Small Town Pretender (Havenbrook Book 5), page 16
While her little taste of Havenbrook showed that it may not have been as bad as she remembered, it was still suffocating in this town. Mostly because being here came with certain expectations. Ones her daddy had etched in stone for her from the time she was born. Havens don’t behave that way. Havens can’t be seen doing that. Dammit, Nat, why can’t you be more like your sisters?
She’d fled, not just for adventure, but to escape the expectations of being born into the family she hadn’t had a choice about. Probably why she’d made her own family with Asher and Nash. Had made her own way, too. She’d never fit in a box, and certainly not the one her daddy had made for her. She’d always been a rule breaker. Always marched to the beat of her own drum. And Richard Haven had never accepted it. Though that wasn’t exactly a surprise, since he was as pigheaded as they came.
What was surprising was that he’d come to accept her sisters just fine. Even despite Will marrying a man he’d always hated, Rory bucking all convention and rejecting his money and assistance while forging her own way with a man seven years her junior, and Mac taking his job from him. Though that hadn’t been her sister’s intent, it certainly had to sting all the same.
But still, her sisters went and had Sunday supper every week with the family, and her daddy supported them, even if it was in the twisted way he had. But her? She didn’t even get the twisted version, though she did get the promise of a more respectable job, thanks to the family connections.
“Believe me,” Asher said, “if I were gonna tie you up, we wouldn’t be leavin’ the bedroom.”
Nat’s brows flew up toward her hairline as she stared at him. Images of him doing just that bombarded her, and she shifted in her seat, her pussy tingling at the mere thought. “Sounds like a fun, childless day to me. So, why aren’t we doin’ that again?”
“Damn, wifey, are you always this insatiable?” He glanced over at her with a smile. “I think we’ve proven we don’t need Rory to take the kids for me to fuck you. I didn’t wanna waste our free day wrapped up in bed.”
“Wow,” she said, dragging out the word. “I must be doin’ something wrong, if that’s the case.”
He huffed out a humorless laugh and shook his head. “Believe me, if you do anything any more right, you wouldn’t be able to drag me out of bed in the first place.”
Nat bit her bottom lip and glanced down, hiding the grin that had crept across her mouth. A grin that shouldn’t even be there in the first place. She didn’t smile at sweet words from a man, and she certainly didn’t get giddy from them. Who was she? And what the hell was this thing that was happening between them?
It was something she’d been asking herself since the wedding, but she hadn’t come up with anything yet. And though it was scary wading through whatever this was without answers, that was how she did everything in life. Leaped without looking, consequences be damned.
“What’d Will want this mornin’ when she called?” she asked.
He reached over, interlacing their fingers, and rested their joined hands on her leg. “She was hopin’ I’d play at her wedding next weekend.”
“Yeah? You gonna do it?”
“Of course.” He glanced over at her before returning his attention back to the road, the trees whipping past on either side as he drove them to their destination. “Might play this new song I’ve been workin’ on.”
“That why you’ve been scribbling in your notebook so much and hummin’ under your breath?”
“Maybe.”
“Yeah?” she asked. “You plannin’ on lettin’ your wife hear that anytime soon?”
He flashed her a grin—one that shot straight through her insides. “If you’re lucky.”
She hummed and leaned over, scraping her teeth against the sharp cut of his jaw. “Maybe I’ll get lucky a couple times tonight, then.”
Pressing her lips to his neck, she trailed kisses along his skin, her body on fire for him even though it’d only been hours since he’d been inside her. Hours since he’d groaned her name against her ear as he’d fucked her from behind. Hours since the sound of it had sent shock waves through her.
She was half a second away from telling him to pull over, destination be damned, when recognition dawned as she registered their whereabouts. “Wait a minute.” She sat back in her seat. “We goin’ where I think we are?”
Asher slid her a glance out of the corner of his eyes, a smile tipping his lips. “Well, I couldn’t exactly get us tickets to Bora Bora. But I figured you deserved a little adventure, even if we couldn’t leave Havenbrook to find it.”
