He meant financial help. Ashton knew it pricked his father’s pride to accept money.

But his family was bigger than just his father and son. Ashton turned to his grandparents. “And you?” he asked them. “What do you two want?”

They exchanged a glance, then Abuelita Bibi announced, “We’ll be staying with you.”

“Part of the time,” Abuelito Gus amended. “We’ve spent our whole lives in Puerto Rico, and we like traveling. But we also want to be around Yadi while we can.”

Ashton’s heart constricted. They meant while they were alive.

“What do you say, Papi?” Yadiel pulled on Ashton’s neck with his good arm. “Can I live with you?”

And as Ashton looked down into his little boy’s dark, shining eyes, he was hit with the realization that Yadiel wasn’t a little boy anymore. He was almost nine. Ashton had missed a lot during those years, and he didn’t want to miss any more.

Jasmine had been right. He couldn’t have it both ways. If he wanted the fame, he had to come to terms with being more visible. If he wanted to keep his private life completely private, then he couldn’t be a celebrity. The two just didn’t mesh.

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.”

Between the three of them, they dragged Jasmine’s suitcases into the venue and set to work.

“How many magenta flowers again?” Michelle asked.

“Two,” Ava replied between her teeth. “For the fifth time, it’s two ginger alpinias, one yellow rose.”

“Got it.” Michelle yanked all the delicate tropical flowers out of her vase and started over. “So he didn’t trust you with his kid. So what? You trust people too easily.”

Jasmine huffed as she lined the inside of a rectangular glass vase with large leaves. They looked crooked, so she pulled them out and did it again. “I know I do.”

“My point is, you can’t measure another person’s willingness to trust against your own. For example, you’d never have a secret baby because you can’t keep a secret. I’m kind of impressed he managed it for—how old is the kid?”