Page 132 of Guitars and Cages

“Asher, it’s okay,” Alexia whispered in my other ear, and I could tell she was crying.

Reaching out blindly, I grabbed hold of her and hauled her close, needing to be sure she was real. We all stayed that way until the shaking slowed and my breathing stopped sounding like a runaway train. Finally, I drew back from Morgan’s embrace to look at Alexia.

“If you ever try that again, I’mma kill you,” I told her, even as I pulled her into a tight hug.

“The same goes for you,” she said, hugging me tight.

Morgan hugged both of us. “Won’t neither one of you have to worry about killing the other one because I’ll have done it for you. You two scared a decade off my life tonight!”

Alexia started bawling, and it was almost enough to set me off, too. We held her as she cried, Morgan rubbing circles on her back like he used to do when we were kids.

“What happened?” he finally asked when she was somewhat calm.

“I was gonna jump,” she stammered, still clinging to me. “Asher was talking me down, and then I slipped and he caught me, but we fell off the ledge and onto the fire escape and it broke.”

“Oh, goddammit,” he muttered.

She raised a tearstained face to look at Morgan. “I’m sorry. I just, I couldn’t handle dealing with Cole any longer. It was too much, and I wanted everyone to stop fighting and I figured if I jumped, then there wouldn’t be any more fighting over what I’d done.”

“There isn’t going to be any more fighting over you or your choices, Alexia,” Morgan said gently, brushing the tears from her face. “Cole’s not welcome here anymore, not until he changes his attitude, and you are not the one to blame for that; he is. You don’t have to live your life for anyone but you. I’m proud of you, Alexia, and I’ll be damned if I let you hurt yourself over someone else’s opinion of you.”

She let go of me to hug him, and it was hard to miss the love in his eyes, or how pale and shaken he was over the whole turn of events. Groaning, I struggled to get to my feet so I could leave them to talk, but Morgan’s hand caught my wrist and held firm.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

“I was gonna sit with Rory so you guys can talk. I don’t wanna be in the way.”

Morgan let go of Alexia to pull me closer. I looked away, staring at the ground, until he brushed my hair aside and gripped my chin in his hand, forcing my head up to look at him.

“Sit down.”

There was that command voice again. I sat, rubbing my fingers along my jeans, picking at the fabric.

“I haven’t been very fair to you lately, Asher, and for that I’m sorry.”

“You have every right to hate me,” I told him.

“Let’s get one thing straight right now, kid. I never hated you, so you need to put that idea out of your mind. I was very disappointed when you told me about what happened between you and Gage, but I never meant to make you feel like I was throwing you away. It was just hard to picture you going along with what your old man did, and with everything that was going on between Cole and Alexia, I guess I was afraid you’d side with Cole and do the same thing to her as you did to Gage.”

I shook my head, wanting to deny it, but I couldn’t, because I hadn’t done a very good job of proving otherwise.

“The thing I regret the most was picking that moment to tell you that you weren’t my son. It was harsh and cruel of me to tell you that and then tell you to get out, and I can see now why you thought I kicked you out because I’d found out that we weren’t blood. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. I wasn’t even thinking about that when I told you to go, all I could think about was those texts on your phone and the fact that you were standing there in the bar instead of on your way to Nebraska to try and make things right with Gage.”

A heavy lump formed in my throat, like it always seemed to do when I heard Gage’s name. I wondered if it would ever stop hurting so much.

“I love you, Asher. I’ve loved you since the day you were born and I’m always going to think of you as mine, no matter what those blood tests say. Yes, there will be times when you’ll do things to upset me or disappoint me, but that is never going to mean I don’t want you anymore. I am pissed as hell at Colton right now, but nothing would make me happier than for him to get his head out of his ass, apologize for the shit he’s said and done, and let us get back to putting this family back together.”

“I’m a whore, how can you forgive that?”

He raised my face so he could look into my eyes, and I flinched, blinking against the tears that were threatening to fall.

“I do not ever want to hear you call yourself that again, Asher, do you understand me?”

He wouldn’t let me look away, so I settled for saying nothing.

“Asher, I mean it. Never again am I gonna hear those words come out of your mouth, you hear?”

I flinched. “Yes, sir.”

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