13. Madelyn

CHAPTER 13

MADELYN

After parkingthe side-by-side at the bunkhouse, we start walking toward the main house. As soon as the driveway comes into view, I stop, and Asher stops with me. “Fuck.”

He has my hand in his, and he brings it up to inspect the scratch again. He has blood all over his shirt, but he doesn’t seem to care. He’s more worried about my hand than anything else. “What is it? Is it your hand?”

I point into the distance, and he follows my gaze. “Whose car is that?”

“My parents’.”

I wince. So much for showing Asher I’m a responsible, grown, capable woman. That’s hard to do when your parents just show up out of the blue to check on you.

“Shit,” he says, but he doesn’t release my hand, which surprises me. “What are your parents doing here?”

I lean my head back and groan in frustration. “Well, I’m guessing they’re not happy with my decisions. They didn’t want me to come here to ‘play in the dirt.’ I’m sure they’re here to try to talk me into coming home to New York.”

He gruffly pulls me closer. “You can’t leave.”

I let my surprise show. “Really? Two days ago, you were trying to convince me I shouldn’t be here. I thought for sure you would be on my parents’ side on this one.”

He tilts my chin up. “If you still think that, then I’m not fuckin’ you good enough.”

I pull my hand from his and put both of them at his waist. “Let’s just go back to the orchard. Maybe they’ll get tired of waiting.”

“Madelyn.”

I grimace and shake my head. “I like it better when you shorten my name.”

“Fine. Maddie, tell me about your parents.”

I blow out a breath. “What do you want to know?”

He pulls a twig from my hair, and my hands go up. “Oh God, do I look like I just had sex? I’m sure I do.”

He smiles broadly. “I’d like to think you do, but here, just let me smooth your hair a bit. It’s okay.”

He’s smiling the whole time, and I’m about to lose it. “Seriously? You’re enjoying this? I thought you’d be freaking out right now.”

He shrugs as if it’s no big deal. “Why would I be freaking out?”

And then it hits me. “Right. I mean, you shouldn’t.” I pull away from him and take a step back. “You’re my boss. It’s no big deal.”

He frowns, and I wish I knew what he was thinking.

“Maybe I should just go in there—”

He cuts me off. “No.”

My eyes widen, and I stare at him in surprise. “No?”

He points toward the house. “No. I’m not disappearing into the orchard while you go in there and face your parents and then come home later to find you gone.”

I take a step toward him. “Hey.”

He looks angry now, and I shake my head. “I wouldn’t just leave, Asher. I committed to this job, and I’m here through the summer.”

I thought that’s what he wanted to hear, but he still looks angry. “Tell me about your mom and dad. What are we dealing with here?”

It’s then I realize that he’s probably gotten the worst idea of my parents. “Well, they’re good parents. They love me, and they love each other. They’ve been married for a long time, and they’re in love—like the real kind—and they want that for me.”

He looks at me, confused. “Oh yeah, they sound horrible. How dare they?”

I slap a hand against his chest. “You don’t get it.”

He grabs my hand and holds it against his chest. “Well, then explain it to me.”

Ugh. I hate to tell people this because you never know how they’re going to react, but I might as well tell him all of it. “My parents had an arranged marriage, and that’s what they want for me. For the last year, that’s been their main focus.”

His face hardens. “So they’re trying to fix you up?”

I blurt it out. “That’s an understatement.”

He crosses his arms over his chest. “And you don’t want to?”

I put a hand on my hip. “I can get my own dates.”

“All right, well, let’s go.”

He starts to walk, and I stop him. “What? Seriously, Asher. Go back to the orchard. I can handle my parents. It will be fine.”

He stops walking and holds his hand out to me. I walk toward him, but I don’t put my hand in his. “Fine. But it’s not a good idea to hold my hand. My parents will have us married within the year and will hound you about when you’re going to put a baby in me.”

He grunts, and I walk past him. I must have stunned him because he’s jogging to catch up with me. “I’m forty-two, Maddie.”

I keep walking. “Yeah, I know. So what?”

He puts his hand on my arm to stop me. “So you’re twenty-eight. Your parents are not going to try and hook us up.”

I burst out laughing. “Right. You obviously haven’t met my parents. But don’t worry, you’re safe.”

But that doesn’t appease him, and it doesn’t make him budge. “What do you mean, I’m safe?”

“Asher, my parents don’t care about age. My mom is almost fifteen years younger than my dad, but don’t worry, I won’t do that to you. You’re safe. I promise I wouldn’t put you in that position because I wasn’t exaggerating. My parents are not playing. They want grandkids.”

I search his face, wishing I could read what’s going through his thoughts. “All right, last chance. Are you coming, or do you want to go out to the orchard and let me handle this?”

He nods his head. “I’m coming.”

We walk up to the porch and see that my mom and dad have made themselves at home. “Hey, Mom, hey, Dad! What are you doing here?”

My dad stands up. “Is that any way to greet your parents?”

I walk into his open arms. “You’re right. Hey, Dad!”

I then walk over to my mom and hug my mother. “Hey, Mom.”

I point to Asher. “Mom, Dad, this is Asher Wild. He’s one of the owners and my boss at the Wild Peach.”

My dad shakes Asher’s hand, and I watch him closely. It’s obvious he’s measuring my boss up. It’s hard telling what he’ll say to him, so I clap my hands together. “So what are you all doing in Georgia?”

“We thought we’d take a day—”

I interrupt my dad. “You’re here for a day?”

