I give her a sheepish look as Julie snorts out a laugh next to me. “She’s messing with you, Asher. No one appreciates a well-placed fuck like Rachel Parker.”
“Be that as it may, watch your mouth, pal of mine.” My mom elbows me in the side, and I toss an arm around her.
“So,” my dad says, leaning around to look at me. “It seems like maybe you have some news for us.”
I take a deep breath, checking in with myself. I’m surprised to find that I’m not anxious about telling my parents. I’m just glad they’re here. I don’t know what shifted my perspective so fast. But then I get a flash of Julie moving over me, my dick buried inside her, and I realize it’s probably that.
“Why are you grinning like you’re thinking about me naked?” Julie hisses at me.
I grin at her. “Because I am.”
“Jesus Christ,” she mutters. “Shut it the fuck down, Asher.”
“I love it when your claws come out in the morning. Scratch me, baby.”
“You are a toddler.”
“Something you’d like to share with the group?” Steven Parker’s voice breaks us out of our whispered banter.
“Nothing, Dad. Just Asher forgetting for a minute that he’s an adult.” Julie smiles sweetly at me, and I chuckle back at her.
“I apologize for my son,” my mom says to Julie’s parents. “I tried housebreaking him and was almost successful.”
“I have an almost housebroken son of my own,” Rachel says. “I know how it goes.”
“So, Asher, talk.” My dad’s voice is gentle but firm.
I wonder where to start and then take a deep breath and jump right in. “I’m retiring.” It doesn’t feel as scary to say it this time as it did last night. “I had the physical with the team yesterday, and my MRI was about as bad as it gets.” My parents don’t react, just wait for me to continue, so I do. I tell them everything about the appointment, my talk with the guys last night, Jeremy’s job offer, and my talk with Julie.
“I’m sorry I didn’t call you right away,” I say,when I finish. “It took me a minute to get my arms around it. I would have called you today. Probably.”
“How do you feel, Asher?” asks my dad.
“I feel…okay I think. I mean, I hate it and I wish it wasn’t happening, but I hate it a little less today than I did yesterday.”
My mom leans over and pulls me into a hug, her arms around me, settling me the same way Rachel’s did last night.
“We’re proud of you, Asher.”
“You are?”
“Of course we are,” my dad says. “You’re making the hardest decision of your career and being smart about it. You’re surrounding yourself with good people who are going to help you through this, and you’re already thinking about your future.”
I get a little choked up at that. Julie covers my hand with hers under the table, and I turn mine over, lacing our fingers together, so fucking grateful for her.
“And you,” my mom turns to Julie. “Thank you for making our boy so happy, and for helping him through this. I’m proud of both of you.”
“Well Susan, it’s a real travesty, having to hang around him all the time, but he has a never-ending pipeline to my favorite seasonal candy, and he put Diet Pepsi in his soda fountain, so what was I supposed to do, really?”
I sling an arm around Julie, pressing a kiss to the side of her head, to the delight of the four parents sitting around the table. “Juliette, you’re my favorite human.”
“Yeah, yeah, I like you too,” she says, squeezing my hand again under the table and tucking herself more securely against my side in a gesture that has my heart exploding.
“Well, now that we’ve gotten the business out of the way, let’s have breakfast and get to know each other, yeah?” Rachel looks around the table like she’s daring anyone to disagree withher and then gets up, followed by Steven. He starts cooking while Rachel puts a latte in front of Julie and a giant cup of soda in front of me. “Dr. Pepper,” she says, winking at me and taking her seat. And in the bright kitchen with my arm around Julie and our parents chattering away like they’ve been friends forever, I think maybe, despite everything, this is exactly where I am meant to be.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Asher
