Her father did say Asa was going to drop by. She just didn’t expect for him to arrive at this time of the morning.
“He’s here?” Hunter asked, voice and face free of any emotion as he stared at Carmen.
She nodded uneasily, fingers curling around the device in a tighter grip. “Yeah, um, he’s here…”
“And you’d like me to leave,” Hunter finished for her, a tight smile on his face.
“Don’t do that,” she murmured, looking at him with pleading eyes. “I just don’t think it’s the best idea for the two of you to be under the same roof.”
Hunter didn’t say anything and just shrugged and stood up from his chair, grabbing his empty plate and leaning over to take Carmen’s too. “Well, don’t keep him waiting. I’ll just wash these and be on my merry way. I need to change out of these clothes anyway.”
Carmen mumbled thank you to him as he turned on the tap and then directed her attention towards her phone to reply to the text.
Feel free to let yourself in :D, she texted.
Smiling to herself as she clicked on the Send option, she looked up to see Hunter place the dried plates on the rack the same instant she heard the soft thud of the front door closing.
“Carmen?” Asa’s voice floated to her ears and the sudden overwhelming emotion that came crashing down on her like an avalanche nearly knocked all the breath out of her.
Hearing his voice after what felt like an eternity made her want to cry out of sheer joy. She didn’t understand how he could impact her that way.
Losing her composure, she sprang out of her chair and ran towards the entrance of the kitchen just as Asa stepped into it to check if she was there.
Her chest collided with his painfully, making the both of them stumble until a familiar pair of strong arms went around her waist, steadying her and regaining their balance. Asa chuckled, the sound emerging from somewhere deep in his throat and reverberating through his chest, lighting up yet another spark in Carmen’s being that could never be extinguished.
“I missed you,” she mumbled into his chest, sighing against the soft fabric covering his skin.
“We literally saw each other just yesterday,” he murmured, looking down at her with that same old mischief swimming in his eyes. “Don’t tell me you can’t stay away...” The words died in his throat, his voice trailing off as he looked up and took in the person standing a few feet away, leaning against the sink.
Asa looked like he genuinely believed he was hallucinating, and he remained motionless, with that perplexed look on his face for several seconds before something changed in his expression, as if it was only then that it dawned on him that he wasn’t seeing things, but that Hunter Donoghue was actually standing there, a short distance away from them.
The look of utter shock and disbelief that crossed his face twisted Carmen’s insides, in a manner that made the butterflies in her stomach drop dead rather than take flight.
“Um...” Carmen trailed off, not having any idea where to even begin. “So, Hunter here—”
“—was just about to leave,” Hunter cut in, his blank stare fixed on Asa for a while longer before he tore his eyes away and looked at Carmen instead. “See you around, cuz.”
Carmen bit down on her lip before beginning to pull away from Asa. “Wait,” she called out just as Hunter pushed himself off the sink and started moving towards them. “Let me walk you to the door.”
Before she could move away completely though, Asa’s arms tightened around her and pulled her back into the space she’d just created. “Not necessary,” he mumbled, dropping his mouth down to her ear and placing a soft kiss there. “Hunter can walk himself out, I’m sure.”
“Actually,” Hunter’s voice rang out sharply, causing Asa to raise his head back up and narrow his eyes at him. “Hunter would very much like Carmen to walk him to the door.” His mouth twitched, his cold blue eyes staring down Asa as if daring him to say something.
The minutes passed by in tensed silence, before Carmen regained her composure and shrugged out of Asa’s hold, causing him to look at her with an unreadable expression—which was scary in itself because she was always able to read Asa.
“Just wait here, okay?” She forced a smile onto her face, clasping her hands together. “I’ll just see him out and come back to you.”
Something flashed in Asa’s eyes but it was gone as soon as it had appeared, not sparing Carmen any time to decipher what the emotion was. “Yeah.” He smiled, but it didn’t seem to reach his eyes. “Of course, go ahead. I’m not going anywhere.”
Carmen shot him a small smile and waited for Hunter to walk past them before heading out of the kitchen behind him.
“That was unnecessary,” she muttered under her breath, folding her arms against her stomach.
“True,” Hunter replied casually. “And I don’t really need you to walk me out, so you can head back now.”
Carmen stopped in her tracks and shot him an incredulous look. “Then why did you—”
“I just like sticking it to him whenever I can,” he said, slipping his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and throwing a devil-may-care grin at Carmen over his shoulder.
She sighed exasperatedly and scratched her forehead. “You really can be an ass, you know.”
“I do know that” he threw open the door and stepped out, turning around on the porch to face Carmen, “just not towards you. Not anymore.”
Carmen fought against the smile tugging at
