9. Sutton
Sutton
The car was quiet as we pulled away from the curb, and I folded my hands together in my lap.
Looking around the truck, I noticed it was clean, like freakishly so.
There was no dust on the dashboard, no gum wrappers in my cupholder.
Thank God I hadn’t brought Sophie anything that would end up on the floor. I would hate to ruin his car.
“Can I play something?” I finally asked, the silence making me fidgety. And if I didn’t do something, I might try and fill the silence. But I didn’t want to drive him crazy with my talking either.
Who drives without music?
He glanced over at me skeptically from the driver’s seat, his brow quirked.
I held up my hand. “Never mind.” I glanced away and out the window. “But it’s a little crazy to drive in complete silence and it makes me question your mental stability,” I muttered as we pulled up to a stoplight.
After a moment of silence, he let out a snort and when I glanced over at him, he was holding out a cord I hadn’t noticed, all rolled up neatly and secured with a Velcro strap. When I hesitated, he moved it around. “It’s fine,” he assured me.
I suppressed my smile as I plugged in my phone while he hit a few buttons on the screen.
I was glad he did that; my car wasn’t fancy enough to have any of this.
I just had a receptor that went into the cigarette plug in the car and converted on a somewhat grainy radio station that would cut out over bumps—I wouldn’t know what to do with this system. And that would have been embarrassing.
The Taylor Swift song started through the speakers and I reached forward to turn up the volume—that I could figure out. As she started singing, so did I, watching Ash. The second the words came out of my mouth, terribly off key, he glanced over at me, horrified.
I laughed as I sang along to Taylor singing about lightning strikes.
He kept glancing at me but then Sophie started clapping and giggling from the backseat.
Which was exactly what I knew she would do.
She loved music. If she was fussy I would always put something on since it calmed her down.
And now we were moving her into her pop era since it was always playing in the car. Had to start her young.
I leaned forward and turned up the music a little more.
She was obviously clapping off beat, probably more to do with my laughing than actually knowing what we were doing, but I was pretty sure my clapping was spurring her on. All of it only added to the chaos going on. I don’t think Asher was used to chaos.
He shook his head, moving a hand over his jaw as he glanced in the rearview and then put his eyes back on the road.
“She loves music,” I said between verses before I continued singing.
Raising his voice to be heard over Taylor, he asked, “Does it have to be pop?”
“Only kind she likes.” I smiled at him.
He shook his head again as I tried to hit a high note.
There was a slight upturn of his mouth in the corners.
Almost like he was trying to fight off a smile.
So when the next song started playing, and he didn’t reach over to turn down the music, I knew I’d won him over.
He let the music go on the whole ride to the venue.
The next few hours passed quickly. Setup was well underway when we arrived and Asher decided that he would follow along behind me with Sophie in his arms. Which I had to say was a huge help.
It meant I was able to set up, help redirect people, and get the gift bags out without having to worry about a wriggling baby in my arms or strapped to my chest. I’d tried to take her at one point so he could eat but he moved her out of my reach with a frown on his face, offended that I tried to give him a break.
This event was for families with kids using the foundation. It was an activity day full of sports and crafts in a community center I’d found that rented to us for a discounted price so the kids could have fun.
Asher, with Sophie, was standing off to the side while I introduced some people to Quinn who were looking to sponsor another event.
I listened to them tell Quinn how much good the money we were raising today was going to do and how they wanted to be part of it.
While I nodded along, trying to follow what they were saying, my focus was on Asher, who was bouncing Sophie on his hip and saying something to her.
She had a big smile on her face, a little drool on her chin, her hand on his cheek.
The sweetness overwhelmed me a little.
It was interesting watching Asher in public.
He kept to himself and only engaged in conversation by choice when one of the other men from Knight Enterprises was with him, since they were all here, working the room and chatting with people.
No one really approached him, which made sense—he was almost always frowning or glaring with a tight jaw, except when he was looking at my daughter.
I felt like I was starting to be able to read his frowns and even guess when his face would flatten out and he would send someone an unimpressed look. I wasn’t surprised most people didn’t try and approach him, although a few certainly did.
