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He frowned, not liking the instant flare of doubt in his mind—especially since it stemmed from Brianna, not Honor.
“Anything along or near Aspen Street, really.” She’d finished the layers and smoothed out what she’d earlier called a crumb coat over the whole cake before swapping that square at the fridge for yet another set of layers, another size smaller. “But I need to build up my savings again after buying this house. The initial setup for the shop will be pretty expensive.”
He had almost told her he’d happily evict one of his tenants to give her space, but kept his mouth shut. First, that was his dick talking, not common sense, business sense, or even basic decency. And second, he’d been burned one too many times by someone wanting things from him, instead of wanting him. Honor hadn’t given any indication she would use him like that, but the thought of things taking that route with her twisted his gut into a sour knot.
“What about asking your parents for help?”
“No,” she stated with a firm shake of her head. “I’ll do it on my own or I won’t do it at all.”
The finality in her voice raised his respect and eased his tension. With the noted exceptions of Rox and Elana’s daughter, Solana, most of the women he knew were happy to live off Daddy’s money. Even he and his siblings had taken stipends from their trust funds when starting out. The two youngest still cashed monthly checks, though in Shelby’s defense, she was still in college compared to Merit having graduated almost two years ago.
“My best friend, Mae, built her construction company from the ground up, all on her own. No one gave her anything, and I want to do it the same way,” Honor explained as she worked. “It felt great when I signed the papers for this house knowing it was all from my hard work. It’s going to be that much sweeter when I see my name up above the doors of my shop.”
He had the money to do that for her tomorrow. He’d do it, too, just to keep that gorgeous smile curving her lips. But her independence was to be admired and supported, not disrespected.
Before she caught him mooning at her like a lovesick puppy, he pushed up from the stool. “Mind if I use your bathroom?”
“It’s right there.” She pointed to a door on the other side of the patio doors leading to her backyard.
When he came back out, Asher swiped a second beer from the table and strolled around her living room. She shot him a quick glance, but otherwise was quiet over there in the kitchen. Having finished fro
sting the third cake, she’d rolled out a ball of white fondant and was using a metal cookie cutter to make flowers and leaves.
It looked like she’d be at it for quite a while yet, even though it was after ten. Exhaustion was beginning to edge in as he smothered a yawn before taking another pull off his beer. He knew he should go, and yet didn’t want to leave. As simple as it was, he liked just being in the same room with her, observing, talking. He wished he had his camera in hand to catch the quiet beauty in her concentration.
After a brief perusal of the few pictures leaning against the wall waiting to be hung, he took his time looking at the framed photos on her mantle. “This your family?”
“Yeah. Mom and Dad, my brother, Josh, and my sister, Glory.”
He’d been correct that the red-haired guy from that first weekend was her brother. He shifted his attention to a picture of her, and two gap-toothed little blond girls, all three of them dressed as witches for Halloween. “Your nieces are twins?”
“Yep. Annabel and Bailey are Glory’s girls. That picture is from last year. I’ve gone trick-or-treating with them and my sister since they were babies.”
He drank in her happy smile in the picture with her nieces, wondering if she wanted kids of her own someday. He sure hoped so.
Don’t get too far ahead of yourself.
“The picture on the right is my friend, Mae, and her son, Ian.”
He recognized the pretty blond from last weekend, too. Honor had spun around pretty fast when he’d caught them watching him cut the grass, but her friend had offered a cheeky wave before going inside.
Shifting his gaze back to the family picture, he saw she took after her father in looks, but her sister was the spitting image of their mother. He recalled her parents had racked up seven divorces between the two of them. “Any half or step siblings?”
“There were a couple steps from my mom’s second marriage, but they were adults already, and the marriage didn’t last long enough for any of us to become close.”
His brows drew down in a frown. “I can’t even imagine that.”
“Of course you can’t. Your parents have been together for thirty-five years.”
His pulse skipped as he glanced back over his shoulder at that, but her head was bent low while she rolled a tool with a metal ball on the end along the edges of one of the cut out flowers.
The wistful note in her voice told him she wanted the exact thing she claimed to not believe in. And if her heart longed for love to last a lifetime, then it was entirely possible she could fall for him like he was falling for her. As he’d told her, it wasn’t like the mind had any say over what the heart wanted—no matter how many warnings were issued.
CHAPTER 18
Honor kept her head down as she thinned and waved the edges of the petals on the fondant flowers. Asher’s drop-ins were something she could easily become addicted to. Pizza, beer, good company, awesome car, hot guy.
Sexy moans as he enjoyed something she created.
