Chapter 31
A wheeze punched from my lungs when a body crashed into mine the next morning, waking me up in a jarring, yet familiar, way before arms banded around me, squeezing what little oxygen remained.
My eyes opened to Aunt Ada’s guest bedroom even though I couldn’t remember coming in here last night. I didn’t even remember falling asleep. Asher and I had stayed up early into the morning talking, and now the sun was peeking through the curtain as my sister’s muffled voice broke through the comforter.
“I didn’t know,” Wren said from where she was crushing me. “If I’d known you liked him, I would’ve never tried to pick him up. I swear.”
I awkwardly swatted at her, waiting for her to release me and sit back, and drew in a strained breath once she finally did. “One day,” I wheezed. “One of these days, you’re gonna kill me with that move.”
She flashed me her bright, carefree smile. “You love it.”
A wholly unamused laugh tumbled past my lips as I pushed wild curls away from my face, only to stop when I realized she was here . “What are you doing here?”
“Coming to see you, brat.” She flicked at my arm. “Aunt Ada invited me for breakfast and— oh my gosh —Huntley headlines are in.” Her eyes brightened with gossip. “Jackson came over last night.”
I felt every part of me deflate.
Grabbing the comforter, I tried pulling it from her hands so I could cover my face. “I don’t care. The last thing I wanna deal with this morning is more Jackson drama.”
“You’ll care about this,” she said slyly. When I stopped trying to tug the comforter free, she leaned close, her voice dropping the way it did whenever she had news she was dying to share. “He told Mom and Dad that if they wanted to merge, they needed to merge with him alone , and that if they wouldn’t agree to it, he’d wait and ask the next owner.”
Considering how little I seemed to recognize Jackson lately, I hadn’t expected him to take anything I’d said at Huntley Square into consideration and was genuinely surprised he had. But given the way Wren was practically vibrating with excitement, I had a feeling that wasn’t the part she’d been waiting to share.
“And?” I asked a little hesitantly.
“And he was looking at me .” She grabbed my hands, shaking them. “He was talking about me when he said next owner .”
I scrambled to sit up, my shock apparent in everything. From my stunned exhale to the way I just sat there, staring at her as I tried to absorb that he’d actually done that , to the way I stammered over my words. “I can’t—what happened—what’d they say?”
Wren lifted a shoulder, trying to maintain that careless attitude she so easily portrayed, but I saw the flash of grief in her eyes when she said, “They laughed off the part about me. You know how they are. But they’re going to merge, so that’s good. It’s best for everyone.”
“Wren . . .”
“I thought you’d be more excited,” she said with a groan as she sat back. “In less than a few minutes, Jackson released you from everything.”
“You should be the one stepping up,” I said softly, gently.
Her eyes rolled. “Like I have time for that.”
“Just like you always saw how much I hated it, I can see how much you want it,” I told her firmly and watched her indifferent exterior soften. “You deserve this. They’ll see it one day. They have to.”
“Maybe,” she said, lifting a shoulder. “Until then, tell me everything about super tall, dark, and terrifying because— wow .”
I made a face. “Can you not?”
She looked at me like I might’ve lost my mind. “Lainey, have you seen him?”
“I clearly have. Still doesn’t make it fun to sit here while you drool over him.”
She sighed dramatically as if I’d just sucked all the fun away from her day. With a pathetic, pleading look, she asked, “Can you just tell me if your ovaries explode every time you see him holding that baby?” She pointed toward the open bedroom door. “Because mine totally just did.”
I nearly knocked her off the bed in my attempt to get out of it. “They’re awake?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait ,” she hissed, grabbing my arm and yanking me back just as I managed to reach the doorway. “You so would not be running out there if you had any idea what you look like right now. Take a minute and fix yourself.” She pushed me in the direction of the attached bathroom. “Plus, your breath is horrible.”
I blew on her face for good measure and hissed a low, “ Brat ,” when she smacked the side of my head.
“Love you!” she called out as she practically danced out of the room.
