Page 42 of Together in Harmony
“If she is looking bridal, then I am going to be the one to carry her over the threshold!” he shouts to Lennox. Lennox is cracking up with laughter.
Asa, with Lennox as escort, carries me through the grand room, and out to the pool area. I’d been exhausted from the work of the week, but the energy coming off the two guys is contagious. I'm giggling hard when we round a corner and see Hugo.
He is wearing shorts and an apron. No shirt.
Very surprisingly, he is also standing in front of a hot grill.
“Dudes, put her down.” He smiles at me. “Cocktail before lunch? Or you want a beer, darling?”
Even Hugo is calling me darling now? I’ve noticed that Asa always called me, sweetheart, and Lennox calls me babe. If Hugo decides to start calling me darling, I don’t mind at all.
Asa sets me on my feet. “Beer please,” I say.
Lennox flops into a giant outdoor sofa, pulls me onto it, then tucks me under his arm. “How was your day yesterday? I missed you painfully. I played the boys our song.”
Oh, that’s embarrassing. I hope they were kind about it.
“Yeah, how was your week?” says Asa. “I haven’t seen you since our lunch date.” He gives me a wink. All week long I’ve been thinking about Asa. I’d missed him incredibly.
“My week was boring, hours of filling in spreadsheets like usual. What about you? I want to know how your trip to LA was?”
Asa starts to tell me about a meeting with the Fender Strat guitar people. I’m excited for him. He is nerding out hard as he describes the brand new bass they are releasing.
“So they are naming the bass after you right?” I ask him. “It will be an Asa Reiny signature model Fender bass?”
“Whoa! How’d you know about that?”
Shit, my mouth.
I know about that because my father has a guitar model named after him. ‘The Clash Towers Stratocaster’. How would a normal person know about something like that?
“Learned about it on some podcast,” I tell him.
“You should call it the Asa Bass,” says Lennox, “like Ace of Base.”
Asa starts singing Pump up the Jam.
I laugh as I’m taking a gulp of the icy cold beer. It sets me off coughing.
“OK, there darling?” asked Hugo.
There he goes with the darlings again.
“To be honest, I am a little nervous,” I admit. They are all looking at me so intently.
“We’ll have to do whatever we can to put you at ease,” says Asa.
“Agreed.” Lennox gives me a sly wink, then adds, “whatever it takes to really relax you.”
I feel my face get burning hot.
“For fucks sake you animals, give the poor girl some room,” snaps Hugo.
ASA
Idon’t want to give her room. I want to crush my body on top of hers, cram myself inside her. Take up every bit of room she has to give.
But first…
