“I fucking hate who he’s becoming, D.” Ash exhales.
In my peripheral vision, I can see his head shaking side to side.
My shoulders slump, and I stare ahead, not focusing on anything. “I know. Me too … me too.”
His words pick up pace, and I know he’s getting worked up. “I mean, it’s fucking ridiculous. It’s like he died with her, and some uncanny robot replaced him.” A pause. “What are we going to do?” he huffs. “We gotta dosomething.”
Asher has a lot of good qualities, one of which is how deeply he feelseverythingin the world. But sometimes, when he can’t control it, that works against him.
“We will. But tonight is not the night for it,” I remind him. “Nottonight.”
“Fine.” He blows a raspberry. “I need a drink. You want one?”
“Fuck. Yes. But I can’t right now.” I’m barely keeping it together as it is. “Later for sure.”
“Everyone’s ready, and the girls will be here soon,” Ash adds. “Need some backup tonight? I’ll stick with you.”
My chest warms at his gesture. “If I signal you, rescue me.”
For some reason, he gets excited about this. “Ooh, what should the signal be? Like some bird sound?”
My face is flat, but I’m secretly dying inside. “No, you fucking idiot.” A laugh escapes. “That would be so obvious. If I look at you and blink three times in a row or if I rub my chin for at least five seconds.”
“Oh, yeah, because you hand-fucking your chin won’t be weird or noticeable at all.” His head tips back as he chuckles. “But deal. I got you.”
Ash pushes off the railing and takes a step toward the door. “You coming?”
I shake my head. “No. I’m going to stay out here for a few, I think. Then make sure everything inside is ready to go. Guests should be arriving any minute now. And I imagine Dad is still distracted with Adrianna in his office. Or yelling at someone on the phone. Who knows?”
“Who cares?” Asher adds with a smirk. “Let me know if you need help with anything, all right?”
“I will.”
His attention is drawn past the balcony and down to the garden, long enough to keep him in place with a twinkle glimmering in his gaze.
“Who isthat?” Ash inhales, completely taken by surprise, looking over the balcony toward one of the side entrances of the house.
I lean forward and follow his sightline, sucking in a breath when I see who he’s talking about.
The prettiest, most genuine smile I’ve ever seen radiates off of a woman’s stunning face, her eyes shielded by her mask.
Holy shit.
“She’s fucking gorgeous,” I confess.
Who the hell is that?
She’s dressed in a gorgeous blue gown and a matching mask. Her long blonde curls with subtle pastel-blue lowlights flow down her shoulders, the sides tucked loosely behind her ears.
She’s accompanied by two staff members—one holding her train, the other carefully leading the way inside. She looks like a guarded princess.
“Yeah, she is,” Ash whispers, clearly as taken aback by her as I am. “Dibs.”
“Bullshit,” I scoff, not sure why I’m suddenly so defensive of a stranger. “We’ll let the lady choose. Maybe she’ll hatebothof us.”
“Or want both of us.” Ash winks with a smirk.
We’ve joked about sharing a girl before, but we’re both too possessive for that to ever work. Maybe we just haven’t met the right girl.
