“For the love of all things holy, no. Just a big cup, please,” I answer her and then think back on the times we’ve been out. I don’t think Asher’s been drinking.
More questions pile up and I wish he’d get back here so I can ask him every single one.
“I’ll get you the largest mug I’ve got,” Melissa adds a pat to the table and flashes me a full-on charming smile as she leaves.
It’s then that the door chimes and Asher comes back in. The cut on his brow looking slightly worse, but overall, he seems better. Calmer and less on edge.
His butt isn’t even fully in his seat before my hand is wrapped around his.
We’re in this together.
He squeezes my hand and I squeeze his back, but gently so I don’t bother his injury.
“Everything okay?” I ask him and he nods, although he still hasn’t looked me in the eye.
His focus stays on the table as he taps his phone down on its side, then rotates and taps the top of it nervously.
“I think, if it’s all right with you, I’d like to set up a meeting with your mom and my mom’s going to come too.” He finally looks up at me. “She had no idea about the house going up on the market or my father continuing to drink.”
I’m too busy nodding to form words but after a moment of him staring back at me, I clear my throat and tell him, “Of course. I’ll message her or do you want to call her? Or come back with me?” All the words rush out without me thinking, just letting them spill.
He nods and says he’ll come back to the office with me. His tone is deflated, his expression defeated.
It’s more than obvious he feels betrayed. Again, my wheels spin coming up with a plan, anything that can help. He’s the fixer in my life and he always has been, but I’ll be damned if I don’t do everything I can right now to help him.
“Is she staying—” I start to ask, knowing there are some rentals Mrs. Hart can stay in tonight if she just wants to get away. But he cuts me off to say, “My aunt is picking her up. She got there right before I hung up.”
“Good, good,” I whisper and then, just as I start to offer him to stay with me, he says, “Robert messaged me that I could stay with him.”
My heart sinks slightly, a chill going through me. I stare back at him, wanting to say a million things, but mostly to admit that I don’t want to be away from him right now.
“Unless, he said, unless I was staying with you tonight.”
I can’t help the smile that breaks out on my face, although I’m quick to tame it. Licking my lips, I tell him, “Whatever you want to do or wherever you want to go, I just want to be there with you.”
An asymmetric grin pulls at his lips and for the first time since all this broke out, I feel relief. He kisses the back of my hand and then turns it over to kiss my wrist.
“Good,” he tells me, like that finalizes it although he doesn’t give me any details at all.
With the hum of warmth flowing through me, I try to lighten the mood. “You called me your girlfriend.” He scoots closer to me, and rests a hand on the inside of my thigh, leaning back and looking more and more like he’s okay. Like he’s really all right and we’re okay.
Like it might all work out.
“You didn’t correct me,” he murmurs. There’s a longing in his hazel eyes and a mischievousness that’s all Asher as he peers down at me.
“Like I could?” I joke and my heart aches.
“It’s going to get around town now,” he presses.
“Looks like you might be stuck with me then,” I joke.
He huffs a laugh, pulling me in closer. “Stuck with you? Bri baby, I am never letting you go.”
“Good, you better not … You better not leave me or push me away or keep anything from me, Asher.” I toughen my tone slightly, but I’ve never felt more vulnerable in my life. There is no greater truth in this world than that this man needs me and I need him. Well maybe one, that we love each other.
“There is no way in hell I am ever letting you get away again. I maybe made some mistakes, but I told you, I’m not making them again.”
“You meant it when you said it, right? You still love me?” I can’t help but question even though I know it’s true. I just need to hear him say it.