Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Asher
Iknocked on my sister’s door and impatiently tapped my foot as I waited for her to answer. Natalie placed her hand on my back. “You’re practically vibrating, Ash.”
I closed my eyes and took a breath, willing myself to relax. I needed this to go well because there was no way in hell I was losing Natalie.
The snick of the front door lock made my eyes snap open.
Beth opened the door, took one look at us, and scowled. “I don’t want to talk to you,” she said as she tried to shut the door.
I slapped my palm against the door to hold it open. “Tough.”
Beth’s eyes narrowed. “You gonna be a big man who throws his weight around?”
“Grow up,” I grumbled. “You know I’ve never been that guy, and I’m not about to start now. You’ll either listen or you won’t, but since we both know you need my money—”
“Asher,” Natalie snapped.
I winced as guilt churned in my stomach. “Sorry, that was uncalled for.”
“You think,” Beth jeered. Her face contorted into a weird combination of God knows what. Some mix of pissed off and guilt.
We both knew she needed my money to survive since her deadbeat ex never lived up to his end of the agreement. And I didn’t even mind giving it to her so I’m not sure why I’d thrown that out other than I was pissed.
“You gonna let us in?” I asked.
Beth looked at me, then Natalie, then glanced over her shoulder inside the house. “The kids are here,” Beth said.
I glanced around. “So? I don’t plan on being a dick. Do you?”
Beth raised her eyebrows at me. “Don’t you?”
This was getting us nowhere. “I apologized. Can we move on, please?” I gestured toward the house, hoping she’d step out of the way and invite us in. “We need to talk about this.”
Beth stepped back. “Fine. We’ll sit out back.”
As I walked past the living room, Charity leaped up from where she was playing on the floor. “Uncle Ash.” She flew across the floor. I barely had time to get my arms out before she launched herself at me.
“Hey, kiddo,” I said as I placed a kiss on the top of her mop of curly brown hair.
“I didn’t know you were coming over,” she chided. Her little nose scrunched up as she stared at me accusingly.
“I didn’t know either until a little while ago.”
“Is that cuz Mommy is mad at you?”
Whoever said kids were in their own world had never met my niece. “Yep.”
She leaned in and whispered loudly. “She’s really mad.”
“I know,” I whispered back. “But Nat brought cinnamon buns from The Switchback.”
Natalie held up the box she was carrying.
Charity’s eyes widened. “For me?”
“That’s up to your mom since I don’t know what you’ve eaten today.”
Beth shook her head and sighed. “You can have a little bit while I talk to Uncle Ash and Natalie outside.”
“Me too, please,” Diesel called from his place on the sofa.
“Hey, D.” I nodded to my nephew.
“Hey, Uncle Ash.” Diesel sat up a little straighter, and a shy smile curled up the corner of his mouth. “Hi, Natalie.”
“Hi, D, whatcha watching?” she asked.
“Just stupid cartoons cuz Charity and Brady are playing in here.”
Just then, the sound of small footsteps thundered down the stairs. “Hi, Uncle Ash,” Brady yelled as his feet hit the bottom step. “I was pooping.”
I snorted out a laugh. The kid said the damnedest things. “Good to know.”
“Really Brady? Come on, we have company,” Beth complained.
“Uncle Ash isn’t company,” Brady said.
“Yes, but Natalie is.”
“No, she’s your friend. That’s not company. Company means we have to be on our best behavior. Like when Grandma and Grandpa come over. Not when Nat is here.” Brady nodded once as he proclaimed this statement of fact.
“He’s got you there,” I said. The last thing anyone wanted to deal with was my mother’s disapproval. When she felt Beth’s children were poorly behaved, no one was safe from hearing about it.
Beth held up her hand, closed her eyes, and took a breath. “Fine, can we just try to behave like I taught you some manners, please?”
“What’s that?” Brady pointed at the box in Natalie’s hands.
“Cinnamon buns,” Charity squealed. “And we get to eat them.”
Brady’s arm shot out as he fist-pumped the air. “Yes.”
Beth rolled her eyes. “Let’s get you a treat, then I’m going to sit outside and talk to your uncle and his friend.”
Natalie sucked in a breath beside me. His friend. Not Natalie. Not ‘my friend.’ His friend. Like they were no longer friends because of this.
I reached over and squeezed Nat’s hand. We’d get through this. Beth was hurt, but she’d come around. She had to. This was too important for her not to.
“We’ll meet you out back,” I told her.
Nat set the cinnamon buns on the kitchen counter. She glanced at Beth, then audibly sighed as she walked ahead of me to the back door.
