Ash's Marriage Trigger - 13. Chapter 13- Birthdays

Ash gasped as he roused awake, his hips thrusting upward instinctively into the warmth that surrounded his flesh. He rubbed at his eyes and blinked them open to see the pure mischief in Cove’s silver eyes before he swallowed him down to the base. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

"Oh, fuck!" Ash groaned, reaching down to rake his fingers through Cove's hair. The other man held himself at the base, sucking hard momentarily. The copper-eyed man's legs tensed as he tried not to make sudden movements.

Cove was relentless in his actions, his head bobbing swiftly over the middle of Ash's cock, and then gradually working his way back down to the base. Ash bit his own arm as he quelled down the urge to thrust. Soon, Cove took hold of his sac and held the bottom with a fist as he concentrated on the head.

“Anhh!” Ash cried out as he released. Cove dipped back down to the base as Ash shot into the back of his throat and didn’t hesitate to swallow.

The copper-eyed man panted as he tried calming his body's reactions. Cove had a satisfied expression as he clambered over to whisper into his ear. "Happy Birthday.”

Shit, he was thirty-nine already? One year closer to forty. “Yeah, I don’t think any present can top that,” Ash admitted.

"No?" Cove teased with a smile. "And here I hoped you'd have your way with me today."

“Wait, my way?” Ash asked. He hadn’t forgotten that during most of their bedroom activities, Cove had been in charge and refused to give way to Ash’s dominance. “Do you mean it?”

The silver-eyed man nodded, and Ash sat up and promptly pinned Cove to the bed. His copper eyes held a predatory glint as he dragged a thumb across one of the man's nipples. "You know you can't take that back, right?"

“I don’t intend to.”

The expression of sheer euphoria on Ash's face faltered when he heard his phone ring. With a growl, he shook his head. "Ignore it," he urged. But just as he began to rake his teeth down the side of Cove's throat, Cove's phone started to ring. "Oh, come on!"

Cove reached out and answered. “Hello? Yeah, he’s here with me. Really? Which hospital? We’ll be there.” When he finally hung up, he relayed the news to Ash. “Your brother’s wife just gave birth to a baby girl. Your family’s expecting you.”

Ash frowned, weighing his options in his mind. If they left to visit the hospital, who knew when Cove would allow him free reign of his body again? He could always see the baby the following day, right? Wouldn't he have to wait a year until it was his birthday again?

Cove shook his head. He recognized Ash's body language as his thinking pose and felt his partner's mind was still firmly in the gutter. "Hey, didn't you say this was Sage's firstborn? Whatever happened to keeping the title of 'Best Uncle Ever'?"

"Waiting for a day won't put a dent in my record," Ash grumbled, prompting Cove to flick his upper arm. "Ow! Fine. I'll go, I'll go. Are you coming with?"

“I was personally invited,” Cove countered. “The invitation was then extended to you.”

“That’s only because I didn’t pick up my phone.”

"When you become a parent, the day you don't pick up the phone is the day your kid is in trouble."

“Didn’t think of it that way.”

Maybe someday you will, Cove thought as the two of them prepared to leave. A smirk tugged on his lips when he thought about the Barren siblings having a hunch that the copper-eyed man would be with him. The family was very supportive of Cove re-entering Ash's life, and though he didn't really need it, he was grateful for it. He'd allowed Ash to slip through his fingers twice because he hadn't been sure of the depth of the other man's feelings. He'd be damned if he allowed it to happen a third time.

The two of them took their time to get ready before they headed over to the hospital in Ash's car. They ended up parking in the wrong area. They had to trek through the parking lot and other hospital regions before finally meeting with the rest of the Barren family seated in the waiting room. Only two visitors could see the baby at a time. Cove and Ash entered together when Sienna and her husband, Abe, finally stepped out.

"Be quick 'cause I'm going back to hold little Saguaro," Siena demanded. "Oh, and happy birthday."

"Thanks," Ash responded. His parents hadn't said anything about his birthday, but at least his sister remembered. He murmured as he walked down the hall with Cove and entered the room. "Just what kind of a name is Saguaro?"

Sage's wife Erin was asleep, and the younger man held the baby in his arms. Ash noticed that his eyes were swollen, and the tip of his nose was red from the emotional damage Sage had endured. But he'd never seen his brother so happy. When Sage passed the pink-bundled baby into his arms, she immediately began to cry. Before he could return the fussy baby to his brother, Cove took hold of her.

“There, there,” Cove soothed as he rocked her gently. Barely a moment passed before the little one settled down.

“Wow, you’re like same-type magnet poles repelling even when sharing the same birthday. Guess now we know who her favorite uncle’s gonna be,” Sage whispered to Ash.

The tiny sting of familial betrayal paled compared to the strange feeling that filled Ash at the sight of Cove with the baby girl. Was that what he'd been like with Ashley? Had Cove given the same dopey smile to Ashley when he first held her in his arms? Hadn't Todd told him something similar?

“It’s your Uncle Ash’s birthday today, too,” Cove whispered to Saguaro.

Ash had never felt that kind of bond with an infant or child. As an uncle, he did care for his nephews and nieces. But, for parents, it seemed very different. He could see it in both Sage and Cove's eyes. They weren't just seeing a baby girl. They saw much more than anything Ash could imagine.

