“Whatever,” I say, shaking my head. His arm goes to the back of my head and he kisses me. I can hear his mom laughing. Oh my God, how embarrassing.

“You can’t kiss me in front of your mom,” I whisper when he pulls away.

“Just did and it won’t be the last time.” I hear his mom laugh again and I look at her, smiling down at the stove. Her head comes up and she looks happy for some reason.

“I love this, honey. Asher and his women, well, all my sons and their women. None of them ever came around. At first, I thought maybe they were embarrassed of me and their dad. Then, me and James were out one night and we saw Cash with this girl. Let me tell you…after that, I was glad they never brought anyone around if that was what they would bring home.”

“I was lucky enough to meet some of those women first hand last night when Asher took me to the bar.”

“He didn’t?” His mom looked over at Asher with narrow eyes.

“He totally did.” I smile and look over at Asher who looks like he’s ready to strangle me.

“Asher James Mayson, I thought I taught you better than that?”

“Ma, we met the boy’s there to play pool. I don’t have any control over who goes to the bar.”

“I can’t believe you took her to play pool for a first date.” She looks at me. “I swear I raised him better than that.”

“It wasn’t a date,” I reassure her.

“Jesus, Ma,” Asher grumbles. He looks at me and his eyes narrow. “It was a date.” All I can do is shake my head and smile.

“You know, even when Asher was married, we never met the girl. All we knew was that they met when he was stationed in Texas and got married at a court house. We weren’t even invited.” I feel my heart drop into my stomach at the thought of him married. Stupid, I know. I mean, I was engaged and thought that I would spend the rest of my life with the douche bag.

“Ma, Jesus! What the fuck!”

“Watch your mouth, Asher James.” She glared at him then looked at me. “Sorry, I thought you knew.”

“Um, no. That’s okay. I mean, we just met and we all have a past. Some of it beautiful and some ugly,” I told her. There were some things in my past that were ugly too. Like the guy that I was going to marry before he slept with my mother. How much more ugly could you get? Her eyes were soft and she gave me a sad smile.

“So what are you kids planning for the day?” she asked, thankfully changing the subject.

“Going home then I need to have my dad take me to get my car.” I was standing at the corner of the island. Asher pulled my hand, dragging me in between his legs. He had a hand on my hip and I looked him in the eye and gave him a death glare. He ran his fingers down the side of my face and smiled.

“I'm gonna give Ma the key to your car. She can have Nico or Cash bring your car home for you. Then you need to pack up some stuff and bring it over. I’ll be out for a while, I gotta go up to Nashville to check on the job site and make sure the fire inspector doesn’t shut us down. I’ll give you a key so just come in and make yourself at home.”

I know I have an ‘are you crazy’ look on my face but he was telling me to stay the night again. What?

“I'm not staying here,” I told him.

“You are staying here. Your dad works the club at night and doesn’t get home till after four in the morning.”

“I'm not! I’ll just stay with my grandma,” I tell him, even though I don’t want to stay with her. She has three cats and every time I walk into her house, my eyes get so swollen that I can’t blink.

“If you try to go to your grandma’s, I will go there and drag you back here so I suggest that you just come here and save us both the trouble.”

“Are you crazy?” I ask, thinking that I know the answer is yes. “I'm not going to stay here.”

“We’ll talk about it later.” I have a feeling that we are not going to talk about it later and that he is going to try to boss me into doing what he wants me to do. I glare at him again and he has the nerve to laugh. Then his mom slides some eggs and toast in front of us and then comes around the island and sits down. I move out from between Asher’s legs and sit on the stool between him and his mom. I turn towards her, completely dismissing him and he knows what I doing because he’s still chuckling. He grabs my neck and kisses me again.

“Stop doing that,” I tell him, glaring.

“Nope.” It’s all he said before he let me go and started eating.

“So, November, have you been to Nashville?” his mom asks.

“Yeah, but only once. Me and my grandma went up there to go shopping for a new computer.”

“Oh, no, honey. I mean real shopping?” she says and I start laughing.

“My grandma’s not a big shopper. We only went to one store but before we left, she made me call to make sure that the stuff I needed was there and then had me put it on hold so all we had to do was walk in and pick it up.”

“That sounds like her.” She laughs. “Me and you need to do a girl’s day. We’ll leave early and hit the shops then go get a mani pedi.”

“Really?” I breathe. I went all the time with my best friend, Tia, to get mani pedis. I would always get jealous of the girls who were there with their moms. I always wanted to do that.

“Really,” she says, touching my face. “How about Sunday?” she asks.

“Yeah, that would be great.”

“It’s a date.” She is smiling again. “I never had a daughter. I kept trying for a girl and ended up with four boys. After that, I gave up. So this is going to be a lot of fun.” I had a mom, but my mom never asked me to go shopping with her let alone go shopping and get our nails done. Suddenly, tears start to sting my nose and she pulls me in for a hug. “I’m really looking forward to it.”