He nods his head. “Yes. Are you not happy to see us?”

“Yes, of course I am, but I’m working. You should have given me a heads-up. I can’t take time off when I only started two days ago.”

My mom starts to sway on the porch swing. “Well, we thought we’d go check out the hundred miles of golf cart paths that the town is known for, but honestly, I could sit right here on this porch and be happy. This is beautiful, Mr. Wild.”

Asher sits on the porch ledge. “Thank you, Mrs. Weston. I love it. And you can call me Asher.”

She practically preens. “Oh, well, my, aren’t you sweet. You can call me Rachel.”

“Well, Rachel, you’re more than welcome to sit on my porch for as long as you like.”

I can feel my eyes bug out of my head. What is Asher doing? He’s completely going to win my mother over, and he does not want that.

“You know who I saw the other day?” my dad asks.

I grit my teeth. Here we go. “Who?”

“Jace Carter.”

I search my memory. “Who?”

I can feel Asher’s gaze burning into me. I was hoping he wouldn’t see this all in action, but I guess that’s not possible. He’s going to witness my dad trying to fix me up.

“Jace Carter. He owns the farm upstate. You know the one where you pick your own produce.”

I give him a pointed look, and he shrugs. “What? You want to work on a farm, what better way to do it? He would love to see if you’re a good fit or not.” My dad holds his hands up. “And don’t worry, I talked to him and let him know you’re committed to working here through the summer.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “So he wants me to come work for him?”

My dad shakes his head. “No. I mean, yes, I guess sort of. You can work there and get to know each other and see where it goes.”

I can’t help it. I scrunch up my nose. “Isn’t he in his forties?”

“Hey!” Asher says, offended.

I can’t help but laugh. “It’s different, trust me.”

Asher is looking between my mom, my dad, and me.

No one is more surprised than me when Asher comes over toward me and wraps his arm around my waist. He tucks me into his side and clears his throat. “Actually, Mr. and Mrs.—I mean Rachel—Weston, there’s something that Madelyn and I would like to tell you.”

He takes a deep breath, and all I can do is hold mine in. What is he about to do?

I don’t have to wait long. “Madelyn and I are dating.”

“Dating?” my dad asks.

I look up at Asher as he nods his head. “Yes. We thought this would be a good way to get to know each other. It’s new…”

His voice trails off, and my mom puts her hand to her chest. “Oh my!”

She’s looking between Asher and me, and my dad puts his hands on his hips. “It’s new… and what? You bring my daughter here to shack up with you?”

“No, Dad. I have my own room, and we’re not shacking up. Like Asher said, this is all new.”

I look up at Asher, and he smiles at me. I have a gazillion questions, but I smile back at him even though the whole time I’m wondering if he has any idea what he just did.

My mom shrills, “Oh my baby.”

She pulls me from Asher and hugs me before passing me off to my dad.

I put my hands together. “Now, Mom, like we said… it’s new. Don’t get too excited.”

My mom points at herself. “Too excited? Me? I can play it cool, Madelyn.”

I shake my head because my mom has no chill at all. “How about you and Dad tour the orchards and some of the golf cart paths, and then when you get back, we can have an early dinner.” Shit, here I am just offering up Asher’s golf cart. “I mean, if that’s okay with you.”

He brings me back to his side and kisses me on my forehead. “Of course you know that’s okay. Why don’t you go inside and get your hand cleaned up while I get your mom and dad set up?”

Alarmed, I look at him. There’s no way I’m leaving them alone with him. “I can go with you guys.”

He pulls my hand up. “You need to clean your hand.”

My mom comes to look. “What happened?”

I start to stutter because how do I say that Asher was fucking me and I cut it on the bark of a tree?

“She hurt it on a tree.” He kisses my hand and then nods at me, letting me know that it’s okay. “We’ll be fine.” He turns to my mom and dad. “What do you say? You guys want to go for a ride?”

They both agree, and I stand here and watch as Asher and my mom and dad walk out to the bunkhouse.

I run inside, take a quick shower, and am sitting at the counter in the kitchen with the first aid kit open when Asher walks back in. I just shake my head at the way he’s smiling. “Smile now, but you have no idea what you’ve done, Asher Wild.”

He just keeps walking toward me. “I know, I know. You’ve already warned me, Madelyn.”

He stops and hovers over my hand. “Here, let me.”

I watch him as he inspects my hand. “You’re awfully worried about that. You know it’s just a scratch, right? I’m fine.”

“Don’t move,” he tells me and then goes over to the sink to wash his hands. When he’s done, he dries them off and then walks back over to me to continue taking care of my hand. “It kills me that I did this to you.”

I start to laugh. “I don’t regret it. It felt pretty good to me.”

“Fuck,” he says and rolls his eyes. “I’ve gone from ‘really good’ to ‘pretty good.’ I obviously need to work on my delivery or something.”

I lean in and whisper against his lips, “You rocked my world.” I meant the kiss to be light and teasing, but I’m learning that any time I kiss Asher, there’s nothing light about it. When he pulls away, he’s shaking his head. “I need to get cleaned up and fix dinner before your parents get back.”

Reluctantly, I nod my head. “Go shower and I’ll start dinner.”

He puts his hands on my stool. “Nope, you need to rest that hand. You can sit here and talk to me while I cook.”

He kisses me one last time, and then he takes off to shower. As I watch him go, I’m overwhelmed with how right this all feels.