by Kylie Walker
Asher smiled through the tears in his eyes and said, “You won’t believe this, but I think I already do.”
Mia had tears in her eyes too. She nodded and said, “I do believe it because I loved him before I even met him.”
Chapter 22
Asher paced the length of his living room. It had been three days since he and Mia spent the night together. He had seen her every day since and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt now that she was his destiny. If anyone tried to separate them, it would have to be done by prying his cold, dead fingers off of her. But with Axel, he hadn’t even known where to start. If he had been a child instead of a young man on the verge of adulthood, it might have been easier. But his son was nearly a man. He thought about himself at that age. He was still so emotionally immature and so many things were happening to him internally, even before all the drama. He wouldn’t blame Axel if he did hate him, but he prayed that he wouldn’t. Mia, Axel, Frank and Dean were coming over for a barbecue tonight. Asher and Mia had agreed it would be easier for Axel to interact with his father while having others around.
Dean arrived first, and he and Asher took a beer out back onto the porch swing they’d fixed a few days before. “You’re welcome,” Dean said as he took a seat.
Asher looked at him and grinned. “For what?” he asked.
Dean laughed. “You know what. If I hadn’t ordered those sandwiches the other day.”
Asher rolled his eyes. “I think I would have gotten around to it eventually.”
“I’m not touching that one,” Dean said, “I never get any credit.”
Laughing Asher said, “Thank you, man. Hey, do you know anyone in South Dakota that might want to lease a little farm.”
Dean grinned. “I think I could make that happen. I’m glad you’re sticking around, man.”
“They’ll have to drag my dead body out of town,” he chuckled.
The doorbell rang and Asher found Frank and Lyle both on the doorstep. “I’m crashing,” Lyle said. “Frank and I played golf this morning and he told me this was where the party was at.”
Asher laughed. “Glad you could make it and I’m sorry we forgot your invitation. This was just a little impromptu get together.” Lyle handed him a boxed cake he’d bought and slapped him on the back. As the two older men headed to the back, Mia and Axel arrived. Asher found it funny that he was more terrified of this child than he had been of any of the other things he had seen and done in his life. He was terrified Axel would reject him.
Mia smiled, Axel didn’t. “I hear you two have already sort of met, but Axel this is your father, Asher.”
Axel looked Asher over. He was wearing a white A-frame tank and Asher could see the boy looking at his tattoos. “I got most of them to hide all the scars,” he said.
“What are they from?” Axel asked him. “The scars.”
“I’m going to help Dad light the barbecue. It looks like he’s having problems.” Mia winked at Asher as she left and went out through the glass doors in back.
“Some of them are from the accident I was in when I was your age.”
“The one that killed my uncle?”
Asher swallowed the lump in his throat. “Yes.”
“He was driving?”
“Yes. But just so you know driving drunk wasn’t something your uncle ever did. That day, my mother, your grandmother Lily had died.”
Axel nodded. “Yeah, Mom told me. So you were in the army, huh? Is that where you’ve been all this time?”
“Yeah, most of it. Axel…if I had known about you, I would have come home.”
He saw the flicker in his son’s eyes. Mia’s eyes. He was fighting to stay strong as he said, “If you would have come home, you would have known about me. Excuse me.” Asher almost smiled. He was definitely his mother’s son. Even angry, he was polite. Surprisingly, Axel’s barb didn’t strike him too deep. The boy was talking to him and he counted that as a start.
Asher joined the others outside. The two older men and Dean were still arguing over the grill while Axel pushed himself back and forth on the porch swing. Mia was sitting in a lounge chair underneath the old oak tree that Asher climbed and played in when he had been a little boy. He was thankful for his sunglasses as he took her in. He would hate for her father or her son to see the look he knew had to be in his eyes.
He let his eyes roam her sexy body. She had braided her long, thick brown hair to the side and it hung down across her shoulder and lay against the swell of her breast. Asher’s eyes lingered on her cleavage. She was wearing a white sundress that accentuated her sexy curves. The flowing cotton ended just above her knees and her calves were tanned and tonned and sexy. Jesus, he had to stop this before he was walking around with wood in his jeans in front of their families.
He walked over and sat down next to her. “How did it go?” she asked him.
“It was a start,” he said. He gave her an encouraging smile.
“Good,” she said.
“Just put the corn right there on the grill,” Mia heard her father say. She rolled her eyes and pushed herself off the chair. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to show these boys how to cook.”
Asher took a pull of his beer, and when she was standing in front of him and he was sure no one else was watching, he popped his sunglasses down on his nose and once again raked his eyes down her body. “Too fucking gorgeous,” he whispered. “And she cooks.”
Mia didn’t seem to care who was watching. She leaned down over him and kissed his lips with her sweet ones. “She can do a lot more than that. Hang on for the ride cowboy.”
She sashayed away, leaving Asher laughing. God it felt good to be happy for a change. He looked over towards where Axel had been sitting. He was gone. While Mia instructed the other men on the fine art of barbecuing, Asher slipped inside to look for his son. He found Axel in the den watching the baseball game on television.
