Page 122 of Asher's Assignment

“Mom and Dad brought over a twin-size air mattress. Audra set it up in the guest room and moved in there with Brooke and Annabeth. Edie took the couch. Are there any other questions you’d like me to answer?”

A teasing glint entered his eyes, and those beautiful lips tilted up ever so slightly in a smirk. “No.” In one swift movement, he whisked his shirt over his head. A second later, he unfastened his jeans and let them drop to the floor.

Esther bit her lip. Just because she wasn’t physically capable of what her mind and body wanted, didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate the sight before her. She’d meant it when she called him a sexy nerd. His big, beautiful brain was wrapped in a big, beautiful package.

He crawled into bed next to her and drew the covers up. Esther shifted, settling into the crook of his arm with a wince.

“Are you all right? Do you need me to move?”

“No. I’m just achy. I’m ready to stay in one place for a while.”

He hummed. She could hear the lecture in that one sound. He was as aware as she was that she’d done too much today.

But she didn’t want to talk about that. She wasn’t even sure how to bring up what she wanted to talk about.

So, she drew circles on his chest with her fingernail and waited for him to speak. She’d figure it out.

Somehow.

Except he didn’t talk. He stayed silent and drew his own circles on her shoulder as they laid there.

Head tucked, Esther rolled her eyes. The man was never without words. Why was he silent now?

Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore. She pushed up on one arm and looked at him. “Are you all right?”

His eyebrows dipped. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’re quiet. You’re never quiet.”

His expression shuttered. “I’m fine.”

Esther shook a finger in his face. “No. You’re shutting me out. Why? Something’s bugging you. Why won’t you talk to me?” It was her turn to frown as her anxiety kicked in. “It’s because of earlier, isn’t it? Asking you not to hover doesn’t mean I don’t want you to talk to me.”

“It’s not that.” He stopped and inhaled a breath, then pushed up so he was sitting.

Esther scooched up next to him and waited for him to continue.

He scrubbed his hands over his face and groaned. “I don’t even know where to start.”

Her ire with him fled as she saw the depth of uncertainty in his expression. He looked like a lost little boy. “Have you talked to anyone since that day?” She knew he hadn’t talked to her. For most of her hospital stay, he’d been absent during the day. At night, he’d slip in after the nurses turned the lights down and curl up on the couch to sleep. While she’d appreciated his presence while she slept, she missed talking to him.

“Not really, no. Things have been a bit hectic.”

“You can’t keep all that bottled up, Asher.”

“Who says I did?”

The look he sent her told her he’d had time by himself where he’d let loose. For that, she was happy. But that didn’t mean he’d dealt with it.

“And?” She lifted one eyebrow.

“And what? I had a good cry. You’re alive. All is well.”

“That’s such bull crap.” She lightly smacked his chest. “You cannot boil all you went through down to that just because ‘you had a good cry’.” She made air quotes.

“What do you want me to say, Esther? That I feel like an idiot because I let myself get knocked over the head and kidnapped while in a ridiculous costume? Or that I feel like an even bigger idiot because I didn’t do a good enough job canvassing the little prison Lennox put Leah and me in and I almost paid the price for that? How about how, if you look past both of those things, there’s the fact that my ineptitude nearly got the woman I love murdered? If I’d been more vigilant, more like Ford and the others, I’d have kept my head on a swivel and?—”

Esther laid a finger over his lips, silencing the flow of words. She swallowed around the ball of emotion clogging her throat. Had he really said he loved her?

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