by Mignon Mykel
“Too sweet,” I said after sipping it and putting the glass down.
“Only way I like it.” Asher reached for it and took a cautious sip from the glass. She made the slightest of faces as she swallowed, and I fought back a grin.
I relaxed into the booth then, reaching my arm around her shoulders as I slouched slightly. I crossed my arm over my middle so I could pick up her left hand, admiring the ring I put there.
Asher looked over at me and grinned.
“I did good,” I said, looking at the ring. The band was a simple pinkish-gold one that came up on the sides to hold two little diamonds. Further, the tiers ran up into a gorgeous halo of diamonds. However, this was not a typical diamond engagement ring. Nope, Asher was more special than just diamonds. The jeweler I went to had a selection of more unique stones and the moment I saw the gray moissanite, I knew it needed to be in the main setting.
It was a gray that when hit right, made the eye think it was seeing other colors.
Like her eyes.
I properly proposed to Asher when we got back to Charleston in September, and while she was still doing the back and forth thing for the time being, I knew it was only a matter of time before she was with me full-time.
I was trying to not seem so excited about it.
I brought her hand to my lips to kiss just beyond her ring, when Logan suddenly plopped down in the booth across from us.
“You two are sickening,” he said with a chuckle, dropping his own coat beside him. “Sorry I’m late.”
Asher pulled her hand from me, but only to place it on my thigh. “Porter just got here.”
“Thanks for throwing me under the bus,” I said good-naturedly.
“You get a chance to look at the menu?” Logan asked and I shook my head.
“Nope, but Asher was looking at it when I got here. I mean, pizza’s pizza, right?”
“Ah, but this is true Chicago pizza, my friend. So much better than any pizza you’ve had before.” Logan reached for a menu and opened it up. “We doing a large, or…?” He didn’t bother to look up.
“One should be enough,” Asher said, looking past Logan toward another table, where a pizza was.
“Have you never eaten with a hockey player?” I asked her sarcastically. She knew I could eat.
She bumped her shoulder into mine. “There’s frozen yogurt next door. I figured you’d rather save room for those nasty balls you like to eat.”
Logan looked up, grinning. “Oh yeah. He does like to eat balls, doesn’t he?”
“Let’s not make this an innuendo-fest,” I mumbled.
Proving that my best friend and girl were similar, they said in unintended unison, “Spoilsport.”
Logan dropped his menu and pointed at Asher. “Jinx.”
Asher excused herself to go to the bathroom when the waitress came to box up what was left of our pizza.
“How the hell did you luck out with a girl like Asher?” Logan crossed his arms on the table in front of him as he leaned forward.
I shook my head, turning my head to search her out, before looking back at my friend. “No fucking clue.”
“I’m going to be your best man. Just so you know.” Logan’s grin was cocky.
We may have only met during our junior year of high school, but I was as close to Logan as I was my brothers. Heck, Nico even.
I never expected to have a friendship that would last years, a friendship like my dad had with my Uncle Ketty—who wasn’t an uncle by blood. But even though miles separated us when Logan went to North Dakota for college, and I went to South Carolina to play pro, we kept up with our friendship.
Now he played near home while I was still playing far away, and our teams didn’t play each other often, but every time we got together—whether during the season or the off-season, when we were both home in Wisconsin—it was like time hadn’t passed.
“Who the fuck else would stand for me?” I asked him, grinning.
Asher and I hadn’t done too much wedding talk yet. We were focused on getting through the season, and it had only just begun.
But I knew Logan was going to be my best man.
“I hadn’t asked because Ash and I haven’t determined the size of our party yet.”
“Sure, sure.” Logan’s grin said he was joking, and it relaxed into the full, cocky smile I knew him for. “I’m going to throw you the most epic bachelor party. Who do you think will be Asher’s maid of honor? Avery?” Logan’s brows waggled and I laughed.
“Dude, Avery’s with CJ.”
“It’s on and off. I can totally take her attention from him.”
“Doubtful.”
“It wounds me, that you have such little hope for me,” he said, putting a hand over his chest.
“You’re such a fuck face.” I shook my head, grinning wide. “Ace is too fucking good for you anyway.”
“And Asher’s not too good for you?”
“She most definitely is, and I’m a damn lucky bastard that she wants to be with me,” I said seriously.
And I was.
Each day I had with her, was a thousand times better than the last.
Each night I slept with her in my arms, each time I kissed her lips, each time I held her hand…
The events that brought her into my life may not have been the best. There were hurtful things that I wished she hadn’t had to live through.
But if they got her to me?
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I’d hold her through her nightmares. I’d kiss away her tears.
I’d keep her anchored in her storms.
I wasn’t going anywhere and, thank God, she finally understood that.
I loved that woman with everything I had, and I would love her until I took my last breath.
Not a damn thing was changing that.
