Twenty-Nine
August
Porter
It was the last family get-together of the year and we were all crammed in the lake house up in Northern Wisconsin, the same lake house we’d been visiting for years. It used to belong to my grandparents, but they’d given it to Mom and Dad.
Even my dad’s best friend and once teammate, “Uncle” Ketty, and his family were here, which was great because Asher hadn’t met my friend, Teagh, yet. She hadn’t been able to make it to McKenna’s wedding and with schedules and whatever, this was the first time I’d even seen her in years.
The only person missing—and thank the fucking Lord would forever be missing—was Jenna. The first words out of Jonny’s face when he arrived the other day were the words the entire family held their breath for since the moment he married her.
They were getting divorced.
Jonny didn’t look entirely happy about it, but I guess I could maybe understand it. Jonny and Jenna had been together since high school. They broke up a few times, but when it became known he was going to be someone in the hockey world…
Well, Jenna came back.
The only person who couldn’t see she’d been using him though, was him.
I was in the lake with my brothers, playing a cut-throat game of Dodgeball, but I could see Asher on the beach in her skimpy white bikini, laughing and talking with Teagh.
The bikini looked fucking fantastic on Asher’s naturally golden skin.
Both girls were on their stomachs, so I couldn’t see much bikini, but I could see a lot of skin.
Skin I wanted to kiss later.
Rub my hands up and down.
I was lost in thought about Asher and getting her out of that bikini later, when I was smacked in the head with ball.
“In the game, Baby Brother,” Caleb taunted.
It’s nice to know that the label will stick until I’m dead, I thought sarcastically.
“Whatever,” I answered back as I gathered up the ball, winding up and chucking it back at my oldest brother. “It’s not a game if there aren’t any rules.”
Mom’s shrill whistle pierced the ear.
Dinner.
Or rather, clean up because dinner was almost ready.
My brothers and I headed back to shore, where Caleb immediately ran up and scooped a giggling Brielle to his chest. She was sitting in the surf playing under Sydney’s watchful eye. I watched as Caleb leaned down to kiss Sydney, their boys jumping all around them. Brooks must have been in the house with Mom, because I didn’t see their youngest anywhere.
I moved toward Asher, who was in the middle of saying something to Teagh. Bending down when I reached them, I put my hands on a trunks leg and—
“Don’t you dare, Porter!” she said, falling out of her conversation and turning her head toward me. She scrambled to sit on her knees with a glare on her face, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Damn. I wanted to get you wet.” I straightened my stance and offered her a hand.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t just hear that innuendo, and will see you two inside,” Teagh said, getting up with a smile on her face. She gathered up her towel and, after shaking it out, stepped over to pat my arm.
“I’m glad to see you happy,” she whispered to me, before heading up toward the house with my brothers and the kids, wrangling Brody into her arms and swinging the boy around in a giggling circle.
Asher took my hand and stood, and I bent down to get her towel. I used the side that saw Asher and not sand, to wipe off my face and chest.
“I like her,” Asher said, her voice slightly far away.
“She likes you.” I bent to her so I could lick her lips. When she parted them, I took her mouth with mine for a kiss I’d been wanting since the moment she came down to the beach in this fucking bikini.
The top was one of those bands with frilly fabric hanging, and the back was made up of three tiny strings. It cupped her tits perfectly, even if it left a lot to the imagination—more than one of those triangle numbers would.
Her bottoms, though.
Lord have mercy, her bottoms were tiny and kept together with strings on the side. If I wanted, I could just…
“Keep your hands off those strings,” she warned against my mouth. “Your family can easily see us from the kitchen.”
I grinned against her mouth. “Spoilsport.”
She pulled her head back and smiled up at me. “Yeah, well, you love me so…”
“Damn straight, I do.” I rubbed my hand over her hip. “Let’s shower.”
We walked up to the house, hand in hand, but I knew Asher wasn’t going to let that slide. “You mean, you’ll shower and I’ll change.”
“Nope, I meant, let’s shower. Let’s,” I enunciated, “You and me. Let’s shower.”
“Your entire family is in this house!”
“And if they don’t know we’re doing it, they’re living under a rock. You did notice that Mom shoved your bags into my room with a smile on her face, right?”
“She knows we sleep in the same bed.” Which was exactly all we’d been doing the last two nights we’d been up here, but I was so changing that tonight.
