“Seriously? You think it’s okay to cause Ash so much worry and grief? For what end?”
“I did it for his own good. Drastic measures were required. My boy refused to come home. I had to get him here so that he and Sorene could patch things up. And it’s working. They’ve been with each other every day and night since he’s returned. Don’t you mess this up for me and Jack.”
Gideon narrowed his eyes. Eyes that saw way too much. “Jack Wilde is involved in this crazy scheme too?”
“How else were we ever to get those two knuckleheads together again and give us some grandchildren?”
Gideon barked out a laugh. “Wow. How are you going to break the news that you aren’t terminal?”
“A wedding will cure what ails me.”
“God, please save me from match making parents,” Gideon muttered. “I won’t lie to Ash. He’s one of my oldest friends, and I can’t participate in this.”
“Listen, Doc, my heart is sick over the shell of a man my boy used to be. He’s coming back to me. To Sorene. He’s happier than I’ve seen him in ten years. Do you want to take that away from him because you can’t talk your way around to upholding your Hippocratic oath?”
“I don’t like this position you are putting me in.”
“Blame Ash.” Quinn folded his arms across his chest. “I didn’t ask you to come.”
Chapter 20
Ash entered the house and found his dad and Gideon playing cards. He wondered how much Quinn had fleeced from Gideon so far.
He held up the pizza box. “I compromised and ordered a seafood pizza, with thin crust and light on the cheese. How’d everything go?”
Quinn sent Gideon a steely-eyed look. Gideon stood, smoothing the crease in his navy suit pants. He still couldn’t believe he was seeing Gideon in a suit, and one—by the cut of the fabric—not bought off the rack. He hoped big city living hadn’t changed the rough and tumble hockey player too much.
“Can I talk to you in the kitchen?” Gideon asked.
“Whatever you have to say to Ash, you can say in front of me,” Quinn stated, giving Gideon another hard stare.
Ash set the pizza down on the coffee table. “Okay, how bad is it? I can take it.” He squared his shoulders and wondered briefly at the tightening of Gideon’s mouth before he spoke.
“There has been some improvement with your return. I suggest that whatever you’re doing, you keep it up.”
“So, you think there’s a chance he’ll get better?” He was afraid to hope, yet he couldn’t help doing just that.
“I can’t say.” Brackets appeared on the sides of his mouth.
“What do you mean, you can’t say?”
“Time will tell.” Gideon shut his bag and struggled into his calf-length, camel-colored, wool coat. Another item of clothing Ash never thought to see him wear. Someone had given him a big city makeover, one that wouldn’t hold up well in Alaska.
“Hold on, I’ll walk you out,” Ash said.
“Your dad told me you’re seeing Sorene Wilde again,” Gideon said when they were on the front porch. “That’s great. I never understood why you two broke up in the first place.”
“I really messed things up by sleeping with Leia.”
“When did you do that?” Gideon looked at him with disbelief. “Why would you do that?”
“You were there.”
“The hell I was. If I had been, I would have pulled your sorry ass out of her clutches. I keep my promises.”
Ash had forgotten the pledge they’d made to each other their freshman year when Leia had come onto them hot and heavy. Even with raging hormones, they recognized Leia as bad news and wanted to stay far away from her.
“Remember that party at Leia’s house when we got drunk and stoned off our asses?”
“Speak for yourself. I wasn’t stoned or drunk. I was leaving on the red-eye for New York the next morning. Do you think you slept with Leia that night? No way. You were in no condition to perform. I was the one who poured you into one of the guest rooms to sleep it off.”
“What?”
“Yeah, Leia helped me. Oh. Wait. You thought that you and she…”
“Why that conniving bitch,” Ash spat.
Gideon nodded in agreement. “She told you that you slept together?”
“She did much more than that. I woke up with us both naked in that bed and her waxing on how I’d taken her on a trip to the stars. How could I be so stupid?”
