AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I can’t help but notice that neither of you bothered to ask my opinion.” Crossing my arms over my chest, I arched an eyebrow and glared at my best friend and my...er, at Asher. “What if I have some business that needs tending to this afternoon, huh? Maybe I have a very pressing matter that just can’t wait? It’s pretty presumptuous of you both to just assume I have nothing going on in my life.”
There was a beat of silence before Violet asked dryly, “Well? Do you?”
“No,” I snapped. “And you’re damn lucky I don’t, or you’d have both felt really stupid.”
“Blaaaaaaaah!”
Chapter seventeen
Asher
“Wow.Whenyousaidfarm, you really meantfarm.”
Ricki’s wry words had me casting my gaze over her at for what was probably the thousandth time since we’d climbed in my truck and headed back to Pennsylvania. The drive was nearing the three-hour mark, mostly due to the fact that we hadn’t been able to leave until late afternoon, and the traffic along the Lincoln Tunnel was a nightmare.
I didn’t mind one bit, though, because the sight of Ricki in my passenger seat, sunglasses on, boots up on my dash, flashing me a gorgeous smile every time I said something intentionally stupid just to get a laugh out of her?
Well, it was everything my country boy heart had ever hoped for when I’d been a hormonal teenager, dreaming of anything other than a shovel and a long day of hard work.
“Yeah, it’s pretty big,” I said needlessly. We were currently driving past the miles and miles of wire fencing Thane and I had installed three summers back. “There’s nothing for miles in any direction except for Dunn Creek land.” I couldn’t help the note of pride in my words. Just because I was the kid who’d run off to the city didn’t mean I wasn’t proud of my roots. “The Dunn family has worked this land for generations.”
“Wait.” Ricki dropped her feet to the floor—taking her gorgeous, fishnet-covered thighs out of my line of sight, dammit—and pulled off her sunglasses before she turned a little in her seat to face me. “You said Dunn family. Are you...shit, Asher. Are youmarried?”
“What?” My whole body jerked at her accusation, and I pressed the brake a little harder than I intended, sending both of us flying forward until the seat belts kicked in. Ricki slapped a hand down on the dash to stop herself moving forward and stared at me in abject horror.
“Asher!” Ricki spun in her seat, her eyes darting to the bed of the truck where Nacho was currently riding. Glancing in the mirror, I could see he was still perfectly content in the travel crate we’d placed him in, his long ears flopping in the wind.
Satisfied that I hadn’t hurt her baby, Ricki resumed her seat, sending me a glare.
“So? Are you going to answer me?”
“No, I’m not married,” I told her, more than a little offended she’d think me capable of something like that.
“Well, forgive me for checking, although I probably should have done that sooner.” She sighed, running one hand through her hair in frustration. “Where I come from, a man having a side piece is as normal as breathing.”
I stared at her—for as long as I safely could while driving, anyway—before I huffed out a breath of my own. “Well, that’s a shitty way to live, if you ask me.”
“There were a lot of shitty things about the way I grew up, Asher. Adultery was only one of them.”
I didn’t say anything else about it, concentrating instead on maneuvering my truck off the main highway and onto the long gravel drive that would take us to the house without being too rough on the goat who was currently bleating away behind us, but I found myself thinking about my parents as I drove.
I’d been young when my dad passed—still had all my baby teeth, really—so only Thane and Bretton had been old enough to really remember him. But I knew my mother, and she would never have stood for that kind of thing. From all the photos and albums around the house, it was clear that my parents had been in love. The kind of love that withstood the test of time, which was proven by the fact that after my dad died, mom had never even considered dating again.
I didn’t know much in life, but I knew that was the kind of relationship I wanted; the kind where you’re happier with the memories you have of someone than you would ever be if you tried to replace them.
I was still musing about it when we pulled up in front of the house, the windows lit up bright against the darkness as the open front door silhouetted the bulky frame of my brother, arms crossed and a half smile on his face.
“Did you get lost on your way back to the city?” he asked as I climbed out of the truck. “I know it’s hard, but if you keep going east, you’ll get there, eventually.”
“Or drive into the ocean. Yeah, I know,” I chuckled at the joke, something Gramps said every time one of us left the farm.
I was about to give him shit right back, but stopped at the sound of the passenger door opening, Thane’s attention moving swiftly to the pair of fishnet-clad legs that appeared as Ricki stepped out of the truck and made her way toward me.
“Well,” Thane drawled, a smirk crawling across his face as he looked at her, his eyes eating her up in a way I didn’t particularly appreciate. “You may have gotten lost, baby brother, but you didn’t get lost alone,” he drawled salaciously, and I had never wanted to punch my brother in the face more than in that moment.
What was it about Ricki that made me grunt and growl like a goddamn caveman? I’d never been a possessive guy, but with her, it seemed I was learning that I had something primal buried inside me that wanted to claw its way out and claim her, mark her in a way that would ensure everyone knew she belonged to me.
Because she did belong to me.