I followed her onto the deck. Nat dropped onto the end of the outdoor sofa, and I took a seat beside her. “How you doing?”
“Truthfully?” She raised her eyebrow in question.
I nodded.
“I’m kind of freaking out. What if she doesn’t forgive me?”
I took her hand in mine. “You changing your mind about us?” My stomach knotted as I waited for her to reply.
“No.”
“Isn’t this sweet?” Beth sneered as she stepped onto the deck.
Natalie tried to pull away from me. I let her hand go but shifted on the couch so our thighs were completely touching.
I wasn’t sure if I was doing it to comfort her, or myself.
Or if I was trying to present a united front.
All I knew was that I needed the reassurance of knowing we were in this together when we spoke.
When I glanced up, Beth sat in the chair opposite me, her knees pulled up to her chest and a pissed off look on her face.
“All right, talk. Explain to me how you just couldn’t help yourselves,” my sister said.
It was true. The moment I saw Nat, it was like all the pieces of a puzzle I didn’t even know I was building fell into place. She was everything I’d ever wanted. The way I felt with her was indescribable.
I eyed my sister. There was no way I was telling her that, though. “What exactly is your problem with us being together?” I asked.
Beth reared back. “She’s my best friend.”
I glanced at Nat, then back at my sister. “She was your best friend when you were kids. You haven’t seen each other in years.”
“Our schedules didn’t line up,” Beth protested. “Natalie was busy with her shows, and I had the kids. It just didn’t work out to see each other.”
“I tried to visit several times. You told me not to come,” Natalie said softly.
Beth looked down at her lap, then her head snapped up defiantly. “You would have made things worse with Brian.”
Natalie hissed in a breath. “Wow. You are just full of nice things to say about me, aren’t you?”
“That’s not what I meant,” Beth said. “You would have hated how he was with me. It was hard enough to keep my marriage together without having you see it and…” She flapped her hands. “Hearing what you thought would have made it that much harder to stay.”
“I would have tried to be supportive,” Natalie said.
Beth snorted. “You’re not exactly known for your poker face.”
This wasn’t getting us anywhere. “Moving on.” I prompted. “What’s your problem with Nat and me being together? I would have thought you’d like the idea of her having a reason to stay.”
“Is she?” Beth asked.
“What? Staying?” I looked at Nat, and she smiled softly back at me. “Yes, I mean eventually. She’s got to go back to New York for this coming season, but then yeah, she’s staying.”
“Do you honestly believe that?” Beth asked.
Natalie’s body tensed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You haven’t been here in seven years,” Beth said.
“Wow.” Natalie’s head bobbed up and down slowly, as if she were processing what had been said.
Finally, she spoke, “You didn’t want me here, Beth.
I was in the delivery room with you when Diesel was born, and then when Brady and Charity came, you didn’t even want me to come to town to meet them, let alone be in the room.
How do you think that made me feel?” Tears glistened in Natalie’s eyes.
“But I respected your wishes, and I stayed away.”
“It’s not like I could have stopped you if you really wanted to come,” Beth grumbled.
Nat’s body tensed beside me. “Are you pissed off I didn’t come visit when you clearly told me not to, time and time again?”
Beth shrugged.
“That’s not fair,” Nat protested. “How many times did we talk on the phone about how no one cared about what you wanted? How no one listened to you. I was trying to give you what you said you needed.”
“When’s the last time you were here? You couldn’t even be bothered to come back when your grandpa died.”
Natalie gasped. My body instinctively puffed up to protect her. “That’s enough, Beth.” I snarled. “You’re out of line.”
My sister gave a sheepish nod. “Sorry, I just thought you’d come back here sooner. Brian and I separated right around the same time. It would have been nice to have you here.”
“But you didn’t ask,” Natalie said.
“I told you it would be nice to hang out while you went through the cabin,” Beth grumbled.
Nat’s shoulders slumped. “I had just spent the last six months with my grandpa in palliative care, taking the train two hours to see him several times a week between shows. Holding his hand while he died. I was exhausted. I didn’t have the mental bandwidth to deal with going through his cabin on top of everything else.
” She scrubbed her hand across her face.
“Could I have done a better job of being there for you? Sure, probably. But I just…I was doing the best I could at the time.”
“It hurt that you didn’t come after Brian and me separated when I told you that you could. And now you are finally here, and you’re with my brother.”
Natalie sat forward on the couch. “Are you kidding me?”
“You know how I feel about my family.”
I sat up straighter. What did that mean? “How you feel about your family?” I interjected. “Meaning me?”