The one who lived out of suitcases and could only commit to a one-month lease. The one who swore I would happily be an eighty-year-old spinster because I didn’t want to be tied to anyone or anything.
I pulled up in front of Rory’s house, the last to arrive even though I’d been the one who’d demanded the meeting. I maybe should have asked Asher if he was okay with having my sisters know our possible secret, but truth be told, I had to tell someone. And while my sisters were a lot of things, they weren’t going to sell me or Asher out, especially with what was on the line.
Without knocking, I let myself in the front door. When Rory had bought this house after her divorce, it had been a complete shithole, with crumbling floors and rotted steps and more wallpaper than they had in a store. But in the year since she’d moved in, she and Nash had fixed up the place to be cozy and warm. Something that exuded far more realness than the pristine museum she’d once shared with her ex-husband ever had.
“It’s about time you got here,” Rory said from the small dining room off the kitchen where my sisters were all gathered. “Honestly, Nat, it’s just like you to call for this meetin’ and then show up twenty minutes late to it. Do you think we’ve got all day to sit around and wait for whatever nonsense it is you’ve got on your mind? I?—”
“Asher wants to marry me,” I blurted and watched as each of my sisters’ mouths dropped open, one right after the other.
Someone cleared their throat from behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder to find Nash standing there, eyebrows raised. “Well…sounds like my services may be best used elsewhere. I think I’ll just run on over and see if my good old friend Asher has anything he wants to talk about.”
He walked over, resting his hands on the back of Rory’s chair and bending to press a kiss to the side of her neck. He murmured something, and Rory’s face softened, her surprise replaced by love. Happiness. Two emotions that, prior to Nash, I hadn’t seen on her in a very long time.
“Take the girls, will you?” Rory said. “They’ll have fun with June and Owen, and it might give y’all a little freedom to chat.”
“Already ahead of you, princess.” Nash tossed his keys in the air and called, “Girls, y’all interested in swingin’ by The Sweet Spot this mornin’?”
Even Ava’s preteen gloominess didn’t stand a chance when faced with the prospect of some of Lilah’s delectable treats from the bakery in town. Both girls came running down the hallway from their bedrooms, calling out a generalized bye and waving over their shoulders as they headed for the front door.
“Uh uh. Go kiss your momma bye and tell your aunts you’ll see ’em later.”
I smirked watching my oldest friend slide effortlessly into this role I’d never seen him in. Never imagined he’dbein.
After everything he’d gone through with his family—his momma leaving when he’d been young, and his dad completely checking out—I’d honestly thought we’d be single buddies our whole lives. But I couldn’t deny how perfectly this relationship fit him. I also couldn’t deny how happy it very clearly made him.
After Ava and Ella had done what Nash had ordered, pressing kisses to Rory’s cheek and squeezing her from behind before offering a chorus ofSee y’all laterto Will, Mac, and me, the trio was out the door, and then it was just me and my sisters.
Silence cloaked the room as I stood at the head of the table, my hands braced on the back of the chair, gaze darting between all of them as they stared right back.
Finally, Mac said, “You wanna say that one more time?”
I blew out a heavy sigh and sank into the chair, thunking my elbows on the table and dropping my head into my hands. “You heard me right the first time.”
“Is this…new? Did something happen between y’all?” Will asked, her voice tentative as if she needed all the facts before she could offer up any advice.
“Nothing more than the usual. The only thing that changed was June and Owen.” I laid it all out for them then, detailing exactly what Judge Seville had told Asher. And then what my boneheaded best friend had lied about.
Mac hummed and shook her head. “As mayor, I probably shouldn’t be privy to the fact that you’re intendin’ to lie about legal matters.”
“Oh, stop it.” Rory smacked Mac on the arm. “You’re not here as a mayor. You’re here as asister. And as her sisters, it’s our duty to tell her—” Rory turned her gaze toward me “—just what an absurd idea this is.”
“Rory!” Will admonished.
“Well, it is, isn’t it? This isn’t like jumpin’ in a plane and headin’ to Budapest or wherever the hell it is that you fly off to. Marriage is a serious commitment and isn’t something you should enter into lightly. Learn from my mistakes. All I’m sayin’ is I’m not sure this is something you wanna rush into.”
Mac shot Rory an incredulous expression. “Are you seriously comparin’ your asshole ex-husband to Asher, Nat’s best friend? He would never do to her what Sean did to you.”
Namely, her walking in on him fucking his assistant.
“But, actually, that brings up a good point,” Will said. “Does this mean that neither of y’all will date anyone?Ever? That’smore than just givin’ up travelin’ all over the world, Nat. That’s givin’ up any hope of a future with anyone else.”
Asher and I hadn’t discussed that yet, but that thought hadn’t even entered my mind. Maybe because when I thought about a future, it was always me by myself. It was never with regard to anyone else.
Sure, I enjoyed sex as much as the next girl, but I’d never seen myself getting into a committed relationship, much less a marriage. And the thought of being locked to only Asher that way hadn’t even registered as a concern.
“She has a point,” Mac said. “I think if you do agree to this, there need to be some sort of stipulations about how y’all would proceed. You might not ever want to get married?—”
“But you might,” Rory cut in. “You’re so young—you never know how things will change.”
