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The sounds of rolling dice echoed down the hall, the rise and fall of conversation trailing her as she walked.
The Hutchinses were intense.
The Hutchinses were awesome.
But she wasn’t used to the chaos.
Her family was great, but they were quiet, and they didn’t have regular gatherings that included attempting to destroy each other during UNO or Ticket to Ride or Sorry.
So, sometimes she needed a break from the noise.
Sometimes she slipped out for a little quiet.
That night, her slipping out for a little quiet had a dual purpose.
Asher had disappeared onto the back deck, his phone to his ear, clearly taking a work call as he rattled off scientific terms that had her mind spinning. But he’d been out there a while and would be finishing up soon.
How did she know this?
He wasn’t the kind of man to prioritize work over family.
Hutchinses came first.
It was part of why she loved spending time with him. With them. When her twin sister, Tiffany, had begun dating Ash’s brother, Wyatt, and had first dragged Mel along to these types of events, spending time with the Hutchinses had been overwhelming.
Far too much noise. Far too much yelling about boardgames. Far too much…everything.
Thus, Mel had spent more time in silence than not.
She still hung back and listened more than she talked.
But she was getting more comfortable, and mostly because they made it impossible not to be. Once Tiff and Wyatt had become solid, Mel had become an honorary Hutchins as well.
It was great.
It was beautiful.
It was…a little scary.
But mostly because of what she was about to do.
This had the chance to go very, very wrong. To upend the balance and—
“You’re doing this, Mel,” she whispered.
Because…she was done standing on the sidelines of her life, settling for quiet and shy and not quite what she wanted.
She wanted more.
She wanted Asher.
He was gorgeous and sweet and gentle and strong. Smart and nice to his mom and sister, nice to Tiff, nice to her. He worked hard, but didn’t make his job more important than anyone else’s, even though he owned a successful company.
He listened and asked questions and…
Well, she liked him.
More than a little. It had begun with a bolt of attraction, a draw that was difficult to ignore, but it had grown into something else, something more, something she really, really wanted to explore.
And when, not long ago, she’d given Jeremy—another of Asher’s brothers—the advice to go out and seize the day, to grab on to what he wanted his life to be…he’d listened. And he was working on doing that. He’d taken steps with his job and was going after the woman he loved, and—
She’d helped with that...
So why couldn’t she apply the same principle to her own life?
She thought she could.
She hoped she could.
Which was why she was standing at the slider and deep breathing as she prepared to put herself out there in a way she’d never done before.
She swallowed hard, gripped the handle, and quietly opened the sliding door, knowing that she’d delayed long enough in the kitchen, working up the nerve to do this, and couldn’t afford to stand in the hall all freaking night. She had to shore up her spine and…
Just do this.
“Crap,” she whispered, forcing herself to step out onto the deck, heart pounding, stare immediately searching for Asher.
And finding.
He wasn’t on the phone any longer, was leaning his long, leanly-muscled frame against the railing, gaze on the star-studded night sky.
At the sound of her footsteps echoing on the deck, his gaze dropped.
And immediately locked with hers.
Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t think.
Could only feel…him.
“Hey,” he murmured in that soft tone of voice that always filled her belly with flutters.
“Hey,” she murmured back.
His head tilted to the side, probably because the one word she managed to squeak out was raspy and barely intelligible. “You okay?”
She cleared her throat, forced her tone toward normal. “Um, yeah?”
He smiled. “Then is there a reason you’re standing in the middle of the deck staring at me?”
Crap. Crap. “Um…” She cleared her throat again. “Yeah?”
Why did that sound more question that certainty?
And if she couldn’t even speak normally then how the heck was she going to go through with this?
The urge to turn on her heel and sprint away was suddenly intense and overwhelming, but she clenched her toes into the soles of her shoes, grounding herself on that deck, and managed to stay in place.
He sighed softly. “Did one of my brothers put you up to something?”
Crap.
Now he thought this was a stupid prank?
“I—”
“God,” he grumbled, shoving a hand through his hair, and sighing again. “They really can be jerks sometimes, but they aren’t completely feral.” He chuckled, smiled at her in that way of his, the one that sent her pulse skittering. “Most of the time, anyway.”
It was true.
The Hutchins brothers were a lot. But they were nice—and hot—and nice.
She liked them all. She just…liked Asher more than the rest.
Just do this, Mel.
She shifted from foot to foot, straightened her shoulders, lifted her chin. “Right,” she began. “Um. I—” Then he was right in front of her, taking her hand, folding it gently in warm, strong fingers and her throat closed up, those words disappearing into the ether.
“Feel free to lay it on me, sweets,” he murmured.
That was sweet. His tone. His voice. The endearment. The way he’d pushed off the railing and come toward her, taken her hand.
“Don’t worry,” he added. “I won’t put you in the middle when I kick all of their asses.” A sexy smile that sent those flutters in her belly fluttering again. “Promise.”
God, she wanted him to make promises.
All the promises.
Except for that one.
Undying love and affection. A guaranteed happy ending. Touching her like he was, holding her close. Calling her sweets.
She wanted those promises.
“Mel?” His brows had dragged together, and he drew her a little closer, until she could feel the warmth of him, the strength of his body. “Are you okay?”
