Finally, his eyes cut to hers. “So, you didn’t want to go to dinn—”
“No!” She jumped in to correct him but realized her response might’ve been misleading. “I mean, yes. Yes, I did want to go... I do want to go to dinner with you. I do.” Again, she was met with silence. Since she couldn’t read his non-response, she clarified, “I just wanted you to know that it wasn’t me who texted you. That’s all.”
“But you still want to go to dinner?”
“Yes.” Ava was internally crossing her fingers, toes, arms, legs, and eyes that his answer would be the same as she prepared to ask Asher if he still wanted to go.
Before she could volley the question back and put the ball in his court, he turned toward her and the look in his whiskey-tinted eyes caused a tingling sensation to spread through her like melted butter on a grill. “In that case, I guess I owe Viv one.”
Ava couldn’t help the smile that spread on her face. If he felt that way it meant that he actually wanted to be there with her too.
“I wouldn’t tell her that. She will take you up on it.”
Asher’s mouth lifted in a bad-boy half grin that had Ava’s stomach doing backflips like it was competing at the Summer Olympics.
Unaware of the gymnastics that were happening in her lower region, Asher asked, “Viv isn’t your only sister, right?”
“No. There are four of us. Grace is the oldest, she’s an entertainment law attorney and lives in Los Angeles where we grew up. Then me, then Viv, who you know. And Audrey is the youngest. She’s the brunette you might have seen at Brewed Awakenings. She and Viv own it. Well technically Grace and I own it too, but we are silent partners.
“I was actually on the phone with Viv on the day that we…” Ava was going to say the day we met but they hadn’t actually met that day. “On the day of the shooting, Viv was telling me about her and Audrey wanting to open the business.”
“I remember you were on the phone.”
Ava was surprised that he remembered that because he hadn’t recognized her at first when he saw her. “You do?”
“I do.” Asher glanced over at her and she noted a glint of mischief in his golden stare. “I remember you said penile gold mine.”
“I was just repeating what Viv said,” she defended herself and his wolfish grin widened into a roguish smile that had her backflipping belly somersaulting down a steep hill.
He nodded with amusement, not judgement. “Yeah, that tracks.”
Hearing him say that, the way he said it, felt like a warm blanket being wrapped around her after a cold winter day. She loved that Asher seemed to accept Viv for all her Viv-ness. He seemed to take her sister so obviously trying to play matchmaker in stride and even seemed to be a little impressed by Viv and her shenanigans.
Ian had always treated her younger sister with a little bit of condescension. He acted as if she was just a wild child, totally out of control. He never really respected Viv the same way he respected Grace and Audrey and that had always bothered Ava.
Wanting to know more, or everything about him, Ava asked, “What about you? Do you have any siblings?”
“No. Growing up I always wanted a brother or sister or both, but it’s just me. I promised myself when I had a kid that it wouldn’t be an only child, but life doesn’t always turn out the way you plan.”
No kidding, Ava thought to herself.
If life had turned out the way she had planned she’d just be getting back from her honeymoon in Bali. Actually, that had been Ian’s plan. He hadn’t even asked her if she wanted to go, he’d just booked everything. When she’d questioned him about it, he’d told her that since he was “letting” them get married in Hope Falls, he would decide where they honeymooned.
At the time, she’d thought that sounded fair. But now that she looked back on it, she felt like he’d just done what he wanted and then found a way to justify it.
Asher was right. Sometimes life doesn’t turn out the way you planned, sometimes it’s better.
