Dad stared at me, his dark eyes not giving anything away until the last second as he said, “We can do that.”
“Good.”
“Good,” Ford echoed. “Can we go drink beer now? I have two days off, and I want to make the most of them.”
“I’m gonna go—”
“Find Elodie,” Ford finished for me. He slapped his hand on my back, giving me a knowing look. He understood what it was like to want to protect the person you loved. They all did.
Which was why I knew they’d understand when this was all over.
Chapter Twenty-Five
ELODIE
The only Thanksgiving dinner I could remember was the same year my dad had left. We’d had chicken instead of turkey and a single side of fake mashed potatoes. Our plates had been balanced on our laps as we sat on the sofa, and for a few minutes, we were happy. I didn’t like to think about what happened after those few minutes. I didn’t want to remember how my mom had thrown her plate across the room, missing my dad’s face by inches. I didn’t want to remember how she stormed out of the trailer and didn’t come back for several days. Because for those few minutes, we were the average American family sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner.
But I was realizing now that we were never that, no matter how much I tried to pretend we were. What happened in this lake house was what a real American family was like. Everybody was in the kitchen and out on the deck. Lola and Belle were sitting at the table peeling potatoes, Brody was basting the huge turkey, and everyone else was laughing and having fun.
Then there was me, standing in the doorway of the kitchen, watching them all, and grieving for the family I’d never had. I’d never been surrounded by this much happiness, and even though part of me wished I had been, the other part of me knew I wouldn’t be who I was today if I’d had this.
I’d dragged myself through my short life. I’d clawed my way up to where I was. But it was at that moment I understood everything I’d fought for had been for a reason. Fate had set me on this path, but I couldn’t help wonder if I’d maybe taken a wrong turn somewhere. Maybe I’d veered into someone else’s lane and gotten all of their bad juju too. Or maybe I was exactly where I should have been.
I swallowed past the lump in my throat and took a step back. A floorboard squeaked under my foot, alerting Lola and Belle.
“You’re awake!” Belle pushed her chair back and stood with a huge smile on her face. “You hungry?”
I shook my head and placed my hand over my stomach. I was hungry, but I didn’t think I could manage any food, not with all the emotions running through me. I hadn’t celebrated this day for over a decade, and now I was placed smack-bang in the middle of it.
“Come on, you must be hungry.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the table. “Ford went into town this morning and bought fresh pastries.” She groaned. “You can’t beat the fresh pastries here.” I agreed because I’d never tasted anything like them before. “Here.” She placed a plate with three pastries in front of me, then pulled out the chair she’d been sitting on. “How’d you sleep?”
“Good,” I whispered, looking around for Asher as I sat down. Leo and Ford were on the deck with Cade and Aria, but Asher wasn’t anywhere in sight. My heart started to race, and I tried my hardest to keep calm. I’d spent two hours without him yesterday, and although I hadn’t told Asher, I’d missed him.
“He’s down by his tree,” Lola whispered. I turned to face her, seeing her knowing expression. “Why don’t you go on down to him?”
“I…” I could have told her I wasn’t thinking about Asher, that I hadn’t been looking for him, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to be near him as much as I could, and it wasn’t because I was scared. I just…wanted to be with him. I stood slowly, picking the untouched pastries up off the plate as I went, then headed outside.
I flashed Leo and Ford a smile and wave, then spotted Asher sitting in front of the tree at the edge of the lake, his face turned toward the sky. I wondered what he was thinking about. Whatever it was had his brows furrowing and his body tense.
I ambled down the walkway, keeping my gaze fixated on him. His arms hung over his jean-clad knees, his hair sticking up in several directions. He’d been running his hand through it, that much was obvious. The stones at the edge of the lake dug into the soles of my feet, so I scampered across them to get to him faster.
His head whipped around, his lips turning from a straight line into a smile as his gaze met mine. “Hey,” he whispered, his voice deep.
