One True Thing (36 page)

federal crime.”

Asher stiffened against me. “I can’t,” he

replied, voice muffled by my shirt. “How would I

prove it? He opened everything with my

information, and even if they were to check

security cameras at the stores where he shopped,

they would see a guy who looks exactly like me.”

He shook his head and groaned. “Besides, he’s my

brother. I can’t have him arrested. I don’t—I mean,

my mom would—”

“Shh. I’m sorry, love.” I petted his hair gently

and kept him pressed close. He made no attempt to

pull away as I rocked us a little. “Have you talked

to your parents about it yet?”

“No. I just… I’m freaking out. I can’t sleep. I

can barely eat. I don’t want to put any of that on

them.”

I drew back to look down into his face. His

eyes were wet and dark with emotion. I couldn’t

blame him. I would cry for a week if I’d found out

my sister had done something like that to me. Not

that I thought she ever would, but if she had…

God, would I be able to turn her in?
I wasn’t

sure. Even the hypothetical scenario made me want

to throw up. I couldn’t even imagine how Asher

felt.

“I can’t believe he did this,” I murmured.

“Maybe you should try to talk to your mom. You

can’t keep something this huge from her and your

dad. I mean, Ash… this is major.”

Asher’s expression crumpled. He buried his

face against my chest again and released a

shuddery breath. “I know.”

Oh, God.
Words couldn’t even express how

much the situation sucked. I wasn’t sure what a

credit card company could do if you didn’t get

them their money. Could they sue? Have him

arrested? Garnish wages? All of that was scary,

especially when I thought about the fact that

Asher’s work was entirely freelance and his

income varied from month to month. That was okay

when he had money saved for the slow periods,

but with his savings drained, he didn’t even have

that anymore. It was no wonder he’d been so

distant lately. He’d been handling the stress way

better than I could have.

“We’ll work something out,” I told him.

“We’ll come up with some kind of plan. I

promise.”

Of course, I had no idea what that plan would

be. I could help him, sure, and I’d be checking my

own bank account as soon as possible to see just

how much, but while I loved my job and it made

me happy, it wasn’t exactly lucrative. There was

only so much I could do, so much I could earn,

even if I worked every day without taking any time

off. But we would figure it out. We had to.

And, yeah, I noticed the “we” in my thoughts.

At no point did it cross my mind that this was just

Asher’s
problem. It wasn’t. I lived with him,

wanted to build a life with him, and whether that

included marriage or domestic partnership or

nothing but our own commitment to each other, I

was in it for the long haul, sick or healthy, better or

worse. Lack of vows wouldn’t change that.

“Come on, hon,” I said, urging him to his feet.

“Go lie down in the bedroom. I’ll make you some

tea and bring it right in.”

Asher grabbed me before I could step away.

“No tea. Just come with me. I need to hold you.”

I nodded and trailed a hand down his arm to

lace our fingers together. “Whatever you need. I

love you, Ash.”

We made our way to the bedroom, leaving the

mess in the kitchen and dining room behind, which

was something I almost never did, but it wasn’t

exactly a typical night for us. My thoughts were

focused entirely on him, soothing him, trying to

take some of the burden off his shoulders and put it

onto myself. I could feel the tension in his body,

the way he was practically vibrating from stress.

Twenty grand was a lot of goddamn money, not to

mention the interest, finance charges, and whatever

the heck else the credit card company was tacking

onto that total every minute.

There had to be something we could do—

maybe see if some of the purchases Archer had

made could be returned to the stores, maybe look

into getting a loan with a better interest rate and

lower monthly payments,
something
. Whatever it

was, I would help Asher think of it. I’d even ask

Rue if he had any ideas. Later. Right then, my only

concern was giving Asher whatever comfort he

needed.

I led him to bed and stripped him down,

kissed him and touched him the way he’d done to

me when I’d been hurt after the rollerblading

accident, took him into my mouth and sucked him

until he cried out his release. And then I held him,

our limbs entangled, his head on my chest, until he

fell into a restless sleep.

Asher

FOUR grand. That was it. And the worst part was I

didn’t even
have
it yet. That was just what was

owed to me from all the extra work I’d been

putting in. I’d managed to squeeze in all the single

photo shoots of everyone who’d been hounding me

for one, do some wedding photography and a few

shoots for Dom. Still, I was more than ten grand

short. The collections agency had made a deal with

me to pay off the balance in one fifteen-thousand-

dollar chunk. Other than that, they’d be taking huge

payments every month forever and a day.

I still was looking for some way,
any
way to

get out of it. And I seriously was starting to

wonder if I hated my brother.

My mom called when I was in the middle of

pounding on my calculator in a desperate attempt

to make the numbers change magically. It hadn’t

worked so far.

“Hey, Ma.” I hadn’t told her about the credit

card yet. I didn’t know how she’d take it, and if

she offered to help, it would make me feel even

worse about the whole thing than I already did.

“Hi, honey. How’s my boy? How’s Dusty?”

