Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 68743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Derek stilled. He narrowed his gaze, his sudden wariness obvious. “Okay, why are you here, and you’d better not tell me you fucked around with my sister.”
Asher blew out a long breath and shook his head. “I wouldn’t play games with her.” He chose his words carefully.
“Not an answer.” Derek opened and closed his hands into fists while his face turned an angry shade of red.
Asher wrapped a hand around the back of his neck and massaged the tense muscles, wondering how to defuse Derek’s anger long enough to get him to listen. “How long have you known me?” he asked his friend.
“Long enough to know something’s up I’m not going to like.”
Asher had given this conversation plenty of thought. How to broach the subject, how to get his feelings across when he’d never been one to express his emotions to a friend. Faced with the moment, everything he’d considered saying flew out of his head.
He stood up, reached into his pocket, pulled out the ring box, and popped the top.
“What the hell is that?” Derek all but shouted. “Stupid question. You’d better start from the beginning and explain before I knock out your teeth and make talking impossible.”
Because he wanted to keep his teeth intact, Asher decided to start at the end and work his way back. “I love her. Before I tell you anything else, you need to know that.”
Derek paced.
Asher snapped the box closed and shoved it back into his pants pocket. “We both know Nikki is a beautiful woman.”
“She’s a twenty-one-year-old girl,” Derek said through clenched teeth.
“She’s an of-age, legal, beautiful woman. I noticed and tried to keep my distance—”
“Obviously not hard enough.” Derek’s eyes might as well be active lasers, the way he glared at him.
“Look, your sister is special. She has a way of inserting herself into people’s lives and changing them for the better.”
Asher recalled the deep conversations they’d had, how he’d opened up to her when he normally never talked about any parts of his past. He remembered the shopping trip in town and her excitement at the smallest of things. “I let her put a dirty, stray dog in my SUV, for God’s sake. There’s nothing she could ask for that I wouldn’t do.”
“So you slept with her.” Derek’s posture was brittle.
Asher closed his eyes and opened them again. “I don’t think you or I want to have that conversation.”
“Fuck!” Derek raised a hand, and Asher was afraid he’d slam his hand into a wall before he saw reason and lowered his arm. “You’re a playboy, Asher. You find a woman, fuck a woman, and move on.”
Asher groaned, unable to deny his friend’s words had once described him. “That was me. I’d been used and hurt. I didn’t want to open myself up to another woman ever again, but Nikki isn’t just any woman. She got inside my head and helped me heal parts of my past I thought I’d carry forever. I’d like to think I helped her do the same.”
“My mother,” Derek muttered. He rubbed his palms against his eyes. “Something in your relationship gave her the strength to take a stand and confront her and to quit modeling.”
“I’m sure your parents ignoring her in public was the trigger for ridding herself of your mother. The bravery was all Nikki. But if her knowing I had her back helped, then I’m glad. Nobody should be subjected to that bitch.” Asher didn’t apologize for what he’d called Derek’s mother, and his friend didn’t flinch.
“I always did my best to protect her,” Derek said, more to himself than to Asher.
“And Nikki loves you for that. She idolizes you. If you don’t give your approval about us, I don’t know what she’ll do. Forcing her to choose isn’t fair. She needs you in her life.”
And Asher needed Nikki in his. He hoped the reverse was true, too. For her sake, this discussion had to result in an understanding.
Derek turned toward him. “Asher, you’ve been my friend for years. I trusted you not to hurt her—”
“And I haven’t.”
Derek held up one hand. “I also trusted you not to go there.” He winced and went on. “That said, I know you’re a good guy, a decent man. My sister could do a lot worse except… she’s twenty-one and has barely started her adult life.”
“I know that.” Asher walked over to his friend and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “I bought the ring because I don’t want to live without her, and I need her – and you – to know that. Personally, I’d marry her tomorrow. But that’s not what I’m going to ask her to do.”
Derek narrowed his gaze. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve already thought about her age, how many choices lie ahead for her, how much she could still do before settling down. If she says yes, the timing is up to her. Six months, five years, as long as she’s got my ring on her finger and I know we’re a team, she decides when we take the next step. I want her to have all the choices and life experiences that you do.”