Chapter 32
C hloe had excitedly screamed, “ Right now ,” when I’d asked when she might want me to move in. But I still needed to buy necessities—like a bed—and get the rest of my things from my parents’, so she was giving me the week to slowly move in.
Once all the details were settled, I’d had to physically drag Wren from her shameless flirting session at Aunt Ada’s house. But she’d been all too happy to help me put a dent in my credit limit to furnish my new room, and had even offered to help me pack up my old room...
Only to disappear with Kaia as soon as my mom came in, demanding to know what I was doing.
Mom watched Wren go before narrowing her attention on me. “Again, what are you doing?” Before I even had the chance to draw in a breath to respond, she added, “We haven’t seen you. We haven’t heard from you. Even when you came for the opening days, you made yourself scarce.”
“I talked to Dad,” I weakly defended as she went on.
“And now you come home with boxes ?” She gestured to where I’d already started filling the second. “Just what do you think you’re doing, Lainey?”
I pressed my hands to my twisting stomach and hated that there was still the instinct to do whatever it took to get this look off my mom’s face. To make her happy. I hated that I felt nauseous over the fact that her anger was directed at me when I wasn’t sure she had the right to be angry.
“I’m moving in with?—”
“No,” she nearly shouted over me, holding up a hand. “No. Don’t you even think about it. Your daddy told me about his conversation with that man you’re working for.” Disappointment poured from her as her head slanted in a who are you kind of way. “I dunno what’s gotten into you, but you will not enter into a relationship with your boss , and you will not move in with him.”
A sharp, belittling sound left her. “You even have poor Jackson trying to figure out his life and our businesses— your business —without you because of your rejections and refusal to do what’s necessary.”
“Necessary.” The word left me on a frustrated breath. “Mom, I—Jackson’s been in a secret relationship with Heather for years. I promise you, he’s fine without me. And, yes, I am now in a relationship with Asher, who just so happens to be my boss.”
I mean, technically . . .
Everything with Asher and me had been so unconventional that we hadn’t exactly defined anything other than what we felt for each other. But those claims and vows made it unnecessary to determine the relationship. We just were .
“But I’m not moving in with him,” I hurried to add when my mom started voicing her disapproval. “I’m moving in with Chloe Whitlock.”
As if Chloe was no better than moving in with the boss I was dating, my mom pointed at her feet and said, “You are staying here. You will apologize to your daddy for the stress you have caused and for making his condition worse. And you will take over for him starting tomorrow.”
Sorrow and guilt fought for dominance in my chest even as resolve settled inside me. “I’m not staying here, Mom,” I said sadly, numbly. “And I’m not working at the farm.” I pressed a hand to my aching chest as tears gathered in my eyes. “For so long, I did everything you demanded, no matter how much it killed me. But it wasn’t until recently that I realized you and Dad only saw me as a piece in your game.”
“You’re being dramatic and ungrateful,” she spat.
“If you’d ever seen me as anything else, you would’ve encouraged my passions. You would be happy that I’m trying to live my life now. You wouldn’t be trying to force me into a marriage that neither Jackson nor I want. And you wouldn’t be blaming Dad’s health on me.” My voice broke at the end as a line of tears slipped down my cheek. “Do you know how heavy and disgusting it feels every time you do that?”
By the time I finished, she was shaking as her own tears fell unchecked. But her voice was just as bitter and harsh as before. “Do you know what it’s like to watch the man you love deteriorate because your daughter refuses to let him rest?”
“Dad could rest if he wanted to,” I claimed even as an ember of that guilt flared. “And I told y’all who would be better suited to take over. Give Wren a chance, or don’t. But I’m done letting y’all dictate my life. I’m done listening to you and the McCoys talk to me the way y’all have been.” I brushed at the next tears that fell, then spread my arms, indicating my room. “Now, unless you don’t plan on letting me take my things, I have to pack.”
She left with a muffled, “I’m calling your daddy,” but he didn’t show until I was putting the last box in my SUV as Wren watched with Kaia from the porch.
For over a minute, he just stood there. Hands on his hips and mouth mashed into a tight line as he stared at me. And just when I started saying something to break the uncomfortable tension building between us, he pushed out a disappointed sigh and turned for the house, waving me off as he did.
“Good talk,” Wren said once the door slammed shut behind him, looking as if she might actually mean that when we both knew she didn’t.
“Right,” I mumbled as I turned and shut the trunk.
