Page 154 of Burning Deceptions
Mother scoffed. “For this classless—”
“Stop!” I snapped. “You will never again come into my home and insult me or Asher.” I jerked my head toward the door. “Get out. Take your insults and your prejudices and live your remaining years in the misery you’ve made, for all I care, but you won’t do it around us.”
“You’ll regret this,” Father said as he turned Mother to leave.
“Oh, not a chance on that, asshole. I keep him way too satisfied to regret anything,” Asher yelled at their backs, chasing them down the entry hall.
He slammed the front door, leaving us in a deafening silence—until I snorted.
“Did you have to add that?” I asked.
“There was so much I held back.” He winced. “That one got by my defenses.”
I pulled him into my arms and sighed.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” I said slowly, thoughtfully. “I’m okay. Perhaps I might find regrets somewhere, but they’ll be fleeting if at all. Still, I had hoped to do that without you around to hear it.”
“Not a chance. I’m here for all of it, the good and the bad.”
I hummed and held him. “I like the sound of that.”
He popped a kiss to my cheek and stepped away. “Now that we got that out of the way, let’s go have some fun in Hickory Bend.”
I nodded but tugged him against my chest again. “I love you, Asher Brandt.”
“And I love you, even if you’re poor now like me.”
I snickered. “Ahh, about that.”
“What?”
“Well, I’m not technically poor.”
“But the will, and they’re taking the trust and stuff, right?”
I shrugged. Yeah, that hurt my bottom line, but I didn’t want the money made off the judgmental backs of a family who wouldn’t accept me. “I told you I’d made my first million of my own money before hitting thirty.”
“So, without your family’s money, are you, like, normal rich? Not filthy rich? How’ll you cope?”
“You little shit.” I reached for him, tackling him against the wall as I played, acting as if I’d bite him wherever there was open skin.
“Stop. Stop,” he laughed. “You know, I don’t really care how much money you have. I don’t even need to count the zeros. I’m gonna graduate in three years and a couple of months and make enough to keep my snooty-britches man happy.”
“Trust me, I’ll be happy no matter what.” I turned us so we could finally head out. “Now, let’s go get your gift.”
“Huh?”
I raised my brows and sucked my lips in.
“Luke?” When I only marched for the front door, he called after me, “Luke? What gift?”
Thiswas…“No.Definitely not.”
Instead of stopping at his Range Rover, Luke hit the remote alarm on the Ford Bronco in the parking spot next to his. Ruby Red with a white top, I didn’t deny what this was, and I would kill Jamie for putting the idea in his head.
“You don’t want to take your new Bronco to show your family?” he asked like I’d already accepted the keys.
