You Had Me at Hola(84)

He’d blamed her unfairly. She’d handled her rising fame far better than he had, with clear eyes and a thick skin.

And he couldn’t continue to live in fear because of one terrible incident. He deserved better too. He deserved to feel free and happy . . . the way he felt when he was with Jasmine.

He owed her a whole lot more than an apology. And he finally knew how to make it up to her.

With a jolt, he checked his watch. Good, it was still early. Maybe there was still time to salvage . . . something. If he was about to change everything about his life, he might as well go all in.

“Yes, you can live with me,” he said. Yadiel cheered and pumped a fist into the air, narrowly missing Ashton’s nose. He shifted Yadiel off his lap so he could stand up. “One more thing. The woman I’m in love with asked me to attend her abuela’s eightieth birthday party today.”

Ignacio raised an eyebrow. “Well, you’d better get there then.”

“Stop sitting around blabbing,” Abuelito Gus teased.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Abuelita Bibi tossed her knitting aside and leaped to her feet as fast as the arthritis in her knees allowed. She began to rummage in the clothing Ashton had strewn about the room. “What are you going to wear? Where’s that nice blue suit?”

Yadiel stood on the chair Ashton had just vacated. “Is it the pretty lady who likes superheroes? Can I come too?”

Ashton caught him before he jumped off. “Of course, mijo. From now on, where I go, you go.”

Yadiel cheered.

“We’ll all go,” Ashton added, hoping Jasmine would recognize the magnitude of the gesture. He was willingly revealing his family to the world.

And also maybe using them as a shield so she couldn’t chew him out. She wouldn’t do that in front of a kid and three old people, right?

“?Caramba!” Abuelita Bibi straightened and looked down at her purple sweat suit. “I can’t go to a party dressed like this! And Yadiel needs to look nice. We have to go back to the apartment to change.”

Ashton took charge then, sending them out the door and promising to meet them in an hour.

When the door shut behind them and quiet returned, he had a moment of clarity.

This was the last time it would be just him. After this, he’d have Yadiel with him full time, and sometimes his grandparents too.

He looked around at the empty, messy room, and felt like the luckiest guy in the world to have a kid who wanted to be around him.

And like the biggest idiot for letting his own misconceptions and fears ruin something good with the sweetest woman he’d ever met.

He grabbed his clothes and headed for the shower. Hopefully it wasn’t too late to fix things.





Chapter 38


Ava and Michelle were waiting outside the venue when Jasmine rolled up in an SUV. When the driver began to unload all her suitcases, her cousins immediately gave her the eye.

They at least had the decency to wait for the car to drive away before starting in on her.

Michelle spoke first. “All right, spill it. What’s up with the bags?”

Ava checked her watch. “And we don’t have time for you to give us the runaround so just tell us a straight answer the first time, ’kay?”

Jasmine blinked, feeling mildly taken aback. She was used to this level of directness from Michelle, but not Ava. They wanted an answer? Fine. She was owning her choices. Raising her chin, she said, “I’m going back to Los Angeles and rejoining The Glamour Squad.” Okay, so that wasn’t a done deal yet, but she was about 87 percent sure they’d take her back.

Ava’s eyes widened but Michelle’s narrowed.

“Shut. Up.” Michelle’s tone was flat with disbelief and a tinge of anger. “You’re moving back to LA? Just like that?” Her dark eyes flicked to the small mountain of suitcases. “Today? What, are you gonna leave directly from the party?”

That was exactly what Jasmine was planning to do, but she didn’t want to say so. Luckily, Ava jumped in.

“What about your Leading Lady Plan?” Ava sounded personally hurt by Jasmine’s decision to give up.

“I ripped it up.” Jasmine gave a nonchalant shrug. “Clearly wasn’t working out that well for me.”

Michelle rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. You loved working on Carmen. And you hate LA. You’re just too much of an actress to admit it. You’re going to trash all the progress you’ve made because things didn’t work out with a man? Really?”

“It’s not just that it didn’t work out.” Jasmine’s voice held a defensive edge, but she was too tired to soften it. “I can’t keep being intimate with Ashton on-screen while pretending I’m not in love with him. And when shit got hard, he disappeared. Everything related to this show is tied up in him, and the bottom line is, he didn’t trust me. I can’t keep working with someone like that.”

“Ah.” Michelle nodded sagely. “Point four on the Jasmine Scale.”

Ava’s voice was gentle. “Sweetie, is it so unreasonable that he didn’t tell you he had a son? It sounds like he was used to keeping that secret under wraps. And you . . .”

“Are a paparazzi magnet,” Michelle finished bluntly. “Now get inside, we have flower arrangements to prep.”