“Women. They make us all stupid.” Gideon slapped him on the back. “I hope you marry Sorene. It could be the best medicine for your dad. I gotta go. Thanks for the heads up that Heartbreak is in need of a doctor. I’m meeting with a realtor about renting space. I’ll let you know how it pans out.”
“Do that. And thanks, Gideon.” For everything. Part of him wanted to spill the news to his dad that Sorene had agreed to marry him. The only thing stopping him was knowing that Sorene needed to be with him when he told him. Just like he’d be with her when they informed Jack.
Feeling lighter than he had in ten years, he opened the front door and informed Quinn he was headed to the lake house. He’d been dying to see Sorene since last night, and now he carried news that would erase any doubts she might still have about him.
Chapter 21
Sorene picked up the blow torch and started burning parts of the bear. The eyes, nose, inside of the ears, she charred the wood to highlight the fur of the bear. From the bleached color of the log, the bear emerged strong, fierce, and dramatic. It never failed to please her, this last step of discovery. Once the bear and other carvings were secured in place along with the rest of the staircase, she’d add three coats of varathane for protection. But this rawness of burnt wood, after fresh carving, remained her favorite step.
She felt Ash’s eyes on her before she saw him. At some point he must have arrived and stood observing her progress. A come-hither smile painted her lips when she turned to face him, extinguishing the hand-held torch. “Hi,” she greeted.
“Damn, but you are stunning. Capable, talented, and more beautiful than any woman I’ve seen.”
“You sweet talker, you.” She set down the torch down and nearly floated into his arms for a welcoming kiss, her feet barely touching the ground.
The kiss went from a simple hello to a raging need-to-have-you in an instant.
Ash tore his mouth from hers and buried his face in her neck, nibbling.
Her knees weakened, and she grabbed hold of him in order to stay upright.
“How are we going to get any work done, when all I want to do is strip you bare and have my wicked way with you?”
“Wicked way? Hmm, I’d forgo work for some wickedness.”
He groaned. “Don’t tempt me. We need to talk.”
She studied his face. “Is it serious?”
“More clearing the air, er, clearing the past.” He took her hand and pulled her toward the SUV. “Let’s get out of the weather.”
Once they were settled in the SUV, Ash sat to face her, his back leaning against the door. “You remember I mentioned that Gideon was coming out today to give Dad a second opinion?”
She reached out a hand and placed it on his arm. “Oh, Ash—”
“No, nothing like that. Gideon gave me some hope, actually, but it was what he said afterward that I need you to hear.” He dragged in a deep breath. “I hate to bring this up again. It has to do with Leia.”
“Stop right there.” She clutched his hand in hers. “I let that go last night. It’s forgotten. I don’t want it coloring what we have moving forward.”
“You have no idea the amount of guilt I have carried around with me all these years thinking I betrayed you like that, with her. No, please let me finish. You’ll thank me when I’m done. You see, Gideon was there that night at the party. This would have all been cleared up years ago, but he’d left town early the next day and didn’t know what Leia had done. He said I was in no condition, or frame of mind, to sleep with anyone. I’
d had too much to drink, smoked too much weed, trying to bury my pain of losing you. I passed out, much like I did the other night when you brought me home from the Pump House. It was Gideon who got me into bed, fully clothed. Yet, when I woke the next morning, Leia was there, naked, and my clothes nonexistent. She lied to me and has continued that lie.”
“That bitch,” Sorene spat and then stared at Ash when he laughed. “She is a bitch.”
“I know. That isn’t what I find so funny. I do believe that is the first time I’ve heard you swear.”
“Something needs to be done about her. She can’t get away with it. Crap, she’s weaving her lies around Ryder now. They’re dating. He demanded I apologize to her for the confrontation at the Pump House.”
“When did this happen? Does Ryder know what he’s getting into?”
“Apparently, she got her hooks in him since he’s in charge of the Atwood remodel. I tried to tell him what kind of person she was, but he wouldn’t listen to reason.”