Another year, another summer vacation at the Prescott lake house. With his family’s help, extended too, we spent a lot of the weekend talking about when the wedding should be. Porter and I decided on an early September wedding, next year, and it would be at the lake house. The leaves should have started to change, and none of the guys would be due back to town for their training camps quite yet.
Now that a date was picked, Avery said it was time for the fun stuff. I had a feeling I’d be seeing a lot more of her this year down in Charleston.
She and CJ were once again ‘off,’ but I now recognized that she loved him. I wasn’t entirely sure what kept holding her back from being with him.
Then again, maybe it wasn’t Avery. Maybe it was CJ.
Either way, I hoped they would figure it out, because they were kind of fun to be around—the very few times I’d been in both their presences.
Now that the weekend was over, it was time to start thinking about real life.
Porter and I returned to the guest house an hour before, but he was down at University School for a last-minute pick-up hockey game. I stayed back because we were leaving for Charleston in the morning.
Nico hadn’t been very happy about it, but well before it was time to close up the townhouse for the summer, Porter told him that he and I were going to look for our own place for the season.
Well, ‘not happy’ wasn’t quite right. Nico was happy for us, but I think the big goof was going to miss having someone to rile—because when he wasn’t picking on Porter, he was picking on me. All in good jest, of course.
I liked Nico and I wasn’t entirely sure why he was single. He was a great guy.
He was equal parts serious and a jokester. He was big and goofy and just an all-around fun guy. And when he brought girls to the house, he was always respectful of them, not making them make the walk of shame in the morning.
Someday that boy would fall…
And I hoped I could witness it.
I walked around the guest house one last time, making sure everything was together and ready to go for the morning. We had a
super early flight and had to leave here at three-thirty. Anything that was missed tonight was going to stay here until the next time we made it back into town.
I smiled.
We.
I was part of a ‘we,’ and I absolutely loved it.
And, as if life couldn’t get better, Porter and I were going to spend a long weekend in North Carolina, hanging out with Carter. She had just finished a tour in Africa and would be stateside for a while. I hadn’t seen her in a little over two years…
As excited as I was, I was also a little afraid.
I was very different now, compared to who I was then. Would she and I still get along? It was my own fault for not keeping in closer contact with her.
My excitement for the upcoming trip was starting to dim with my worry, but soon Avery was busting through the front door of the guest house, plastic bag in one hand and her leather messenger bag over her other shoulder.
“I have food.” She stomped through the living room and plopped the plastic bag on the counter and her messenger in a chair. “Chinese. And I have a bridal catalog.” She pulled back the flap of her bag and pulled out a monstrosity of a catalog.
Plop. The large bridal magazine joined the party.
“I have to finish getting everything together. We’re leaving in the morning.”
“You don’t want to plan your wedding?” Avery looked confused.
“Well, yeah, but I have to do…stuff.”
“Trust me, this catalog is calling your name. Forget the dishes. Whatever’s left, I’ll do tomorrow. I promise.”
“I thought you were planning on going to St. Louis?” CJ had been a trade nightmare the last two seasons. Last season, St. Louis traded him to San Jose, who let him go with his Unrestricted Free Agency label—meaning his contract was up, and San Jose didn’t have to offer him anything.
And St. Louis took him back!
I was so confused on the politics of trades and free agency.
“Canceled.” Avery didn’t look at me. Instead, she started pulling out white takeout containers.
“What’s the deal with you two?” I finally asked, the question having weighed on my mind for a while. I moved to finish loading the last of the dishes into the dishwasher as Avery set up the containers in front of what would be our seats.
“Nothing. I just need a little bit of stability and, unfortunately, CJ can’t give it to me.”
“Maybe you should tell me the story of CJ,” I prompted. I still had no clue what the deal was between the two of them. Just that they seemed to have a love-hate relationship.
Avery crumbled up the food bag before pulling her iPad from her purse and, once the bag was on the floor, sat in a stool with one of the Chinese containers in front of her.
“Not a whole lot to tell. Met him while skating when I was eight—”
I stopped what I was doing. “You were eight when you met?”
Avery shrugged, digging her chopsticks into her container. “We’ve always been competitive, so it was easy to dislike him most of the time growing up. We talked about going to college together and we did, but he went and accepted a contract with St. Louis without telling me after our second year.” She brought noodles and chicken to her mouth, shrugging a shoulder as she slipped it into her mouth.
“Was that when I met you?”
She nodded as she chewed.
“And that’s why you were so pissed at him?”
Again, she nodded.
“Avery Prescott, I think you were a little cold toward him!” I said with a laugh, moving to sit in the chair beside her. “Forgive me, but that’s a pretty silly reason to be mad at him. You work in the field too; you know he doesn’t have control over where he goes.”
Avery ignored me, pushing the catalog toward me. “Let’s get dress ideas.”
I pushed the catalog back at her. “Why are you being so cold toward him?” I honestly wanted to know.
“You have to pick out a dress, Ash,” Avery said, moving the catalog back. “We’re fourteen months out.”
“Yeah. Fourteen months to pick out a white number. I got it. What’s the deal with CJ?”
