Page 82 of The Consequence of You
After another dose of painkillers, Asher is out for the count, so I throw on my jeans and call Rossi to pick me up. I bump into Sebastian as I’m leaving and he assures me he’ll keep an eye on Asher for the rest of the day. Satisfied the man I love is in safe hands, I climb into the passenger seat of Rossi’s car and ask him if he minds taking a detour on the way home.
Ten minutes later we pull into the quiet cemetery, and I walk the familiar route to my mother’s grave.
The white flowers Luca brought here yesterday, bloom even brighter today. The sunshine is unseasonably warm for January and the ground is dry, so I sit down cross-legged on the narrow path next to her gravestone. The conversation I had with Papa and my brother feels like it happened a lifetime ago, when in reality, it was little more than twenty-four hours since we got everything out in the open.
Usually when I visit Mama, my heart is heavy with guilt but today it feels a tiny bit lighter. I don’t think it will ever truly go away, that feeling of wishing I’d done things differently. Regret about that night will always be there, but I’m determined I won’t let it dictate my future in the way it’s dictated my past.
Asher was right when he said my mother would not have wanted me to live like I have been, terrified of making a mistake, or feeling too much. She gave me and Luca a perfect childhood, one filled with a million perfect moments. She was one of the most joyful people I’ve ever known, and I can’t bring her back, but I can try to emulate the kind of life she led.
I was so terrified of losing Asher yesterday, but I was even more terrified of losing him without ever having let myself love him in the way he deserves to be loved. In the way webothdeserve to be loved.
Leaning back on my outstretched arms, I close my eyes and feel the warmth of the winter sun on my face. I spend the rest of my morning telling Mama about Asher. About the man who I’m irrevocably, and undeniably, head over heels in love with.
She listens quietly while I tell her about all the littlethings I love about him, and the bigger things, like the way his voraciousness for life is as vibrant as hers was.
I tell her about the man who was determined to restart my heart, when I wasn’t even aware it had stopped beating.
EPILOGUE
ASHER
One Month Later
Callie’s delicate hands wrap around mine as I fiddle nervously with my tie. I glance down at her as she looks up at me with a small smirk on her face. Her shoulders shake as she tries desperately to stifle a laugh. Her cheeks blush the prettiest shade of pink.
“It’s not funny, Callie.” She giggles and chews on her bottom lip. “Seriously. Your father is a bloody mafia don, for God’s sake. I’ll be swimming with the fishes if I fuck this up.”
“How many times do I need to tell you? He’s retired. He’s just a businessman, who happens to be Italian.”
She’s stretching the truth, and she knows it, but it wouldn’t matter if he was the president of Russia or a local vicar, I’d be just as apprehensive.
It's been weeks since my accident and we made thingsofficial between us, but this is the first time I’ve had an invitation from her father to have dinner with their family.
“I want him to like me. I intend to be in his daughter’s life permanently, and by extension, his, so it’s important to me.”
“Asher, you have nothing to worry about. It’s not like you’ve never met him before. You literally showed up at his house the first time you met him and told him to apologise to me. You survived that and you’ll survive this. Just be yourself and he’ll love you as much as I do.”
“Took you a long time to love me when I was just being myself,” I remind her sulkily before dropping down on my bed. She’s wearing a stretchy knitted red dress that hugs all her curves, and she hitches it up so she can climb onto my lap.
“Asher Pennington. I love you. I have loved you for a hell of a lot longer than I was prepared to admit, but that was nothing to do with you, and everything to do with my stubbornness.”
She loops her arms around my neck and presses a kiss to my throat.
“Would it help if I distracted you a little?” She runs her hand up my back and my dick stirs at the thought of what she’s suggesting. We have less than half an hour to get to the restaurant, and it’s at least a twenty-minute drive.
“We don’t have time,” I tell her regretfully.
She rubs herself on my hard length and tilts her head to whisper in my ear,
“Please?”
She doesn’t need to ask me twice. I hook my hands under her knees and flip her onto the bed. She bounces as she hits the mattress, desire burning in her eyes.
Fuck… what did I do to get so lucky?
I yank my belt from my chinos and drop down onto the bed next to her.
This is definitely going to make us late for dinner, and there’s a real possibility of pissing her father off but making this woman happy will always be my first priority, no matter the consequence.