Nat grinned as the car came to a stop, her stomach flip-flopping over…everything. That he would set this up for her. For them. Plan a day that she’d love just because. One he knew, without question, she’d enjoy. But more than that, it filled up her heart that he knew she needed this day even before she knew it herself.
She unbuckled her seat belt and stared out the windshield to the banks of trees lining Havenbrook Creek. A rock ridge they used to jump off soared straight out of the swimming hole that had been practically a second home to them. Back when they were nothing but troublemaking teens, they’d come out here dozens of times, bringing their dumb asses down to the creek with none of their parents any the wiser. And one time had nearly been her last.
“You ever think about what would’ve changed if we just hadn’t come out here that day?” he asked. “Our lives might’ve turned out completely different. Hell, you might not even be here with me now.”
The mere idea of not having had this man by her side her whole life—as well as this past month—pierced her chest. SOS signal or not, they stood by each other, and no amount of rewriting history would change that.
“You know even without that promise, I’d be here for you. It’s just a word, Ash. And our friendship is held together by a hell of a lot more than that.”
He was quiet for long moments, staring at her in the silence, his gaze tracking all of her features as if he were trying to commit them to memory. “Friendship, huh?”
She cracked a grin. “Still feels weird to call it a marriage.”
“And how about last night? Did it feel weird then?”
Last night, when he’d snuck up on her while she was putting laundry in, bent her over the washing machine, and fucked her right then and there. “Are you gettin’ fresh with me?”
He hummed low in his throat, his fingers squeezing hers. “Thinkin’ about it.”
“Yeah? What else are you thinkin’ about?”
He tipped his head toward the water. “In the mood to get in a little trouble with me?”
“Always,” she answered without hesitation.
Nat wondered if the exhilaration of surviving that day here in the flash storm had sparked something in her that caused her to seek the life she’d lived, full of thrilling adventures. She’d rappelled in the Sierras de Tejeda Natural Park. Had skydived a dozen times, gone whitewater rafting, and BASE jumped a couple times, all to feel a little bit more alive.
But the funny thing was, she’d felt more alive these past few weeks with Asher and the kids than she ever had getting an adrenaline rush halfway around the world. And just what the hell did that say about her life choices?
She opened her door, not yet making a move to step out. “You didn’t think this through much ’cause I certainly don’t have a suit with me.”
Asher leaned back against the headrest, his posture lazy and relaxed. He eyed her up and down, and then a small smile curved just one side of his lips. “Who says we need swimsuits?”
Nat gasped, feigning shock, and rested her elbow on the center console, leaning closer to him. “Asher McCoy. Are you suggesting goin’ skinny-dippin’ with me? Don’t you think that’s a little forward?”
He mirrored her position, his arm brushing against hers, his breath a whisper across her lips. “I’m suggesting my wife get her cute, naked ass in the swimmin’ hole so we can have some fun. Unless you’re chicken.”
She nipped his bottom lip. “You’ve known me a long time, so you know the one surefire way to get me to do anything is to dare me to or call me a chicken. And I don’t think that’s a very fair use of your knowledge.”
“Who said I’m interested in fair? My main goal today is for you to have an adventure. And hopefully, that includes a little bit of naked time.”
“Well, I’ve only got one thing to say about that…”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
She licked a path along his lower lip, smiling as he let out a soft groan and closed his eyes. Perfect. Exactly where she wanted him.
“Beat you up there,” she said before flying out of the car and straight toward the path she remembered.
One minute, it was quiet, the area around her silent except for the thud of her feet on the dirt and her steady breaths in and out. And then, suddenly, Asher was there, directly behind her, his stride catching up far too quickly. But before she could react, before she could speed up or dodge him, she was airborne, hefted over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold as he smacked her ass hard.
“Nice try,” he said, trekking up the hill with her flopping over his shoulder. “Don’t you know your short little legs have no chance of beatin’ me in a race, wifey?”
