CeCe and Ginger know all about Nathan because it was them I called crying when I found him in bed with my best friend.
“Mysterious men are the hottest.” CeCe giggles. “Nash was a mystery when we started um, hanging out.”
“Code phrase for fucking like bunnies.” Ginger laughs.
I trade my gaze between them. “Well, we’re definitely not doingthat.He’s an acquaintance at best. One who keeps popping up to save my ass.”
“And one you definitely think is hot as hell,” Ginger adds with a snort. “Even though you refuse to admit it.”
“Semantics,” I retort in my best Ginger voice. “Look, Asher Reed isn’t my Prince Charming. But I have faith my soulmate will come.”
I’ve been feeling better the last couple weeks. Something about being on the ranch, breathing in the fresh air, my morning porch chats with Dean. It’s been calming, peaceful.
“Until that prince comes, just thank the universe for vibrators.” Ginger laughs just as Camilla, her mom, knocks on the door with Mabel in tow.
“It’s time, ladies.” She smiles widely as she starts fawning over her daughter.
CeCe points to me, trying to sound firm. “Now’s not the time, but there’s more here. You’re definitely attracted to him.”
“Okay, officer.” I laugh. “If there’s anything to tell you, I promise you’ll be the first to know.”
We shuffle out of the room, and I try hard to fight those butterflies in my stomach just thinking about laying eyes on myacquaintance.
CHAPTER 12
Olivia
Idon’t hate love. I just don’t believe in it.
I repeat Asher’s words over and over in my head because all the moments I’ve spent telling myself that I’m not attracted to this dark mystery of a man do nothing to prepare me for how devastatingly sinful he looks dressed in a perfectly fitted three-piece suit.
In keeping with the 1920s theme, each groomsman is wearing pin stripes, with a gold pocket watch chain draped elegantly over their vest. Asher’s hair is a touch shorter than when I saw him last—though it’s still wavy—and his beard is trimmed back but still thick. With the ink creeping up his neck out of his crisp white dress shirt, he’s giving hot, rugged mobster. Which means that, no matter what I tell my body, she has other ideas tonight because holy hell, I’m heating up just looking at him. The thoughts that run through my mind come from that dark place I’ve tried to push down for years. I want to see him unravel, to witness his loss of control … to be thecauseof it.
The way his eyes meet mine as I walk down the aisle aheadof CeCe and Ivy makes me feel like I’m the only woman in the room. His focus is unashamedly on me, like it’s his job to guide me safely to the front of the chapel.
Ivy follows me, smiling at Billi on her mama’s lap in the third row, followed by CeCe, her big bouquet of flowers resting sweetly on her baby bump. A certain sort of magic hangs over the room when Ginger starts down the aisle with her father, just behind Mabel, who’s scattering petals along the walkway.
Her eyes meet Cole’s and he smiles so big both dimples in his clean-shaven face pop out. I look between them and that familiar pang of jealousy hits me. It’s not born from malice. It’s more like a wish that one day a man will look at me the way Cole looks at Ginger.
I do my best to keep my focus on them, fighting the nagging feeling that I’m going to end up the crazy cat lady while all my friends live happily ever after.
Ginger has tears streaming down her cheeks as Mabel presents her with a special bracelet with two hearts on it. One for each of them.
My heart swells as I watch my best friend say her vows to her new little family, a family she was destined to have, but my eyes can’t keep from straying to Asher. Illicit thoughts of tearing open that suit coat and running my hands over his hard body fill my head as the officiant says the magic words and Cole and Ginger are announced husband and wife. The chapel cheers when they kiss.
Asher’s eyes meet mine across the aisle, heating as they glide over my body. He isn’t coy; he doesn’t try to hide it. He looks at me like it’s his right to do so, like nothing would pull those mercury eyes away. Call it the romance of the day or simply the fact that I haven’t had sex in what feels like eons, but more than ever, that heated way he’s been looking at me since the night of my fire is starting to feel less like coincidence and more like unfinished business.
“Me and Mom want one picture with you, sweetheart, before you scamper off.” My dad approaches with my mother, sweet smiles on both of their faces. They’ve known Ginger since she was a girl and they’re so happy to be a part of her big day. We’ve been at photos for over an hour already and the photographer has every shot she’s planned among the maple trees and honeysuckle bushes. Ivy is breaking off to feed Billi—with Wade close behind—and the rest of the wedding guests are milling about with champagne flutes in the early evening sun. There isn’t a breath of wind, and the sky is a clear, duck-egg blue. It couldn’t be any more perfect.
“Okay, but I’ll take it,” I tell my dad.
“Don’t trust the old man’s photography skills?” he chides, passing me his cellphone.
“We just want to have foreheads in the picture, Ken, and that might not be the case if you take it.” My mother and I look at each other with knowing grins as my dad shrugs with a chuckle. It’s been the three of us for so long that we know one another inside and out.
“Touché,” my dad agrees, feigning a scowl.
I hug them before they congratulate Ginger one more time and head off to change before the reception.
