“Uncle Asher, Nat promised us aminal pancakes, remember?” June said, her face an inch from his. “Where is she?”
Great, so he wasn’t even going to be able to get his synapses firing with a cup of coffee before he had to have this conversation.
“Hello to you, too, Junebug. Nat had to leave a little early for a photo shoot, so I’ll be makin’ your pancakes this mornin’.”
“Did she teach you how?” she asked with narrowed, suspicious eyes. “’Cause she makes them how I like.”
No, she hadn’t. Animal-shaped pancakes had been the last thing on his mind, but at least they were something he could figure out. Far easier than what had been churning in his mind all night.
“Why don’t you go get dressed, and we’ll see how I do.”
After grabbing Owen from his crib—and throwing in a morning load of laundry thanks to another diaper leak—he did his best making the animal shapes Nat did without any kind of mold. He managed slugs and a sad-looking snake, neither of which June was too impressed with, when the doorbell rang.
His heart soared for half a second before he shook himself. On the off chance Nat had come back, she sure as hell wouldn’t ring the doorbell.
Though he knew it was a long shot that she’d be there, his hopes still sank when it wasn’t her standing on the other side of the door. Instead, Misty, the photographer Rory had hired for his and Nat’s wedding, smiled at him from the front step.
“Hi, Asher. Sorry to come by so early, but I wanted to drop this off for you and Nat. I got it done a bit sooner than expected.” She handed him a flat white box. “It’s your wedding album.”
* * *
He was pretty surethe last thing he needed to be doing right now was looking at wedding pictures from a wedding that wasn’t real, shouldn’t have happened, and would be nullified soon enough. Especially when that wedding was between him and the woman he loved, who was no doubt already on her way to the airport in an effort to flee as fast as possible.
But still, when Owen was down for his morning nap and June was occupied with an episode ofBackyardigans, he couldn’t help himself.
Their wedding day seemed so long ago now, back when he didn’t know every intimate secret about her. Back before he’d actually fallen completely in love with her. But even back then, they’d had chemistry that couldn’t be faked because it showed up even in the photos.
He’d looked through all the pictures, but kept coming back to one. His arms were wrapped around her from behind, and their faces were turned toward each other. It looked like they were sharing a secret between just the two of them—he was pretty sure it’d been one of the hundred times she’d ragged on the photographer.
He loved that he’d known all her secrets before he’d fallen for her, just like she knew his. There’d never been an awkward stage, a getting-to-know-you stage, a does-she-like-me stage. They’d dived into this marriage the way they’d done everything else in their lives—headfirst, without worrying about consequences.
It may have started off as a means to an end, but it’d ended in a whole new place. And in that new place, he was in love with her.
That still didn’t change the fact that she was leaving and he couldn’t.
With a quiet groan, he closed his eyes, seeing that image of him and Nat as he replayed Nash’s words from last night. He wanted nothing more than to figure out how to make this work. To find a way for him and Nat to be together so it didn’t take her away from what she loved.
Jolting upright, he snapped his eyes open as memories of his talk with Gran suddenly popped into his mind. It didn’t have to be all or nothing with them. They’d managed to make everything else work—managed to maintain a friendship that spanned not only decades but thousands of miles, the two of them rarely, if ever, in the same location more than a day or two at a time.
Why the hell did he think they wouldn’t be able to do this, too?
He grabbed his phone and typed out a quick text to Nash, hoping he hadn’t already dropped her at the airport.
Is she gone?
Nash’s reply came moments later.Not yet, but she’s getting pissed at me for stalling. Get your ass in gear.
A relieved breath left him in a whoosh. He’d let her get on that plane as long as she did it after she knew where they stood. After he laid everything on the line. After she knew he was in love with her.
Nash was killing time, and it was annoying the hell out of her. Nat had flown enough that she no longer got nervous, but there was no denying the fact that she was sick to her stomach. Which meant she sure as hell didn’t want anything to eat before her flight, but Nash still kept trying to ply her with food.
“How about some eggs?”
“Nash!” she snapped. Okay, so, she yelled. “I swear to fuck, if you don’t stop tryin’ to stuff me with food, I’m gonna kill you.”
“If you kill me, how’re you gonna get to the airport?”
“Steal your keys and drive over you on my way.”
