Cherished (Steel Brothers Saga 17)

Donny was seven, though, and when Dad and Uncle Ryan rescued us, he didn’t realize the pact was no longer valid. When Aunt Ruby helped him take a bath and then looked away for just a moment, Donny tried to drown himself in the tub.

Aunt Ruby was a cop back then, and she knew CPR. She resuscitated Donny, and he was no worse for the wear despite being malnourished and covered with bruises and sores from the beatings we both endured.

I’ve never gotten over how frightened I was that day.

So when I saw Ashley, the woman I love, asleep in the hot tub…

I freaked. I freaked big time.

“Dale”—she cups my cheek after I get her inside and into a warm robe—“what’s this about?”

I’ve kept so much from her, and I’ll continue to do so.

But I can give her this much.

“My brother almost drowned in the tub when he was seven.”

“Oh!” She melts against me. “I’m so sorry.”

“Finding you asleep. It brought it all back. So vividly.”

She hugs me tighter and says nothing.

Unusual for Ashley, but I don’t need her words. I need only her presence. Her comfort.

And for the first time in a long time, I feel good about opening up.

Really good.

The next few days pass in a blur. Ashley and I leave Uncle Ry to do the tastings, and we work the harvest. We work straight through the weekend and are exhausted by the end of the day. Donny visits for one day, to meet our birth father in Grand Junction. He’s still in the ICU but is doing okay.

I sleep at home. Not in the mountains, which is usual for me during Syrah harvest, but at home, with Ashley next to me.

And I begin to wonder if maybe I can actually do this. Have a relationship with her.

“Dale?” Ashley says, leaning back in the hot tub after a particularly grueling day among the Syrah vines.

“Yeah?”

“Could I…have your mother’s necklace back?”

My heart jolts—in a good or bad way, I’m not sure. I will give it to her, though. It’s hers. It will never belong to anyone else.

“Of course. I was never sure why you wouldn’t take it in the first place.”

She sighs. “I guess I was hoping… Hoping maybe you’d change your mind and give us beyond two months. But now I want to take things day by day, because each day with you gets better, Dale. Each day I love you more, and even if you can’t commit to forever with me, I want the beautiful necklace to remember our time together.”

“It was always yours, Ash. I knew it as soon as I placed it around your neck. No one else could ever wear it.”

She kisses me on the cheek so hard that I nearly fall over into the water.

“Let’s go get it now!”

I chuckle. “All right. I’m turning into a prune anyway.” I climb out of the tub and hand Ashley her robe.

We—Penny at our heels—head into the house and back into the master suite, dripping water onto the hardwood as we walk. I open the top drawer of my chest and find the velvet box buried under my boxer briefs. I open it and finger the necklace.

It’s worth all of two hundred bucks. I could buy Ashley something so much more elegant, but this is a gift from my heart.

“Turn around,” I tell her, “and lift your hair off your neck.”

Easier said than done, as her hair is wet and sticking to her creamy skin. But she manages, and I clasp the garnet necklace around her.

She turns to face me. “Well?”

“You’re beautiful,” I say. “It was made for you. Now lose the robe.”

Slowly, she unties the terrycloth sash and parts the two sides of the white robe, letting it fall from her shoulders into a heap at her feet.

Her pink skin shines with the moisture left from the hot tub, and the garnets around her neck seem to glow from the light that lives within her.

“I’ve never seen you look more beautiful,” I say on a breath.

She giggles nervously. “With my hair all wet and sticky?”

“You look perfect. Perfectly delectable.” I stalk toward her—

Only to be interrupted by my phone.

“Damn!” I shake my head. “I’m going to ignore it.”

That’s not like me, and Ashley seems to know.

“It’s okay,” she says. “Go ahead. It might be important.”

“Nothing’s important at ten o’clock at night.”

“That’s my point. Anyone who bothers you at this hour will have a good reason. Go ahead. I’d never forgive myself if I made you miss an important call.”

Yeah, she has a point. Still, I resist. I’ve actually felt good the past few days. Telling her about Donny nearly drowning opened up a part of my heart I feared was closed for all time, and the weirdest part? Nothing bad came along with it. Sure, I still have secrets buried inside, but they didn’t come roaring out as I feared they would.