Page 30 of The Wish List
I met her gaze. “Yes.”
“Asher,” she said, aghast. “There is a child.”
“I am aware, Suzy. I was there.”
“And you stayed there all this time?”
I laughed. “You make it sound as if I was there for a year. It was a few days.”
“There is a child,” she repeated. “An impressionable child.”
I sat forward in understanding. “I am not playing around.”
“What do you call it?”
I took a sip of scotch. “The start of something important and real in my life.”
It was rare I saw my sister speechless. She gaped at me, looked at James, then took a sip of wine.
“You met her at Zoles?”
“Yes, I was getting your gift.”
Suzy glanced over at the tree, her handmade crystal collector’s ornament catching the light, along with the thirty-plus others she had. One for every Christmas she’d been alive. I had taken over the tradition of giving them to her when our mother died. Every year, there was talk of discontinuing the tradition, and every year, I vetoed the idea. Suzy loved the pieces—loved what they represented. It was different for me, but I carried on the tradition for her. They were a limited item, and each one had to be picked up in person and signed for.
“Is she pretty?” Suzy asked.
“Tiny, fierce, strong, and a great mother,” I replied. “Her voice is soft, her heart is big, and she’s simply the loveliest woman I have ever met.”
Suzy blinked and looked at James again, taking another sip of wine.
“She has red hair, green eyes, and freckles that drive her crazy.”
Me too, I added silently, but my kind of crazy was different. The kind I wouldn’t discuss with my sister.
“Do you have a picture?”
I scrolled through my phone, picking one I had taken of her reading to AJ. With her head bent over his, it was hard to tell where her red hair ended and his began. He was staring up at her, and she was smiling at him, patiently explaining something he didn’t understand in the story. It was one of my favorites. Suzy studied it, then scanned a few more. She stopped at one, lifting her eyebrow. I knew which one it was. Rosie staring at the camera, sexy, and freshly fucked. Her hair was a mess, her lips swollen and a shy smile pulling her lips.
“She is beautiful,” was all she said, handing my phone back.
“Inside and out.” I paused. “The moment I touched her, something flared between us. I couldn’t deny it. I didn’t want to. Then she almost fainted, and I took her to breakfast. That was all I meant to do, but…” I shrugged. “I couldn’t stay away.”
“Does she know who you are?”
“She knows I’m a philanthropist. That I’m single and I have a sister and a niece.”
James cleared his throat.
“And a brother-in-law I get on well with,” I added with a grin.
James inclined his head in thanks.
“Does she knowwhoyou are?” she asked again.
“No. I didn’t share that information with her. It wasn’t relevant at the time.”
“You mean before you—”
