Asher (Ashes & Embers 6)

I blink at her. My stomach rolls with waves of nausea.

“That’s it,” Asher growls. “I want you out of here, Sydni. You had your fun. Get the fuck off my property.”

“Oh, come on. She knows I’m just kidding.”

I don’t.

“Just leave before I have to embarrass you in front of everyone.”

She rolls her eyes. “Fine. I can see you two are still no fun. I’m gonna go, but I’ll catch ya later, and we’re definitely getting together soon.” She yanks me into another bone-crushing hug.

“Okay,” I squeak.

As I watch her walk away, I decide I have no interest in ever seeing her again. How dare she talk about Kenzi that way? What kind of friend would talk to me like that or make remarks about my husband? Reading the journals clued me in somewhat about her flirty and overbearing personality, but that doesn’t come close to what I just witnessed.

Asher turns me to face him. “Are you okay?” he asks. “Don’t pay attention to her. She loves to start trouble.”

“I’m okay. I can’t believe she said such rude things.”

“I think she gets off on making other people uncomfortable. Don’t let it bother you.”

Mission accomplished for Sydni.

He touches my hair and leans down to kiss me. “I was gonna play some tunes with Lukas and Storm over by the fire. We usually do that when we’re all together here. Evie and Asia are over there now. I’m sure they’d love it if you sat with them.”

“Like a mini concert?”

“Yeah, really low-key acoustic.”

“Sure. That sounds cool.”

Holding hands, we walk to the other side of the yard where the bonfire is blazing. Some of the guys have already started setting up, and their wives are sitting in chairs arranged in a semicircle around them.

“Will you be okay? I don’t want you to feel like I’m abandoning you with all these people if you’re not comfortable.”

“Don’t be silly.” I smile at his sweet concern. “I don’t expect you to babysit me. It’ll be kinda nice to sit with the other wives and listen to you sing.”

Touching my chin, he gently tilts my face up. “I’d like that.” He kisses me again before jogging off toward the guys.

“Ember!”

I turn to see Storm’s wife, Evie, waving her hand at me. “Come sit with us.”

Relieved, I walk over and take the empty seat between Evie and Asia, Talon’s wife.

“This is the first time I’ll see Asher and the guys live,” I say.

“Oh, wow!” Evie exclaims. “Asher has the most amazing voice. Storm and Talon sing too, but they don’t have the vocal range that your hubby has. You have an amazing voice too. Kinda like a mix of Billie Eilish and Janis Joplin. It’s really sexy.”

I have no idea who Billie Eilish is, but I recognize Janis Joplin. “I do?”

“You sure do.”

“I can’t sing anymore,” I admit in a low voice. Although that might not be true, because I haven’t tried to sing. I don’t feel like I can though. I don’t have any impulses at all to open my mouth and belt out a song. If I could sing, wouldn’t it just come naturally?

Evie rubs my shoulder. “That’s okay. Maybe it’s not your thing anymore. I saw some of your paintings when we came through the house, and they’re beautiful!”

I beam at her compliment. “Thank you so much. I only started last week, but now I feel like I can’t stop. I see all these images in my head, and I just want to bring them to life.”

Her eyes brighten. “Last week? Are you kidding? I think you found a hidden talent. They’re seriously amazing. Storm and I couldn’t believe it when Asher told us you painted them. We thought you guys bought them at an art fair.”

“That means so much to me. Asher’s going crazy buying me all kinds of different paints and charcoals and brushes. He’s so supportive of everything I do.”

“That man is crazy in love with you. I’ve only known him for a few years, but he talked about you all the time. We were all so excited to hear you were back. If you ever want to get together, go shopping, take the dogs to the park, just call me.”

“I’d really like that.” Thank God, this girl is nicer than Sydni.

Asia touches my arm to get my attention. She appears to be a little younger than Evie and Ivy, Lukas’s wife, whom I met earlier.

“I was in kind of a similar situation to you,” Asia says. “It’s different, but in some ways, the same. Talon and I got married as total strangers. We didn’t meet until the day we got married.”

My mouth falls open. Why would someone do something crazy like that?

I shake my head a little. “I’m sorry, I’m confused. How did you get married if you didn’t know each other?”

“It was part of an experiment. Aria was part of a team of relationship experts where they paired strangers together to get married. It’s a long story.” Asia waves her hand in the air. “But we got married and moved in together, and we didn’t know each other. At all. We didn’t even really like each other at first.” Her nose crinkles as she laughs. “It took us a while to get to know each other and learn about each other. We had a lot of fights and misunderstandings.”