by Linda Kage
“Now, now, old man. No one’s allowed to play unfair with my little brother.”
I gaped up at Pick, who was toeing my father onto his back on the floor so he could then press his foot to the old man’s windpipe, pinning him by his throat.
“What’re you doing here?” I couldn’t help but gasp in amazement.
“You called. I came.” He shrugged. “It’s what I do.”
Climbing to my knees, I fell back onto my haunches and blew out a relieved breath.
“So you really did do all that stupid shit, like cutting the wire to my bike’s fuel line and the cord to the club’s sound system?”
My dad snarled at me, but couldn’t really answer since my brother was kind of crushing his vocal chords at the moment.
I only shook my head. “And you thought I was lame. You could’ve really gotten to me, old man. Yet you went this stupid route. Now you’re going to lose your parole and go back to prison...without all that work you put into a revenge against me paying off at all. That’s sad...just sad.”
“I should’ve let your mama finish aborting you the day I walked into the bathroom and found her all bloody,” he garbled up at me, his eyes full of hate. “Neither of us had any use for you. You never amounted to anything. Your poor mother died still despising the very sight of you.”
Swallowing, I turned away only to catch Pick watching me with worried eyes. Nodding to him, I rasped, “I’m done here.”
He nodded just as a pair of nurses came around the corner and skidded to a stop when they saw the tattooed, pierced guy pinning an older man to the ground with a boot to his throat.
But my brother...all he did was flash the women a pleasant smile. “Hey there, ladies. Do you think you could do me a favor and call security or maybe the police? This man here just admitted to trying to kill my brother’s girlfriend.”
They nodded and hurried away.
I looked up at Pick. He looked back. And we both grinned. “Thanks for coming,” I finally said.
I was sitting alone in the waiting room when Pick found me again. The doctor had come and gone, letting us know Remy was better, the swelling was down and her airways cleared again. She was resting peacefully.
As her family, and Jodi, and the rest of the band filed back to check on her, I just kept sitting there, staring at the wall, trying not to think about how close I’d come to losing her, just because my own father had hated me that much.
Was there really something so wrong with me that my own blood loathed me to this extreme? Maybe becoming involved with Remy was a bad idea. I’d just nearly gotten her killed. Falling in love wasn’t worth it if I could only put the woman’s life in peril.
“The police just took your dad away.”
I jumped, jerking upright at the sound of my brother’s voice. When he approached slowly and sat beside me, I nodded. “Good. Maybe they won’t release him early this time.”
“That would be nice.” Rubbing his hands together, he gazed around the waiting room before he turned to me. “So what’re you doing in here by yourself? I thought I saw the doctor come with an update and then everyone head down the hall to see Remy.”
“You did. She’s going to be okay. Her family’s with her now.”
“But you didn’t go back with them?” he asked the obvious, staring at me as if to say, why didn’t you go back?
I shrugged.
“You forgave her, didn’t you?”
I nodded.
He sighed. “Then I don’t see what the issue is here.”
Grinding my teeth, I grabbed the vinyl cushions under me. “He went after her because of me. She almost died tonight, Pick. She—”
“But she didn’t.”
His calm words earned a glare from me. “But she could’ve,” I bit out. Then I fell back in my seat and clutched my head, hard. “Jesus, what the hell am I still even doing here? I should be a hundred miles away from here, so she’ll at least be safe. I don’t know why I’m even trying. I know shit about love and relationships. My own fucking parents couldn’t even like me, let alone love me. Why did I hope—”
“Hey.” Pick squeezed the back of my neck and then forced me to lean toward him and press our foreheads together. “Don’t let that shit your dad said get into your head like this.”
“What?” I asked, my voice going hoarse. “The abortion part? Hell, that wasn’t news to me. My mother told me about how she tried to kill me plenty of times. She hated me. Hated that I was his son, hated that I wasn’t you, the baby she always regretted leaving, hated me just because I was there. And you want to know the real kicker?” I glanced up into Pick’s brown eyes. “I really loved her. I’d listen to her talk about you and your dad with such devotion and awe, and I always wanted her to talk to me that way, to look at me and just—”
“You want to know what I think,” Pick cut in. “I think our mother was a disturbed young woman who never really learned the true meaning of love, and that she had no reason bringing children into this world. But here we are, anyway, and I’m so glad and honored to have found you and learned you are my brother.”
My throat felt a little choked up, so I had to clear it and glance away as Pick kept talking.
“It doesn’t matter where we came from. We both rose above it and came into our own...on our own. And I am so damn proud of the man you’ve turned yourself into. There is nothing and no reason you shouldn’t have a full, content life with the people you care for most in it. I love you, brother. You’re a good person, and you deserve happiness.” He let go of my neck to thump me on the back. “Now, go get it.”
I came awake to the soft strum of a guitar. In the background, a hospital monitor beeped and air packs around my ankles hissed out a sound as they released pressure.
Turning my face to the melody of the guitar, I blinked Asher into focus as he sat to my right, playing for me. My lashes felt gritty and my throat raw, reminding me what had happened.
