Until Series: Box set (10 page)

“I can’t do casual,” I blurt out. I want to cover my face or go hide in the bathroom. Instead, I close my eyes. His body is shaking, so I open my eyes and he’s laughing. “What’s funny?” I ask, irritated.

“Do you think I would try that with you, knowing that your dad, uncle, and cousins would come to kick my ass if I wanted something casual?” he asks, searching my face.

“Uh…” That never crossed my mind.

“This isn’t casual. Christ!” He growls. “You’ve met my brothers, mom, dad, and grandma. No woman I’ve ever dated has met my whole family. I’ve wanted you from the moment I saw you in the club, hanging on your dad. That’s why I was pissed when I caught you outside. Then when I saw you with my grandmother, I knew I was fucked. She’d been talking about you for weeks, telling me that I need to meet this girl that’s so beautiful and sweet. She told me that she just moved into town and I should ask her out before someone else did. She was right. I realized yesterday that I needed to stake my claim before some stupid fuck got to you. That’s why I did what you called ‘kidnapping.’ I like to call that ‘securing my future.’ We’re going to see where this goes, November, and while we’re doing that, it’s not going to be casual.”

“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 starts 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.”

“Hmm,” 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 know Dad is going to say something to Asher when we get to the house and I am 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.”

“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 measure 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.

“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’s all I can say. Beast is my first dog and all the information I have is from Google. He chuckles and I kind of want 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, James and I 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 looks 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?”

“Ma, we met the boys 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 I would spend the rest of my life with the douche bag.

“Ma, Jesus! What the fuck!”

“Watch your mouth, Asher James.” She glares at him then looks 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 tell her. There are some things in my past that are ugly too. Like the guy I was going to marry before he slept with my mother. How much uglier can you get? Her eyes are soft and she gives me a sad smile.

“So what are you kids planning for the day?” she asks, thankfully changing the subject.

“Going home then I need to have my dad take me to get my car.” I am standing at the corner of the island. Asher pulls my hand, dragging me in between his legs. He has a hand on my hip and I look him in the eye and give him a death glare. He runs his fingers down the side of my face and smiles.

“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 is telling me to stay the night again.

“I’m not staying here,” I tell 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’m 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 says before letting me go and starting to eat.

“So, November, have you been to Nashville shopping?” his mom asks.

“Yeah, but only once. My grandma and I 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 Nashville once and before we left the house, she made me call the store we were going to and 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. “You and I 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-pedi. 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 get 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?

Plus, he said this wasn’t casual even though deep down, I don’t completely trust what he was saying. But, I’ve decided that I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt until he proves that he doesn’t deserve it. He must feel me watching him because he turns around and smiles at me and my breath is stuck in my lungs. He calls Beast and they both come up the stairs at the same time and walk into the house. Without stopping to close the sliding door, he comes right to me, picks me up and kisses me. When he breaks away, I’m in another Asher kiss fog.

“You ready?” he asks and all I can do is nod. He slides me down his body and kisses my nose. My legs are jelly so I hold onto his T-shirt to keep me from falling on my face. He smiles like he knows what he’s doing to me. I glare at him because no girl wants a guy to think that he’s got it going on even if he does. “Okay, babe, get your ass to the jeep.” He steps away and closes the door.

I watch him move then realize I’m just standing here watching him. I’m finally able to break out of the fog and grab my purse and overnight bag. I walk to the door with Beast at my side, saying over my shoulder, “Don’t tell me to get my ass in your car. It’s rude!” Then, I open the door and walk out to his jeep. His laughter follows me.

W
e pull up
to my dad’s house and he is standing outside. I start to open my door when Asher stops me. “Wait till I come around and open your door.” This confuses me.

“Why?”

“Do you always have to ask questions?” I think about it for a minute then realize that I do always have to ask questions. Sometimes I ask questions that make no sense or questions that I know the answers to, but I still like to ask them. Asher is watching me and then he starts laughing.

“What’s funny?”

“Nothing, baby. Just wait till I come around to open your door. Will you do that for me?” Because he asks nicely and isn’t being bossy, plus he called me baby and I’m really starting to love that. I nod my head in agreement.