“Ryder’s a Wilde. He won’t be fooled by her long.”
“I sure hope not.”
“Enough about her. I want to talk about us.”
“That’s my favorite subject.” She leaned over the console. “How about some afternoon delight?”
He laughed again. The sound quickly turned into a groan when she reached for the button on his jeans. “Christ, Sorene. There’s less room in this vehicle than my dad’s old truck.”
“You’re not thinking straight. The backseat that folds down, and I have a lot of orgasms to make up for.”
They shared a heated look and then opened the doors simultaneously and worked together to lay down the seats, feeling like teenagers again.
Chapter 22
I love this post-orgasmic glow you’re wearing,” Ash said, helping Sorene buckle her overalls while copping another feel.
Heat and joy radiated out of her in waves. Sorene couldn’t remember ever being this sated and happy. How did one fall so helplessly in love in just a handful of days? To be truthful, she’d always been in love with Ash. She might have buried the feelings under responsibility and work, but it had simmered under the surface waiting, for a fissure to break free.
They set the SUV back to rights and headed to Quinn’s, not wanting to wait any longer to tell their fathers about their engagement. Sorene had called Jack, and since they were still playing phone tag, she left a message to meet her and Ash at Quinn’s because they had news.
That should have her father poking his head up from the hole he’d been hiding in.
Ash parked next to Rea’s Subaru. Outside of the vehicle, he took Sorene’s hand and they hurried up the steps and across the porch. Entering, they found Quinn’s hospital bed bare, the IV stand with the full saline bag hanging from it, the tubing lying on the discarded sheets. The living room was empty, the TV playing reruns of Law and Order. “Dad?”
A crash sounded down the hall, coming from the bathroom.
“Dad!” Ash ran for the door, swinging it open, and rushed in.
Sorene dashed behind Ash, praying Quinn was all right. She ran into Ash’s back when he came to a sudden stop.
“What the hell is going on here?” Ash bellowed.
Quinn stood naked in the shower, trying to shield Rea’s equally naked body with his own. “Ash, what are you doing home so early?”
“What’s going on here?” Ash repeated through clenched teeth.
“Sponge bath?” Quinn tried for levity that fell flat.
“I wasn’t born yesterday,” Ash ground out.
Sorene laid her hand on Ash’s arm and tried to pull him out of the bathroom. “Why don’t we let them get dressed and then we’ll talk in the living room?”
“Good idea,” Quinn agreed, color staining his cheeks, both sets of them.
She’d just seen way more of her future father-in-law than she’d ever wanted to. “Come on, Ash.” Sorene pulled on his arm again.
She led Ash into the living room and worried her lower lip when he stood by the hospital bed, staring at it, his shoulders tightening with each second that passed.
Quinn stumbled into the room, tying the drawstring on his sweatpants and pulling down a blue t-shirt with “Sawdust is Man Glitter” written across the front.
“You told me you were dying. Dying, Dad.” The words were spoken quietly and landed louder in the room because of it.
“Now, son, my heart has been sick worrying over you, knowing you weren’t happy. Besides, I never said I was actually dying.” Quinn shifted on his bare feet. “And technically, we’re all dying.”
Rea appeared, dressed in nursing scrubs, looking sheepish. “I’m going to…go.”
“Are you even a real nurse?” Ash pinned her with a steely stare.
“Uh, yes.” She glanced from Quinn to Ash and then settled on Sorene. “I work part-time at the clinic. Sorene can vouch for me.”
“Leave me out of this,” Sorene said. How had Rea been talked into this charade?
“What did he promise you to get you to help him with this farce?” Ash asked the question burning inside Sorene.
“She didn’t want to at first,” Quinn said, “but I talked her into it. And as you witnessed earlier, we’re an item.”
There was a knock on the door and Jack barreled into the cabin, all smiles. “Hey, kids. Rea…Quinn…” He trailed off, feeling the frigid undercurrents in the room. “Uh-oh.”
