“What’s that?” I asked.
“I want you,” he said.
My breath caught.
His voice was steady now. “I love you, Claire.”
The words hit like sunlight breaking through clouds. Tears blurred my vision.
“I love you too,” I whispered. “I wanted to tell you before the fight, but I was scared of throwing you off.”
“Not possible, beautiful. You make everything right. I should’ve told you already. It’s how I’ve been feeling for some time.”
“Me too,” I admitted. “I got my period, by the way.”
Asher gave me a sad smile. “We’ll have time for that part of our lives.”
“Yeah, now I need to call my parents and tell them I’m moving to Maple Valley and dropping out of my program,” I winced.
“How do you think they’ll take the news?” he asked with a lopsided grin. He was cut up and bruised, but that grin did me in.
“They’ll be happy. I’m finally living life on my terms,” I answered. “The doctor wants to keep you overnight for observation, and then you’ll need to take it easy for the next few weeks,” I explained.
“I figured as much. I’m just kind of peeved I lost the fight. It means only half the money I would’ve gotten if I won,” Asher said.
“I don’t care about the money. I just care you’re okay. We can figure the rest out,” I said.
“Thanks, Claire.”
“Don’t thank me. We have to focus on getting you better.”
Asher winced. “My head’s killing me.”
“I’ll call the nurse. She can give you something for the pain,” I said.
I went to call the nurse and saw Soleil, Elise, and Jonah waiting in the hall. I updated them on Asher and suggested they head back to Maple Valley without me, since I would fly home with Asher. When I came back to the hospital room, his brothers were back, and had him surrounded.
“The concussion was worth it, guys. She said she loves me,” Asher suddenly said to his brothers.
I blushed as the room broke out in laughter. Their happiness spilled into me too. Asher was going to be okay. That was all that mattered. Everything else, the fight, the fear, the past I couldn’t fix, felt smaller standing beside him. For so long, I had been chasing answers, trying to make sense of things that would never make sense while holding on to something I had already lost. But standing here now, with his hand in mine, I wasn’t thinking about what was missing anymore. I came here to find myself. Somehow, I found both myself and the love of my life.
CHAPTER 34
Claire
A few weeks passed before life began to feel steady again. Asher healed faster than the doctors expected. The headaches faded first, then the nausea. His knee still bothered him when he pushed it too far, but the swelling went down, and he could move around the orchard again. I had practically moved into his cabin after we came back from Toronto. At first, it was so I could take care of him. The doctor had been clear that he shouldn’t be alone for the first few days. But once he started feeling better, neither of us mentioned me going back to my own place since we were enjoying spending full nights together.
“Time to wake up,” he rolled over and pressed his nose into my hair.
“It can’t be morning,” I groaned.
“It’s the ass crack of dawn, which is when the day starts around here,” he reminded, pressing his lips to my neck.
I moaned. “Bossman is horny this morning.”
He laughed. “It makes me horny when you call me bossman, which is a problem because I want inside you now.”
“Even after everything we did last night?” I asked. I shouldn’t have been surprised. We hadn’t had sex for a full week after thefight and his injury. Since then, Asher had been determined to make up for lost time.