Condom on, he spread her legs and embedded himself within her. This…this was a helluva lot better than his fingers.
“I could live here,” he said.
She laughed, a throaty, loose sound. The intensity swept off her face. She looked happy, and making her happy made him the same way.
He grinned. “Ready for the ride of your life?”
“Let’s have it, cowboy.” She looped her arms around his neck, grinning back.
And then they rode. They started out laughing and enjoying how much fun they had together, and then things went the way of serious. She grew quiet and intense, but this time in a good way as he worked her to her orgasm and him to his own. Once they were done, he gathered her clothes and lifted her into his arms. Then he carried Gloria into his house, Tank at his heels.
There was sand in his bed and probably in places sand had no business being, but it was worth it because Gloria was also in his bed.
In his bed and smiling sleepily and this time, staying.
He’d trade sand in his bed for that. He was beginning to think he’d trade just about anything for her in his bed. His apartment, his home—the one in LA, for example.
Before he slipped off to sleep, he thought back to Donny’s words when Asher had first arrived in the Cove. For the first time, he didn’t blow off his friend’s assessment. Asher might be staying after all.
If everything he needed was here, then the rest would work itself out. He wouldn’t lose this—lose her—again. No matter how hard she pushed.
*
Thursday brought rain, a warm rain that cleared quickly. It left behind heavy clouds and gray skies, but his mother refused to let the weather dampen the party. The rental was the same one they rented whenever they came here over the summers when he was a kid, only now the rental was owned, his mom and dad taking the plunge and signing the papers on it this year. They told Asher they’d be here more often because of Hawk and that Hawk having his grandparents close was important.
Asher agreed.
Being at this house reminded him of the days when he met up with Evan and Donny, when they proceeded to wreak havoc all over town. One summer night in particular, Donny, thanks to his drunk old man, gained access to the liquor cabinet and stole a bottle of booze. They drank. Donny puked. Then he sat and played lookout while Evan and Asher spray-painted the brick walls of Mrs. Anderson’s library with graffiti penises. Seemed like the thing to do at the time.
They even made the newspaper. And whoever was working at the paper at the time allowed the headline to read PENIS BANDITS STRIKE AGAIN! Elana was not impressed. And neither was Donny’s old man, who didn’t give a rat’s ass about the library but lit into Donovan with a belt the next day when he found a missing bottle of whiskey. Evan’s parents had a good chuckle over breakfast, Asher had heard. And that was very similar to the way Asher’s father had reacted. Elana had given Asher hell about civic duty and responsibility, but Leland Knight had leaned back in the lawn chair on this very deck and said, “He’s okay, Lanie. Let the boy be a boy.”
That summed up his dad’s feelings on just about everything. Laid-back. Easy. Leland had always supported Asher as well as his dreams. It was his dad who had put his first Fender guitar in his hands. It was his dad who had taken Ash to his local shows. Leland had planted the seed of a dream that had later bloomed. Not the local music scene dream, but the big dream. To become a star. Go on tour in other countries. Have a band that stayed together for decades not just through one or two albums.
By the time Asher was eighteen, half that dream was a reality. Knight Time started local, but that wasn’t where they stayed. Staying in Michigan was never an option. And so he moved, relocating to LA with a head full of dreams and his pockets full of change and crumpled dollar bills from a jar on his dresser. He had almost nothing, but he and his buddies were willing to take that leap together.
And his dad? Never the least bit jealous that Asher had realized his dream. Never upset that it was his son and not him up in the spotlight wearing leather pants. That was what made Leland a great dad. He was supportive and understanding.
“Fucked up shit right here, son,” he said now.
Asher smothered a smile at the lip of his beer bottle and took a swig. He knew exactly what his dad was talking about, because he followed his father’s eye line across the huge wooden porch to Emily Trudeau and Elana Knight, glasses of wine in hand, discussing what, Asher didn’t want to know.
Jordan stood, Hawk on her hip, a look of disgust on her face. She sent Asher a scathing glare.
“How come whenever she does that, I feel like grinding my molars to dust, but when Gloria looks at me like that…” He didn’t finish, just blew out a whistle.