16. Sutton #2
He held my eyes for a moment. I felt like he was evaluating to see if I was telling the truth.
After a moment he nodded. I pulled my hand back, chugged the rest of my water, and then pushed my plate away.
“Here, let me take her so you can eat.” I reached for her, but Asher twisted his body a little to block me.
“I can eat one-handed.” He demonstrated by lifting the hand not bracing my daughter, Sophie not jostling at all. She looked even smaller in his arms. “Plus, I’ve eaten already today and I would hate to disturb her.”
I watched him eat in silence. I’d noticed the quiet didn’t bother him at all. I, on the other hand, wanted to keep listening to him talk, something he didn’t do when there were a lot of other people around.
“So when did you first meet Knight?”
Quinn had told me a lot about Knight Enterprises and how they had created the company in college after Knight made his first million.
From what she had said, Knight and Asher had been together before then.
The thing was, she didn’t focus on Asher-specific information, and that was what I was really interested in.
He was quiet for a moment, and I wasn’t sure he was going to answer. I opened my mouth to tell him to forget it but he cleared his throat after the last bite of his burger.
“My mum died when I was ten. I don’t remember much about her but I do know I have her eyes. She was hit by a car on her way to get me from school. Died on impact.”
“That’s terrible, Ash.”
He looked at me and his gaze softened a little. My eyes were misty from his story and I didn’t bother trying to hide it.
“Yeah, it is.” He stood up and reached for my plate, Sophie still asleep in his arms.
“You have to leave those, you don’t get to do dishes too.” I slid off my stool.
“Sutton…” he said as we had a standoff.
“You got my daughter to sleep. I have to do this.”
He grabbed my wrist before I could take his plate. “Compromise—we both go sit on the couch so our arguing doesn’t wake Soph.”
I was weak to his soft voice and kind eyes so I nodded and we settled on the couch.
“You didn’t finish telling me how you met Theo,” I said.
He nodded and looked down at my daughter.
“Turns out my dad was a jobless drunk who hit my mum but she hid it from me. Once she was gone, he turned his anger on me.” His voice was quiet and his eyes stayed on Sophie.
I curled my legs underneath me and focused on him.
“When I was fourteen, I decided I didn’t have to be there anymore so I left. ”
I couldn’t help it—I reached out and grabbed his bicep, giving it a squeeze. I wanted to give him some sort of comfort and I didn’t think words would do.
“I spent some time moving from place to place, sleeping where I could. Knight and Noah walked by me sleeping in a car one morning. He knocked, told me to get my ass out, and then he brought me home to Noah’s.
“Noah’s mum took one look at me, pulled me into a hug, and told me I could have the room beside Knight’s.
Someone figured out the legal side for her—no idea who but she made a bunch of calls.
They enrolled me in the guys’ school and we never mentioned it again.
The three of us have been brothers ever since. ”
He let out a breath and finally looked up at me. I knew he didn’t want to talk about it anymore; he didn’t want to dwell. I was guessing it had been a long time since he had to tell anyone that story. Likely no one other than his group knew.
“That was a lot of talking for you, huh?”
The relief in his eyes told me I was right about what he needed from me.
“Your turn.” He shifted Sophie in his arms, still sound asleep.
“Do you want me to take her?” My hand was still resting on his bicep and I made no move to change that.
He scowled at me and I smiled, lifting my free hand in surrender.
“I don’t really know much about my family.
I don’t know who my father is. My mother abandoned me at a fire station when I was three with a very vague note about how she just couldn’t manage me on her own, that she was only eighteen and just couldn’t do it.
I entered the foster system and bounced around homes until I aged out.
” I rubbed my hand slowly up and down his arm a few times when the tension increased in his jaw.
“It wasn’t terrible, nothing that bad happened to me.
Sure, there were some not so great people but I was never abused.
Every family I was placed with just had their own shit and after a while couldn’t take care of me too.
“The cop that picked me up from the fire station tracked me down when I was seventeen.” Since I was already on a roll I figured I would just get it all out there.
“He said he was getting ready to retire and someone gave him a picture of him holding me that day and he decided to look me up. I asked him if he could track down my mom. I didn’t want anything from her, I just wanted to know where I came from.
He told me she had been in and out of prison for most of my life for small theft and drug charges.
He gave me her name in case I ever wanted to find her, but so far I haven’t reached out. ”
“Do you still talk to the officer?” he asked quietly, his eyes focused on me.