I mentally calculated how long it’d take me to get to Mississippi from the remote town I was currently in that wasn’t easy to get to even with extensive planning. First, I’d have to drive six hours to the nearest big enough airport, then hope I could get an immediate flight out. Best-case scenario, I was looking at a solid twenty-four hours before I’d be in Havenbrook. Worst-case? It could be three or more days.
Regardless, it didn’t matter. If I had to max out all my credit cards…hell, even if I had to call my daddy and beg him for money—something I’d never once done in all the time I’d been on my own—I’d do either in a heartbeat if it’d get me to Asher quicker.
“I’m comin’, Ash,” I said, my voice firm thanks only to my resolve. “Just hang on a little while. I’m comin’ home.”
CHAPTER TWO
ASHER
I could saywithout a doubt that this wasn’t what I expected my life to look like. Three days ago, I’d been a twenty-seven-year-old musician making a living from my music and on the verge of my big break. I’d had a meeting scheduled with a record label to discuss signing on with them after a recent video of me at The Bluebird Cafe went viral. My life consisted of late-night gigs, some overzealous fans, and spontaneity.
In the blink of an eye, that had changed.
Now, suddenly, I was a twenty-seven-year-old in charge of two kids under four. My new late-night sessions were now less the acoustic country-rock variety while beautiful girls vied for my attention, and more the lullaby variety, which included wails of frustration instead of screams of delight. Overzealous fans had been swapped for two enamored tiny people, and nap schedules had replaced my spontaneity.
I’d changed more diapers in the past three days than I had the past three years combined. On the plus side, I was getting pretty good at it—I hadn’t been peed on in twenty-four hours.
Somehow, I’d managed to juggle it all since I’d arrived in Havenbrook along with the rising sun, knowing, for the firsttime, my sister wouldn’t be there to greet me with a hug and a smile.
Thankfully, I’d had help from the Havens, my second family. Rory had been a godsend, stepping in and taking charge in her Rory way, exactly how I desperately needed, considering I had no idea what I was doing.
It was late afternoon, and Owen refused to nap. Which meant the only thing my nephew was interested in doing was crying. June, on the other hand, was bouncing off the walls, though that was probably my fault. I was still learning the unspoken rules of child supervision. Namely, being a cool uncle who gave my niece ice cream for lunch had extremely short-lived benefits.
“Let’s play circus, Uncle Asher!” June cried, bouncing from couch cushion to couch cushion before taking a flying leap and hanging from my back like a spider monkey. The move jostled me, and thus jostled Owen in my arms, which only ratcheted up his cries.
I held Owen tighter, bouncing the little guy in an effort to be soothing. Quite the feat with an acrobatic four-year-old doing everything in her power to turn this house into an actual circus. “Believe me, Junebug, there is nothing I’d rather do than play with you, but your brother isn’t gonna like that much.”
She scrunched up her nose as she leaned over my shoulder and stared down at her little brother. “It doesn’t sound like he’s gonna likeanything.”
I smothered a laugh. “You’re not wrong.”
“Take me on a ride, then, like Daddy does!”
Just like it’d done at every mention of my sister or brother-in-law, my heart clenched, an empty ache radiating throughout my chest. And just like at every mention, I did exactly what June asked for. What else could I do?
“Okay, hang on tight.”
She squealed in response to my command, tightening her grip until I was damn near asphyxiated. No one could accuse her of half-assing anything.
As I stood, I kept up Owen’s steady bounce, even with June hanging off my back, her legs hooked around my waist as she squealed in giddy delight. She might actually be the one to blow out my eardrums—and that was saying something, considering the number of shows I’d played.
I cradled Owen with one arm as I spun to June’s symphony of excitement, my forearm braced below her bottom to make sure she didn’t slip down.
“More, Uncle Asher! More!” she demanded.
But if I did this anymore, I was going to puke. And, considering June’s lunch, I probably wouldn’t be the only one.
Just as I slowed my spins, the doorbell rang, and I breathed out a sigh of relief. At least now I had an actual excuse to stop. I paused for a couple seconds, just long enough to gain my balance. It seemed it was just long enough, too, for Owen’s cries to start back up, his wails ricocheting off the walls.
June wasn’t bothered by it, however, and just spoke louder so as to be heard over the commotion. “Do it again, Uncle Asher!”
“In a minute. We’ve gotta see who’s at the door.”
Every time the doorbell rang—which, in a town like Havenbrook, following the untimely deaths of two younger and beloved residents, meant it was fairly often. The freezer, at least, was stocked with enough casseroles to last us a month—I thought it might finally be Nat. Seeing as she was supposed to arrive yesterday but had been held up in Buenos Aires, I’d given up hope of that after her fifth text to update me on yet another delay.
Nash was on call to pick her up at the Memphis airport whenever she arrived, taking one thing off my extremelyfull plate. I’d assumed they’d keep me up-to-date as to her whereabouts.
But when I opened the door, there she stood, her appraising blue eyes roving over me, her full lips tipped up in that way that made her seem like she was perpetually amused. Her hair was the closest to her natural shade that I’d seen in more than five years—dark chestnut on the top, with the ends a bright, vibrant teal.