She jumped at the contact, melted at the warm strength. “Fine. I just—”
He squeezed her hand. “I’ll go talk to them, okay?”
“I—”
His fingers released hers, and then he was moving for the house.
“Wait!”
Ash stopped, spun back to face her, those brows pulled together again. “Mel—”
Finally, she managed to get the question out. Unfortunately, she yelled it at him. “Will you go out with me?”
Those brows went even more furrowed. “What?”
“I—”
Crap. This was brutal.
She took a breath, forced herself to calm. “I just wanted to know if you would go on a date with me.”
There. That was clear.
That was obvious.
That was seizing the day.
Only, the furrows in his forehead didn’t ease, and something entered his eyes that she didn’t like, really didn’t like. It had worry clawing through her belly, knotting her insides, instinct telling her to brace.
Crap.
“You’re asking me to go on date with you?” he asked incredulously.
Yup. Incredulously.
Double crap.
“I…um…” She swallowed a few times in order to get the words out. “Yes?”
“Is that a question or an answer?”
His question was sharp, not at all like the way he normally spoke to her. Not warm or soft. Instead, it was all cold and frosted with sharp, barbed edges.
She wanted to turn on her heel, to run inside.
But…she’d started this. She should finish it.
“An answer,” she told him, lifting her chin again. “I want to go on a date with you.”
“Why would I do that?”
More sharp. More frost-filled. H
er gaze dropped. “Um…”
C-r-a-p. Crap. Why couldn’t she get the words out? Why couldn’t she tell him she thought he was good-looking and smart and nice—except he wasn’t being very nice right then, was he?
No. He wasn’t.
And that was making it difficult for her to think and speak and generally act like a normal human being.
She’d had all the reasons she wanted to date him in her mind.
But he didn’t seem to have any of those same ones, and that…was devastating.
“You don’t want to go on a date with me,” she said, hating the hurt in her voice, but unable to completely mask it.
A beat, one long moment where she thought he would explain that this was a misunderstanding, and he’d gotten his wires crossed, and on the heels of that newfound clarity, he’d tell her that, of course, he wanted to go out with her.
That he liked her as much as she liked him.
Bam. Done.
Riding off into the happily-ever-after sunset.
But then Ash shattered her hope like it was the most fragile of vases.
One push and it hit the ground, exploding into a thousand shards of glass.
“No,” he said, all sharp edges to his tone. “I definitely don’t want to go on a date with you.”
Then he spun on his heel, the sliding glass door thumping closed behind him, and she was alone on the deck, standing under the star-filled sky, the night’s cold creeping in.
At least it cooled her pink cheeks, dried the tears clouding her vision.
It was the emphasis on definitely that really got to her.
It was the definitely that stuck with her after she’d pulled herself together, made her feet carry her into the kitchen, and she sat at that wooden table across from Asher as they battled it out in a round of UNO.
She avoided his eyes because…well, for obvious reasons.
Not wanting to see that definitely reflected at her.
It was already bad enough that she kept hearing it as she excused herself at the end of the round and drove home, as she worked until she was exhausted and then crawled into bed.
It stuck with her as she decided she was done dreaming about Asher and fantasies and men who were too good to be true.
She needed to find something real.
So, that definitely also stuck with her as she downloaded the dating app and started swiping.
Something she would come to regret.
So, so much.
Jer’s gaze was glued to Mel as she excused herself and left.
That right there told Ash he had done right by his brother.
And right by Melody, even though she probably wouldn’t see it that way.
“You should probably check in with her later,” he told Jer as they cleaned up the cards. “She seemed upset.”
“Who?” Jer tore his gaze from where Mel had disappeared.
“Mel,” Ash said, rolling his eyes. “She was upset.”
Yeah, because of you, asshole.
Not the point.
“You should probably check in with her,” he added when Jer glanced away from the now-closed front door and frowned. “Just to make sure she’s good.”
Jer snagged a few cards. “Why don’t you check on her?”
Jesus Christ. Jer needed to stop fucking around and make a move. “Because you’re the one who wants her, man,” he snapped. “Get your thumb out and do something about it already.”
Jer’s brows shot up and the pile of cards he’d been organizing hit the table. “I don’t want Mel.”
Ash blinked, a sick feeling beginning to swirl in his stomach. “What?”
Jer studied him, that frown even more defined. “Why the hell would you even think that?”
Because they’d gone on fucking double dates together? Because they were chummy and meeting up at Molly’s all the time? Because she and Jer were always sneaking off to talk?
How about any of those reasons?
But he didn’t exactly want to get into why he’d noticed, why those reasons had stuck with him. Why he’d used them to turn down the sweet, shy woman who’d asked him out.
Because that might mean he’d fucked up.
Huge.
So, instead, he grasped at straws. “I just thought the whole twin thing was going to come into play.”
Jer rolled his eyes. “Just because my twin is dating her twin doesn’t mean that Mel and I are going to get together. We’re friends and only friends.”
Fuck.
Fuck.
That sick feeling grew.
“No Twin Powers?” he forced himself to joke, still grasping at straws.
Jer just shook his head. “You all and fucking Twin Powers.”
“You and Wyatt have super-secret communicating abilities,” Ash pointed out. “Don’t even try to deny it.”
Jer rolled his eyes. ...