“Who’s playing?”
“Padres and Giants.”
“Who’s winning?” Asher sat down in the chair opposite him. Axel gave him a look like he wished he would go away, but Asher wasn’t ready to go just yet.
“Giants.”
“You think they’ll go on to the series this year?”
Axel shrugged. “It’s not their year. They go in even years.”
Asher laughed. “So who then? The Padres and the Yankees?”
Axel curled his lip. “I hate the Yankees.”
“Who is your team?”
“The Red Sox, but they’re sucking this year. They don’t have pitchers this year.”
Asher nodded and smiled. “The Red Sox are okay. I’ve always been partial to the White Sox myself.”
Axel laughed and then looked at his father’s face and said, “Oh, you’re serious.”
“Yes I am. My father was a White Sox fan. It was the only team I was allowed to watch.”
Axel smiled then. It was the first genuine smile Asher had seen from him and it was beautiful. “I know. Grandpa and I argued for hours every baseball season. I actually picked the Red Sox when I was about ten just to annoy him.”
Asher laughed. “I’ll bet that did the trick.”
Axel was laughing now too. “Yep. I bought him Red Sox shirts and hats for Christmas every year and he bought me White Sox ones. I have a whole closet full of them.” His laughter died off and suddenly he was sober again. “I miss him,” he said. Asher’s heart felt like it was caught in a vice.
“I do too,” he said. “He was a good man. I’m glad you got to know him. I wish that you could have met your grandmother.”
Axel nodded. “Me too. Grandpa talked about her all the time. I felt like I knew her, kind of.”
Neither of them said anything for a long time until Axel looked out the window and said, “How long you think it’ll take them to figure out that barbecue pit? I’m starving.”
Asher smiled. “I think your mom will whip them into shape soon enough. Your grandfather brought s
ome kind of gooey-looking chocolate cake.”
Axel smiled. “Let’s both have a piece so if Mom tightens the screws neither of us can turn on the other.”
Asher threw his head back and laughed. “That sounds like the best idea I’ve heard all day.”
Fifteen minutes later, Mia found the two of them in the dining room with half a chocolate cake, talking about football now. She sat down with them and tried to give them a stern look as she looked at the cake and the dirty plates and forks in front of them both. Asher could see the curl of her lips as she said, “You ate cake, before dinner?”
Asher and Axel exchanged a look and Asher said, “Axel didn’t want to. I issued a direct order for him to eat with me. He didn’t have any choice.”
Mia counld’t contain her smile. She rolled her eyes but she gave Asher a warm, grateful look. She looked at her son and said, “Is that the truth?”
Axel grinned. “Would my father lie?”
Asher couldn’t remember when he had ever been so happy. Finally, this was what life was supposed to be about; family. His family.
Chapter 23
Asher had been in town for about two weeks when he had a meeting scheduled with the horse ranches his parent’s owned on the edge of town. He wanted to notify them now that his father was gone he was going to be their new landlord. He also wanted to assure them that he didn’t have any plans to sell the ranches so they could do business as usual. On his way out of town he stopped by Mia’s house. He knocked on the door and waited. A few moments went by and Axel pulled open the door. He looked surprised, but thankfully, not annoyed.
Asher smiled at his son. He looked so much like Mia to him. “Hey.”
“Hey. Mom’s not here. She went to work already.”
“That’s okay. I actually came by to see you.” Axel looked pleasantly surprised and then caught himself and changed the look on his face back to bored and disinterested. Asher suppressed a smile and said, “I have to go out to the edge of the county and talk to a couple of the ranchers who rent land from us. I was wondering if you’d like to go with me?”
Asher and Axel had broken the ice over the past couple of weeks, but things between them were still slightly uncomfortable. Asher had never been around kids, teenagers, at least not since he had been one himself. He was however, willing to do whatever it took to get them to a place where they could have a regular father and son relationship, or as regular as it could be when you considered all of the years they had missed out on. There was nothing he could do to get those years back, but he was determined to make everyone they had together from here on out count.
Axel didn’t look sure. Asher appreciated that the boy was nervous about being alone with him simply because he didn’t know what to say. He appreciated that as hard as it was for him, it had to be even harder for Axel. If he said no, Asher would understand. “Okay,” he finally said. “Let me get my shoes.”
“Do you ride?” Asher asked him.
“Horses?”
Asher smiled. “Yes, horses. If there is something else you’d like to ride, like a Harley or a jet ski, we can work up to that.”
Axel grinned. “Yeah, I ride. I haven’t for a while, but I guess it’s like riding a bike, huh?”
“I hope so,” Asher said with a grin. “I haven’t had a chance to get on a horse in years. I miss it. Grab your boots and we’ll take a ride while we’re out there.” Axel put on his boots and the two men headed out to the ranch. When they got to the first one Asher told Axel as they got out of the truck, “This was my mother’s favourite property. It’s where I learned to ride.”
