Chapter 27 #2
He shielded his eyes from the overhead sun and took up his pacing once more. Her heart was breaking, but at least Ash was still texting.
Tell me.
I pleaded self-defense and changed my name.
What does Spencer hope to gain?
I haven’t told you everything.
I don’t understand.
Spencer wants my money.
Ash’s response bleeped. I don’t understand.
Ash had millions, but she and Forest had a hundred times more.
I need to tell you something about Bean. He’s a savant when it comes to numbers. He feels their rhythms. It makes him an unstoppable force in the investment world.
I already know that.
Not everything.
She had yet to tell him the one secret that would end things between them. There were many things in her life she could live without, but there was one person she would never give up. No matter how much she loved Ash, she would never walk away from Forest.
Once Ash learned what she and Forest had been forced to endure, he would leave in disgust. Spencer had called it incest, and while not technically correct, they shared a familial bond.
There was no way she could keep both men in her life, not with that history.
What man could stomach the closeness she and Forest shared, knowing they’d once been intimate?
Her chest heaved with the pain of the confession. Shoulders curling inward, she wrapped her arms around herself, desperate for a hug. She collapsed to her knees as a sob tore from her throat, and her phone scattered to the ground. Her cheeks froze as the brisk wind chilled her tears.
Heavy footsteps pounded from behind, Forest moving faster than she’d ever heard, but his massive bulk sounded lighter and swifter than she remembered. Stomping toward her were black combat boots and tree-trunk legs that supported a mountain of a man.
“My summer Skye, do not cry.”
“Forest?”
If he was standing in front of her, then who was running up from behind? She twisted and gasped at Ash sprinting toward her.
Ash slid to his knees, out of breath, with his luminous eyes blazing in the light of the sun. Green dragon scales shimmered in the reflected light, the exact shade of his eyes.
“I’m already desperately and forever yours, Skye Summers.” Ash wrapped her in his arms.
Words choked in her throat, but she managed to spit them out, “How did you get here?”
“You have a very persistent brother.”
Persistent? “You need to know—”
“I already know. And it doesn’t change a thing. I love you.”
How could he? She reared back to stare into his eyes.
Behind him, Forest circled. He lifted his phone. “I’ve been chatting with Lover Boy, my summer Skye. I told him everything while you were fat-finger texting him.”
Everything?
Ash nodded, and through the pain in his gaze, she knew Forest had disclosed their second darkest secret.
Forest grinned. “The two of you totally suck at communication. So, let me sum it up for you. Yes, Lover Boy signed the divorce papers, but the dumbass hadn’t read them.
I already chewed his ass off and told him what I’d do if he ever did that again.
I also told him you had annulment papers drawn up, but that you aren’t going to sign them. The two of you are a piece of work.”
“Bean—”
He raised a finger. “Be quiet.” He pocketed his phone. “Ash knows about the trial and acquittal…on account of self-defense.”
Ah, at least one of their secrets remained theirs to keep. While she had acted in self-defense, what had happened had been premeditated.
Forest continued, “I told him the rest of it—or at least the CliffsNotes version.”
She tried to speak, but Forest silenced her with a shake of his head.
“I told Lover Boy that, if he wanted you, he needed to come, and he came, my summer Skye.” Forest then pointed to Ash. “Now, don’t fuck this up.”
Ash’s smile beamed. “Never.”
“Good. Now, you rushed into this marriage, which was totally fucked up, but no way in hell will you rush out of it. No divorces. No annulments. No separations. No nothing. You’re stuck with each other for…I don’t know…let’s set a date. Six months?”
He seemed pleased with himself and nodded before continuing. “In six months, if you decide you really made a mistake, we’ll draw up papers and make your separation official. But I’m betting that won’t be necessary.” He shook his head. “Man, this love crap is exhausting.”
Forest scratched the side of his head. “You know, it’s cold as shit out here. Do you mind if we head home? I hear there’s this mediocre band playing a half-decent show in town tonight.”
“Half-decent?” Ash laughed. “Thought you were a fan?”
“Meh.” Forest waved. “A real fan would have had an autograph or two by now…” He headed to the curb where a black town car was pulling up.
“When did you arrange for that?” She stared at the car as the driver got out and opened the door.
“Multitasking, my summer Skye. Now, get in.”
Ash pulled her to her feet and gave her a kiss on the lips. “You think you can do it?”
“Do what?”
“Give me six months? I warned you, I’m in this for the bigger prize.”
“And it doesn’t bother you that Bean and I—”
“Our pasts belong in the past. I want your future. Do I get six months to prove we belong to each other?”
She bit her lower lip.
“I only have one rule,” he said.
“What’s that?”
“Easy,” he said with his signature smirk. “I want to touch you.”
She pulled back, but he held her fast.
“I won’t push your triggers,” he said, “but I damn well intend on making new memories.”
