Page 69 of On One Condition

“Go away.”

“And she’s fucking gorgeous,” he says, mimicking my tone.

“She is. Full stop.”

“When Ledger pulls out the full stop, you know he means business.”

“I’m going now, Callahan.”

“Oh, I figured you were coming.” His chuckle fills the line. “And hey, Ledge?”

“What?” I snap.

“This is when you act like the old me since I’m now an old married fucker.”

“Act like you?” But the minute I say it, I start laughing, because I know what he’s going to say. Him and his penchant for telling me I have a stick up my ass.

“Yeah. Sleep with the woman. Skip some work to fuck off with her. Your lists can wait. Live a little outside of the office.”

“I’m going now, Callahan.”

“I bet you are.”

I glance at the clock. Let’s see how long it takes for Callahan to tell Ford and for Ford to call me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Asher

“So is this the touch base later and see how we feel about seeing each other again portion of the day?” I ask.

“It is.” God, I love his voice and how it wraps around me. “Did you have a good day?”

“I did. I worked on sorting some of Pop’s stacks. I took Gran some fresh lavender for her room. Then I came back here and surveyed the lavender with George to see how close or far we are on harvesting the different species.”

“And what was the consensus?” he asks.

“One is getting close. A few others have at least four more weeks.” I look out the window at a car that drives by the farm. Traffic on our road is few and far between, but the car keeps driving past. “What about your day? Were you busy conquering the world?”

“Not all of it.”

“Just a hemisphere then?”

“Something like that.” He chuckles. “Any regrets?”

His question catches me off guard. We’ve seen each other a couple times since that first night, so the fact that it comes out of the blue has me sitting up a little straighter.

“Should I be worried why you’re asking me that question?”

“No. It’s nothing. Callahan was giving me shit the other day about something and it led me to think, which led me to wonder if . . . I don’t know. If you had any regrets about . . . this.”

“No.” It’s a question I can answer without hesitation.

“No?”

“You?” I ask.

“Definitely not.”