Page 139 of Outside The Wire

“Well, I can’t exactly talk to you about this just anywhere. And I was thinking it’s time you met my parents.”

“Your—are you crazy? Why would I meet your parents?”

“I’ve already told them about you. They said there was a nice ring to your name,” he sighed. “I think they’re already in love with you.”

I was pretty damn sure Noelle was about to pass out, and that was when I spotted Asher in the corner, chuckling behind hishand. My gaze narrowed on him and I remembered his promise from this morning.

I stalked over to Asher, grabbing his arm. “This is the opposite of making it up to her! You’re freaking her out. She’s gonna have a heart attack!”

“Oh, come on. This is funny.”

“This is going to get you killed.”

“I highly doubt?—”

I spun around as Wyatt cried out, falling to his knees. I didn’t see what happened, but it was pretty damn clear that he was in pain, and Noelle was making sure he understood how she felt about romantic gestures.

He collapsed on the ground, rolling to the side. “You said she would get a good laugh out of this.”

“You said what?” Noelle gasped, glaring at Asher.

Crossing my arms, I stared at him accusingly. “Don’t you dare blame this on me. You’re already in hot water with me.”

His eyes widened as his jaw dropped. “What did I do? I just walked through the door!”

“Yourwifewas in earlier. She wants to be best friends.Sisters. Oh, and she wants me to help decorate her house. You know, the one she’s going to live in when she buys one in town!”

“When she—what?”

At least he was taken by surprise as well. That was one less thing I’d have to be angry about. “You haven’t talked to her today?”

“No. I was at work. I talked to Chase this morning, but that’s it.”

“Well, you need to talk to her because apparently, you’re her family, and she’s sticking around.” I knew I didn’t have any right to tell Asher what to do here, but I really didn’t want to be constantly competing with his wife.

“God, I’m sorry about this,” he said, pulling me into his arms. “This never should have happened. I’ll talk to Patrick and Chase.”

“She’s not their responsibility,” I pointed out. “They brought her, but she’s your wife. This is something you need to deal with.”

He gritted his teeth in anger. I wasn’t blaming him, but she was right about one thing. Until they were for certain divorced, he belonged to her.

“Asher, we have to figure something out, and soon. I know it’s only been a couple of days and I’m not asking you to run her out of town, but I can’t be best friends with the woman you’re married to. I don’t want her coming into my shop and talking to me, and I don’t want her telling me about her life with you. Maybe that’s nasty of me, but I got the feeling that she was distinctly trying to make me afraid of the way you used to be.”

“What do you mean?”

“She made a point of telling me how you used to have to save her life and she had to force you to stay in bed when you were riddled with bullets. And she did a damn good job of scaring me, Asher, which was exactly what she wanted.”

The earnest look in his eyes let me know everything was going to be alright, putting me at ease. Maybe it wouldn’t be smooth sailing, but he would do whatever he could to make sure this was taken care of.

“I swear to you, I won’t let this go any further.”

“Thank you.”

“Um…excuse me, but if you’re about to have another gushy Hallmark moment, you can leave right now,” Noelle snapped. “I swear to God, I’ve had enough to last me a lifetime.”

Asher wrapped his arm around my neck and smirked at Noelle. “You know, I know this guy that I think you would absolutely love to meet.”

“Why? Does he hate all this yucky love stuff, too?”

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