“Can I grab a picture?” the photographer of the event asked, pulling my attention away from Asher and my daughter.
“Of course,” Quinn said with an easy smile. I started to step away, but she grabbed my arm and pulled me in before I could object.
“Great.” The woman looked down at her camera. “I’ll just grab your names for the post.”
I flushed as Quinn called me her friend, when I’d been introducing myself as her assistant. It was true that I worked for her but I liked the idea that she saw me as her friend. I could definitely use one.
I had no idea what they would print, and I didn’t care. I was such a small piece of this and it would just be on one slide of the carousel.
Quinn shook hands with the couple we’d just taken a picture with as I stood there smiling. They took the cards I had tucked in my pocket so they could set up a meeting to discuss sponsorship.
As they walked away, Quinn let out a breath. “Okay, we need to seem like we’re having an intense conversation so people leave me alone for a few minutes.”
I was exhausted and I wasn’t talking nearly as much as she was so I had no problem hiding out with her for a few minutes. Plus, there was something I’d been dying to ask her.
“Is he always like this in public?” I asked, peeking over my shoulder at Asher who was pointing at something on a poster for Sophie.
Knight was standing next to him now but he had his phone out and wasn’t paying much attention. I did notice how he looked up every thirty seconds or so to check on Quinn. His eyes softened when they landed on her and then he went back to looking at his phone.
“Glaring at everyone with his jaw so tense it might snap?” Quinn asked with a soft smile as she looked over at him. “Yeah, pretty much. Did I ever tell you the first thing he ever said to me?”
I pulled my attention from his thick shoulders back to her. “No.”
“He all but accused me of spending time with Theo to go after his money.” She let out a laugh. “Guy didn’t even say hello and then basically called me a gold digger. And let me tell you, he kind of scared me but I have no filter so once I started talking I think I got his guard down.”
I laughed with her but the anxiety in my stomach spiked.
Could he think that about me? I knew he might be behind my job but that didn’t mean he trusted me. Was that why he had picked me up today? To try and figure out if I was playing an angle, now that he knew about Sophie?
A man came up to us. “Miss West, can I have a moment of your time?”
Quinn’s professional smile was back on her face as she straightened her shoulders then turned to face the man. “Of course, Damien.” She stepped toward him but leaned closer to me as she passed. “I got this, you steal some time with that sweet angel baby.” She winked before moving away with Damien.
I walked over to Knight and Asher but Sophie spotted me first. She let out an excited squeal and started reaching toward me as Asher turned around. It was a good thing he had a strong hold on her because she looked about ready to topple over in her excitement to get to me.
As I reached them, I smiled and took her from him, covering her face in kisses as she giggled. It was the best sound in the world. As she leaned into me and started to babble, I looked over at Knight.
“Quinn seems like she could use a break. You might want to go rescue her.”
His eyes were already on her as he nodded seriously and took off. I felt bad—Damien was likely about to be cut off but people were less likely to approach her if Knight was with her versus me. Once he was gone, I realized that I was alone with Asher, which made me a little nervous.
Excited, but nervous.
“Thanks for watching her today.” I pressed a kiss on her head. “You didn’t have to.” When I looked over at him, he had a frown on his face but his eyes were looking above me. “Are you okay?”
“What the hell is going on today?” he muttered as he crossed his arms over his chest. I took a step closer to him, my eyes darting over his face.
“What do you mean?” My nerves spiked. I hadn’t thought anything was wrong.
But maybe it was about me? Had I left Sophie with him for too long?
“Women won’t leave me alone,” he grumbled, interrupting my spiral as he looked around the room.
I bit my lip, my shoulders relaxing as I watched his annoyed face.
I’d seen it happen a few times this afternoon, a woman being brave and walking up to him.
I’d looked away each time because I had no logical reason to be jealous, and yet I was.
Since he had Soph, I kept an eye in case he wanted to go off or have a real conversation—that’s what I told myself anyways.
But he always seemed to ignore them or brush them off. His focus never left Sophie.