“Okay,” I say, feeling excited and a little scared from the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes. I can tell he’s dead serious.
“Okay.” He kisses me softly. “And just so you know, if your mother ever comes to visit, I won’t be nice.”
“I don’t think my mother will ever come to town.” I’m looking over his shoulder at the same time as I’m praying that I’m right. I truly hope my mother never shows her face in this town. My dad would flip and my grandmother would probably shoot her.
“Alright, now we need to get up before Ma comes in here. She’s worried about you after what happened last night and the look on your face when you walked out of the kitchen. Let’s go have breakfast then go meet your dad at your house.” As if Asher summoned it from thin air, my phone started playing Highway to Hell, my dad’s ring tone. Asher stands, bringing me with him, then walks to his jeans on the floor and pulls my cell out of his pocket and hands it to me. I turn around and put my phone to my ear.
“Hi, Dad.”
“Hey, baby girl. How are you feeling?”
“Um, I'm good. I'm getting ready to feed Beast and then I'm going to eat breakfast with Asher and his mom.”
“His mom is there?” he says, sounding surprised.
“Yeah, she came by this morning. Mr. Mayson told her about what happened last night and I guess she wanted to make sure I was alright.”
“Hum,” I hear my dad say then he’s quiet.
“Dad, you still there?”
“Yeah, I'm here, baby girl. So what time are you going to be home?”
I turn and see Asher leaning against the door, watching me. “What time do you think we’ll be at my dad’s?” I ask him.
“In about an hour and a half, baby,” he says softly. I feel a small smile touch my mouth at the word baby.
“Asher says about an hour and a half.”
“I heard him, baby girl. Can you put him on the phone for me?”
“Um, sure. Hold on. Dad wants to talk to you,” I say to Asher, holding out my phone. He slides it from my hand and kisses me on my nose then takes a step back, putting the phone to his ear.
“Mike,” I hear him say. “Yeah, we’ll talk when I get there.”
Then he hands the phone back to me. “Dad,” I say, hoping that with the tone I'm using, he understands that I'm not being stupid.
“See you when you get here, baby girl. Love you.” He hangs up before I can tell him I love him too. Asher is watching me.
“Is everything okay?” I ask, looking at the phone.
“It’s all good, baby. Let’s eat.”
“Okay,” I say, feeling dread creep up my spine. I knew Dad was going to say something to Asher when we got to the house and I was suddenly nervous about going home. We walk back into the kitchen and Mrs. Mayson is standing at the stove.
“Do you like grits?” she asks with a smile. I have no idea what grits are and she must have read the look on my face.
“Okay, how about some eggs and toast?”
“That’s fine. Thank you, Mrs. Mayson.”
“Call me Susan, beautiful. Mrs. Mayson makes me feel old.”
“Okay. Do you have a bowl I can use to put Beast’s food in?” I ask Asher. He gets up and walks around the island to pull out a huge bowl. The kind that you would use to make cookies or bread in. He fills the bowl to the top. I watched this in horror, too stunned to stop him. I always measured his food so he doesn’t eat too much. I read online that you have to be careful with big dogs and their diets.
“What are you doing?” I ask as Asher sets the bowl down on the ground.
“Feeding the dog,” he says with an eyebrow raised.
“You can’t feed him that much.”
“Why not?” he asks with his eyebrows raised.
“Because I Googled it and they say to measure it.”
“Babe, he’s a dog. He knows when to stop eating.” He’s looking at me like he thinks something is funny.
“How do you know that?” I ask, tilting my head.
“I’ve had dogs my whole life.”
“Oh…” That was all I could say. Beast was my first dog and all the information I had came from Google. He chuckled and I kind of wanted to punch him in the arm for laughing at me.
“Whatever,” I say, shaking my head. His arm goes to the back of my head and he kisses me. I can hear his mom laughing. Oh my God, how embarrassing.
“You can’t kiss me in front of your mom,” I whisper when he pulls away.
“Just did and it won’t be the last time.” I hear his mom laugh again and I look at her, smiling down at the stove. Her head comes up and she looks happy for some reason.
“I love this, honey. Asher and his women, well, all my sons and their women. None of them ever came around. At first, I thought maybe they were embarrassed of me and their dad. Then, me and James were out one night and we saw Cash with this girl. Let me tell you…after that, I was glad they never brought anyone around if that was what they would bring home.”
“I was lucky enough to meet some of those women first hand last night when Asher took me to the bar.”
“He didn’t?” His mom looked over at Asher with narrow eyes.
“He totally did.” I smile and look over at Asher who looks like he’s ready to strangle me.
“Asher James Mayson, I thought I taught you better than that?”