Pretending She's Mine

She pinched her lips together. “It’s that bad?”

I helped her inside the car. I was going to have to drive the rest of the way. Rick had been carted off by my medical team.

“You’re going to hate it.”

I closed the door behind her. But it didn’t matter. She was safe.

Twenty-One

Journey

We had attended two brunches, three dinners, and one cocktail party in the span of three weeks. I was exhausted.

Today, Asher and I decided we were taking the day off for ourselves. We had planned it intentionally with great purpose. Today was going to life-changing.

He pulled up in front of the cabin and I didn’t know I could be so happy.

He walked around to the passenger side and opened the door for me. I grinned at him. “What should we do first?” I asked.

He laughed. “I have to check in with Mickey and then we can do whatever you want.”

I was nervous and excited. “We only have a few hours,” I reminded him.

He nodded. “But until she arrives, they are your few hours.”

I climbed the stairs all the way to the top deck. There was a thin layer of snow surrounding the property. It was beautiful.

I was finally going to meet Avajean today. As important a milestone as that was, there was something else I wanted to tell Asher. Something that had become unmistakably clear to me over the past few weeks.

He jogged up the steps behind me and typed in the code to the door. He had already performed a security scan on his system. Ever since Claire had started the reintegration process with Westbrook Securities, he had been slightly more relaxed, but he was never going to let his guard down completely. That wasn’t the kind of man he was.

I waited while he made his phone call to the New York office. I played the conversation out in my head. I knew what I wanted to say, but how was it going to sound when the words came out of my mouth?

Asher sauntered out of his study. He grinned. “Did you check the walk-in cooler? Lunch was delivered this morning. I had everything catered. Are you hungry?”

I bit my lip. Ok. Lunch would be the opportunity. That’s when I would just throw it out there.

“Yes, I’m kinda hungry. What did you order?”

He walked over to the stainless steel door and retrieved an over-sized picnic basket. “Don’t worry. I checked with Tristan about the menu.”

I giggled. “Have you two finally buried the hatchet?”

“No. Never,” he teased.

It was too cold to eat on the deck, so we spread a blanket on the living room floor. Asher opened a bottle of wine while I unwrapped the food from the basket.

He settled next to me.

“I love being back here.” I looked at him.

“You do? I thought you hated this place when we were here.”

I drank a big sip of wine. “I did, but I fell in love with you again here, so now I love it.”

He turned toward me, cupping my chin. “There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

“Oh my God. There’s something I want to talk to you about.”