiting for you. One of Judy's homemade blueberry muffins, too."

His offer has my stomach grumbling — an obnoxious reminder of my very immediate hunger.

Fortunately, Ashleigh's puzzled objection masks the sound. "You have plans with Brianna, though?" She also saves me the trouble of fathoming how the hell to respond.

Or perhaps not. "Only 'til nine," he answers her while remaining fixed on me. "I've plenty enough work of my own to do around here, so I'll let you into the shed and leave you to it. And you're welcome to the leftover broth in the fridge before you head off tonight if you're peckish."

Wiping the tea towel around the edge of the sink, I shake my head. "I'm good."

His smile recovers a trace of its wry curl as he waits out my clean up, undeterred.

"I, uh," I stall for a brief moment longer, rubbing at a stubborn black smudge on my wrist, and I find myself not wholly opposed to his plan. That it's obvious he's wagering on a brushoff only tempts me a fraction more. He's not convinced I'll keep my word to come back to the truck another time, and it'd be mighty satisfying to get one over on him. Except, "I can't tell my dad we're still looking for your dog." My chest clenches as I think of what I'll soon be heading home to.

"You need an excuse for every time you leave the house?"

"No, but —"

"Whoa!" Ashleigh startles the towel from my hand. "Wait. What?" And if I thought her grin couldn't possibly stretch any further, I'm proved wrong as she turns on Sebastian. "You told his parents Dobby was missing?"

Her bemusement is an entirely appropriate reaction. "Yeah, I know, right? Crazy!"

"Oh, Craig, no. You don't know," She's quick to shoot me down, glinting amber orbs bouncing back my way. "Not the first clue." I frown as she laughs. "Curious is what this is. Very, very curious indeed."

In striking contrast, Sebastian's expression sobers with a short shrug. "I'm going to bed," he says, finally turning away. Glancing over to the dog, now nosing his empty food bowl, he taps a hand off his thigh and moves for the door leading to the hall. Dobby is immediately beside him. "Come. Don't. Whatever. Just leave a message on the table when you pick Ash up to let me know."

My frown tracks them out. "There's every chance I'll have Chrissy with me," I'm struck by another hitch.

"I'm great with kids," he calls back, disappearing into the hall's deep gloom. "And kids like farms."

"My-oh-my," Ashleigh muses, stoking the sense of a disquieting significance I'm unable to grasp. "I think, perhaps, there's hope for you yet, Craig."