“Cool. Grandpa told me that Grandma loved horses.”
“She did. If it had been convenient, I think she would have insisted we live out here. It would have been too much for them though to operate a working ranch and still keep up with all of the other work in town they had to do.”
“They have a lot of horses,” Axel said, looking out towards the front pasture.
“They do. I spoke to the owner the other day and he says they have thirty Arabians and another twenty or so Mustangs they bought in Texas and plan to tame and breed. Maybe one of these days if you’d like, you could pick one out and I’ll buy you your own.”
As they walked up towards the big ranch house Axel said, “Grandpa taught me how to ride. He used to take me up to the mountains camping every year and we would pack in and out.”
Asher felt another pang in his chest for one more thing he had missed. “Your grandpa was a great rider. He did some rodeo stuff when he was younger,” he told Axel. He used to love to sit and listen to the stories when his father was in the mood to tell them.
“Cool, he never told me that,” Axel said.
Asher smiled as he thought about his dad. He missed him. “He wasn’t ever one to talk about himself much. I used to have to beg him to tell me stories. He left the bragging up to Mom.” They reached the front door of the house and Asher knocked. A few seconds later it was pulled open by a middle-aged man dressed in a cowboy shirt, jeans and boots.
“Asher Fury, I presume?”
“That’s me. Are you Randy Harper?”
“Guilty,” the older man said. “You look like your old man. He was a good guy. I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you,” Asher said, “This is my son, Axel.”
Axel held his hand out and the older man shook it. “Come on in. My wife Lucille is frosting a cake she made for us.”
They followed Randy through a western style living room and hallway into a gourmet kitchen. Asher remembered his mother remodelling this home and the one on the neighbouring ranch. She put a lot of time and money into them both. She was the kind of landlord that people prayed for. Randy’s wife, Lucille, looked up from her cake as the men walked in. “Gentlemen, this is my lovely wife, Lucille. This is Asher and Axel Fury.” Asher looked at his son. He didn’t correct Randy on the last name. For some reason that made Asher happy. The men greeted Lucille and they all took a seat at the table. Lucille fussed over them, pouring them coffee and insisting they all have a large piece of chocolate cake. When everyone was settled in Asher said, “I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me.”
“Are you kidding? We appreciate you and your folks so much. This is the nicest ranch either of us have ever lived or worked on. We love it here and we hope to retire here someday.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Asher said, “I’m hoping that we can work together as well as you and my parents did. I’m not planning on selling the ranches, but I don’t plan on living on them either. I’d like for you to stay and continue working it, if that’s what you want to do.”
Lucille looked like she was going to cry. She took Asher’s hands in her own and said, “Oh thank you so much. We’ve put so much of ourselves into this land, and those horses out there are my babies. I can’t even fathom living in town again and not being able to ride every day.” Her voice cracked and she stopped there. Asher smiled at her and said,
“Every notation my father and before that my mother made about this place over the years was positive. Thank you both for taking such good care of the house and the land. When we drove up I noticed you’ve added another stable and you’ve done a lot of work to the barn too.”
Randy looked puffed up with pride. “My brother and I built those stables and completely remodelled the barn.”
“They look great,” Asher told him, “As far as the contract goes, we’re going to stay with the same terms unless you all have anything you’d like to add or change.”
“No,” Randy said, “That’s perfect. It’s a good contract. I have some friends that rent from the Proctors. They’re running them in the ground raising the rents constantly. I feel so damned bad for them. One couple had to sell everything they have and now they live in an apartment in town. It’s a damned shame.”
Asher felt a surge of anger towards the Proctors. Once he had his business all settled, he had to get tog
ether with Dean’s father and Mia’s father and decide what to do about them. He nodded at Randy and said, “From what I hear, they’ve been creating a lot of chaos around here. I hope we can put our heads together as a community and figure out what to do about that.”
Randy curled his lip. “Damned community is all afraid of them.”
“With good reason,” Lucille interrupted, “Bad things happen to those who go against them.”
“I guess,” Randy grumbled.
“I have one favour to ask you,” Asher said, changing the subject.
“Anything,” Randy said.
“I was wondering if Axel and I might take a ride while we’re here.”
“Hell yes!”
“Randall!” Lucille chastised him.
Randy looked at Asher and said, “Sorry.”
Asher laughed. “It’s fine. Are the horses you’d like us to take out in the stables?”
“Yes, in the stable closest to the house and so are the saddles and all of the tack. Demon is in stall one and stall two is Lightning. Those are my two best Arabians. They love to be ridden.”
Asher and Axel thanked the couple again and the couple profusely thanked them in return. The stables were a ways away from the house so they drove down in the truck. When they got there Asher and Axel found the saddles and tack and Asher took Demon out of his stall. He brushed and pet the horse, talking to him as he saddled him up. Axel saddled the one called Lightning. When Asher was finished with his own, he helped Axel finish his up. As he double-checked the cinch, Axel raised an eyebrow and said,