She knew that Dusty had moved in with me and

was unnaturally happy about it. I wondered if she

was just glad I’d moved out of the place with

Archer.

“I’m okay. What’s up?”

“You sound stressed, baby. What’s going

on?”

Damn her and her ESP.
”Just having some

money iss—You know what, I’m not going to

bother you with it. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Tell me. We’ll come up with a solution

together.”

My mother, the teacher. Always ready to help

think things through. I felt like a jerk. “Mom, I

really don’t want you to get involved in this.”

“Does it have something to do with Archer?”

“No, of course not. Why would you think

that?”
Well, that was a convincing lie. In a not-

at-all kind of way.

“Because you’ve been protecting your brother

for as long as you’ve been able to, and I know that

voice. What did Archer do?”

Shit.
“He opened a credit card in my name.

I’ve been getting calls from collections. It’s a lot

of money, Ma.”

There was silence on the other line for a long

time. I thought she was mad at me for a minute.

Finally, she spoke. Yelled was more like it. “Your

goddamned brother! When is he going to learn?”

“I really didn’t want you to get involved in

this. Damn. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said

anything.”

My mom made a noise I didn’t know she was

capable of. It sounded an awful lot like the word

fuck
. “Why not? He’s my son, and I should know

when he screws up royally. I’m of half a mind to

go down there and drag his twenty-six-year-old

butt back to Sonoma to do a stint at home.”

I almost laughed at that one. “Do you think

he’d go?”

“Probably not. But I do want to help you. It’s

not fair that you have to clean up Archer’s mess.”

“I know. Sad part is, officially it’s
my
mess.

My name. My credit report.” And I hated even

more that it was going to affect Dusty as well. We

were so new. I hoped we’d be strong enough to

weather something this shitty.

“Let me talk to your brother and see if I can’t

get some sense knocked into him.”

“No, Ma—” I tried to protest. Getting her

involved was the last thing that would make

Archer do what I wanted.

“Asher. You can’t take care of him forever.

I’m going to call him right now.”

And then she’d hung up. I was screwed. One

thing I knew about my mom is that she wouldn’t

back down until Archer ended up coming over

here to kill me, when I hadn’t even done anything

wrong.

It wasn’t fifteen minutes later when my mom

called, steamed as all hell, saying she hadn’t gotten

anywhere with Archer and was half a heartbeat

away from getting in her car to come down here

and skin him alive.

“Good luck with that. You probably just

irritated him so now he’ll never give me any

money.”

“
Asher
.”

I chuckled. She always got so worked up

when I gave her even the slightest bit of attitude.

I’d always been her “good boy.”

“I talked to your father, by the way. He wants

to help your brother out of this since he most likely

can’t or won’t help himself. We have about three

thousand in the bank we can give you.”

I felt like scum. “No way, Mom. That’s your

Santorini money.” They’d been planning a trip

forever to see where my dad was from. “I’m not

taking it.”

“I’m mailing the check to your place

tomorrow. Do not let your brother get his hands on

it.”

“Mom—”

“No arguments. I love you, honey. Say hi to

Dusty for me.”

After I talked to my mom, I spent another

frustrating hour or so on the phone with the

collection agency, trying to get them to transfer the

file into my brother’s name, which of course they

wouldn’t do. The credit card company wasn’t any

more helpful. They refused to cancel the account

since I didn’t have a password to do so and

couldn’t answer the security questions, even

though the damn thing was in my name, which had

started all the problems to begin with.

Then

I

spent

another

thirty

minutes

desperately setting up as many appointments as I

could, promo shots, more work with Dom, yet

another winter wedding. I hoped these people at

least had the sense to get married indoors. Sure, it

was LA, but my hands had frozen at that last

wedding. Outside. In December. Crazy people. By

the time Dusty came home, I was collapsed on the

couch, my phone balanced on my chest, waiting for

a callback from the credit card company, who said

they might be able to put the account on hold due to

outstanding charges. I was afraid if I paid any of

them down, Archer would just waltz out and run

them back up again. Hopefully, in this big mess,

one damn thing would go right.

“Ash? What are you doing?” Dusty had a bit

of a chuckle in his voice, but I knew he was

worried about me. Hell,
I
was worried about me. I

just didn’t know what to do about it.

“Just lying here. They refuse to be logical.

It’s so annoying. Now my mom wants to send

money. I can’t take my parents’ money.”

He sat down on the end of the couch, and I

lifted my head to let him scoot under it so my face

was in his lap. He rubbed his fingers through my

hair and massaged my head. I loved when he did

that. It could make nearly anything feel better.

“Honey, they love you. Maybe they just want to

help you out of an impossible situation. Just like I

do.”

I sat up a little. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I checked in my savings account today

and—”

“No, no, no. I’m not taking your money to bail

my dumb brother out. There has to be another

way.”

Dusty sighed. “I think we both know what that

other way is.”

Yeah. If I claimed identity theft. It was a long

shot, and I hated to do it. It would end any