“Hey.” I stood awkwardly for a second, not sure what to say. “I brought you some breakfast.” I was nervous, but I had no idea why. Maybe it was because we were surrounded by other people, or maybe it was because we hadn’t been alone properly since the kiss yesterday morning.
“Thanks.” He shuffled away from the tree and patted the small grassed area next to him. “Take a seat.” I lowered down next to him and stared out at the lake while taking nibbles of one of the pastries. I could still hear the laughter from the deck of the lake house, and my stomach dipped. I’d only been around the entire family at the cookout, and I knew they were all aware of what had happened that very same night. But not one of them looked at me differently—at least, I hadn’t noticed if they had. I’d been exhausted last night, so I’d gone to bed early, and when I woke up this morning, Asher was gone, and their voices could be heard through the floorboards.
“It’s a lot, huh?”
“What?”
Asher tilted his head toward the back of the house. “The entire fam.” He glanced over at the house, and I turned to look too. Everyone was out on the deck now, and from the way their heads quickly turned, they’d been watching us. Asher chuckled, stood, then held his hand out to me. “Let’s go for a walk.”
I stared down at my bare feet. “I don’t have shoes.”
“I’ll go get you some.”
“No, it’s…” I trailed off as he darted away from me and tried to keep my attention on him, but as soon as he walked past everyone, nerves rolled in my stomach. I stood there, waiting for him, knowing they were all watching. I felt like a teen going on her first date, something which had never happened. I hadn’t had the same experience as your average high schooler, and I was starting to be okay with that. Everything happened for a reason, right?
Asher shot out of the back of the house and sprinted down the walkway back toward me. “Here.” He held out a pair of tennis shoes with a grin on his face. His excitement was rubbing off on me. We were only going for a walk, and yet I felt my own lips lifting.
I shoved my feet into them, then followed beside Asher as he walked around the front of the house and down the driveway. The backs of our hands skimmed across each other, and he looked down at me. I glanced up, feeling goose bumps spreading over my skin, and without a word said, our hands interlocked.
“Sometimes when they’re all together it can get a bit much,” Asher said, his voice low. We made it to the end of the driveway and turned left toward the town. We’d walked here so many times over the last few weeks, but today it was different. There was something in the air—something swirling between us.
“I can see that.” I smiled. “Although I’m glad your mom is here. She checked over all my schoolwork to see how I did.”
Asher chuckled. “Only Mom would do that.”
“I’m glad she did.” I took a breath. “I have to graduate this year.”
Asher’s head turned, his dark-eyed gaze meeting mine. “You will.” He halted on the sidewalk outside the now closed bakery. “When you set your mind to something, you can do it.” His free hand moved to the side of my face. “I’m glad you’re with me today.” The sadness in his eyes took over, and I lifted up on my tiptoes, feeling like he needed me to be closer to him. “This could be the last…” He trailed off, his eyes zoning out for a couple of seconds, but then he shook his head, evaporating the sadness that took over. “I wish we could have been alone.”
I pl
anted a kiss on his cheek, then turned us back toward the house. “I’ve never really had a proper Thanksgiving.”
“You haven’t?”
“Nope. Closest we ever got was chicken and fake potatoes on the sofa.” I shivered. “I haven’t eaten fake potatoes since.”
“Fake potatoes?” He laughed, his hand squeezing mine. “What the hell are fake potatoes?”
“You know…the ones that come in a box as powder. You add liquid and”—I threw my hand in the air like I was presenting a magic trick—“fake mashed potatoes.”
“That sounds—”
“Disgusting. I know.” We made it to the bottom of the driveway again, and I paused, able to hear the voices from the house. Half of me wished I could spend the day just Asher and me, but the other half wanted to experience what a day as part of a real family on a holiday was like. And with that thought, I turned to Asher, blurting out, “Race you back to the house?”
He raised his brows. “You realize I’m a foot taller than you, right?”
I pulled my hand out of his and quirked my lips. “Yeah, but I’m gonna get a head start.” I hadn’t finished my sentence before I sprinted away from him, laughing up a storm as he called me a cheater. The gravel on the driveway crunched under his feet as he chased after me, but it wasn’t until we made it around the back of the house that he caught up to me.