My eyes rolled when I stepped into the bathroom and glanced in the large mirror. Other than my hair being a little wilder, I didn’t look any different than I had the day before. But I still took the time to freshen up and put on new clothes before following the scent of breakfast sausage and freshly baked biscuits to where everyone was gathered in the kitchen.
Kaia noticed me first from where she was playing with a spatula in Asher’s arms. With one of those ear-piercing shrieks, she smacked the back of Asher’s head with the handle of the spatula just as he was turning my way.
One side of his face scrunched up in obvious discomfort and what looked like irritation, but I knew better. The subtle twitch of his lips gave away his growing adoration as he bent to set Kaia on the floor.
“Go get her,” he said to his niece and intently watched as Kaia speed-crawled toward me, spatula still firmly in her grip.
“Hi, pretty girl,” I whispered as I scooped her up, my eyes widening and head bobbing as she immediately fell into an endless babble while showing me the spatula. “Oh yeah? Wow,” I said as I slowly made my way deeper into the kitchen. “Tell me all about it.”
“Morning,” Asher mumbled as he curled an arm around my back and pulled me close to his side.
“Morning.” A smile I couldn’t have fought if I tried spread across my face when he pressed his lips to my forehead. Not that it was the first time, it was just different like this. In my aunt’s house, with both her and my sister standing just feet away.
It made it real.
Like we’d been in a bubble before that could’ve popped the second my family entered the picture again. But that simple claim and the weight of his hand on my back erased every one of those worries.
“Where’d you sleep?” I asked as I searched just beneath his eyes, a whisper of relief blooming in my chest when I noticed the shadows there were so much less pronounced than they’d been last night.
“Couch.”
An acknowledging hum built in my throat as I watched Kaia continue explaining all about her new favorite thing. With a quick glance at my aunt and sister, I lowered my voice and asked, “And how did I get to bed?”
“You think I can’t carry you?”
“Is that what you did?” I shot back in the same tone that bordered somewhere between challenging and teasing.
“Would you have rather I left you on the couch?”
“I would’ve rather you slept on a bed,” I told him. “That bed’s big enough for both of us.”
“I know,” he muttered, surprising me. At the subtle slant of his lips, I felt my cheeks fill with heat that quickly doubled when he informed me, “You asked me to stay.”
I wasn’t sure what was more embarrassing. That I’d asked him to stay or that he hadn’t .
As if sensing my unease, he tilted his head to trap me in that dark stare as he explained, “You were asleep. Wasn’t sure I wanted to wake up to you screaming and hitting me because you hadn’t expected me to be there.”
My head dipped in a nod as I swallowed past my nervousness. “And if I’d asked before ?”
Heat and desire flared in his eyes and had a shiver working down my spine. “You’re dangerous,” he muttered in a reluctant but clear no .
“Just to sleep,” I clarified.
“Dangerous,” he repeated in the same tone before stealing a swift kiss.
“Get a room,” Wren called out before pretending to gag.
I shot her a look in time to see her wink at me, but then I noticed the rest of the kitchen. “Whoa, what ?” I quickly blinked as if that might clear up all the food. “Aunt Ada, what army are you feeding?”
She scoffed and glanced back at me from where she was making sausage gravy. “Sweet Ray, you’ve never seen these kids eat.”
“What kids?” I asked just as there was a thunderous knock on the door, abruptly followed by two quick rings of the doorbell.
Aunt Ada clicked her tongue and gestured to Asher as if this were all his fault. “Get that before Adam breaks down my door.”
He sighed and stalked out of the kitchen as Wren and I asked, “Who?”
But even as I twisted to watch Asher leave, the name Adam was pulling at some memory.
“I thought you were inviting me over for breakfast,” Wren said as the front door opened to loud voices that tugged even harder at that memory until the wildest sense of déjà vu fell over me just before a group of terrifying people filed into my great-aunt’s living room.
Asher’s team.
