Page 128 of For Your Consideration

I turned to look at Knight and Quinn. He had her pulled into his chest and she was smiling at me.

“Yeah but we both know when I agreed that it was a lie,” Quinn replied and I laughed.

“Someone going to fill me in?” Asher grunted out from beside me.

“I gave her the wedding invite,” Quinn told him.

Asher harrumphed from beside me and I could tell he wasn’t impressed. “You’re going as my date,” he demanded as he pressed a kiss to my head.

“Maybe she doesn’t want to,” Knight taunted.

“She doesn’t have to go with you if she doesn’t want to, Ash.” Quinn smiled slyly. I could feel Asher tense so I stepped out from under his arm.

“I love you, Ash.” His eyes softened at my words. “Quinn inviting me on my own was wonderful. But I’ll take any date you give me, so I’d love to go with you.”

“Thank fuck,” he muttered as he bent down and pressed a soft kiss to my lips. I smiled at his relief. It was going to take him a while to get used to me not pushing him away or trying to stop myself from leaning on him.

“Sophie is invited obviously but I didn’t think she cared about an invitation,” Quinn said as Asher pulled me back into his side.

“Oh.” I tucked my hair behind my ear. Some people didn’t want kids at their wedding, which was totally fair, and since Sophie was the only one in this circle I thought it would be a no. “Are you sure? I can have—”

“Sophie will be there. I want her with us,” Asher decided, ending the conversation.

“Yeah, plus Jane would have been devastated. She told me that she’s coming early to help me but she also mentioned she would be here to babysit for you.”

I loved this whole family so deeply. It was everything I wanted for my daughter. To have people who loved her, who vied for her attention. And I could already see how she was thriving with it all.

36

Asher

Iwas deep in my spreadsheet when my cell rang. I was working on some stuff for the new club, getting a list of positions that HR was going to need to fill. Normally Noah handled all the club stuff but he was focusing on construction so we were all helping out.

“Lawson,” I grunted out, not looking at my phone, annoyed at being interrupted.

“Is this a bad time?” Sutton’s voice was like a soothing balm.

“What’s wrong?” I fired back, sitting up with my spreadsheet forgotten. Her laugh through the phone helped calm the tension.

“Nothing, don’t worry. I was just having lunch and didn’t think before calling. We can talk later.”

“No, I want to talk to you.” I sat back and looked out my window.

“Are you sure? Because this isn’t urgent at all, it was just on my mind. So I can just—”

“Sutton,” I cut her off. “What do you need? Because even when I’m busy I want you to interrupt me for anything, big or small.”

“You are the sweetest man, Asher Wyatt Lawson.” I could hear the smile in her voice.

“Don’t tell anyone.” I couldn’t help the small smile on my lips. I could talk to this woman about nothing and be thrilled.

“I just wanted to talk something out with you…see if you could maybe help me?”

I frowned at the hesitation in her voice. “Anything.”

“I did some reading that babies can start daycare after one. I think a year and a half would be ideal because it would give Sophie some good social interaction. It’s important. I’ve been looking into daycares. I wanted to maybe try putting her in a few days a week to get her used to it. Then Iris could have a break and Soph can socialize.”

I grunted to let her know I was still listening but I was stressed. Loving a child was fucking hard. She was talking about having someone neither of us knew or trusted watch her. How was I supposed to allow that to happen? My mind started tossing scenarios around about how I could manipulate this to make sure she was safe.