“Were you in on this, too, Dad?” Sorene asked. “Is that why I haven’t been able to reach you for days? You knew I wanted to question you about Quinn’s health, didn’t you?”
“How dare you put me through this?” Ash demanded of Quinn, his hands fisting at his sides. “For what reason?”
“How else was I going to get you to come home, marry Sorene, settle down, and give Jack and me here some grandchildren?” Quinn’s shame turned to bluster. “Lord knew, you weren’t doing anything about it.”
“Quinn, I’ll call you later. This is really a family matter.” Rea beat a hasty retreat, but no one gave her any mind as the four of them squared off in the room.
Ash took a threatening step forward. “You worried me needlessly for grandchildren? Pushed me to marry Sorene—”
“Pushed you,” Sorene interrupted. “You had to be pushed to marry me?”
“Yes. No. Shit.” Ash raked a hand through his hair. “It wasn’t like that.”
“You both needed pushed,” Jack said.
“Is that why you turned over the lake house to me?” Sorene asked him. Jack’s eyes shifted to the side, giving her his answer. She turned to Ash. “Did Quinn tell you to marry me or not?”
“Now, Sorene—” Quinn started.
“You stay out of this. I think you’ve done enough.”
“Wild Heart,” Jack warned. “That is no way to talk to your elders.”
“It sure as heck is when they are acting like children, pulling childish pranks like this, toying with our affections.” She addressed Ash again. “Did he tell you to marry me? His dying wish?”
Ash’s gaze flicked to his dad’s, and his lips tightened. “Yes.”
A sound escaped her as her newly mended heart splintered.
Ash reached for her, but she backed up. He raised his hands in front of him as if not to scare her off. “I asked you to marry me, Sorene, because I want to marry you.”
“Be honest. The first time you asked me was because of him.” She pointed at Quinn.
“I was drunk.”
“And your point?”
“Okay, yes, the first time was for him. But not the second or the third.”
“What sweet hell have you put this boy through?” Jack asked.
“Stay out of this, Dad.”
“I will not. You are my daughter. I care about you. You’ve given too much of yourself, taken care of everyone, well, I was just trying to take care of you.”
“By finding me a man? This isn’t the nineteenth century and I don’t need my father securing me a
match. I can take care of myself, thank you very much.”
“You know me, Sorene.” Ash inched toward her as though afraid to spook her. “Last night meant everything to me.”
“How am I to trust you? Trust that you wanted me and not just to fulfil Quinn’s dying wish? If he hadn’t lied about being sick, would you have ever returned home?” His pregnant silence answered her question. She held her hand out to her dad. “Give me the keys to your truck. I need to get away from here.”
“Sorene—” Ash reached for her, and she slapped his hand back.
“I need some space. From all of you.” She took the keys Jack held out to her.
“Where are you going to go?” Ash asked, the vein in his jaw throbbing.
“I’ll know when I get there.” She turned on her heel and walked out of the cabin, trying her best to keep tears from disgracing her further.
How could she have been so happy an hour ago, and feel so devastated now?
She climbed behind the wheel of the oversized diesel truck and started the engine. The reality of her situation struck her like a blow.
Because of her, they hadn’t used protection last night. She could be pregnant, and she had no one to blame but herself. Ash hadn’t even told her he loved her. It had all been about getting married for Quinn, to make a dying man happy.
Well, Ash was now free to return to his life, far, far away from her, and if she did carry his baby, it wasn’t like she hadn’t raised kids before.
Chapter 23
I can’t believe you two.” Ash stared at the men he’d always admired and respected. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“We were thinking of you and Sorene and your happiness. What about you?” Quinn asked. “Why would she doubt that you wouldn’t want to marry her? What have you done to give her that impression?”
“How did you ask her?” Jack joined in Quinn’s offensive.
“That’s between me and her.” Ash shoved his hands in his pockets and gazed out the window at Sorene’s retreating taillights.
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