I squealed as his hands grasped my waist, and he picked me up. I tried to tell him to let me down, but I couldn’t stop laughing. We were carefree. Not a single worry weighing down on our shoulders.
“You’re a little cheater!”
“Am not!”
“Are too.” He lifted me higher and placed me over his shoulder, causing my head to hang upside down.
“Now who’s cheating?”
“Not me.” His arm locked around my thighs as he continued running, but the house wasn’t getting closer. Instead, it was getting farther away.
“Asher…what are you doing?” My eyes widened, and I tried to turn my body, but I already knew where he was heading. “Asher! Don’t—”
“Don’t what?” he asked, and I heard the splashing of water. I saw it lapping against his ankles, but he didn’t slow down, not until he was nearly waist deep, and my head was only centimeters from the surface.
“Asher.” I tried to sound stern, I really did, but the happiness in my voice couldn’t be mistaken. When it was just him and me, we didn’t have to think about anything else. We could just be Asher and Elodie. And it was my favorite part of the day.
“What?” he asked innocently, then a second later, I was flying through the air.
Cold water met my back, soaking through the T-shirt and leggings I was wearing. I flapped my arms as I went completely under, but not a second later, Asher was diving down with me, wrapping his arms around my waist, and breaking us through the surface.
The grin on his face was so wide his eyes crinkled at the corners. I was mesmerized by the way he stared at me—like I was the most beautiful thing in the world. And for the first time ever, I truly felt it. I was standing in the lake, my body drenched with water, my hair a wet, matted mess stuck to half of my face, but he made me feel like I’d just stepped off a runway. Like all eyes should have been on me.
His chest pressed against mine, his one hand burning at my hip and the other on the side of my neck, tilting my head up to face him. “Stay with me.” I frowned, not understanding what he was saying. “Stay with me when we leave here.”
“What?” I swallowed, feeling like the moment we were having was evaporating, but all he did was hold me closer—tighter.
“When we leave the lake house and go home, I want you to move in with me.” I opened my mouth, but he slid his thumb over my lips to stop me from talking. “Don’t say no. Don’t say yes. Just think about it.” He paused, his gaze not moving off mine for even a split second. “Okay?”
I nodded. “Okay. I’ll think about it.” I needed to process what he was saying. Understand what he was suggesting. But I already knew the answer to it. I couldn’t go back to the apartment, not yet anyway. And my only other option was my car.
I wouldn’t do that, though. I’d spent so many years fighting for myself. Trying to yank myself out of the position I’d been born into. But I’d refused Asher’s help before. I’d also taken it. And I knew life was so much better when I let him help me. I wanted to tell him yes now. I wanted to tell him I couldn’t imagine sleeping somewhere he wasn’t, but instead, I pushed higher so I could be closer to his face.
“Asher?”
His breath fanned over my face, his lips so close all it would take was a slight sway, and we’d be touching there too. “Yeah?”
“Are you gonna kiss me anytime soon?”
“I was debating…” He licked his bottom lip. “I think we have an audience, though.”
I glanced over his shoulder, spotting several of his family on the deck. “We do.” His hand squeezed harder on my hip, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. “But I don’t care.”
“You sure?” he asked, and I fell even harder for him.
“When I’m with you? Always.”
He pressed his lips against mine, soft and gentle to begin with, but as I pressed closer to him, he swiped his tongue along the seam, asking me to open up. And in that moment, I forgot about the people watching us, forgot all about the lake water we were still standing in because Asher consumed every single inch of me.
A kiss was never just a kiss with Asher. It was a promise. A promise of a better life. A promise that the pain I was going through would soon be over. A promise that he’d be by my side every step of the way.