Avery groaned and slapped her chopsticks down. “I just don’t know that I want to be with him forever! He’s the only boyfriend I’ve had! For like…fucking ever.”
Well on that note…
I opened up my container and picked through it with my sticks, trying to figure out how to word what I wanted to say.
Finally, I just blurted, “Am I stupid to agree to marry Porter?”
“What?” Avery sat up and I glanced in her direction, seeing an absurdly comical look on her face. “What are you talking about? You two were meant to be together!”
“You’ve known CJ a hell of a lot longer than I’ve known Porter, and you don’t even know if you want to be with the guy.”
“CJ and I are different.”
“Not really,” I said, brows up and a slight shake of my head before turning my stare back down to the orange chicken in front of me.
“Asher.” Avery turned in her chair. “You and Porter are the definition of made for each other. You have grown so much in the years I’ve known you, and as much as I’d like to take the awesome-friend-of-a-lifetime award for that, I know damn well it was Porter who helped you become you.”
I sighed heavily. “I just…”
Haven’t told him everything.
If it ever came out, he’d look at me differently.
If I lost him at this point, I would lose everything—his family was everything.
I shook my head. “Alright, whatever. He’ll be back in less than an hour, so I guess, let’s look at dresses,” I conceded.
Apparently, Avery wasn’t going to drop it now that I opened that box. “Did you know he’s been head over heels for you since that first weekend? No joke. He changed his flight for you.”
I tried to ignore her by opening the large bridal magazine.
“He’s tried to keep your image safe, too, in respect of your past, or so he’s told me. He doesn’t post a single thing about you on social media, and if he finds something, he sends me on the goose chase to take it down.”
I flipped through the pages.
“And he worries about you when you’re not in South Carolina with him.”
I lifted a brow and pointed a look at her.
“It’s true!” Her blue eyes were wide, yet serious. “He asks me about you when you’re home. I think he’s worried about bugging you too much, so he just bugs me.”
“I get it,” I said, looking back down at the magazine. “Alright, so he loves me. I know that.” I flipped the page once, twice, before looking over at her. “I just worry about things from the past, that’s all.”
“I know you haven’t known love for long, Ash, but I promise you, Porter’s not going anywhere.”
My lips lifted slightly. “Okay.”
“Yeah, you better listen,” she teased, popping another piece of chicken in her mouth. “I’m the boss.”
“No, you’re kinda sorta Porter’s boss, but never mine,” I joked right back. I flipped the page again and was stopped by a dress so exquisitely simple. “Oh, my gosh.”
Avery leaned in and I could hear her quiet gasp. “That is so you.”
The first picture, the front of the dress, showed a heart-shaped neckline, but rather than be strapless, simple lace was brought up to the neck in a way that left the shoulders completely bare. The skirt of the dress was the mermaid style, but not in a way that looked tight and uncomfortable.
But then the back…
The back was completely bare.
Where the dress came up toward the neck in the front, became two thin straps which sat on the shoulder but then dipped back just above the waist, under the bra line. The skirt of the dress in the back began just above the swell of the model’s butt.
It was a-freaking-mazing.
And it was w
ay too much money. I saw the number and felt my face flush.
“Yeah, it’s not that great,” I mumbled, turning the page but Avery slammed her hand into the page.
“No! That’s the dress. It’s so you, Asher. That’s the dress.”
“Let’s keep looking. Surely there’s one that has one less zero behind the price tag.”
“Asher.” Avery kept her hand in place. “That’s the dress. That is your dress.”
I tried to keep thumbing through the pages, but to no avail. Avery pulled the catalog from me.
“It’s the dress,” she said again, dog-earring the page.
“It is way too expensive to wear for just a few hours.”
“Don’t make me bully you into this dress,” Avery said, and I knew she could do it.
“Fine. How are we going to get it then? Surely they don’t have that,” I threw my hand in the direction of the catalog, “at a bridal shop here, or in South Carolina.”
“That’s the magic of the internet.”
She had an answer for everything. “Fine. Whatever. There goes my savings.” I muttered the last under my breath. I wasn’t saving for anything specific, but it was nice knowing I had the money sitting there.
I was planning on spending a few thousand on the wedding and figured Porter could do the same. Like I said, we really hadn’t done much talk on the whole wedding thing.
“You’re delusional if you think you’re paying for any of the wedding.” Avery shook her head. “Colors. What do you think about colors?”
I frowned. “What do you mean, I’m not paying for my wedding? Of course, I am. It’s my wedding!”
“And usually the bride’s family pays for stuff. Well, that’s us.”
“Nope, pretty sure you’re the groom’s family.”
“Asher, don’t fight me on this,” Avery said, exasperated.
“Do you always get your way? Shit, don’t answer that.” Yes. Yes, she did.
“You know it,” she said with a little bit too much glee in her voice. She took a bite of her food before putting the catalog aside and bringing the iPad in front of her. “Now. Pinterest.”