Steam (Homecoming Hearts #4)(29)

“Sure,” Trent said. It was no big deal. In fact, he was looking forward to it.

They ate the rest of their food in companionable silence until Ashby asked the waiter for more wine and the dessert menu. When had they gotten through the first bottle?

Trent felt pleasantly buzzed, but he was slightly concerned that Ashby was going to make himself sick. “You know the altitude messes with your system up here,” he said gently.

But as soon as he spoke, Ashby’s face fell. “Oh,” he said. “Should I have not ordered any more? I just felt so on edge after, well, you know.”

He looked guilty and Trent regretted not choosing his words more carefully. “Hell, no, man,” he said. “You said it yourself, you’re on vacation and that asshole tried to ruin it. Let’s do this.” He nudged one of the water glasses toward him. “Just maybe hydrate as well, for me.”

Ashby looked at him a moment and licked his lips. A slow smile crept onto his face. “Of course,” he said. Using his long fingers, he plucked the glass from the table and drank it all in one go. Trent watched his Adam’s apple bob elegantly as he swallowed. He wasn’t sure why the sight was so mesmerizing.

A drop remained on the lip of the glass and Ashby licked it before placing the glass back down. “Done,” he said cheekily.

Trent shifted in his seat. “Thanks,” he said. “You’ll feel better.”

He wasn’t sure what had just passed between them, but he couldn’t help but be relieved when their wine showed up. After lecturing Ashby on not accidentally getting too wasted, he found he might be in need of some relief himself.

He’d never spent time with anyone like Ashby before. It wasn’t that he was gay, he was just…unique.

Urgh, Trent knew he was getting weird. They’d lapsed into a slightly awkward silence. He needed to un-weird it. If Ashby were a girl, Trent knew he would have been able to just give her a smoldering look and ask her about herself. That always set his dates at ease.

Well…this wasn’t a date, but he still wanted to set Ashby at ease.

“So, um, you’ve been to the States before?” he asked. He ran his thumb and index finger up and down the stem of the wine glass.

As he’d hoped, Ashby’s face brightened. “My father and I are British citizens, but my mother is actually American,” he said. He wiggled his fingers, getting animated. “She’s a translator for the UN, speaks several languages, very exciting. Traveled all over the world, met my dad in London, he’s an engineer. Then they settled down in Singapore while I grew up. I mean, they were always traveling still, but I got to go with them in school holidays and it was all rather grand.”

“That’s awesome,” Trent said.

Ashby nodded, then sighed. “A lot to live up to,” he admitted.

“So what do you do?” Trent asked, genuinely curious.

Ashby gave Trent a tight smile and flipped his blond hair. “I’m just gorgeous, dah-ling,” he said with a giggle. “No, I…go to parties and date idiots and have an Instagram with ten thousand followers for no other reason than I’m rich and pretty and go to parties and date idiots.” He rolled his eyes. “Spoiled trust fund baby, you see. My grandfather was a stockbroker on Wall Street,” he added. “You can see why I’m such a catch. Utterly useless. Shallow.” He laughed and drank more wine, but Trent didn’t think he was joking.

Trent frowned, licking the wine from his lips. It was genuinely very good. “I think you’re cool,” he said. “You don’t need to have your whole life mapped out already. Especially if you don’t have to worry about money.”

Ashby sighed. “You’re right,” he said. “I can’t complain. I’m just in the post-breakup blues, maybe.”

Trent scoffed. “The guy was clearly a Grade A jerk,” he scoffed. “You’re way better off without him.”

Ashby lifted his glass toward Trent. “I’ll drink to that,” he said emphatically. “Cheers!”

They talked a little about what Ashby’s life had been like in Singapore and ordered some dessert. The food here was actually pretty damn good, Trent had to admit. As much as Trent had been isolated in the mountains growing up, Ashby had been in a bubble of European migrants, not really experiencing the Asian culture around him. Trent thought perhaps as nice as having staff and an enormous house had been, Ashby felt like something was missing from his life.

Love?

Trent blinked. Yeah, probably. Wasn’t everyone looking for love? Ashby deserved to be with a nice guy. Not someone like his cheating asshole ex.

They managed to skirt around the topic of what Trent did for a living, which was the first sign that alerted him that maybe Ashby knew more than he was letting on. But it was so nice for a change to just pretend he wasn’t a fucking movie star or pop star. He felt like he could enjoy himself for once. There was always a chance another guest might recognize him and put a photo up on Twitter. But as they made their way to the end of the bottle, Trent found he didn’t care.

He had enough wits about him to ensure they each drank another couple of glasses of water. But Ashby was so much smaller than him and by the time they charged the meal to Ashby’s room and the wine to Trent’s, Ashby couldn’t stop giggling.

It was endearing. Trent couldn’t help but smile at him. “Come on, trouble,” he said. For the second time that evening, he wrapped his arm around Ashby’s waist as they walked through the restaurant and out of the bar. “Let’s get you home.”