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Asher watched her closely, considering his next move. He wisely said, “There’s no answer that won’t paint me into a corner.”
“That’s probably true,” she replied with little emotion in her voice.
When she knelt in front of the garbage bin, he clenched his fingers, tempted to drag his hand through those soft strands and then bring her into his arms to make her feel all better. Yeah, he was no saint—he still wanted her, even if he knew she’d never give him her heart again. And he agreed with her 100 percent. With her body, Asher knew what he was doing. With her heart, he’d always fail her. But they could do friends. If he helped her get her life straight again, he hoped that would lead to forgiveness. Trying to understand her headspace, he asked gently, “Do you hate me for objecting at the wedding yesterday?”
She fiddled with something in her hands. “Hate, no. I’m just…mad, and not at you specifically, just the entire situation.”
“Anyone would be, Remy,” he said in relief. He could work with mad. “I realize there were subtler ways of stopping the wedding than arresting him, but Damon was going to hurt you. That’s all I saw, and my only thought was protecting you.”
“Yeah, well, men hurting me seems to be my forte in life, so you’re off the hook.” She rose then, stepping away from the garbage bin, right as it went up in flames.
Asher deserved the dig and let it roll right off him. He had hurt her. He’d made promises to her. He was her first kiss, her first everything. He said they’d be together forever. Then he’d abandoned her. Her life had once been
happy and easy and free. Her soul had been that way too. He’d heard from just about everyone over the years after he left Stoney Creek, including Boone and Rhett, that nothing was easy for Remy after Asher left. Asher knew Remy’s anger toward him wasn’t only about his breaking things off with her, but it was about how his leaving her set off a chain of events that slowly made her world fall apart.
For the past five years, Asher had been trying to rectify that. The path had been slow and torturous, and he deserved every single bit of wrath she threw at him.
With a heavy sigh, he took in the flames, black smoke and odd scent similar to burning leaves coming up from the garbage bin. He arched an eyebrow and gestured at her burning wedding dress. “Should I be worried about you?” She seemed stable enough, but perhaps she’d been pushed over the line, and the next step would be setting her loft on fire.
“Nope, I’m good.” She crossed her arms, shutting her eyes and lifting her face to the sky. “First of all, I don’t need the dress, so why keep it? And second, to rid myself of the dark energy Damon created, I need to spiritually cleanse myself.” She lowered her head again, obviously finished with her prayer to Mother Earth, and then pointed at the flames. “Burning the dress is an effective cleansing.”
While he understood, he also didn’t want the fire department getting a call. “How about we keep you in your landlord’s good graces and not burn the place down.” He quickly returned to her bathroom, grabbed a large glass off her sink, and filled it to the top with water. When he returned, he tossed the water into the garbage bin, dousing the flames, sending thick, black smooth billowing in the air. He kicked the garbage bin, making sure the fire was all the way out, and then turned to face Remy, finding her gone.
When he reentered her bedroom, he spotted the big lump under the sheets again. “Remy,” he said gently, placing the glass on her dresser and then taking a seat on the bed next to her.
“How could I be so stupid?” she asked beneath the blanket. “How did I not see the signs that this guy was just after my money?”
Asher pulled away the sheet, meeting her sad eyes. “Because you’ve got a big heart. You don’t see that darkness.”
“But you must have, since obviously you were investigating him?”
Asher gave a slow nod. He hated the prick from the second he met Damon, and not just because Remy had fallen for him. “Something seemed…off. No one has all the right answers all the time. But he fed you all the right lines and seemed very rehearsed to me.”
She glanced up at her ceiling and let out a long, slow breath before addressing him again. “When did you start suspecting something was up?”
“The moment I met him.”
“Seriously?” She placed her hands on her bright red face, though the heat rose equally into her ears. “Right away?”
Asher could sugarcoat all this, but he’d been a coward in the face of hard times before when he’d left Remy. He couldn’t give her everything she wanted, but he could give her the truth. “My instincts—”
“Are never wrong,” she finished for him, finally dropping her hands.
“Not usually,” he agreed.
Another sigh and then she began twirling her hair around her finger, her one tell that she was contemplating heavy things. “Damon said his groomsmen were old college buddies. I take it that’s a lie.”
“From what we’ve learned, they were paid actors.”
Her eyes went huge and a deeper flush crept across her cheeks before she yanked the sheet back over her head. “Just kill me.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” he told her seriously, staring at the lump beneath the sheets. She’d recover from this. He’d see to that himself, even if he didn’t quite know yet exactly how he’d help her.
When she didn’t remove the blanket, he gently tugged it away again. Her gorgeous eyes—so much more guarded than he ever remembered—held his.
“There is something wrong with me,” she eventually said.
“There’s nothing wrong with you.” No, she was perfect, only he kept his mouth shut, afraid if he told her that, he’d scare her away. One step at a time and he’d inch his way closer to being a memory for her that wasn’t drenched in pain.