“I hate you.” Damn if that shortness he taunted her about wasn’t her downfall now, because all she wanted to do was bite his ass hard for that comment. Since she couldn’t reach, she did the next best thing and smacked it instead. And when he still didn’t respond to that, she pinched both cheeks.
“You mind flappin’ your hands around a little bit back there? Feels like there might be a fly swarmin’ around or something. The little nuisance is buggin’ me.”
Nat huffed out an incredulous breath. “I know where you sleep, Ash. You really wanna go there with me?”
He finally set her on her feet, his hands cupping her hips to steady her as he rose to his full height before tugging off his shirt. Maintaining eye contact, he gripped the hem of hers, sliding it up and off and tossing it to the side. He traced a finger down her neck, across her collarbone, down the valley between her breasts, his gaze heavy with something she couldn’t quite name. Something that warmed her insides, an ember expanding within.
He kissed her jaw, the space just below her ear, and then lifted her up with two handfuls of her ass. Allowing her to feel exactly how much he wanted her. Reassuring her it most definitely wasn’t one-sided. “You should know by now I’d go anywhere with you.”
Nat had traveled around the world with only her camera as her one constant companion. She’d photographed landscapes and people alike, loving them both equally, but one thing she’d never done was a wedding. This month, she’d taken photos at two.
It was Will’s big day—t-minus forty-five minutes until her sister was going to walk down a petal-strewn aisle at an outdoor ceremony. Nat, along with her sisters and their momma and gran, as well as Will’s best friend, Avery, were holed up in the dressing room stationed in the upper loft of the barn they’d rented for the weekend.
Much like Havenbrook in general, this space had also changed drastically in the time she’d been gone, and she couldn’t believe the transformation.
“I still can’t get over the fact that they turned the Pritchetts’ old decrepit barn into this,” Nat said, a note of awe in her voice as she glanced around.
The loft dressing room was large and open, white couches and chairs scattered throughout and a vanity in the far corner, perfect for hair and makeup. On the east wall, French doors opened up to a balcony that overlooked the barn below, where rows of long wooden tables were set up for the reception later tonight and thousands of white lights were strung from the beams. It certainly was a far cry from the rubble she, Asher, and Nash used to wade through just to find someplace private to sneak a couple beers.
“Yeah, well, that’s Rory’s hard work for you,” Will said from where she was seated in front of the vanity, eyes closed as Avery swept eye shadow across her lids. “This was, what, your fifth job together?”
Rory nodded. “Something like that. It’s definitely the biggest one we’ve ever taken on. This place was a mess. Nash was mad as all get-out I’d even taken it on—always worried about me comin’ in here because of how dangerous it was. He started leavin’ hard hats everywhere, just in case I forgot mine.”
Nat huffed out a laugh and shook her head. The man Rory was in love with was a far cry from the troublemaker Nat had grown up with. The one who’d dared her to walk from one beam to another in this very barn, with nothing but air below her. “He never made me wear a hard hat when we came around.”
“Probably thought your head was hard enough,” Gran said.
“Probably,” Nat echoed. “Y’all remember when me and the guys used to sneak out here all the time?”
“I remember havin’ to drag your sorry butts home more than once,” Mac said with an eye roll. “The last time was the summer before I started college. You remember that? Hudson was with me ’cause Will bailed.”
“Hey,” Will said. “I just wanted to spend time with my friends before goin’ back to school.”
Mac shrugged. “Doesn’t change that you bailed.”
“Wait a minute,” Momma said, pinning Nat with a glare even as she fastened Will’s necklace. “I distinctly remember forbidding you from settin’ foot here sometime around Memorial Day that year.”
Rory snorted, smoothing a wayward strand of hair back from Will’s face. “Momma, since when has forbidding Nat from anything done any good?”
“She’s got a point,” Will said, even as Avery applied lipstick. “You probably only made it that much more enticin’ to her.”
“Rude.” Nat raised her camera to her face and captured her momma making sure Will’s necklace was sitting just so as Avery applied Will’s lipstick. “True, but rude.”
