Page 64 of When I'm With You
Asher shifts so he’s laying on his side facing me and we’re sharing the same pillow, and he is so gorgeous I almost can’tbelieve he’s real. His hair is disheveled, and with his gold-flecked eyes on mine, he radiates a contagious sort of contentment.
“I’ll tell you anything. What do you want to know?”
“Well, I’m meeting them in two days. So…everything?’
He laughs and presses a kiss to my shoulder. “Okay, well, it’s chaos, but the good kind. There are lots of kids and lots of noise and as long as no one is bleeding, we mostly let the chaos reign.”
“Okay so I know you have seven nieces, and their names are literally tattooed on you, but I’m going to need a crash course in all their names because I can’t exactly lift up your shirt if I forget.”
He smirks at me. “Honestly, with this crew, no one would bat an eye, but I’ll tell you. Charlie is the oldest, married to Jeff. Their girls are Olivia, Lilah, Harper, and the new baby Cammie. Annie is next, married to Zach. Their girls are Addie, Riley, and the new baby Zoe. I’m next, right in the middle.”
I laugh. “That I’ll never forget. You have middle child written all over you.”
He grins and strokes a hand over my hair, as if he can’t go a second without some kind of contact. I kind of love it.
“Kyla is fourth, married to Alex, and Lucy is the baby; she just got married to Noah last summer. Kyla’s having a baby any day now. She and I are the closest in age. I’m close to all my sisters, but it’s different with Kyla. We’ve always had an extra special relationship. Kind of like you and Ben, probably.”
I just nod, not wanting to get into the complexities of my relationship with my brother.
“Anyway, I’m really glad I’ll get to be there to meet her baby when she’s born. With football I couldn’t always be there for the other girls, so this is really special to me.”
His eyes get a little misty, and seeing this big, strong athleteturn into a puddle at the thought of holding his sister’s new baby has my heart doing one long slow roll in my chest.
“And your parents?”
He smiles a little, thinking about them. “Tom and Susan Hansley are something else. My dad’s a general surgeon, and I don’t think anyone in the world loves their job as much he does. Watching him have so much passion for it is what made me want to go to medical school if football didn’t work out. But he’s also such a good dad. He worked a lot, but he was always present, you know? At my games, at family dinner when he could be. Helping with homework. And the way he is with my mom? I’ve always wanted what they have. They still love each other so damn much, even after five kids and almost eight grandchildren. Everything I know about how to be a good partner I learned from my dad.”
I reach out and lay a hand on Asher’s cheek. “I think he taught you pretty damn well.”
He lays his hand over mine. “You think?”
“I absolutely do. And it sounds like your dad and mine are cut from the same cloth. What about your mom?”
“She’s just the best. She’s brilliant and funny and knows everything and loves to bake cookies and pretty much runs all our lives no matter how old we get. She’s a lawyer too. Judge actually.”
“Seriously? How have we never talked about that?”
He gives me a wry grin. “I mean, you told me about your judicial dreams when you were topless. Telling you about my mom’s career wasn’t top of my mind.”
I chuckle. “Point taken. What kind of judge is she?”
“Family court. Adoptions mostly. It’s a tough job, but she’s really good at it.”
“For real, how have we never talked about this? Hallie is an adoption lawyer.”
He looks confused. “I thought she did wills and trusts like you.”
“She did, but she also always did some adoption work on the side. Last August she got an opportunity to take over an adoption practice and move it to our firm. It turns out she wasn’t happy doing will and trust work anymore, so she transitioned her clients to me, and she took on adoption full time. We made it work.” I shrug, like it was no big deal when it was, in fact, a huge fucking deal.
“That must have been hard for you.” His eyes bore into mine and like always, he sees under my surface to what lies beneath. My instinct is to brush it off, but I’m so damn tired of doing that. I don’t want to hide anything from him.
I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It was.”
He nods but says nothing, waiting for me to continue.
“Hallie had been thinking about switching practices for a long time, but never said anything to us. When she finally told me in August, we were already deep in preparation to open the firm and I…” I break off, trying to collect my thoughts before I tell him the worst of it. “I didn’t handle it well.”
I laugh a little, but there’s no humor in it. “That’s a lie actually. I handled it so terribly that I’m sometimes shocked Hallie is still my friend at all.”