“Yeah,” I say, hugging her back. We finish breakfast then I let Beast outside as Asher walks his mom to her car. When he comes back in, he just looks at me and says, “Gotta make a call.”

I go to his bathroom to get ready. I put on black leggings and an oversized off-the-shoulder sweatshirt in a soft peach color. It matches my ballet flats perfectly. Then I braid my hair to the side and it falls over my breast. I put on some blush, mascara, and lip gloss then I finish with peach body spray.

I shove everything back into my bag and carry it with me to the living room. When I got there, Asher isn’t there, or in the kitchen, so I look out the sliding glass door. He is standing in the yard in a pair of worn out blue jeans, his light brown work boots, and a dark gray thermal that fits like a second skin. Just looking at him makes my mouth go dry. I watch as Beast comes running at him with a stick in his mouth. Asher wrestles it away from him and throws it as Beast takes off. He looks so beautiful, playing with my dog. Then I remember what he said earlier. If I’m not mistaken, he is kind of my boyfriend. With that thought, I want to do some kind of acrobatics…or maybe a cheer. He kissed me and introduced me to his mom. Well, technically she just showed up, but that had to count, right?

Plus, he said this wasn’t casual even though deep down, I don’t completely trust what he was saying. But, I’ve decided that I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt until he proves that he doesn’t deserve it. He must feel me watching him because he turns around and smiles at me and my breath is stuck in my lungs. He calls Beast and they both come up the stairs at the same time and walk into the house. Without stopping to close the sliding door, he comes right to me, picks me up and kisses me. When he breaks away, I’m in another Asher kiss fog.

“You ready?” he asks and all I can do is nod. He slides me down his body and kisses my nose. My legs are jelly so I hold onto his T-shirt to keep me from falling on my face. He smiles like he knows what he’s doing to me. I glare at him because no girl wants a guy to think that he’s got it going on even if he does. “Okay, babe, get your ass to the jeep.” He steps away and closes the door.

I watch him move then realize that I’m just standing there watching him. I’m finally able to break out of the fog and grab my purse and overnight bag. I walk to the door with Beast at my side, saying over my shoulder, “Don’t tell me to get my ass in your car. It’s rude!” Then, I open the door and walk out to his jeep. His laughter follows me.

Chapter 4

We pull up to my dad’s house and he is standing outside. I start to open my door when Asher stops me.

“Wait till I come around and open your door.” This confuses me.

“Why.”

“Do you always have to ask questions?” I think about it for a minute then realize that I do always have to ask questions. Sometimes I ask questions that make no sense or questions that I know the answers to, but I still like to ask them. Asher is watching me and then he starts laughing.

“What’s funny?”

“Nothing, baby. Just wait till I come around to open your door. Will you do that for me?” Because he asks nicely and isn’t being bossy, plus he called me baby and I’m really starting to love that, I nod my head in agreement.

“Good,” he says then kisses me softly and runs his nose across mine. I’m in such a fog that I don’t even realize that he’s gotten out of the car until my door opens and he’s holding a hand out to me. His jeep is one of the cool ones with giant tires that were made for taking into the hills to go mudding. I wondered if he ever does that.

“Do you go mudding?” I ask, looking up at him and, not for the first time, realizing how tall he is compared to me. I come up to the middle of his chest and my head has to go way back to make eye contact. The good thing is I never have to worry that my heels will be too high. My ex never liked me wearing heels because he didn’t want me to be taller than him.

“Mudding?” he asks, bringing me back to topic.

“Yeah, you know, where you drive a truck through mud and… I don’t know what else you do when you go mudding.” He starts laughing again and I have no idea what is so funny so I just wait till he gets control of himself.

“I haven’t gone mudding since I was seventeen.”

“Oh,” I say with disappointment. I kinda wanted to go. Not that I knew much about it, but I saw a video once and it looked like fun.

“If you want, we can take my four wheeler out and drive through some puddles during the next storm.”

“Really?” I ask. That sounds like fun.

“This is why you’re too much. Not too many women go from talking about getting manicures and shopping to wanting to get muddy.”

“I'm versatile.”

“Yeah.” He kisses me then and just when it starts getting good, my dad yells at me.

“November!” Crap, I forgot where we are. I put my face in Asher’s chest and giggle. My dad is mad. I’ve never made my dad mad before.

“November,” my dad calls again.

“Oh, lord,” I say, looking up at Asher. He is smiling down at me. I turn my head and my dad and Uncle Joe are standing on the porch. Both of them have their arms crossed and feet planted apart. I don’t think this is going to go well. Asher grabs my hand and starts walking. I am dragging my feet behind him, trying to avoid the confrontation that is coming.