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“Anyway, it took a while, and in that time, he told me stories that made me see things…differently. Things that I’m not even sure Ash knows. I still hated him for how he treated Ash, but for the first time, I realized that nothing was black and white. People are flawed, and sometimes, good intentions aren’t enough.”
“I realized fairly quickly that he wasn’t doing well. So, I checked on him a couple of times a month, brought him food, made sure he had clean laundry, and he’d tell me stories about Asher as a kid. It made me feel closer to Ash.”
Dash told me about John having liver cancer, and I wondered if that’s what had been wrong with him. If I would have said something, insisted he go to the doctor, maybe, would he still be dying right now?
“But how does that make what happened your fault?”
“I don’t know.”
And I don’t. I don’t even know what happened, but it’s the only thing I have to go on that makes even a little sense.
Suddenly, there’s a splash at the opposite end of the pool, and we both scream and sit up, not having heard anyone come out here. I squint my eyes, trying to make out the details in the dim patio lighting. All I can see is a mop of dark hair, and broad, powerful shoulders gliding through the water. Asher.
Sure enough, it’s Asher that comes up, stopping directly before us. His shirt is molded to his chest, showing off the muscles in his arms and stomach, and his hair hangs in his eyes. Water drips down the bridge of his nose, onto those full lips. He stares directly at me, not breaking eye contact when he reaches for the towel bunched up next to me and rubs it across his face and hair before tossing it back to the deck.
Ash reaches over, plucking the blunt from Nat’s hand, and takes a big hit.
“You can leave now,” he says, eyes still focused on me.
Nat looks to me, silently questioning whether I want her to go or not. I give her a nod, and she stands, pointing a finger in Ash’s direction. “Break her heart again, and I’ll break your dick.” She knows better than to wait for a response, so she walks off.
Ash takes another couple of hits before flicking it behind him to land in the pool.
“How did you get here?” His truck has a very loud, distinct sound that I’ve memorized over the past few weeks. I didn’t hear a thing…until he dove into my pool, anyway.
“Cab. Rode with your brother and Adrian. They weren’t ready to come home yet. I was.”
“Oh.” I don’t know what to make of that. I wonder what Whitley thought about that, but I don’t care enough to ask.
“Funny,” he says, in a way that lets me know what he’s about to say isn’t going to be funny at all, “you made such a big deal about Whitley doing blow— meanwhile, you’re out here getting high.”
“Please. Weed isn’t a drug. Not really.”
“The point is, you’re not only a liar, but now you can add hypocrite to the list. That’s a far cry from the perfect little Briar that I used to know.” Asher stalks toward me, and I put my foot out to keep him from getting too close. His words cause something to snap, and I’m suddenly so sick of his vague put-downs.
“What the hell did I do to you, Asher?! Just spit it out already or shut up about it!” He comes closer, my foot pressing against his chest.
“Maybe I want you to spit it out. To take responsibility for something for once in your privileged little life,” he grits out.
“I’m done playing these games.” My voice is quiet. Resigned. “We’ll keep going around and around on this merry-go-round forever if one of us doesn’t get off. I’m getting off, Ash.” I push
off his chest and twist my body to stand up, but before I can do so, his hand grips my ankle and he yanks. Hard. My ass slides across the smooth stone deck, and then I’m in the water, wrapped around him.
“You’re getting off, all right,” he says menacingly, locking his arms around me to keep me in place. “But not in the way you think.”
I struggle against him, unlatching my legs and trying to slide down his body. My center rubs against his abs, and then I feel something harder prodding at me.
“You don’t make any sense,” I say, feeling more confused than ever. “You’ve made it abundantly clear that you despise me.”
“I don’t have to like you to fuck you, baby girl.”
“You fucked me and left me,” I remind him. My voice cracks, and I hope he doesn’t catch it. “You ignored me for weeks, then you bring her to my house.”
No longer struggling to get away, my legs float lifelessly on either side of him, and his hands start kneading my ass, making me rub against him again.
“I heard what you said about John,” he says, calling his father by his first name like always, and my body goes rigid, eyes go wide. I have no idea how he’s going to react to hearing that I not only saw his dad after he left, but inadvertently ended up with some sort of unlikely friendship. Although, friendship might be too strong a word for the relationship I had with John. It was complicated and unconventional, but we had both lost Asher, even if his actions were the catalyst.
“Seems you’re keeping more secrets than I thought.” He rubs my sides up and down before tugging the strings on my bottoms, causing them to fall off.
