Page 131 of In Case You Didn't Know

I frown, because no, Asher didn’t tell me. In fact, he hasn’t replied to any of my messages.

I assumed his Nokia needed charging. Or he’s busy trying to sort out the breach. Just because I’ve managed to sail through my issues with my brothers, doesn’t mean I should expect him to be at my beck and call.

But I miss him. And I wish he was here.

“Did he say why?”

Skyler shrugs. “No idea. Hudson just said it was important, and I should make sure you’re comfortable and fed.” She rolls her eyes. “That’s his way of telling me to be hospitable, I think. Which I am because I put a bottle of wine into the refrigerator as soon as I heard you were coming, which is good of me since I can’t drink any. So I’m completely hospitable.”

I smile at her. “It’s only three in the afternoon.”

“It’s six o’clock somewhere.”

I look at my phone again, feeling my stomach dip. “Is there something wrong with Asher?” I ask her, because if Hudson is asking her to bring me home with her there has to be a reason, doesn’t there?

She frowns. “Not that I know. Why?”

“He hasn’t replied to my messages today. And now this. It feels… like somebody’s about to give me bad news.”

Skyler pulls into the road that leads to the Captain’s House. The white stuccoed building complete with a nineteenth century cupola appears in the windshield. “As far as I know, Asher is okay.” She frowns. “He called this morning, Hudson said he had to go to New York, then later he called me and told me to pick you up. I don’t know if you know, but he knows all about you and Asher. I mentioned something – because pregnancy brain – and he told me he already knew.” She parks and looks at me. “Fuck, they’re doing that thing aren’t they?”

“What thing?” I frown, because I have no idea what she’s talking about. Skyler has a habit of jumping about three thoughts ahead of everybody else.

She sighs. “The ‘keep the women safe while the big, bad men run around making terrible decisions’ thing. Hudson does it all the time, thinking he knows better than me. Or he did, until I started locking him out of the bedroom.”

Ohthat.

We exchange glances. I know exactly what she means. My brothers are the kings of doing it. Or they were until the last few days, when I showed them I was just as good as they are at keeping secrets.

“Shit,” she says. “I’m going to kill Hudson. That conniving asshole. ‘Look after Francie, have some fun. Put on some face masks.’”

I try not to smile at her impression of Hudson. And then the urge disappears, because it’s replaced by a thought.

What’s going on that Asher wants me here, cooped up at the Captain’s house. Why won’t he reply to my messages?

“I’m going to call Asher.”

“Good. They can’t get away with this macho bullshit.” She narrows her eyes as I pull up his number and hit the call button. Then narrows them even more when I put his voicemail on speaker.

“Don’t leave a message,” she tells me. “If they’re going to ignore us, two can play at that game.”

I don’t point out that Hudson isn’t ignoring her, he’s just misinforming her, because it’s nice to have somebody on my side.

“I guess this is what it feels like to be ghosted,” I say.

She sighs dramatically, reaching for the door handle. “They’d just prefer we go all faint and lie back on our chaise lounges while they fight the dragons.”

“Do you have any chaise lounges?” I ask her. Because truthfully, lying on one of those sounds pretty good right now.

She shakes her head sadly. “No.”

“Shame.”

For a second neither of us say anything. Then she looks at me, her eyes twinkling. “You know what I do have though?”

“What?”

“A car.”