The chocolates, I realized. Someone had given me chocolates with some kind of peanuts hidden in them. But I wasn’t too concerned about that now. I was awake, un-swollen, and breathing again, so I guessed things were bien.
For the moment, I just wanted to listen to Asher play to me. The tune was unusual, reminding me a lot of “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White T’s...and yet a little different. I didn’t think I’d heard it before.
And then he began to sing.
I wake up early with your breath
falling on the pillow next to mine.
Another night spent in your arms
and I know this day’s just fine.
Yes, it is.
‘Cause there’s this promise in your smile
that no matter what tomorrow brings,
I’ll make it through the mile,
with you there, right by my side.
Oh...I can do anything with you there, right by my side.
Sometimes I hold back the words
that I want to say to you,
because this thing that we’ve started
is way too fresh and too new.
Oh...oh, oh, oh, oh. Right by my side.
But there’s this promise in your smile
that no matter what tomorrow brings,
I’ll make it through the mile
With you there, right by my side.
I can do anything, anything at all, when I know
You’ll be there on the morrow
Standing at my side.
You’ve already taught me how to love,
To laugh, and listen to your heart.
Oh, baby, I can’t wait to learn some more
so we’ll never truly be apart.
This time it’s good.
We can do anything.
Just me and you.
Right by your side.
A grin lit my face as he strummed the last of the melody, and tears filled my eyes. “That’s my song.”
Asher glanced up, and his green eyes warmed. “I know. Sorr
y, I changed the rhythm a little. It seemed like it needed a gentler tune than the one Fish ’N’ Dicks’s used.”
“No. This one is fine. It’s perfect. Hermosa. Exactly the kind of tone I had in mind when I wrote it.” I shook my head in wonder. “How did you know?”
“That they were your lyrics?” A grin lit his face. “It wasn’t too hard to figure out.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, touched to the bottom of my soul. “It’s perfect. You have no idea what this means to me.”
He set his Taylor down and reached out to take my hand, gently running his thumb over my IV. “And you have no idea what you mean to me.” He shook his head and looked pained as if it were difficult to swallow. “Because I never told you. Jesus, Remy... You can’t even imagine what it was like to hold your unconscious body in my arms and realize I never got to tell you.”
“Asher,” I started, shaking my head. “You don’t have to—”
But he shook his head, stopping me. “I want to. I want to tell you now. I love you too, Remy. I’ve fallen so fucking in love with you this past month without even realizing it, I...” He stopped talking and shook his head as if he wanted to stop again. Then he closed his eyes briefly before opening them and looking straight at me. “Te amo,” he said.
Happy tears filled my eyes. But then I shook my head. “You really don’t have to say that just because I almost died. You—”
“I’m not. I promise you.” Lifting my hand to his mouth, he kissed my knuckles. “I was just trying to figure out how to best say it to you when I came home and found you on the floor.”
I sucked in a shuddered, surprised breath. “You were?”
He nodded, then leaned forward and pressed his forehead to my arm. “Te amo. Eres mi nena, mi chica.”
A grin exploded from me. “¡Dios mío! That was...said perfectly.” Relieved joy spread through me as his lips crashed to mine. I opened my mouth to him and our tongues tangled. He scooted closer and I gripped his hair harder. His fingers found the side of my throat and drifted over my thrumming pulse. He didn’t pull away until voices of nurses outside my room door made us jump apart.
Simultaneously, we each touched our own lips, still remembering the kiss. Then we broke out grinning together.
I shook my head, beyond amazed this was actually happening. “Who taught you how to say that?”
Laughing, he blushed a little and admitted, “Tomás might’ve coached me.”
“Big T?” The mention of my cousin had me glancing around expectantly.
But Asher said, “He had to go. Grumbled something about filling in a shift for you at the restaurant since your lazy ass wasn’t going to work in the morning...his words.”
I grinned. “Sounds like him.”
“Your uncle and grandmother were here too. Along with Jodi and...Gally and Holden.”
“Really?” I arched my eyebrows. “They must’ve thought they’d get extra good sex from Jodi if they showed up.”
Asher shook his head. “You know them well.” Then he wrinkled his brow. “I don’t know if Non-Castrato will make it. I don’t know...shit, I don’t know a lot of stuff. All I know is that from here on out, I’m going to be wherever you are. And I’ll probably be the happiest man alive.”
“¡Oh, Dios mío!” I sobbed with overwhelming joy as a tear of happiness slid down my cheek. “You could say shit like that to me every day.”
“I plan to, mi nena. I plan to.” He leaned in, looking intent to kiss me again, but then he paused and winced. “But I should probably tell you first...you were kind of right about my dad.”
Four Years Later
Well, Non-Castrato ended up surviving. We did lose one more member of the band, but surprisingly—or maybe I should say sadly—it wasn’t Gally. Heath Holden left the group right about the time Asher’s dad had been sentenced for another ten years in prison, or more importantly right around the time Jodi dropped him and Billy both, and took up with some dude in a motorcycle club. Well, she said club...I called it a gang, but whatever.
Speaking of Miller Hart. Asher hadn’t been the victim of any more wire-cutting pranks or the like after his dad was arrested the day he’d given me the chocolates, so we all agreed he had been behind them, after all. And yes, being right about that felt so good!
