Hawk deserved the best. Every child did.
She smiled down at the T. rex in spite of her tumultuous thoughts. Today she’d been uncomfortable, and she’d admit it, a little afraid. Okay, a lot afraid. She hadn’t had the most stable home life and today was a reminder of just how ill equipped she was when it came to hanging around with a toddler.
It’d all bubbled over into an argument with Asher—admittedly the last thing he needed after working hard all day to be a good dad. God. She could be so selfish sometimes.
Bonus: During her rant, she’d told him about how she put an offer on what was now his house. She wasn’t supposed to tell him about the house. Yes, she’d dreamed of owning it, but sometimes things didn’t work out. She was accustomed to pulling on her big-girl panties and dealing with things, so why hadn’t she?
The stress of standing on that deck with the man she’d shared too many close encounters with, his sleeping child in the house, had pushed her over the edge. She’d lashed out at Asher, who had already had a hell of a day.
Both of them had.
She wasn’t really surprised. They tended to bring out the worst in each other. And the best. As illustrated by the kiss that followed. The kiss was nothing short of amazing. Had Hawk not been there, who knows what would have happened.
You know exactly what would have happened.
With a sigh, she climbed behind the wheel of her car and jammed the key in the ignition. She threw her purse on the passenger seat, dropped the toy inside, and pointed for Asher’s house. She’d return the toy and apologize. Those big-girl panties also meant she could admit when she was wrong.
She fiddled with the radio as she took left and right turns on autopilot, shaking her head at the song. It was about breaking up in a small town. The man sang about how he couldn’t avoid her after they split. How he ran into her at stoplights, at parties, at the same gas stations…It paralleled her life so closely, she had to smile.
Asher Knight. The man she’d never be rid of.
She pulled into his driveway a few minutes later. Toy in hand, she left her purse and phone in the car. Soft strums from a guitar floated on the air, a song she didn’t recognize. Goose bumps covered her arms when Asher’s rasping, sexy voice accompanied the melody.
Like a hapless sailor drawn by sirens, she slipped off her heels and followed the wooden deck around to the back of the house. What she should do was climb back in her car and leave, because no good could come from her being around Asher when his crisp voice hit that one note that made her shudder.
He sang another line. Predictably, she shuddered.
Damn. That was the one.
At the corner of the house, she spotted him on the bottom step. From there, the deck shot out into a long dock in the deep part of the lake.
Gorgeous night. Gorgeous guy. Gorgeous song. Definitely, she should leave.
Asher’s voice, low and heartfelt, sent chills up her spine. She listened to the lyrics as he sang. Something about “blue eyes and summer skies and floating around with you.”
She thought of the night in the mansion last year and chills covered her arms.
That’s a song, baby.
Glutton for punishment that she was, she stepped lightly across the deck. A few candles in metal buckets were burning and the light from the flames danced off his bare arms. He hadn’t noticed her yet. Unashamedly, she watched him without him knowing.
He sang another verse, stopped, replayed a few chords, and hummed to fill the spaces between words. Then he leaned over and jotted a few notes on a yellow pad with a pencil she’d just bet was full of tooth marks. She’d noticed the habit the first time she was around him. Nerves didn’t get to Asher Knight on the outside, but showed on his Number 2s.
“Knock, knock,” she said softly.
He turned, eyes glazed from deep concentration, clearly surprised to see her.
“Hey.” He dropped the pencil and set the guitar aside, leaning it on the steps. The instrument was like a loaded gun. Each strum, each chord, every word he’d sung bullets drilling holes in her chest. Or maybe she was being melodramatic.
“Didn’t expect to see you here,” he said.
“Brought you this.” She offered the toy dinosaur.
“Aw, you shouldn’t have.” He accepted, sticking his finger into the rex’s jaws. “Hawk.”
Risking dirt on her white dress, she sat next to him on the step and put her shoes down next to her. Dresses could be cleaned. This was important. She’d been unfair and wanted him to know she could admit when she was wrong.
“I also wanted to apologize.” She folded her hands together, arms resting on her knees.
He leaned, elbows on his thighs, and faced her, sending her a smile that made her weak all over. The same way he looked at her when they were in bed together.
“Not like you to apologize, Sarge.”
That was, unfortunately, true. She hadn’t given in where it counted with Asher. Opening up to him had always scared her right down to her toenails. Time to grow up.