“Because I was already gonna be cooking all this—” Aunt Ada abruptly cut off and turned from where she’d been talking to Wren to yell, “Come get y’all something to eat.”
I hugged Kaia closer to my chest as the five members of Asher’s team came walking into the kitchen, starting with the heavily tattooed one.
Adam , as I finally remembered from the day of the funeral.
He gave me a feigned irritated look as he passed by me. “I’m not allowed to talk to you.”
“Hit on her,” Hudson said, enunciating each word as if they’d had this conversation multiple times. “You’re not allowed to hit on her .” He gave me one of his roguish winks. “No one said anything about me though.”
Mallory shoved Hudson in the back, making him stumble forward. “Yes, we did. Rein it in.”
“I’m Beau Evans,” the next guy in line said, holding out his hand for me to take, but my entire body had seized up the moment he said his name. “I never officially met you.”
It took Asher’s subtle throat clearing for me to awkwardly snap out of it and shove my hand out to take Beau’s. I forced my smile to match his and desperately tried not to sound like I was silently dying from sorrow and worry. “Lainey. Pearson. It’s nice to meet you.”
Cameron leaned close once Beau had moved on, his voice barely a whisper as he offered me a hopeful look. “It’ll be okay.”
My head bobbed in a shaky nod as I wrapped my arm around Kaia again. “You already know then?”
At that, a bright, meaningful smile lit his expression as he glanced between Asher and me. “I know everything.”
Heat flamed in my cheeks at the clear implication, but he just laughed when Asher shoved him away.
“What does he think he knows?” I hissed at Asher because, technically, there was nothing like that to know.
“He’s just happy,” he explained as he deftly took Kaia from me. “He’s wanted this for me for a long time.”
I wondered if Asher felt the same way for his best friend. I wondered if he’d still feel that way if he knew what it’d been like to be in a room with Cameron and Peyton once Asher left it.
Not that I planned on telling him.
“Get something to eat,” he ordered gently. “We’re gonna have our meeting here once we’re done so Ada doesn’t have to go anywhere. You can be there if you want but...”
“But Kaia.”
“And your sister,” he mumbled irritably.
I looked over to see her blatantly flirting with the four boys. Adam and Hudson were eating it up. Beau looked like he was trying to find the line between polite and not interested in someone who was interested in everyone. Cameron looked like he’d rather do anything else than listen to my sister compare him to Thor.
“I’ll get her out of here,” I assured Asher.
An appreciative grunt left him as he pulled a phone from his pocket and handed it to me. After a second, I started when I realized it was mine. “Gray brought it.”
“Who?”
“Hudson,” he said as if using first names was an irritation. “He closed out the hotel room too.”
I nodded even as I wondered what the chances were of a mafia family tracking my phone here or anywhere . But I knew that line of thought was why Asher was so set on pushing me away, so I forced it back.
“Go eat,” he said softer than before, the words nearly a plea. “I’ve got Kaia for now.”
I started toward the counters filled with food only to rock back to Asher. Pressing close to him, I dropped my voice low enough that it wouldn’t carry to anyone else. “I’m sorry for the conversation you have to have.”
He brushed back some of my hair with his free hand to cup my cheek, his head dipping in the slightest nod. “It’ll be okay,” he muttered, echoing Cameron’s words.
“You’ll tell me about it later?”
“Every word,” he vowed before tipping my head up to steal another kiss, this one slower and longer than the other, leaving me wholly breathless and slightly lightheaded by the time I finally turned to get a plate.
But that giddy feeling vanished into nothing when I got to the table and realized the only seats left were on either side of Beau.
Beau, who was just as Asher had described last night: Excited about everything, naturally happy, and passionate about helping people. He also firmly believed that all law enforcement were inherently good.
Since he came from a long family of them, I understood why. And like Asher, I believed a good majority of them were.
But the man who’d dropped off the check from Wells yesterday evening hadn’t been just any officer. It’d been Corporal Evans—Beau’s dad. And he’d arrived in Wells’ personal vehicle.