Page 46

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FLASH

“ Y ou’re not leaving my sight,” Flash said from the floor, against the door like he’d said, when Ashe came downstairs in shorts and tank.

“I’m going for a run. The pier is nice. You can come. There’s a laundromat we can hit later.”

Flash grunted as he got off the floor and headed toward his backpack to pull out clothes.

They finished a run with a few laps around the pier. Ashe stopped at the Pizza Café. After they ordered Ashe looked across the booth at Flash, “Now, what happened?”

Flash sat back and sighed.

“We were in middle school when we met. Lacey was a year younger than me. Oh man, all the guys wanted her. She was Korean and had beautiful green eyes. One in a million.

I was a swimmer. She must have liked my body,” Flash winked at Ashe. “Honestly, I saw her and that was it. I would’ve done anything for her. She loved skiing. She was really good. I took her skiing whenever we could.

Her parents didn’t like it initially, they got over it eventually. My junior year in college, Lacey got sick couldn’t shake it. She was diagnosed with Leukemia. During treatment she ended up with febrile neutropenia.”

“Your junior year, in college,” Ashe emphasized. “You guys were together 7-8 years by then.”

“I told you she was it. She was my life, Ashe.”

“You quit school.”

“I had to be at the hospital with her. Now, if I had graduated I wouldn’t be on the team. Things worked out, I don’t regret any of it.”

“That was a decade ago,” Ashe continued.

“I can still get hard thinking about her.”

“It was a lifetime ago.”

“No, Ashe, it was a lifetime. And I wouldn’t trade it. I’m happy. I had her. I have the team. I have all of you.”

Ashe sat back looking at Flash. They ate quietly.

“I have to go back now, don’t I.” Ashe didn’t really question.

“You make it sound like you don’t want to. That’s not the point. I’m not here to force you back. But Red will come. You are his, like Lacey was mine.”

As they headed out of the restaurant, Flash caught the white scars across Ashe’s hand as she opened the door to leave the restaurant. “Do you not want to be with Sean or are you scared to be with him?”

“Yeah, I am. That’s fair, right? What the hell happened? He said what happened to me hasn’t happened before.”

“He got his hood pulled off during the op. Best I can figure it’s how he was id’d and you singled out. Red is pretty identifiable by size and then add his hair he wouldn’t be too hard to pick out. It was all totally shitty, Ashe.”

“One more day, ok?”