Southern Secrets (Southern 7)

Leaving her in that ambulance and not going with her shifted something inside me, and I knew then and there that whatever this shit was had to stop. I worked side by side with Jacob the whole time. My only focus was finding out what happened to her.

The phone in my back pocket felt heavier and heavier with each message. My ability not to want to kill someone slipped away, each time. Jacob had to send me away from a couple of the guys we were interviewing because if one of them said again that she was smoking hot, I was going to throat punch them.

I get out of the shower and slip on a pair of boxers and shorts. I walk back to her bedroom and see she’s still sleeping. I think about walking to her bed and lying down beside her just so I can make sure she is okay all night long. My heart pushes me to go, but my head, my head moves my feet away from her door, and I walk over to the couch to lie down and set my phone alarm to go off in two hours. I turn on my back and look up at the ceiling, my eyes never closing to sleep when I hear the soft alarm. I get up and walk to the bedroom. Her eyes open slowly when I walk in. "Did you set an alarm?" she asks me softly.

"Yeah," I tell her and see that the sun is coming up. "Go back to sleep."

"Turn off your alarm," she grumbles out, "or I’ll break the phone."

I laugh. "How is your head?"

"It’s not my head that hurts. It’s the pain in my ass in front of me that’s bothering me." She turns in her bed. "Now, let me sleep."

"Call me if you need anything," I say, and I want to just sit and make sure she is okay, but instead, I walk back to the couch, and this time, sleep comes and takes me. The sound of movement makes my eyes fly open, and I see that the sun is streaming into the room. "Hey," I say, getting up seeing her in the kitchen.

"Why are you sleeping on the couch?" She looks over at me, and she looks tired but still so beautiful that she takes my breath away.

"I was scared I wouldn’t hear you," I say, getting up as she walks to the cupboard and gets two mugs out. She wears another pair of shorts and a long-sleeve sweater. "How are you feeling?"

"Annoyed," she says, pouring coffee in the mugs and then putting the pot back. "I got seventeen voice messages from my grandmother." She hands me a cup of coffee. "One text from my grandfather." She goes back to her mug and smells it right before she drinks it. "A text from every single cousin and my mother should be here any minute."

I walk to the fridge, grabbing some milk and putting a splash in my coffee. "Are you hungry?"

"My mother is coming, and I’m assuming from the voice mails from my grandmother, she has cooked everything that I’ve ever said I liked since I was a little girl," she says, and I smile.

"Nothing wrong with family loving you," I say, taking another sip, and I see her face soften just a bit.

"I didn’t mean," she says softly.

I shake my head. "You don’t have to apologize." It looks like she is going to say something else, but the front door opens.

"Incoming," Amelia says to me, holding her coffee cup in both hands.

"Good morning." I look over my shoulder and see Kallie standing there with her hands full of food. "Oh, good, you had coffee." I laugh and then look down when Amelia glares at me. "Good morning, Asher," Kallie says.

I walk over to her to help grab some things from her hands. "Here, let me help you there, Mrs. McIntyre."

"Suck-up," Amelia grumbles when I walk back with all the food in my hands. Placing the food on the island, Kallie walks over to Amelia and holds her face in her hands. "I’m fine."

"When aren’t you fine?" she asks her daughter and then turns around. "What do you want to eat?" she asks, grabbing plates out of the cupboard.

"If you guys are going to be okay," I say to them, "I’m going to go and meet up with the guys." I look at them, and Amelia just stares at me.

"You can do whatever you want," she says, her eyes going down to the food in front of her. I look over at Kallie, who smiles at me, and I see tears in her eyes. "I’ll be fine."

"Oh, we know," I say, turning and walking back to the bedroom. I slip on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. When I walk back out, Kallie is the only one there. "Where is she?"