Page 53 of Keeping Promises

What a fucking day! Don’t get me wrong, it was a fantastic day spending it with my two best friends looking at wedding dresses, but I can’t wait for a nap, a soak in a long hot bath, and maybe to drown myself in a container of cookies-and-cream ice cream.

I place my key in the lock, turning it as I rest my tired head on the door. I toss my bag on the floor and toe off my ballet flats before I shuffle into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water.

Something moves in my peripheral vision as I’m closing the fridge with my drink in hand. I shriek, fumbling the water bottle in my hands, but I have a steady grip on it to keep it from falling to the ground.

“Hey, it’s just me,” Asher soothes as I clutch my chest, willing my heart to slow down, but then it picks up the pace for a totally different reason—seeing Asher in my apartment when I come home. That is a perk of having given him a key. I don’t know why I assumed that he would have left by the time I got back. But I don’t mind at all that he hasn’t. In fact, maybe I can add an orgasm or two to my to-do list.

“How was your day?” he asks as he stalks toward me. A man on a mission, but instead of yanking me into his arms for a wild kiss as they do at the end of romance movies, he leans forward and presses his lips gently to mine in a tender kiss. I slowly open my eyes in a haze. Who knew Asher Harrington could be this sweet and swoony? He could easily give those book boyfriends that Brynn is always reading about a run for their money.

I hold my index finger in the air, signaling I’ll answer him in a moment. My throat is as dry as the Sahara. I chug half the bottle—the baby was thirstier than I thought. I respond, “I could describe it in three words: long, love, and lace.”

We spent hours on our feet looking at dress after dress. There was so much love in the air as we reminisced about Ben and Lexi’s meet-cute and where that led them. We’re two for two in life-changing one-night stands. Maybe Brynn needs to have one, and we can all have some form of a happily ever after from one-night stands. Asher and I haven’t had “the talk” yet as to what this is between us, and maybe I was just in a postorgasmic Asher haze, but there were moments today that I envisioned me wearing one of these beautiful gowns, walking down the aisle toward Asher dressed in a tux with Ben and Lexi standing beside him, both in formal wear. It should have brought on a slight panic, especially since I’ve never had that before, but it didn’t.

He chuckles. “Sounds girly.”

“Very.” After an afternoon of trying on multiple dresses, we left the boutique empty-handed, but that’s okay. Lexi looked beautiful in each of the dresses, but they just weren’t the ones. Gone was the shy girl I met on the first day at Willow Creek University. She had a gorgeous glow to her, and not the same kind strangers have told me I have thanks to being pregnant. But the glow from being in love suits her.

Lexi said she wasn’t disappointed because at least she knows now what she doesn’t want. By the time we were leaving the restaurant afterward, she had already scheduled three other appointments, including meeting with a designer in River Falls, a few towns over, who is the friend of a photographer that Lexi had a photoshoot with last year. When we browsed her online portfolio, Lexi’s eyes lit up like the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center. It matched her vision perfectly.

“You look tired,” he says as he comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist. He presses a tender kiss to the base of my neck, and I press my lips into a flat line to keep from moaning.

“You know, my Grams always said when someone says you look tired, it’s their polite way of saying you look like shit.”

I arch a brow in his direction, and he scrambles. “Well, then you look absolutely well rested and beautiful.” He gives me a cheesy smile.

“So now, you’re lying to me? Starting whatever this is off on lies, babe, not a good start,” I tease and wink.

“Do you have a shovel so that I can dig this hole I seemed to have dug for myself a little deeper?”

I shake my head at his ridiculousness.

“Do you mind if I go lay down? I’m fucking exhausted.”

“I don’t mind at all. Want some company? It was a long night.” The somber expression on his face tells me he’s not referring to the extensive lovemaking session we had before passing out, but to him startling awake from a bad dream. I didn’t push for him to talk about it then, but I’m worried about him because it clearly freaked him out.

Based on the dark circles under his eyes and the constant yawning before I left this morning is any indication, I don’t think he got much sleep, if any, after that.

“I’d like that.”

He extends his hand for me to take.

“Can I show you something first?” His voice is hesitant.

“Is it your cock? Can I see that after a nap? It’s my new favorite alarm clock.”

Asher leads me through the living room and down the hallway toward the bedroom.

“Well, I’ll take that as a compliment, I think. But no, it’s not my cock. You might actually like this better.”

Instead of heading into the open door into my bedroom, he leads me to the nursery door.

“Better than your cock? I don’t know—”

I lose all train of thought when Asher opens the door, and I take in the transformed room in front of me. It no longer resembles Lexi’s old room with a new rocking chair and boxes of diapers. It now actually looks like a baby’s room. I bring my hand over my nose and mouth in awe as I enter the room.

The simple light gray walls are now a pale pink. I recognize the color as the color swatch I finally decided on this morning.

The trim along the flooring and around the windows looks freshly painted as well.

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