I’d been riding a high throughout the morning and early afternoon while we’d shopped, but the short trip here had ripped all the excitement for the future away, leaving me exhausted in such an unexpected way.
“Come on,” Wren said, shocking me a little when her lighthearted voice came from directly beside me.
Looking over, an affectionate laugh left me when I took in both her and Kaia’s smiling faces aimed right at me, their cheeks squished together.
“Let’s drop all this off at your new place, then go get lunch because I’m starving and need fuel to shop,” Wren suggested, the words a little warped from the squished cheek.
“Shop—um, I . . . I’m done. We got everything I needed.”
She snorted, her eyes rolling as she lifted Kaia a little before bringing her back to rub the tips of their noses together. “We shopped for you . Now it’s time for me to spoil my new, first, most favorite niece.”
I nearly choked. “Wren, you—I’m not—you can’t call her that.”
Wren just gave me a sly smile as she headed for the rear passenger door to put Kaia in her car seat. “Correct me if I’m wrong,” she began, “but you and tall, dark, and terrifying are definitely way past the I think I like you stage and are fully strapped into the we’re doing this forever ride.”
I stared at her as I struggled to think around the words that just wouldn’t come, all the while, my conversation with Asher the night before played in my mind like the sweetest answer.
“What happens when I fall in love with you?”
“I buy you a ring,” he’d said in that hushed way of speaking that always managed to mesmerize me, gentle yet full of authority. “I ask if you’ll help me raise Kaia. Then I ask you to spend the rest of your life with me. That’s what happens.”
But what Wren was saying . . .
“You still can’t call her that,” I chastised. “She had parents. She’s Asher’s niece . It’s an extremely new and sensitive thing, and I am her nanny .”
Wren rolled her eyes dramatically. “I’ve seen you with her for half a day, and I can already tell you, you aren’t her nanny . She’s yours, which makes her my niece. End of.”
“Not.”
“Sorry, what was that?” Wren asked as she left the straps for me to do and went to get into the passenger seat. “Can’t hear you. Hungry. Need to spoil a baby.”
Frustration and worry about what Asher would think if he heard Wren saying any of those things bubbled up inside me, but before I could comment on it again, my phone chimed from my back pocket.
“We don’t listen to Wren,” I whispered to Kaia’s smiling face, then slid my phone out. My heart took off in that familiar, chaotic rhythm even as my body went still when I saw who messaged me because I was stupidly worrying he’d overheard everything.
But when I opened the messages, every worry was replaced with awe as that irritable man once again surprised me and stole another piece of my heart.
The Jerk
For Kaia?
Honesty Miss Pearson.
Below the messages was a link for a house listing.
I scrolled through pictures of the gorgeous Huntley farmhouse that I’d only ever seen from the outside, then hurried to respond.
It’s perfect. But again, anywhere with you will be perfect for her.
The Jerk
And you?
What about me?
I didn’t realize until Wren asked, “Are we going?” that I was just staring at the little dots, indicating he was typing, with a ridiculous smile on my face.
I hummed some sort of agreement, then hurried to finish buckling Kaia in before scooping my phone back up to read Asher’s response as I walked around my car.
The Jerk
Will it be perfect for you one day?
Oh, the things that man did to my heart.
I leaned against my door for support once I had it opened because I was dangerously close to doing something ridiculous, like swooning, and felt my smile grow as I tapped on the screen.
Anywhere with you and Kaia will be perfect.
And coffee. Coffee will make it perfect.
“What is he saying?” Wren demanded, eyes practically glowing with intrigue when I looked at her.
I tried to force my expression into something neutral as I climbed into my car. “Nothing.”
“Right,” she said on a snort. “That sure looked like nothing.”
I glanced down at the screen just as another message came through, a gasp ripping from me when Wren tore my phone from my hand. “ Wren ,” I snapped as I reached across the center console, trying to get it back from where she held it outstretched.
“ Oh my gosh ,” she nearly shouted as she practically chucked the phone back at me. Slapping a hand over her heart, she pretended to swoon the way I nearly had. “If that wasn’t the sweetest—” She abruptly sat up and pointed to the back seat. “Tell me again she isn’t my niece.”
My eyes rolled as I reached for my seatbelt. “She isn’t.”
“From what I read, it’s a matter of timing.”
I finally looked at the screen to see the last message Asher sent, a smile I couldn’t begin to hide stealing across my face when I read the words there.
“Matter of timing,” Wren whispered again, sounding triumphant.
The Jerk
It’ll be waiting for you.