ASHER
“Can you pass the real potatoes?” I asked Elodie, smirking over at her. Belle had set the table and decided where everyone would sit, and apparently, that meant each couple opposite each other with Leo next to Elodie. Even as kids, Belle had to control the seating arrangements. I’d never been bothered about it before, not until Elodie couldn’t sit next to me. It was irrational, and I knew I couldn’t keep her all to myself, but since they’d gotten here, I felt like I’d barely seen her.
“Real potatoes?” Mom asked as Elodie passed them over to me.
“Just something from when I was a kid,” Elodie answered, but her grin and the twinkle in her eyes told me she found it funny—at least I hoped she did. Each day we both learned more about each other, and today, not only did I find out about “fake potatoes” but also that I could touch her hip and the side of her neck without her flinching.
I hadn’t touched her much since we’d been here, but slowly, each day, she was getting used to it again. The bruises on her face were completely faded, but I knew the pain she felt inside her heart wouldn’t heal as quickly.
“Thanks.” I trailed my finger over hers as I took the dish and scooped a big pile on my plate. There was nothing like my mom and dad’s Thanksgiving dinners. It was the one thing I missed most when I’d been on tour and out of the country. I’d forgotten all about it this year until a couple of days ago, but what I’d planned to cook wouldn’t have come anywhere close to this. The table was full of dishes with a perfectly roasted turkey in the middle and Ford’s famous pumpkin pie. Dessert was always my favorite part.
“We drove past East Ink on the way up here,” Cade said out of the blue, and all smiles and conversations halted. “Did you know it was closed?” The silence echoed in the house louder than when Belle was shouting at the top of her lungs.
“Cade,” Aria gritted out, and the table wobbled, so I could only imagine she’d kicked him. “Shut up.”
Cade’s gaze snapped to Elodie, then me. “Shit. Sorry. I wasn’t—”
“Thinking?” I answered for him. My nostrils flared. What had been a good day so far was taking a turn for the worst, and all it had taken was a handful of words. I didn’t want Elodie to know the shop was closed. She didn’t need to worry about what was happening back home. All she had to think about was getting better and feeli
ng safer.
Elodie’s face paled as she pushed the food around on her plate. I wanted nothing more than to push my chair back and hold her. Her eyes glazed over, her attention now not in the room with all of us, but instead somewhere else entirely.
“Elodie?” She didn’t answer me, her body freezing at the sound of my voice. “Sweetheart?” Her gaze slowly moved to me, the pain shadowed in her eyes on full display. Fuck. “It’s okay.” I leaned forward, hating the table that separated us. “You’re okay.”
“Why—” She cleared her throat and shook her head, pushing everything away to a place no one could see it. She was a pro at pulling the mask on her face, but I was starting to learn where the cracks appeared. “Why is the shop closed?”
“I…” I swallowed. I hadn’t spoken to her about what was happening back home because I didn’t want to burden her. “I closed it for a while.”
Elodie frowned, her stare not moving an inch off of me. “Why?”
“Because…” I left the single word hanging in the air.
Her brows rose. “What about Lara and Jez?”
“They’re guesting in a few other shops until I figure out what I’m gonna do.”
She tilted her head to the side, and I shuffled in my seat. “What are you not telling me, Asher?” I didn’t answer her. I couldn’t. I’d already made the decision in my mind that I was closing up shop there. She didn’t need to be constantly reminded about what happened in that place. “Are you doing this because of me?”
I glanced over at Mom and Dad, silently asking them for their help, but they were focused on Elodie, as were the rest of the table. “I—”
“Are you serious, Asher?” She stood, the legs on her chair scraping against the floor. “You can’t close the shop because of me.” She looked panicked, her shaking hands gripping on to the base of her neck. “You need to go back and open it. You’re going to lose clients and—”
“Nope.” I placed my fork on the edge of my plate. “I’m not going back until you’re ready to. Even if it takes a year.” I shrugged, trying to act indifferent, but from the way her face was turning red, it wasn’t working. “I might even move the shop.”
Burned Duet: Asher & Elodie: Fast Burn & Deep Burn (Easton Family Duet Boxsets Book 4) Page 33