“Ma, we met the boy’s there to play pool. I don’t have any control over who goes to the bar.”
“I can’t believe you took her to play pool for a first date.” She looks at me. “I swear I raised him better than that.”
“It wasn’t a date,” I reassure her.
“Jesus, Ma,” Asher grumbles. He looks at me and his eyes narrow. “It was a date.” All I can do is shake my head and smile.
“You know, even when Asher was married, we never met the girl. All we knew was that they met when he was stationed in Texas and got married at a court house. We weren’t even invited.” I feel my heart drop into my stomach at the thought of him married. Stupid, I know. I mean, I was engaged and thought that I would spend the rest of my life with the douche bag.
“Ma, Jesus! What the f**k!”
“Watch your mouth, Asher James.” She glared at him then looked at me. “Sorry, I thought you knew.”
“Um, no. That’s okay. I mean, we just met and we all have a past. Some of it beautiful and some ugly,” I told her. There were some things in my past that were ugly too. Like the guy that I was going to marry before he slept with my mother. How much more ugly could you get? Her eyes were soft and she gave me a sad smile.
“So what are you kids planning for the day?” she asked, thankfully changing the subject.
“Going home then I need to have my dad take me to get my car.” I was standing at the corner of the island. Asher pulled my hand, dragging me in between his legs. He had a hand on my hip and I looked him in the eye and gave him a death glare. He ran his fingers down the side of my face and smiled.
“I'm gonna give Ma the key to your car. She can have Nico or Cash bring your car home for you. Then you need to pack up some stuff and bring it over. I’ll be out for a while, I gotta go up to Nashville to check on the job site and make sure the fire inspector doesn’t shut us down. I’ll give you a key so just come in and make yourself at home.”
I know I have an ‘are you crazy’ look on my face but he was telling me to stay the night again. What?
“I'm not staying here,” I told him.
“You are staying here. Your dad works the club at night and doesn’t get home till after four in the morning.”
“I'm not! I’ll just stay with my grandma,” I tell him, even though I don’t want to stay with her. She has three cats and every time I walk into her house, my eyes get so swollen that I can’t blink.
“If you try to go to your grandma’s, I will go there and drag you back here so I suggest that you just come here and save us both the trouble.”
“Are you crazy?” I ask, thinking that I know the answer is yes. “I'm not going to stay here.”
“We’ll talk about it later.” I have a feeling that we are not going to talk about it later and that he is going to try to boss me into doing what he wants me to do. I glare at him again and he has the nerve to laugh. Then his mom slides some eggs and toast in front of us and then comes around the island and sits down. I move out from between Asher’s legs and sit on the stool between him and his mom. I turn towards her, completely dismissing him and he knows what I doing because he’s still chuckling. He grabs my neck and kisses me again.
“Stop doing that,” I tell him, glaring.
“Nope.” It’s all he said before he let me go and started eating.
“So, November, have you been to Nashville?” his mom asks.
“Yeah, but only once. Me and my grandma went up there to go shopping for a new computer.”
“Oh, no, honey. I mean real shopping?” she says and I start laughing.
“My grandma’s not a big shopper. We only went to one store but before we left, she made me call to make sure that the stuff I needed was there and then had me put it on hold so all we had to do was walk in and pick it up.”
“That sounds like her.” She laughs. “Me and you need to do a girl’s day. We’ll leave early and hit the shops then go get a mani pedi.”
“Really?” I breathe. I went all the time with my best friend, Tia, to get mani pedis. I would always get jealous of the girls who were there with their moms. I always wanted to do that.
“Really,” she says, touching my face. “How about Sunday?” she asks.
“Yeah, that would be great.”
“It’s a date.” She is smiling again. “I never had a daughter. I kept trying for a girl and ended up with four boys. After that, I gave up. So this is going to be a lot of fun.” I had a mom, but my mom never asked me to go shopping with her let alone go shopping and get our nails done. Suddenly, tears start to sting my nose and she pulls me in for a hug. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
“Yeah,” I say, hugging her back. We finish breakfast then I let Beast outside as Asher walks his mom to her car. When he comes back in, he just looks at me and says, “Gotta make a call.”
I go to his bathroom to get ready. I put on black leggings and an oversized off-the-shoulder sweatshirt in a soft peach color. It matches my ballet flats perfectly. Then I braid my hair to the side and it falls over my breast. I put on some blush, mascara, and lip gloss then I finish with peach body spray.
I shove everything back into my bag and carry it with me to the living room. When I got there, Asher isn’t there, or in the kitchen, so I look out the sliding glass door. He is standing in the yard in a pair of worn out blue jeans, his light brown work boots, and a dark gray thermal that fits like a second skin. Just looking at him makes my mouth go dry. I watch as Beast comes running at him with a stick in his mouth. Asher wrestles it away from him and throws it as Beast takes off. He looks so beautiful, playing with my dog. Then I remember what he said earlier. If I’m not mistaken, he is kind of my boyfriend. With that thought, I want to do some kind of acrobatics…or maybe a cheer. He kissed me and introduced me to his mom. Well, technically she just showed up, but that had to count, right?