“You don’t know her.” I might want to make it clear I’m not on the market, but I’m not sure if Molly is ready for everyone to know about us. I’m still getting her comfortable with me. I need more time.

“An outsider.” Courtney’s face falls. “Seriously, Ash? I thought—”

“I have no idea what you thought, but if it has anything to do with me and you being involved, you thought wrong. If you’ll excuse me.” I step around her, leaving Chase to fend for himself if he finds this all so funny.

I go in search of my girl.

15

Molly

“So that was Courtney?” I ask Emily as she guides me through the crowd. I remember the name from earlier. I hadn’t gotten a chance to ask her more about it because my mom had walked in.

“And her stupid-ass sister Samantha.” Emily is pissed.

When we first walked into the party, she’d been fine for about half a second. But before I knew it, she was marching us right over toward her brother. I’d felt his eyes on me the second I’d stepped into the room.

I hated seeing those women falling all over him, and they are, in fact, women. I’m just a girl who is barely making it in these shoes. I’m still in freaking high school. Graduation might be around the corner, but still. Why is Asher all over me when he has beautiful women who are more than willing to do anything he wants? Without him having to blackmail them.

When we’d gotten close to them, I’d heard Asher mention he was leaving. That stung. I shouldn’t be surprised. If he’s having regrets about the things we’ve done, it’s for the best if he goes back to Japan. At least then I can finish out school and pick a college far away so I don’t risk running into him. That is a safe plan.

Emily and I sip on our champagne. I take it slow, not planning on having more than this glass. She leads me around the room, introducing me to people. I’ll never remember all these names. I notice Tomas keeps my mom close to him. I don’t think it’s because he has some trophy wife thing going on. He really wants her near, and he can get a bit jealous over her, which is adorable a lot of the time.

“Would you ladies care to dance?” two men in tuxes ask us. I believe Emily introduced me to them before. There are so many men in tuxes they are starting to blur together. Damn it, what were their names? Jax and Connor. I suddenly remember, but I’m not sure which is which.

“I’d love to, Connor.” Emily takes the dark-haired one's hand.

“I’m not sure I’ll be a good dance partner,” I tell Jax.