Anyway, my cousin Tomás was more than happy to take up with Non-Castrato when Heath dropped out, playing the lead guitar and singing backup for Asher, much to the disappointment of Tío Alonso. Big T adjusted quite well to rock music, though. He especially liked the flock of women it brought. And Asher certainly didn’t help my cousin’s new man-whore ways in the least because he always shooed the ladies Big T’s way.
Not that I wanted him to keep any for himself. No, Asher Hart was all mine, and only mine.
And life was good. Oh, so...good.
We were both sweaty and exhausted after our performance at the Metro—yes, I said the freaking Metro, baby—but jazzed and ready to see our friends as he tugged me into the back of the cab behind him, then right into his lap so he could wrap his arms around my waist and kiss me soundly.
I kissed him back a few seconds before pulling away to laugh and yell, “¡Dios mío! I can’t believe we just played at the Metro.”
Asher kissed his way down my throat. “I can’t believe we have to go see my lame friends, and I can’t take you straight to bed right now. You look too good in this outfit.”
He slid his hand up my thigh until it disappeared inside my short jean skirt. But I caught his wrist and sent a quick glance to the cab driver, hoping he wasn’t watching us.
“Now, now, Mr. Hart,” I warned with a grin, batting my nose against Asher’s. “Tío Alonso explicitly told us none of that until after the wedding.”
Asher groaned and pressed his forehead to mine. “Your uncle is so fucking delusional. We’ve been dating four years now, I’ve put a ring on it, and we’re living together. Does he honestly think we haven’t—”
I pressed a finger against his magical lips. “If he doesn’t then I’m certainly not going to be the one to clue him in otherwise. Are you?”
“Fuck no.” Asher snorted right before he trailed a row of kisses down my neck. “But neither am I going to remain celibate for another month until we’re properly married.”
Oh, neither was I. Pressing my mouth to his ear, I whispered, “Just wait until I have you alone in our room, and I’ll show you how celibate I’m not going to be either.”
He groaned and grew hard against my bottom. “That’s it. We’re skipping this whole friend-get-together thing and heading straight to our room with a bottle of champagne and maybe some strawberries...and chocolate syrup.”
Giddy about his eagerness, because I had on a surprise under my clothes that I just knew he’d enjoy ripping off, I merely tapped the tip of his nose with my finger. “But Ten and Caroline don’t get to visit often since they moved to California. I want to see them and catch up.”
“Fine.” He thumped his head moodily back on the seat of the car and groaned. “I’ll do it for Caroline. But Ten can eat shit.”
I grinned, glad he and Ten still liked to bicker and needle each other from halfway across the country. But I also knew he missed his friend and was eager to see Ten again, along with the rest of the gang.
I’d been surprised at how readily they’d all accepted me after the way my relationship had started with Asher. I feared they’d be more judgmental because I’d lied and hurt their rock star. But they’d treated me the way Asher had wanted them to treat me, with warm acceptance. And now I felt as if they were my family too.
“I still can’t believe Tío Alonso told us no sex until the wedding.” Taking my hand, Asher began to play with my engagement ring. “He’s never going to like me, is he?”
Kissing his cheek, I said, “Hey, don’t worry about it. He can’t stand any kind of outsider. Hell, he barely tolerates me, and I’m his niece. But Abuela loves you to pieces, so that’s all that matters.”
&
nbsp; Asher looked up at me, his brow crinkling. “Remy, your uncle loves you.”
I laughed and rolled my eyes, even as my chest tightened with the idea. “Only because I’m blood. He has to.”
But my fiancé shook his head. “No, he doesn’t. Just last week, he asked me for two hundred Non-Castrato fliers to pass out to customers at the restaurant. And I’ve heard him brag you up to others more than once.”
I swallowed a huge lump in my throat. “Really?” Okay, maybe I wasn’t so abhorrent to my uncle. Wow.
“Really.” Asher kissed my forehead. “No one has to love you, family or otherwise. We all just do...because, well, we can’t help it. You’re amazing.”
“Look at you, being all sweet,” I murmured, trying to make light of his words even though they affected me deeply. I touched my mouth to his. “You must really want to get laid tonight.”
“Why, yes. Yes, I do, even though every word I speak is the truth. You’re impossible not to love, Remy Elisa Curran, almost Hart.”
“As are you, Ashley Jean Hart.”
He gasped. “Oh, you smartass. You just couldn’t resist, could you?”
“No.” I giggled, and he kissed me again.
When the cab stopped next to our hotel, we were breathing hard as we pulled apart. I was about to tell him, skip the friends for a few minutes, we could have a quickie in our room first, but after he paid our fare, he took my hand and dragged me inside, looking up Pick’s hotel room number on his phone as he went.
“It’s room 312,” I told him as he scowled and scrolled through his messages.
Asher glanced up. “Are you sure?”
I only nodded and smiled.
Shaking his head, he cupped the nape of my neck. “See, this is why I’m marrying you. I’d be a lost mess without my organized Remy.”
After another soft kiss, he groaned and pulled away. “Okay, friends first.”
