Page 86 of Between Hello and Goodbye

My heart ached, because being with him again was perfect…and temporary.

“Asher? Remember back at your friend’s restaurant when I asked if we were in trouble?”

“Yeah.” He sighed, his chest rising and falling under me. “I know.”

I woke sometime in the late afternoon to Asher rummaging in the kitchen for some water. He looked better already, that is to say—ungodly sexy.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hi.” I pushed myself to sitting. “You sound better.”

“Told you. Twenty-four hours.”

I frowned. “Does that happen often? You get laryngitis from what? Smoke inhalation?”

“I wouldn’t say often.”

My frown deepened. “Once is too many. That can’t be healthy.”

“I’m fine,” he said, coming to sit beside me. He slipped his hand to cup my jaw, his thumb brushing over my lower lip. “And you’re beautiful.”

“Don’t change the subject.” I took one of his hands in mine, my heart overflowing and me not having the first clue what to do about it. “How bad was it? Did the volcano erupt?”

“Not this time.”

“This time? You’ve been there before?”

“The Kilauea volcano was one of my first calls when I joined the fire station,” Asher said. “About four years ago. Twenty-four fissures opened and the summit collapsed. We were called in to assist the local crews when the lava flows wouldn’t quit. It was a shit show. Seven hundred houses lost.”

“God, I can’t imagine watching that happen right in front of you.”

“It’s terrible but kind of majestic, too. Lava isn’t like fire,” he said. “You can’t aim a hose at it and put it out. It just keeps coming, rolling like a slow wave, eating everything in its path. All you can do is surround and drown nearby structures and help people stay out of its way. Be a shoulder to lean on when you tell them they’ve lost everything.” Asher’s voice thickened and he cleared it with a rough shrug. “Anyway, that’s what you sign up for.”

I had a million more questions, but I hadn’t seen him in months and felt we were both resettling into each other. He didn’t like me prying in his personal stuff anyway. I had no idea where this visit was going but maybe that was for the best. Maybe we should attempt to maintain some distance.

Yeah, good luck with that.

“How are Morgan and Nalani?” I asked instead. “And little Kal?”

“They’re great. Busy, thanks to you.”

“Definitely not just me. They know what they’re doing. They just needed a little fresh innovation.”

“Maybe. Whatever it is, it’s working. My solution was just to throw money at them until they figured out how to use it.”

“Because you take care of them.” I nudged his arm. “It’s pretty much your thing.”

“I suppose.” Asher looked at me. “I’m sorry I got shitty with you about my childhood stuff.”

“I get it. It’s hard to imagine, but we haven’t known each other all that long. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to tell me. And I should never have made you feel weird about keeping your privacy.”

“You didn’t.” Asher’s gaze held me intently. “I was trying to keep you at a distance but that’s fucking impossible.”

I swallowed to hear my thoughts in his voice.

“I guess I felt weird about it,” he continued, “because it’s some shit that he and I went through, and I want it to be over, but it never is.”

“What do you mean?”