Page 120 of Forged in Deception

Asher grinned. “I was thinking stupid things like ‘drive over to a jewelry store and ask you to marry me on the spot,’ but your mind went somewhere else.”

Karlin felt her jaw dropping open. “Hold on–”

“Sweetheart, it’s okay,” he said. “I don’t blame you. Not with my kissing skills, my body, and my charm. Just like Bella Swan, you are indeed a mere mortal.”

She swatted him on the back of the head, and within seconds, they were bickering all over again.

CHAPTER

FIFTY

ASHER

THREE WEEKS LATER

“Yo, big bro!” Asher said as he picked up his ringing cell phone.

He’d been waiting for Gabe to check in. Frankly, he was surprised that it had taken this long. He and Karlin had gotten almost three whole weeks of relative peace, but he knew that real life would start to demand his attention sooner or later.

“How’s Amarillo?” his oldest brother asked. Asher could hear the sound of him moving around his office in the background. As far as Gabe saw it, if he was doing only one thing at a time, he was already behind. “Did you finally take a selfie at the Cadillac Ranch? Buy a cow? Start wearing boots?”

“You tease, but I’ve done two out of three.”

Gabe hesitated.

“Not the cow, right?”

He laughed. “No, not the cow. But Karlin says I look fantastic in these cowboy boots.”

Karlin was currently at the spa, where he’d insisted on treating her to several pampering treatments, on the condition that he didn’t have to actually set foot in the building himself.

To pass the time, he’d decided to hit up a local outdoor store, and was now considering purchasing a ten-gallon hat.

“You’re getting way too comfortable up there. It kind of freaks me out. And for the record, buying a fully-loaded pickup truck would be just as dumb as buying a cow. Even if you do decide to stay.”

Asher chuckled, but chose to let the comments slide.

The intrusion of real life into his precious time with Karlin was bad enough. The discussion about how long he was planning to stay in Amarillo could wait a few more minutes.

“So, got any updates?” he asked, hoping Gabe would accept the abrupt change of subject.

“A few,” Gabe said. “Ben told you he finally worked up the guts to propose to Grace?”

“Obviously. I had to call him five minutes beforehand to make sure he didn’t wimp out,” Asher said, laughing. “I’m happy for them.”

“I would be, except that all this wedding crap is driving me insane already. Do you know how to arrange flowers in a tasteful Christmas-but-not-too-Christmas table setting?”

“Uh, no, why?”

“Because I do now, Asher,” Gabe said, his voice almost pleading. “I do. Cameron asked me to help when their florist cancelled, and I told him to pound sand.”

“He called in Bristol, didn’t he?”

“He called in Bristol. I couldn’t say no to her. Not after everything she went through when she started working with us. So yeah. I knew what a poinsettia was, but now I know where to import cymbidium orchids from.”

Asher couldn’t help but to laugh out loud. It sounded like a typical Forge family nightmare, but it was the kind of nightmare he missed the most.

“When I have been able to escape from that stuff,” Gabe continued, “Ben and I have been digging into Dana’s past.”

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