“You know what, I think I will concede my ‘Best Uncle’ title,” Ash declared. “Just this one time.”

Sage let out a snort and playfully shoved Ash's shoulder. But he didn't hesitate to take his daughter back from Cove. When Cove and Ash stepped back into the hallway, Cove excused himself and headed towards the restroom, and Ash returned to the waiting room to tag Siena and her husband back in.

“You guys aren’t going back in yet?” He asked his parents. “Siena should have gone to the back of the line.”

“Siena and Abe are leaving after this, but we’re not,” Ash’s dad, Aster, responded. “Are you thinking of going back in?”

"Saguaro chose her side," Ash complained, still a tad miffed about the baby girl being a bigger fan of Cove. "But I'll drop by Sage's next weekend."

“You know it’s still not too late to have a kid of your own,” Ash’s mom, Sandy, prompted.

"Need I remind you I'm gay?" Ash replied. His parents hadn't always been one-hundred percent supportive of his orientation. When he had officially broken up with Joseph, they were pleased and tried to pair him with a girl of their choice despite his protests. Part of the reason he kept them at arm's length was their initial denial.

"Don't give me that tone," Sandy warned. "I meant that you could always have a surrogate…."

“Can we not talk about this?”

“Next year, you’ll be forty,” Aster pointed out. “Raising a kid at fifty isn’t the same as raising a kid at forty.”

"What part of 'I don't want to be responsible for a child' don't you understand?" Ash griped. Why were they so adamant about him having a kid of his own? Did they somehow think a son from him would be an opportunity to raise a better version of him with a clean slate?

"It's just that you rarely see us as it is," Sandy sighed. "Maybe a child would remind you to come to see your parents occasionally."

"And just what makes you think that I would even want any child of mine to come to see you two often?" Ash questioned, his voice at a higher volume than usual. "You who couldn't readily accept that your son was gay and tried to manipulate him while he was already downtrodden and heartbroken?"

When Cove returned, he caught the last few interactions. When he saw Sandy’s face go pale, he reached over to gently tug Ash towards the parking lot by his elbow. “This isn’t the place,” he said.

“Yeah, yeah, this isn’t the place,” Ash huffed as he tugged his elbow free and stomped towards the elevator. “The nerve of them! They can’t so much as remember my birthday, but they certainly don’t fail to remind me that I’m childless every chance they get.”

“Maybe it’s best if I drive us back,” Cove suggested as he held his hand out for Ash’s keys. He sighed in relief when Ash acquiesced.

Ash was silent when they pulled out of the hospital parking lot. But, when he noticed that the way back was much different, he glanced at Cove. The other man reached over to clasp Ash's hand comfortingly. Eventually, they pulled into a parking lot that bordered a small beach.

Cove led them to a wooden tower that served as a lookout, and they began to climb the stairs until they reached the top. A few families were down on the shore, but no one else accompanied them on the tower. The wind brought with it the salty scent of the sea. Ash took a deep breath and braced himself for the conversation to come.
"I'm not going to force you to talk about it if you don't want to," Cove began. "But I've always wanted to know why you don't get along well with your parents."

Ash briefly covered his face with his hands before raking and tugging his dark brown hair back. "To tell you about that, I'll have to tell you about a time when I was a dumb, lovestruck teen…."

“Falling in love isn’t dumb,” Cove countered. “It’s something we don’t really have control of.”

"Right, well…the dumb part wasn't that I fell for him, but that a part of me knew what he was like, and I still fell for him anyway. He was such a player. Never serious in any of his relationships and, according to him, never even had any relationships.”

Cove didn't respond verbally but laced his fingers through Ash's hand in a gentle clasp.

Ash took another deep breath." His name was Joseph, and he was just about the worst first boyfriend a teenager could have…and we broke off whatever it was we had," he explained. "Just before that, I had finally confessed to my parents that I was gay, and I had plans to even have them meet Joseph. But when I told them we broke it off, they were all too happy to try to hook me up with some girl. It'd have hurt less if they had a guy in mind instead, but no. They were still in denial about who I was."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," Cove responded. "And I'm sorry your parents reacted the way they did when you were distraught. It was a big mistake on their part, and it sounds like it was never cleared up properly."

“They never so much as offered an apology,” Ash replied through gritted teeth. “They just acted as if they did nothing wrong and went about their way. It’s always been like that with them. They act as if they’re never the ones to blame and hardly ever apologize for anything.”

“Have you expressed any of this to them before?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then, I think it’s about time you do, don’t you?”

“...” Ash let out a long sigh. “Maybe. I also have a vendetta against my new niece.”

“Saguaro?”

Ash nodded. “First, she stole my birthday. Then, her father made me lose my mojo.”

Cove laughed. “We still have tomorrow, don’t we?”

“Don’t we have to pick up Ashley tomorrow?”

“Not right away.”

“Oh. Then, is my birthday gift from this morning still in play?”

“Not so sure about that. That moment came and went.”

“That’s not fair!”

“Well, there is always next year,” Cove taunted.

"I am holding you to that…." Ash griped.

“Deal.”