All Chapters of Asking for a Friend: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

LAYTONMarissa’s house was a small, single family home in the suburbs. It was exactly what I might have expected from her, with bay windows and colorful flower pots on the front porch. There were wind chimes hanging from the roof over three steps leading up to the front door.The front yard was small, but well cared for. The weather was getting warmer and some of her plants were starting to come alive again after the miserable winter.I parked in her driveway, gravel crunching beneath my tires. Before I got out of my car, I took a deep breath and gripped my steering wheel so hard my knuckles went white. I was more nervous than I expected to be.Meeting Marissa’s daughter was a big step for us to take, even if we weren’t telling her exactly what was going on between us. It was a step I wanted to take with her, and I didn’t regret asking, but it was dawning on me that this was the biggest step I’d taken in any relationship. Ever.Sweat broke out on my brow and I wiped it off, willing my

MARISSAIt turned out that all my worrying had been for nothing. Annie loved Layton already, it was clear as day to me. It didn’t hurt that he brought her a gift that I knew she would absolutely treasure for years to come, but she also seemed to just be having fun with him.I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her laughing and smiling so much. She was captivated by what Layton was explaining to her, completely taken in by all things fishing.Somehow, I had a feeling that even if Layton never wanted to see either of us ever again, there was going to be some fishing in my future. She was definitely going to want to use that rod again, and if the smiles she kept giving to and getting from Layton were any indication, she was going to have plenty of opportunities.It was strange seeing them together. About two hours before Layton was set to arrive at our house, I was this close to calling the whole day off. I even considered calling Denise and asking her to come have lunch with Annie

LAYTONSunday morning arrived hours before I was ready for it to. I woke up to my phone ringing and groaned, hoping it wasn’t Clayton Reeve with another annoying surprise. Rolling over on my bed to grab my phone on the nightstand, I frowned when I saw it was Craig.“This better be urgent if you’re calling at seven-thirty on a Sunday.” I greeted, falling back onto the bed. “What’s up?”“You have to get down to the site,” Craig said, his voice strained and tense. “I’m sorry to be bothering you this early, but we need to talk and we need to do it now.”I sat up, immediately getting moving. Craig wasn’t the kind of guy to make a call like this lightly. If he was calling this early to tell me we had to talk, there had to be a problem. “What’s wrong?”He exhaled a deep breath. “It’s not good, but we’ll talk when you get here.”We ended the call on that note and I hurried to get showered and ready, arriving at the site less than thirty minutes after he called. It was a cool morning, crisp an

MARISSASunday was a girls shopping day for Annie, Denise and I. My little girl was fast becoming not so little anymore and was growing like a weed. In the past few weeks, she’d gotten so much taller that she had outgrown some of her clothes and most of what was left wasn’t going to last her much longer either.Denise wanted to pick up something new for herself as well, so she decided to join us. The mall was quieter than usual since it was a Sunday morning. Most people who were there had gone for brunch and just hung around the food court. The shop assistants smiled lazily and had none of their usual bustling energy as they flitted between customers.Annie held my hand as we made our way to her favorite shop, a department store for kids, with toys everywhere and even a huge doll house. Chatting to Denise while we walked, she looked up at her with wide eyes. “Guess what! We went fishing yesterday with Mommy’s boss.”Denise smiled, shooting me a wink over the top of Annie’s head. “Yeah

LAYTONAt the office early on Monday morning, I pulled out the project folder for the site I visited the day before with Craig. I knew Marissa had built in that buffer in case of unforeseen expenses and this morning I wanted to make sure we would be able to afford to offer the workers the increases they had asked for.I was interrupted by a soft knock and knew before looking up that it was Marissa. I got a whiff of her perfume as soon as she opened the door and I smiled as I looked up. “Good morning.”“Happy Monday,” she said, striding into my office. It didn’t bother me anymore that she just came in without waiting for me to invite her. It was a sign of familiarity appreciated now.She smiled at me, looking fucking gorgeous in a plain pair of blue jeans with a white blouse and a black suit jacket. She looked relaxed, professional and sophisticated all at the same time. I didn’t know how she did it, but she always looked damn good to me.Knee high black boots with a low heel made her