Chapter 15

• Asher went out the first door that looked like it led out of the building. Relieved it was outside. He sucked in a deep breath and closed his eyes while he breathed it out. His cat wasn’t happy he’d left the building. Opening his eyes, he looked in one direction and then the other. At the far end of the lot Nichelle and the pup—Daigo, were playing. He continued to stand there. His animal wanted to go back in, but Asher was going to stand right here until he figured out what was going on. It was impossible. Crazy even. He hadn’t had a sense of peace since he was nine years old. Although he didn’t know he had it at that age, he only realized it when it was gone. He rubbed his hand over his forehead, hoping that it would jump-start his brain again if he did it with enough vigor. Peace wasn’t the right word, he decided. Peace meant nothing to a child. What was the feeling that had blindsided him a few minutes ago? Belonging? Was that it? Had he felt like he belonged when his family was alive? That probably wasn’t the right word either.
• “This is a mess.” He looked out through the tall fence into the trees. “The worst timing in the history of bad timing.” He mumbled. His cat prodded him, wanting to go back inside. “No,” he said a little too loud and then looked around to make sure no one was nearby. We’re not going back inside until we make sense of it. If it were possible for his animal to swat him while inside him, that would have been precisely what he did. Asher blew out a breath. Not only had she been gone for eighteen years, with near impossible odds of just wandering back unscathed in all this time—he scowled at the ground. Okay, she’d been through some deep trauma, that much he could see in her eyes, but still—a young child didn’t just wander back eighteen years later after the Aiden family had you. He lifted his face and looked at the sky, except for Leah. She had come back. He shook his head; completely different box of crayons that situation was.
• “Are you okay?”