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Honor: Not yet. I’ll break for a bowl of cereal in a bit. How has your day been?
Asher: Crazy. Do you like burgers?
Honor: Sorry on the crazy. And who doesn’t like burgers?
Asher: Loyal and I are at Nick’s. Want me to bring you one on our way home?
Honor: Nick won’t mind you stealing one of his burgers?
He’d forgotten she was still new to the neighborhood.
Asher: He’d call the cops if I stole one, but since I’ll pay for it, we’ll be good. Nick’s is a pub, Butter Cream.
Honor: Ah. Got it, Ace. You don’t have to do that…but on the other hand I’m starving, and I do love a good burger. Medium. Extra pickles and tomatoes, mayo and BBQ sauce. Please and thank you.
The positive response prompted a grin. She didn’t mind if he stopped by. He responded he’d be there in about a half-hour, then tucked his phone in his back pocket and asked Loyal, “You mind if we take our food to go after all?”
“Let me guess, the baker is offering more frosting?”
“Her name is Honor,” he said pointedly. “And, I’m going to bring her a burger for dinner. She’s been working since she left this morning.”
Loyal fished the rental keys out of his pocket to drop them on the bar. “I’ll call a cab to get back.”
Damn. Now he felt like he was being a shitty brother, ditching family for a woman. “You’re welcome to eat with us, if you want.” The support Honor had expressed about his family so far left him pretty sure she wouldn’t mind. And since she’d already stressed her breaks had to be short, they wouldn’t stay long.
“Oh, God, no. You bit my head off when I tried to eat some of that cake. I’m afraid of what you might go after if I talk to her and she falls for me instead of you.”
Asher snorted and socked him on the arm as the waitress approached. “Never gonna happen, bro.”
The unexpected teasing broke the uneasy tension between them since their trip to meet Grayson. They put in their order, then talked easily until their food arrived. Asher fisted his to-go bag in his hand and stood.
“You’re sure?” he asked one last time as he stole a fry from Loyal’s basket.
“I’m sure, you romantic sap. Go get your damn heart broken.”
CHAPTER 27
A s Honor chewed her last bite, she noticed Asher was only just starting the second half of his burger. He’d been busy recounting the trip to meet Grayson Cole and the stop at his parents’ house after. Conflicting emotions deepened his voice as he spoke, and her chest had tightened for him when he said the guy didn’t want anything to do with them. Seemed Loyal and Merit agreed with Grayson wholeheartedly on that one point, while Asher and his sisters weren’t sure how they felt.
“Loyal still isn’t convinced he’s your half-brother after meeting him?” she asked.
“Not so much. I think he’s just in denial.”
She reached for a French fry from the cardboard basket between them. “Sounds like you’re not.”
His shoulders lifted. “I don’t doubt that the right amount of money could buy a fake DNA test, but the problem with that is they have to know if we did our own, that lie would be exposed. And they have to know we’d demand to do our own.”
“And, your dad did admit to sleeping with his mother.”
“Yeah. That, too.”
In a moment of silence, Honor returned to the one thing that blew her mind. “I can’t believe she lied to him that his father was dead. What a shitty thing to do to your kid.”
“Right?” He rested his forearm against the edge of the table and grabbed a fry. “I don’t get how that’s better than him knowing about my dad and our family. We’ve missed knowing him for thirty-one years.”
She crumpled her empty burger wrapper and stood. Her leg was warm where his had rested against it, and when she passed behind him on her way to the garbage, she gave in to the urge to rub her palm across his hunched shoulders. What she really wanted to do was wrap her arms around him in a tight, comforting hug. But then she wouldn’t want to let go.
Before she could get one step away, he reached back and caught her hand. His strong fingers gave hers a light squeeze. She understood the silent thanks, and yet that one touch sparked the banked desire simmering between them from the moment she’d opened the door.