Her mom expelled a put-out sigh. “Honestly, Nat, is it any wonder your daddy’s got a head full of gray hair, all of ’em courtesy of you?”
Laughing, Nat adjusted her camera’s settings as she focused on Will’s dress hanging in the window, the light pouring in around it. “Sorry, Momma, but that’s why I left Havenbrook so quick. Me and rules don’t work so well together.”
“Speakin’ of leavin’…” Gran said from her perch on a love seat, her eyes on the crossword puzzle she’d been working through. “How’ve you been handlin’ bein’ here? Gotta say, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine you’d be back in Havenbrook.” She lifted her eyes, her gaze studying Nat. “And settlin’ down, no less.”
Settling down…right. God, she hated lying to everyone. Hated that she couldn’t just be honest with them. Though, really, what would that honesty look like now? The basis of her marriage with Asher may have been false, a means to an end, but the more time they spent in the same house…in the same bed…was starting to make things between them feel awfully damn real.
“It’s weird but good, Gran.”
“And how about Asher?” Momma asked. “It looks like he’s been handlin’ things all right, but is he really? This must be so stressful for him. Losin’ his sister and now fightin’ for those kids.”
“I’m sure Nat’s been helpin’ him take the edge off,” Gran said, winking.
“Gran!” Nat said on a laugh. “You perverted old woman. What’s the matter with you?”
Gran shrugged, completely unrepentant. “I was once a newlywed, too, you know.”
“Well, I’m not sure I need to hear all that,” Momma said. “From either of you. But I would like to hear how y’all’ve been doin’. How’re things?”
“They’re…” Nat trailed off, shaking her head. It felt wrong saying everything was fine when the custody was still up in the air, June was about to start therapy, and Asher still didn’t have a job. Not to mention their entire relationship was a farce. “Things are hard, but we’re figurin’ them out.”
“I have no doubt you two are.” Momma smiled and swept Nat’s hair behind her shoulder. “Y’all always were so good together. I know you and Nash have been friends longer, but you and Asher…” She shook her head. “Well, y’all just had a spark, you know? I’ve always thought so.”
“Me, too,” Gran said. “And that’s certainly something that can’t be faked.”
Nat snapped her gaze to Gran, where their eyes locked. She studied her grandma, trying to suss out if she was reading more into it than she should, because it’d felt an awful lot like her gran had picked those exact words for a reason.
“Me three,” Avery said, sorting through a makeup carrier that rivaled Nat’s camera bag. “I thought you guys were together for the longest time. Figured Will just wasn’t in on it when she told me it wasn’t true.”
Nat glanced down, busying herself with swapping out her lenses. “Yeah, well…”
Will cleared her throat. “I, um, I hope my askin’ him to play today didn’t add any stress.”
Relieved that she didn’t have to wade any further into that, Nat met her sister’s gaze and shook her head. “No, not at all. He’s playin’ y’all something new he just wrote.”
“Oh, he’s still been writin’?” Will asked, her brows raised.
“He’s been sneakin’ in a bit of it when he can. Why do you sound surprised?”
“I didn’t realize he was still doin’ that, is all.”
“’Course he is. Why wouldn’t he be?”
“Well, I just…” Will glanced at everyone else before meeting Nat’s gaze again. “I guess I just assumed with the kids and all that he’d have to find something a little more practical.”
Funny how it sounded so different coming from her sister’s mouth than it had coming from her daddy’s. Nat knew Will was just looking out for them. Experience told her her daddy was just trying to control them.
Ever since that day they’d gone to her parents’, the whole practicality thing had been weighing on Asher a hell of a lot, which meant it had been weighing on her. He loved music like she loved photography, and she couldn’t imagine what kind of life she’d have if she had to give it up. His guitar was as much an extension of himself as her camera was to her. But the facts didn’t look great for pursuing a music career in a town with a population a fraction of one of the stadiums Asher had played on tour.
