Until November (Until, #1)(23)

“What are you doing?” I ask as Asher sets the bowl down on the ground.

“Feeding the dog,” he says with an eyebrow raised.

“You can’t feed him that much.”

“Why not?” he asks with his eyebrows raised.

“Because I Googled it and they say to measure it.”

“Babe, he’s a dog. He knows when to stop eating.” He’s looking at me like he thinks something is funny.

“How do you know that?” I ask, tilting my head.

“I’ve had dogs my whole life.”

“Oh…” That was all I could say. Beast was my first dog and all the information I had came from Google. He chuckled and I kind of wanted to punch him in the arm for laughing at me.

“Whatever,” I say, shaking my head. His arm goes to the back of my head and he kisses me. I can hear his mom laughing. Oh my God, how embarrassing.

“You can’t kiss me in front of your mom,” I whisper when he pulls away.

“Just did and it won’t be the last time.” I hear his mom laugh again and I look at her, smiling down at the stove. Her head comes up and she looks happy for some reason.

“I love this, honey. Asher and his women, well, all my sons and their women. None of them ever came around. At first, I thought maybe they were embarrassed of me and their dad. Then, me and James were out one night and we saw Cash with this girl. Let me tell you…after that, I was glad they never brought anyone around if that was what they would bring home.”

“I was lucky enough to meet some of those women first hand last night when Asher took me to the bar.”

“He didn’t?” His mom looked over at Asher with narrow eyes.

“He totally did.” I smile and look over at Asher who looks like he’s ready to strangle me.

“Asher James Mayson, I thought I taught you better than that?”

“Ma, we met the boy’s there to play pool. I don’t have any control over who goes to the bar.”

“I can’t believe you took her to play pool for a first date.” She looks at me. “I swear I raised him better than that.”

“It wasn’t a date,” I reassure her.

“Jesus, Ma,” Asher grumbles. He looks at me and his eyes narrow. “It was a date.” All I can do is shake my head and smile.

“You know, even when Asher was married, we never met the girl. All we knew was that they met when he was stationed in Texas and got married at a court house. We weren’t even invited.” I feel my heart drop into my stomach at the thought of him married. Stupid, I know. I mean, I was engaged and thought that I would spend the rest of my life with the douche bag.

“Ma, Jesus! What the f*ck!”

“Watch your mouth, Asher James.” She glared at him then looked at me. “Sorry, I thought you knew.”

“Um, no. That’s okay. I mean, we just met and we all have a past. Some of it beautiful and some ugly,” I told her. There were some things in my past that were ugly too. Like the guy that I was going to marry before he slept with my mother. How much more ugly could you get? Her eyes were soft and she gave me a sad smile.

“So what are you kids planning for the day?” she asked, thankfully changing the subject.

“Going home then I need to have my dad take me to get my car.” I was standing at the corner of the island. Asher pulled my hand, dragging me in between his legs. He had a hand on my hip and I looked him in the eye and gave him a death glare. He ran his fingers down the side of my face and smiled.

“I'm gonna give Ma the key to your car. She can have Nico or Cash bring your car home for you. Then you need to pack up some stuff and bring it over. I’ll be out for a while, I gotta go up to Nashville to check on the job site and make sure the fire inspector doesn’t shut us down. I’ll give you a key so just come in and make yourself at home.”

I know I have an ‘are you crazy’ look on my face but he was telling me to stay the night again. What?

“I'm not staying here,” I told him.

“You are staying here. Your dad works the club at night and doesn’t get home till after four in the morning.”

“I'm not! I’ll just stay with my grandma,” I tell him, even though I don’t want to stay with her. She has three cats and every time I walk into her house, my eyes get so swollen that I can’t blink.

“If you try to go to your grandma’s, I will go there and drag you back here so I suggest that you just come here and save us both the trouble.”

“Are you crazy?” I ask, thinking that I know the answer is yes. “I'm not going to stay here.”

“We’ll talk about it later.” I have a feeling that we are not going to talk about it later and that he is going to try to boss me into doing what he wants me to do. I glare at him again and he has the nerve to laugh. Then his mom slides some eggs and toast in front of us and then comes around the island and sits down. I move out from between Asher’s legs and sit on the stool between him and his mom. I turn towards her, completely dismissing him and he knows what I doing because he’s still chuckling. He grabs my neck and kisses me again.

“Stop doing that,” I tell him, glaring.

“Nope.” It’s all he said before he let me go and started eating.