Daisy really wanted to know. Everything. She heard the scarcely detailed version from her mom. But it was second hand. The garbled cries from Violet. Jack and Ian added more particulars, but they could hardly speak of it either. That’s how disturbing it was, and Daisy knew it had to be.
“Should we go up the beach?” she asked.
“Nah. I know a place. My sister told me about it.”
Cami. Charlie, Daisy’s first cousin, was married to Cami. Everyone here seemed to be all tangled up in family bonds. Why couldn’t she have developed that strong a crush on a guy at school? Her college was nearly three thousand miles away, in an area with far more men of every single walk of life. The sheer volume of choices she had in her regular academic life should have long ago quashed this particular crush on her quasi-family member.
And yet, she couldn’t manage to find even one? Was it only in this small speck of the world, the place where she was born and raised, that she could feel these sensations for another?
Asher just happened to end up here. Maybe there was some destiny to that or something. Daisy didn’t believe the idea of having a soul mate or seeking the only one meant for her. She certainly didn’t think Asher had that kind of destiny in mind with her.
His adopted sister married her first cousin. They’d been together so long, no one questioned it anymore. No one, that is, but Asher. Daisy remembered him commenting on it, stating the ick-factor about it. Sure, except there was no blood relation. Cami and Charlie didn’t grow up together, until they were in their teens. And that’s why Daisy could never tell Asher the thoughts that swirled inside her starting when she was about sixteen.
The massive distance from home and the chance to meet smart, ambitious guys who were ready to start a life so far removed from the ranch and the menial work and careers of this valley, should have long ago cured her of any attraction to Asher Reed. But no. Daisy failed to reach that level of interest and attraction toward anyone else. All the damn bubbles of hope and adrenaline that seemed to boil her blood like a raging river whenever she was near him only occurred in his presence. It was absolutely impossible for her to feel any sexual attraction or want to be around the same person all the time with someone new. Anyone else in the world. How could that be? No one outside of Asher could manage to make her feel those things? She could not make sense of it. She didn’t want to end up there in River’s End, not to work or live or love.
So, why the hell did she continue to have this unending crush on her quasi-cousin, who was best friends with her sister and didn’t even notice she was alive?
Because she did.
He tugged on her sleeve, and that quickly, all the things on her mind, the east coast and meeting new boys, disappeared. She was seventeen again and ASHER was noticing her. Her heart pounded in her chest and she concentrated only on that. She didn’t want to. She followed him. He stopped to grab several more bottles of hard lemonade, which he tucked in the front pocket of his hoodie. He handed her a few and she loaded herself up as well. Apparently, Asher was planning to get drunk tonight. And her to join him.
She mentally leapt for joy since this was the first time they ever “went off” all alone. Together.
Chapter 3
DAISY FOLLOWED ASHER UP the beach trail. They didn’t speak, just two friendly “cousins” walking up the road. At least Daisy assumed that’s how he saw it. She expressed some alarm when he took her to the large arena, exactly where the horrifying Preston-event happened, “Are you going to tell me in here?”
He looked back at her. “Oh. No. I thought we’d go up on the roof access. It’s private and I could use the new perspective.”
He stopped in one of the rooms to grab a blanket. They were used for the horses usually, but clean and available.
She followed him up a flight of stairs and through a trap door that opened onto the roof. There they stood on a flat section of the roof that she figured must have been directly over the restaurant. Being nearly four stories up, they had an incredible aerial view of the landscape around them. They also seemed much closer to the stars. The air was cooling down but still pleasant. Asher unloaded his pockets of the glass bottles and set them down. He spread out the blanket and flopped down unceremoniously. Daisy couldn’t mistake this for anything except an innocent outing with Asher. Once again, she was his little cousin. She struggled to remember his view of her was almost as polarized as hers of him.
Sitting down, she tucked her dark skirt around her. They could see the entire ranch, resort and houses beside the swim beach that they just left. She couldn’t see the golf course from this angle, but most of the many buildings and fields, with a tiny glimpse of the shadowy river. Only a few spots of lights shone in River’s End and down the valley, with several more glimmering on the rim of it.
Asher released a pent-up sigh. “It’s nice to get away from all the people.”
“Yes. It is. People at school ask me all about where I come from and get intrigued but also confused. The rural quality and quiet is one thing, but the sheer volume of Rydells and their connections that come and go here never cease to astound me. And it’s hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t been here.”
“It’s done nothing but grow, that’s for sure.” Asher agreed.
“Kids having more kids. Someday, we’ll outgrow this little valley.”
“Never mind the ones that get adopted into it.” He leaned forward, snagging a bottle and opening it before he handed it to her. She sipped on it while he opened one for himself.
“I’m glad they did.” Daisy almost didn’t dare say the words to him. So easy and casual at face value, and completely innocuous, considering their relationship, but it took all her guts to utter them out loud.
He grunted. “Yeah, I am too. I didn’t have a terrible life before I came here, but I was pretty lonely. I only had my elderly grandma to care for me. Being around so much family here means the world to me. Never having it for most of my childhood makes me appreciate it all the more. I can understand your desire to leave and broaden your space, but I almost relish having everyone right here.”
She wasn’t going to school across the country to get away. Or hiding from the ranch. She loved and adored the ranch, as well as her family. Her parents and her sisters were her closest friends. She was simply experiencing a different lifestyle and way of being. She found it annoying when people sized her up so thoughtlessly, reducing her to being either flaky or eager to escape. She didn’t argue the topic, however, but drank more liberally to keep the words from gurgling out.
“But you took to the horses as if you were raised with them since birth like Violet was.” She swiftly changed the direction of the conversation away from her.
“I did. Yeah.” He chugged half the bottle and added, “She and I had so much fun. Training for that show and performing in front of an audience was the best highlight of everything I did here.”
“Violet too.” Daisy did know that about her sister.
“You’ve seen it before, right?”
“Yes.” Of course, she’d seen the act. Not only to support Violet, but also whenever she visited home. It was an excuse to gawk at Asher without anyone knowing. She feared the taunting and teasing, or worse, someone letting him know about her true feelings. If he found out, she feared he’d gently let her down, keeping her the nice, friendly cousin he really considered her to be and no more than that. She shuddered, refusing to be the subject of humiliation, and hence, why no one realized her crush existed.