“Welcome to the crowd,” Donny said.
Connor smiled and it was the most genuine expression. “I’m stoked. We had a false alarm last year, but this time, it’s for real. I saw the heartbeat and everything.”
“That’s the best part,” Donny agreed with a grin.
Evan chimed in with an ultrasound story of his own and Asher found himself watching the flames catch and feeling…something. Left out? Pissed off?
Both.
Jordan had been able to see Hawk’s tiny, fluttering heartbeat on the monitor, and where had he been? Getting a blow job from some nameless girl? Screaming his face off onstage? Or something much more mundane like paying his taxes or sleeping off a hangover? He’d never know. Jordan had denied him the opportunity to experience his son’s first heartbeats.
As alarming as it was to find out he was a father a year and a half after the fact, it was even more alarming to learn just how much he’d missed during that time.
“Shots?” he interrupted the guys.
They fell silent for a moment before Evan said, “Got it. Starting early tonight, I guess.”
“It’s a party, isn’t it?” Asher chucked his beer can into the fire and crossed his arms. He needed to improve his mood, stat. Brooding was more Donny’s thing than his. And it was a party. He was going to have fun, not think about how things kept going the way he didn’t want them to.
“Whiskey?” Evan called over his shoulder, heading for the house.
Connor and Donny looked to Asher, who smiled.
“Whiskey,” Donny confirmed.
“Yippee ki-yay,” Connor said.
Chapter 10
Gloria walked into the party behind Charlie, Sofie, and Faith. She was dressed in a casual summer dress—classic black and white striped—and comfy sand-approved flats.
She fit in, she knew half the people here, so why did she feel as if she didn’t belong? She and Ash were friends at best, professional acquaintances at worst, and even if she technically wasn’t invited, she could be counted as a plus one to any of the girls she’d arrived here with. So there was no reason she should be feeling—
“Ladies.” Asher ambled up to their little group as they stepped onto the deck. He was wearing a tight, faded gray tee and black shorts and a smile so charming it made Gloria’s heart ache with longing.
You turned that down.
Yeah. Well. She’d do it again, too. Life wasn’t about feeling good. Life was about being smart.
He doled out cheek kisses to Charlie, Sofie, and Faith. “Guys are by the fire.” He gestured to the tall flames at the edge of the lake where Glo could see the outline of several bodies. Donny, the tallest, was easiest to spot. “Steer clear of the band, though. They’re trouble.”
“You included,” Charlie said as she walked away.
“Me especially.” Ash winked.
Charlie looked back at Gloria, seemed to decide not to ask if she was following, then grasped the handrail for the stairs leading down to the beach with Sofie and Faith behind her.
Asher turned to Gloria and her stomach bottomed out. Here it was. Do or die time.
“I’m crashing,” she blurted. “But I don’t eat much. So there’s that.”
“Feisty vixen.” He put his hands on her hips. “You’re always invited, Sarge. You’re with me.”
“I’m not with you, Ash.”
“We’ll see.” Before she could argue, he put his lips on hers and blanked her mind. He slid a hand along her lower back, pressing her chest to his. His other hand went to her hair, threading up through the strands. The way he moved against her was like sex with clothes on. And she reacted by arching toward him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and accepting his talented tongue into her mouth.
He awakened her inner wild teenager. Kissing Asher made her remember a time when hormones bounced around her body untamed and unchecked. When she’d sneak out of her foster parents’ homes—pick one, there were three—and make out with a boy in the back of a car or in a basement while the parents were away. Kissing Asher felt as if she were breaking curfew in clothes she’d had to keep hidden deep in her closet—her shortest skirts. Her tallest shoes.
She pulled her lips from his, but he didn’t let her go far, holding her to him with one hand on the small of her back and the other on her ass. How’d that get there? She reached around and moved his hand from her butt to her back.
“PDA,” she said, but her voice was more breathless than reprimanding.
“I’m a big fan.” That lazy smile again.
She rolled her eyes.
“Lets people know you’re with me.” He grinned and she frowned, and then his eyes jerked to the right. “Hey! There he is.” He straightened but held on to her. She pushed her bangs to the side and met eyes with Brice McGuire.
Brice McGuire on Asher’s deck, ten feet away. Really?
She hadn’t seen Brice since the night of the concert. Since the night she didn’t kiss him good-bye and had played off the kiss between her and Asher like it was no big deal. Being caught making out with him just now put a chink in the armor of her credibility.