Chapter 22

Asher paced the length of his living room. It had been three days since he and Mia spent the night together. He had seen her every day since and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt now that she was his destiny. If anyone tried to separate them, it would have to be done by prying his cold, dead fingers off of her. But with Axel, he hadn’t even known where to start. If he had been a child instead of a young man on the verge of adulthood, it might have been easier. But his son was nearly a man. He thought about himself at that age. He was still so emotionally immature and so many things were happening to him internally, even before all the drama. He wouldn’t blame Axel if he did hate him, but he prayed that he wouldn’t. Mia, Axel, Frank and Dean were coming over for a barbecue tonight. Asher and Mia had agreed it would be easier for Axel to interact with his father while having others around.

Dean arrived first, and he and Asher took a beer out back onto the porch swing they’d fixed a few days before. “You’re welcome,” Dean said as he took a seat.

Asher looked at him and grinned. “For what?” he asked.

Dean laughed. “You know what. If I hadn’t ordered those sandwiches the other day.”

Asher rolled his eyes. “I think I would have gotten around to it eventually.”

“I’m not touching that one,” Dean said, “I never get any credit.”

Laughing Asher said, “Thank you, man. Hey, do you know anyone in South Dakota that might want to lease a little farm.”

Dean grinned. “I think I could make that happen. I’m glad you’re sticking around, man.”

“They’ll have to drag my dead body out of town,” he chuckled.

The doorbell rang and Asher found Frank and Lyle both on the doorstep. “I’m crashing,” Lyle said. “Frank and I played golf this morning and he told me this was where the party was at.”

Asher laughed. “Glad you could make it and I’m sorry we forgot your invitation. This was just a little impromptu get together.” Lyle handed him a boxed cake he’d bought and slapped him on the back. As the two older men headed to the back, Mia and Axel arrived. Asher found it funny that he was more terrified of this child than he had been of any of the other things he had seen and done in his life. He was terrified Axel would reject him.

Mia smiled, Axel didn’t. “I hear you two have already sort of met, but Axel this is your father, Asher.”

Axel looked Asher over. He was wearing a white A-frame tank and Asher could see the boy looking at his tattoos. “I got most of them to hide all the scars,” he said.

“What are they from?” Axel asked him. “The scars.”

“I’m going to help Dad light the barbecue. It looks like he’s having problems.” Mia winked at Asher as she left and went out through the glass doors in back.

“Some of them are from the accident I was in when I was your age.”

“The one that killed my uncle?”

Asher swallowed the lump in his throat. “Yes.”

“He was driving?”

“Yes. But just so you know driving drunk wasn’t something your uncle ever did. That day, my mother, your grandmother Lily had died.”

Axel nodded. “Yeah, Mom told me. So you were in the army, huh? Is that where you’ve been all this time?”

“Yeah, most of it. Axel…if I had known about you, I would have come home.”

He saw the flicker in his son’s eyes. Mia’s eyes. He was fighting to stay strong as he said, “If you would have come home, you would have known about me. Excuse me.” Asher almost smiled. He was definitely his mother’s son. Even angry, he was polite. Surprisingly, Axel’s barb didn’t strike him too deep. The boy was talking to him and he counted that as a start.

Asher joined the others outside. The two older men and Dean were still arguing over the grill while Axel pushed himself back and forth on the porch swing. Mia was sitting in a lounge chair underneath the old oak tree that Asher climbed and played in when he had been a little boy. He was thankful for his sunglasses as he took her in. He would hate for her father or her son to see the look he knew had to be in his eyes.

He let his eyes roam her sexy body. She had braided her long, thick brown hair to the side and it hung down across her shoulder and lay against the swell of her breast. Asher’s eyes lingered on her cleavage. She was wearing a white sundress that accentuated her sexy curves. The flowing cotton ended just above her knees and her calves were tanned and tonned and sexy. Jesus, he had to stop this before he was walking around with wood in his jeans in front of their families.

He walked over and sat down next to her. “How did it go?” she asked him.

“It was a start,” he said. He gave her an encouraging smile.

“Good,” she said.

“Just put the corn right there on the grill,” Mia heard her father say. She rolled her eyes and pushed herself off the chair. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to show these boys how to cook.”

Asher took a pull of his beer, and when she was standing in front of him and he was sure no one else was watching, he popped his sunglasses down on his nose and once again raked his eyes down her body. “Too fucking gorgeous,” he whispered. “And she cooks.”

Mia didn’t seem to care who was watching. She leaned down over him and kissed his lips with her sweet ones. “She can do a lot more than that. Hang on for the ride cowboy.”

She sashayed away, leaving Asher laughing. God it felt good to be happy for a change. He looked over towards where Axel had been sitting. He was gone. While Mia instructed the other men on the fine art of barbecuing, Asher slipped inside to look for his son. He found Axel in the den watching the baseball game on television.

“Who’s playing?”

“Padres and Giants.”

“Who’s winning?” Asher sat down in the chair opposite him. Axel gave him a look like he wished he would go away, but Asher wasn’t ready to go just yet.

“Giants.”

“You think they’ll go on to the series this year?”

Axel shrugged. “It’s not their year. They go in even years.”

Asher laughed. “So who then? The Padres and the Yankees?”

Axel curled his lip. “I hate the Yankees.”

“Who is your team?”

“The Red Sox, but they’re sucking this year. They don’t have pitchers this year.”

Asher nodded and smiled. “The Red Sox are okay. I’ve always been partial to the White Sox myself.”

Axel laughed and then looked at his father’s face and said, “Oh, you’re serious.”

“Yes I am. My father was a White Sox fan. It was the only team I was allowed to watch.”

Axel smiled then. It was the first genuine smile Asher had seen from him and it was beautiful. “I know. Grandpa and I argued for hours every baseball season. I actually picked the Red Sox when I was about ten just to annoy him.”

Asher laughed. “I’ll bet that did the trick.”

Axel was laughing now too. “Yep. I bought him Red Sox shirts and hats for Christmas every year and he bought me White Sox ones. I have a whole closet full of them.” His laughter died off and suddenly he was sober again. “I miss him,” he said. Asher’s heart felt like it was caught in a vice.

“I do too,” he said. “He was a good man. I’m glad you got to know him. I wish that you could have met your grandmother.”

Axel nodded. “Me too. Grandpa talked about her all the time. I felt like I knew her, kind of.”

Neither of them said anything for a long time until Axel looked out the window and said, “How long you think it’ll take them to figure out that barbecue pit? I’m starving.”

Asher smiled. “I think your mom will whip them into shape soon enough. Your grandfather brought some kind of gooey-looking chocolate cake.”

Axel smiled. “Let’s both have a piece so if Mom tightens the screws neither of us can turn on the other.”

Asher threw his head back and laughed. “That sounds like the best idea I’ve heard all day.”

Fifteen minutes later, Mia found the two of them in the dining room with half a chocolate cake, talking about football now. She sat down with them and tried to give them a stern look as she looked at the cake and the dirty plates and forks in front of them both. Asher could see the curl of her lips as she said, “You ate cake, before dinner?”

Asher and Axel exchanged a look and Asher said, “Axel didn’t want to. I issued a direct order for him to eat with me. He didn’t have any choice.”

Mia counld’t contain her smile. She rolled her eyes but she gave Asher a warm, grateful look. She looked at her son and said, “Is that the truth?”

Axel grinned. “Would my father lie?”

Asher couldn’t remember when he had ever been so happy. Finally, this was what life was supposed to be about; family. His family.