Page 79 of Falling in Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 1)

From behind her, she heard Asher’s deep voice. “Noah.”

He didn’t sound friendly and she wasn’t sure if it was because he was irritated that he’d gotten caught in her cabin by his daughter’s boyfriend or if he truly didn’t like the angel of a teenage boy.

Noah grinned politely as his eyes bounced between Ava and Asher. “Have a nice night.”

“You too, Noah.” Ava smiled widely as she closed the door.

When she turned around, she saw a glimpse of Asher’s locked jaw and intimidating stare before his face softened when he looked at her. The shift in his expression caused her to let out a burst of laughter.

“What’s so funny?” he asked as he took the pizza box from her and started walking toward the kitchen.

“You. You look like you’re staring down a cold-blooded murderer not an honor-roll student who is a star athlete, with two jobs and volunteers with kids on his nights off.”

“He’s dating my daughter,” Asher stated flatly, as if that was explanation enough.

And she guessed it was.

Her father had left when she was little, but she wondered if her life would have turned out different if he’d been around when she met Ian. Would he have given Ian as hard a time as Asher was giving Noah? She doubted it. The sort of man that would abandon his family probably wasn’t the over-protective type.

Ava pushed that thought from her mind as she pulled out two bottles of water from the fridge. Since he hadn’t taken her up on soda, wine, or coffee, she figured agua was a safe bet.

“So how has your week been?” She asked as she set the beverage down on the counter in front of him.

When he didn’t answer, she looked up at him and saw that he was just staring at her with a look she couldn’t quite place. It was almost sad, or maybe not. She couldn’t quite tell, but she felt it in her soul.

She was going to ask what was wrong when he said, “I missed you.”

“You did?” She asked, not sure where the declaration was coming from.

“I can’t stop thinking about you. I wanted to call you or text you so many times but…”

Her heart jumped up and down for joy hearing that she wasn’t the only one who was feeling the way she was. “Why didn’t you?”

He took a deep breath. “I just…with Jenna… and Blake… I just don’t want to hurt anyone or…”

“It’s okay.” She held up her hand. It seemed her heart had rejoiced prematurely. She knew where this talk was headed. He was going to tell her that he really liked her but his ex was back and he owed it to Blake to give her mom a second chance. As much as it hurt, she couldn’t blame him for wanting to do the right thing by his family. “I understand. She’s Blake’s mother and you two were married and—”

“Blake’s mother? Married? What are you talking about?”

“You and Jenna. I saw you guys today at the festival. You were laughing and it was obvious how much you care about her. And she’s the mother of your child—”

Asher closed the distance between them in the blink of an eye causing Ava to stop speaking. She lifted her chin so she could look into his eyes and just his nearness caused every single cell in her body to come alive and tingle with anticipation.

He stared down at her and the intensity in his whiskey gaze caused her knees to weaken as he spoke with an authority that stole her breath away. “I didn’t come here to tell you that I was getting back together with my ex.”

“You didn’t?” she whispered because no sound came out when she tried to speak.

His lips turned up in that bad-boy half-grin that caused the dimple on his left cheek to pop out and Ava thought she was going to spontaneously combust from the hotness right then and there.

“No, I didn’t. I came here to do this.”

Asher reached out, cupped Ava’s face and captured her mouth with his in a soul-claiming kiss. A kiss that had her forgetting the past five days, had her stop stressing about what the future held. All she could think about was being there, in that moment with Asher. Nothing else in the world mattered. Just the two of them and this kiss. Which she was hoping would lead to what Ava considered the ‘fun part’ which was the really good sex.

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