we just didn't notice it. Maybe that's the gift we didn't know we were given."
He was right about that. It was a gift and Ash was perceptive enough to recognize it as such. He wasn't a complete tyrant. He wasn't a tyrant at all, not in any true sense of the word. He just preferred things a certain way and hoarded responsibility because he didn't know how to live without simultaneously proving himself to someone or something that surely wouldn't notice his efforts.
"But like I said, it can be cloying," he continued.
"She cares about you, Ashville. Plenty of people would kill for a parent who cares. Take it from me. It's not the worst thing in the world."
The second he swung that pinched-brow, sharp-eyed gaze in my direction, I knew I'd said too much. Way too much. Even as he returned his attention to the road, he watched me with thoughtful frowns and inquisitive furrows. Too much, too much.
Of course, I overcorrected for that slip by cramming every breath with mindless chatter. What was that rainbow-painted tank on the left? What's the story with that billboard? How did you pronounce the name of that street on the off-ramp sign?
Ash answered all those questions in a clipped, distracted way as he continued with his frowns and furrows. Then, "Who knows where you are right now?"
"I'm thirty-one years old, single, and owe money to no one. The only person who needs to know where I am is me."
"My siblings and I share our locations with each other. Either of them can open up the app and find me at any time," he replied. "It just…I don't know, it helps. It's smart."
I feigned a ton of interest in a large pond beside the highway. "Is it smart because it was your idea or is it smart because it's served a meaningful purpose on occasions unrelated to your micromanagement compulsion?"
"Meaningful purposes, for sure," he replied. "Whenever we're supposed to meet up and Linden says he'll be there in five minutes, I can track his location and know he's still on the coast and at least ninety minutes away." He tapped my outer thigh. "You can't trust that guy to show up on time because his only concept of time is the sun. I mean it. He doesn't wear a watch, leaves his phone in the truck. He looks at the sky to tell time. If Magnolia and I didn't track him, we would've missed the first half of every game we've planned to watch together because we were waiting outside the stadium."
"I'll grant you that one," I conceded.
"What about you? Any siblings?"
I ran my fingertips over the back of his hand. "Sort of."
A quick breath of laughter shook his torso. "I don't know what that means."
I shrugged. "You don't have to know."
He shot me a sidelong glance. "Let me ask you again. Who knows where you are?"
Since the lady protesting too much never improved her situation, I said, "There's you and me, which makes two whole people. And the artificial intelligence unit assigned to tracking everything I do."
He groaned but this time it wasn't the strain of downshifting with an injured shoulder. "Zelda," he said, in one breath my name twisting into a sigh, an admonishment, a sympathetic embrace. "What the hell is that all about?"
"I'm not sure what you're asking." When in doubt, pretend it didn't happen.
"We have a solid hour ahead of us. Use some of that time to tell me more about your relocation plans."
"No," I replied simply.
The stunned laugh of a man unacquainted with roadblocks and refusals echoed inside the car. "No?"
"I understand it's difficult to hear something exists outside your reach, Ashville, but you being unhappy doesn't mean I should roll over on my limits."
Even his sharp exhale was wrapped in exasperation. I imagined this was a strange experience for Ash, what with not getting his way and all. But this piece of me wasn't on the table for consumption. I shouldn't have allowed the story of his doting mother to trigger a reaction from me. I was better than that. I was beyond that. And I just didn't discuss my family life with anyone. All anyone ever knew was we weren't close, and when spoken with enough finality it paved over the possibility of follow-up questions.
Except for Ash.
He ran his knuckles over the outside of my thigh. I grazed his bicep with my elbow. "I'm sure someone is wondering where you are, love. If you were gone from