The last two nights had been late family nights, and Asher had headed up before me, zonking out long before I made it to the room. I knew better than to wake her up for some sugar, so I’d fall asleep with her wrapped up in my arms, only to wake in the morning to find she already slipped out of bed.
This was the longest we’d gone without sex since we went and got piercings last month!
“Ergo…”
“Well this is awkward,” she mumbled, rubbing her hand over her face and making me laugh. “Don’t laugh at me!” But she was smiling and a laugh was on her lips too, so the words held nothing.
I bent down and pressed my lips to hers in a quick, hard, yet unfulfilling kiss, before opening the house door and, my hand on her bare back, pushed her in. “Upstairs.”
***
“Walk with me,” I whispered into Asher’s ear.
The sun had sunk an hour ago, and now, the last night we were all at the lake, everyone was outside surrounding a bonfire. Brandon and Ella were roasting marshmallows and my younger nephews and Bri were already tucked into their beds.
I sat in a lawn chair, Asher on my lap, nestled into me. We were close enough to the fire that I could feel the heat on my legs and face, but I was comfortable. I did want a little alone time with Ash before we headed upstairs though. I had things I wanted to talk to her about.
Because let’s be honest, she’d probably fall asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.
She tilted her head and looked back at me. “Okay.”
“We’re walking,” I announced to the group after Asher stood. I followed suit and took her hand.
“Mom and I are heading in soon,” my dad said. “Have a good night, you two.”
“Night,” I answered, as Asher said, “Good night, Noah. Ryleigh.” Hand in hand, we walked down toward the lake.
In silence, we walked the shoreline, heading toward the wooded area. Finally out of view, I stopped and pulled her in front of me. With a smile on her face, she put her hands on my shoulders and tilted her face up toward me.
“Hi,” she whispered into the dark night.
Between the dark waters and the wooded area surrounding us and the lake, if it weren’t for the half-moon in the sky, it would be pitch black. The voices of my family could still be heard, but the song of the crickets was louder. The lake was even quiet tonight.
“I’ve been thinking,” I said, my hands moving from her hips to her lower back. “I know you enjoy working with Mom, but I really want you to be in South Carolina with me.” She opened her mouth, but I kept going. “You’re busier in the summer, Ash.”
“What am I going to do in South Carolina, though, Porter? I can’t just sit around the townhouse all the time.”
“I don’t know, maybe still shoot? Just not with Mom’s studio?” I hadn’t really thought that part out. I just knew I wanted her with me more than just ten days out of the month.
“I’ll have to think about it.” Her smile was gone, but I didn’t think I completely lost this battle. I really thought it was a possibility. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, looking out to the dark lake. I thought she was going to follow up with something, but she said nothing.
“Yeah, just think about it. We have time.” I tried shrugging it off. “Like, six weeks.”
She took another deep breath.
Still, she said nothing and this time it made me frown. “You okay? Have something to say?”
She pinched her lips together and turned her head back toward me, but shook her head. “I’m fine. Just a little tight,” she said, pressing her hand to her chest.
Tight? “Tight where?”
“It’s just a little difficult to breathe. Allergies, probably.” She gripped the top of my jeans then, this time it was she who was holding me close. “But I’ll think about it. I need a plan. I can’t just…” She shrugged. “I just need a plan.”
I wondered if she realized how far she’d come in the last two years. She’d been a girl with no destination, and now she was planning. So long as I stayed in those plans…
Which I had every intention of.
I was waiting until her birthday, waiting until she turned twenty, but I had every intention of giving her the permanence she craved. Hell, her ring was already being designed back in Charleston.
If she could figure out how to make life work in South Carolina, it would certainly make the question easier because there wasn’t any damn way in this world I was living in one state while my wife lived in another.
Some of my teammates did it—hell, some of them lived in a different country than their wives, but Asher was literally my better half.
On the ice, I was a smart-ass foul talker who was starting to throw his weight around. But at home, when Asher was around? I was just normal Porter, the guy who grew up in a good neighborhood with a great family. I enjoyed keeping Asher happy. I liked spending my time with her. And yeah, maybe there were things in our sex life that would take time to get over, but we still had a great one.
“Alright. I’ll let you plan. But I’m not letting it go,” I added with a cocky grin which, thank God, she returned.
“Yeah, I know.”