“I don’t know if I can make that promise.”
“All you have to do is try. We’ll get help.”
“I don’t need professional help, Ash. I’m fine.”
“I don’t know anything about what you went through. How to help you? How to step back? How will I know if I’m pushing too hard or not hard enough?”
Hearing his words forced a truth to settle around her heart. He loved her, and she could no longer deny his conviction. Her heart bloomed with a radiance she had never felt before.
Tuttle’s words—“flavor of the week”—returned to her, bringing back all her doubt.
“Why me?” She sought an answer she could hold on to. “When you can have anyone you want, why me when I’m so broken?”
He pulled her close. “You see me. From the first moment we met, you’ve seen me. I never knew how powerful that could be. Until you came into my life, I didn’t know I could be free.”
Her fears refused to subside. “What about your family? Your band? What will they think when Spencer—”
“Mom will deal. Dad is all about the Lord’s forgiveness.
And the guys are already scared to death of you and your juju moves.
Now, you have even more street cred with them.
Don’t worry. Fate brought us together for a reason.
” He thumped his heart. “Try to believe because life isn’t worth living alone. ”
She wished she’d had his confidence. “I don’t believe in fate.”
But, staring at him, she could no longer deny the truth. Ash Dean had mended the cracks in her heart.
He winked. “That’s a shame because fate has bound our lives together. I’m not stopping at six months.” Ash’s smile flashed in the light. “I intend to spend the rest of my life uncomplicating yours. Skye Summers Dean, will you be my wife?”
“I like the sound of that.”
Forest called out, impatience showing in his voice, “You two going to stand there, talking all day, or are you going to get the hell inside?”
Ash gave her the oddest look. “I want to go to Niagara in fifty years. We’ll find some young couple foolishly in love and have them help us renew our vows. How does that sound?”
A single tear slid down her cheek. She didn’t need six months or even fifty years.
“It sounds really good.”
“Then Skye Summers,” he looked at her with an expression full of love and conviction for the future, “will you be my wife?”
Theirs was a story of insanity, but fate had woven their separate strands together. Insane? Absolutely. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Her decision was made.
“Yes.”
Ash kissed her until the rest of the world disappeared—until her thoughts went still and her body remembered what peace felt like.
His mouth moved with a quiet kind of reverence, like a prayer whispered only for her.
For once, there was no stage, no noise, no shadows of the past—only this man and the impossible love that had somehow survived everything.
Then his phone buzzed against her hip. Once. Twice. Persistent. Reluctantly, he broke the kiss and glanced down.
“Management,” he said, thumb hovering before he sighed and answered.
Skye tried to read his expression as he listened—first curiosity, then disbelief, then that familiar spark that always appeared right before he did something reckless. Words filtered through in fragments. Tour extension… military partnership… USO… overseas dates.
When he finally ended the call, he leaned back, eyes distant.
“They want us to go on tour,” he said. “A USO thing. Perform for deployed service members. Desert bases, active duty units—the whole deal.”
Her breath caught. “Overseas?”
He nodded, running a hand through his hair. “Apparently some of the brass think a little music might boost morale. Play for soldiers, medics, nurses—anyone who needs a piece of home for a few hours.”
The idea both thrilled and terrified her. “That’s… huge.”
“Yeah.” His grin softened, eyes finding hers again. “It’s not just another gig. It feels… bigger. Real.”
She could see it already—the dust, the heat, the chaos of a world far from theirs. Strangers clinging to hope while a band called Angel Fire tried to light the dark.
Ash’s fingers brushed along her jaw, his touch grounding her. “What do you think, Summer Sky? Can you handle a little insanity overseas?”
Her lips curved despite the ache in her chest. “With you? Always.”
He smiled, slow and sure, before pressing his forehead to hers. “Fate’s not finished with us. It’s just changing stages.”
And somewhere deep inside, Skye knew this wasn’t an ending at all.
It was the next verse waiting to be sung.
If you loved Ash & Skye’s story, don’t stop here—this is where the world of Angel Fire explodes into something bigger, bolder, and breathtakingly real.
HEART’S DESIRE
The desert waits, vast and unforgiving.
Angel Fire is going on tour again—this time with the USO, where music will collide with war-zone dust and the kind of exhaustion only soldiers know.
Skye could already imagine Ash beneath the searing lights, guitar slung low, pouring every broken piece of himself into the songs that had once saved them both.
Half a world away, others were preparing for their own battles.
A Special Ops respiratory therapist named Ryker Lyons, headed for another deployment he didn’t want but couldn’t turn down.
A nurse anesthetist, Tia Meyers, fighting to keep her team alive one heartbeat at a time.
When Angel Fire crosses their path, duty and desire collide in ways none of them expect.
Because sometimes the music that saves lives comes from the most unexpected place—a rhythm found in courage, in chaos, and in the quiet moments between heartbeats.