Page 12

Chapter Eleven

SUNNY

L ater that night, Sunny hobbled upstairs to her bedroom. There had to be crutches in this house somewhere. She’d fallen and twisted her ankle enough times. She had managed to go through all the boxes, so maybe she could track him down to get him to stack them back up for her.

As she blotted her face with a towel before drying her hands, her heart nearly shot out of her chest at the loud bang on the door.

She paused, waiting to see if there was something else. The house had been making some strange noises since she’d been back, so this could just be another, but there was another loud bang at the door, accompanied by a loud male voice calling her name.

Asher.

Her heart leaped at the thought that he might be ready to make up.

She slowly started making her way down the stairs using her new sturdy banister.

“Sunny! I want to talk to you!” He banged on the door again.

“I’m coming. Give me a minute!”

When she made it to the front door, she stopped, taking a moment to try to catch her breath and steel herself.

As she pulled it open, the smell of whiskey hit her as a naked Asher barreling into her house.

“Asher,” she exclaimed, trying not to let her gaze take in his long, lean muscles. “What are you doing here?”

“We need to talk,” he said, turning to her, his hands on his hips.

It was not helping Sunny navigate this situation.

“Do we have to do it while you’re naked?” she asked, hiding her eyes.

“I don’t remember you having a problem with my nudity before,” he said with a slight slur.

When she looked up at him, she found a familiar smirk on his face, one she hadn’t seen since she’d been back.

That was a good sign, right? So, she guessed she was just going to have to deal with a naked Asher. She could have a conversation with him like this. Sure, she could, at least she hoped.

“What do you want to talk about?” she asked, trying to be unaffected by her building desire.

“You came back to save the house?”

“I came back to save the house and be with you. Like I said, it was always my intention to come back... I never should’ve left like that, and I never should’ve stayed gone that long. The longer I stayed away, the more shame I felt for being a coward. It made it harder to come back.”

He closed his eyes as his shoulders fell.

She needed to have this conversation when she wasn’t distracted by her desire to walk right over there and kiss him.

“Here,” she said as she turned to make her way into the living room. She found a quilt to wrap around himself.

As she turned, her hand slipped a bit down the wall, and she almost fell. Her sprained ankle had been a distant memory in this situation. That was until she tried to put weight on it and the screaming pain brought it back to the forefront again.

Before she knew what was happening, Asher was at her side, holding her steady.

“Whoa, just as clumsy as the day you left,” he said as he helped brought her into the living room to set her on the couch.

She handed him the quilt, biting her lip. “Here, put this around you... It’s a little distracting.”

He wrapped it around his waist and sat next to her.

“I’m really mad at you,” he said, cutting her with a dark gaze.

“I know.” She nodded. “You have every right to be.”

They sat there in silence, looking at each other.

Finally, she broke the silence. “Can you forgive me?”

He bit his bottom lip and nodded before dropping his head in his hands. She ached to reach out and rub his back offering him the comfort he seemed to need, but she wasn’t sure if that was her job yet.

As he blew out a breath, the smell of whiskey filled their space.

“Are you drunk?”

He turned to her and nodded. “Yeah, I was down at the Corner Tap. I know it’s not a way to solve a problem, but it usually helps me forget for a little bit, but even that didn’t help.

I figured I can be miserable without you or miserable with you.

.. and fuck...” He looked up at her, and the heat and pain in his gaze almost took her breath away. “I really fucking missed you, Sunny.”

“I missed you, too,” she said as he brushed away a rogue tear running down her face.

“Please don’t cry...” Asher said.

The weight of his gaze made her feel. That’s it. It made her feel all the emotions swirling around inside of her—and not all of them were good.

“I’m so sorry. You deserve more.”

Asher let out a sigh before leaning back on the couch and running his hand through his hair. “What are we going to do?”

“We could just start with getting to know each other again. Four years is a long time to be gone, and I know we’ve each changed a lot. And maybe doing that I can prove to you that I’m here and that I’m not going anywhere.”

The moment hung between them as Asher took her in.

Sunny tried to tamp down the desperation she felt to make him understand something she barely understood herself.

All she knew was she wanted to crawl up in his lap and feel his arms around her.

She wanted to get lost in the woods with him like they used to, wanted the closeness they had their whole life, until everything went to shit.

“I think that’s good. I missed you so fucking much. It was like I had this void inside of me.”

He sat up straighter and looked at her, his dark-brown eyes pinning her in place. There was no air in the room, and she was pretty sure her heart had stopped.

“You can never leave me like that again... I can’t do that again.”

As if of its own volition, her hand reached out and took his.

She was not prepared for the wave of sensation that would flood her when she did.

It was a rush of air like a warm summer breeze and refreshing as the cool stream they’d splashed in as children, as simple as their life had been before she’d gone and made it much more complicated.

“I promise. I’m here for good. I’m not going to leave again.”

He took her hand and laced his fingers with hers.

She looked at it and bit her lip. When his other hand came up and gently brushed her hair off her forehead, she shuddered as she took a deep breath of air, as if all the oxygen had just left her body.

“Sunny...”

His voice held such reverence it buoyed the hope inside her that she just might be able to fix this after all.

As she leaned into his hand, the rough calluses comforted her, something she always loved about him. His hands were rough and strong from all the woodwork he did with Abe, but those same hands were also able to paint beautiful, delicate details.

Just like Abe, he was big and strong and intimidating, but Asher was also gentle and loving. He was everything, and the thought that he might be hers again sent another tear down her cheek.

“Why don’t you sleep it off here?” Sunny said, trying to gain composure. “Then, maybe tomorrow, we can start getting to know each other a bit.”

A smile found his face. It was the first of Asher’s she’d seen it in over four years, and just like that, something settled in her soul.

“I still love you, Asher.”

He nodded and swallowed a lump in his throat. She moved to stand and slid the pillow to the other end. “It’s not the most comfortable couch.”

“It will be fine.”

She stood and looked at him as he stretched out. “Do you need anything?”

“Nope,” he said as he closed his eyes.

“Okay... well, you know where to find me,” she said, not quite ready to leave him yet.

But he lay there with his eyes closed.

She made her way up the stairs and put her hand on her new sturdy banister. A big smile spread across her face. This house was slowly on its way to becoming livable, and she just might be able to fix her relationship.

She woke up coughing as smoke filled her house. Sitting up, she looked at the fire engulfing the hallway.

She made her way over to the window and pulled it open, gasping for air—only, when she looked outside, she didn’t find her yard.

Overlooking the scene of a terrible accident, she saw the Blacks’ car after it had careened into a ditch, only to hit a tree, killing her mother.

Headlights of a speeding big truck disappeared.

Then a pair of glowing red eyes watched them from deep in the forest.

Sunny was pulled out of the dream and sat up, gasping for air, trying to make sense of the world, when a knock sounded on her door.