Chapter 35 #2
Together we make our way over to the boat, slipping our feet into our shoes when we approach the dock. Asher helps me onboard, then like a rabbit out of a hat, he procures a long-sleeve shirt from a stowing compartment and tugs it over my head without a word.
“Thank you for sharing all that with me.”
He nods, eyes drifting away. “I’ve never told anyone that before.”
“What do you mean?”
“About naming the children’s center The Hive. It was something Daisy and I kept to ourselves.”
Warmth flows through my veins. This man showed me a secret part of himself. A part no one on this earth has seen. Yet at the same time, a nagging ache clutches around my heart like a vise.
Carrying this precious information is a privilege, and I know exactly what to do with it.
Asher once informed me that lake houses are meant to be seen from the water, not the other way around, which makes sense now that I’m viewing it from this vantage point.
After we tie up the boat, I expect him to usher me inside. Instead, he plops onto a beach chair. He dusts debris off the identical one beside him, then motions for me to sit too.
“I’m sorry about earlier,” he says, looking out over the water.
That ache in my chest flares. “What do you mean?”
He picks up a plastic shovel that was left behind and mindlessly scrapes it across the sand. “Earlier, in the kitchen, I gave you mixed signals. I didn’t mean to. I was in a mood and needed a release and I… I shouldn’t have used you like that.”
“I didn’t feel used,” I reply.
In fact, the feral look in his eyes had ignited all my nerve endings.
“And let’s be honest,” I add. “Isn’t that sorta what this whole thing has been? Us using each other for sex? I don’t mean that in a bad way either. Like, we agreed from the beginning that this was mutually beneficial. Right?”
He purses his lips, his jaw ticking, but he doesn’t reply.
After a long, quiet moment, I ask, “Why’d you bring me to the cove?”
“I’m not sure.” He scoops up sand and spreads his fingers so it cascades back onto the beach. “No. That’s not true. I brought you there because you don’t treat me like I’m broken.”
A wave of emotion washes over me. “Ash…”
He huffs. “I feel like that kintsugi vase in your apartment. Only I’m the version before it’s filled with gold.”
Let me be your gold, I yearn to say.
But our conversation is cut short when Bea comes racing down the path, holding tight to a head of lettuce.
Natalie trails behind her at a slower pace. When she sees us, she cups her hands around her mouth and calls out, “You got her? I have food in the oven.”
“We’re good,” Asher yells back.
“Daddy!” Bea squeals, kicking sand up and onto his lap.
He immediately breaks into a giant smile, complete with his two signature dimples. “Hey, Dolly. Are you here to feed the ducks?”
“Yup.” She leaps toward the shore and tears off pieces of lettuce, tossing them into the lake.
A flock of puddle ducks hustle over, and they lap up the leaves, but soon, there’s way more food than fowl, and Asher tells her to ease up.
He catches the lettuce when she tosses it at him, then she sits on the ground and buries my feet in the sand with the shovel.
“When I was your age,” I tell her, “my brother and I had a pet duck.”
“You did?” both Asher and his daughter exclaim.
I laugh. “Two, actually. We rescued them from a ditch in our neighborhood. There were no other ducks around, so we wrapped them in his hoodie and snuck them into the house, then kept them in our bathtub.”
Bea giggles.
“We couldn’t tell them apart, so I took one of my doll’s tutus and wrapped it around one duckling. Of course, it would never stay on, but that didn’t stop me from trying. I would’ve had it wearing cowboy boots if his or her webbed feet had been the right shape.”
In stitches, Asher wags a finger at Bea. “Don’t you dare get any ideas, young lady.”
Too late for that, I think, when her eyes go wide.
“Did your parents ever find out?” Asher asks.
“Oh, for sure. I hid one in my shirt at dinnertime so I could feed it, but it escaped and hopped onto the table.”
“That’s silly.” Bea snorts.
“Totally,” I agree.
“Did you have any other pets?” she asks.
“Mm-hmm. I had a pet rabbit named Peter.”
Her eyes go wide. “Dad—”
“Don’t—” He cuts her off with a gentle smile, knowing exactly what she’s about to ask.
She frowns for a second, then says, “What happened to Peter?”
“He died,” I reply, my shoulders drooping. “Many years ago.”
Bea squints into the sky. “I bet he’s with my mom now.”
“You think?”
She nods.
“I like that idea,” I tell her. “I bet Peter really likes her too.”
Asher gives my thigh a squeeze. “Hey, Dolly. Can I talk to you for a sec?”
She brushes the sand from my feet and looks up at him, but then quickly begins burying my feet all over again.
“Do you remember when Dr. Parsons used to live next door during the summers?”
She nods, then turns her nose up in disgust. “Uh-huh. He always gave me that really yucky candy.”
He laughs. “It was gross, wasn’t it? Anyway. Do you remember why Claire has been living with us?”
“Because the tree fell on the roof?”
“That’s right. And Claire needed a place to stay this summer so she could be the camp doctor.”
“Why didn’t she live with Grandma and Grandpa?”
Asher and I stare at one another, dumbfounded. Whether that option was on the table back in May, I couldn’t say.
“That’s a great question,” Asher replies. “And one I don’t know the answer to. But what I’m trying to tell you is that the summer is almost over and Claire will be going back to her apartment in the city.”
She packs the mound of sand on top of my feet with her chubby little hands. “Why?”
“Because that’s where all her stuff is.”
She shrugs like that’s a logical answer.
Asher drops his forearms to his knees, zeroing in on her. “I just want to make sure you understand that Claire’s leaving in a few days.”
“I understand,” she parrots back.
“All right. Good,” he says. It’s the best he’s going to get with a five-year-old. Standing, he dusts the sand off his lap. “C’mon, Dolly. Time to go inside.” With one hand holding the remaining lettuce, he offers his other to help her up, then turns to me. “You coming?”
With my gaze fixed on the clouds in the sky, I shake my head. “I’ll sit out here a little longer, if that’s okay.”
As the two walk up the path, Bea says, “Can we please get a bunny, Daddy?”