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Ashley was proud of the work that she’d done for the Sullivan Cafés and stores throughout Maine. She’d helped grow the business a great deal since she’d taken over the management so that her father could pursue other interests, and her mother could remain happily entrenched in the café kitchens.
Now, for the first time in Kevin’s life, she needed to explain why a man he’d never met before was in their house.
She started with the basics. “Kevin, this is my friend Nash.”
Kevin nodded. “Hey.”
Nash shook her son’s hand. Kevin seemed to like that, being treated like an adult by another guy. Eleven could be such a strange in-between age. Not nearly an adult, not quite a teenager, but not a kid anymore either.
It was something she regularly struggled with as a parent. How far to let him explore? How much to let him experiment with things? How tightly to rein him in to keep him safe?
Thus far, she’d erred on the side of safety. But what mom didn’t? Especially when she didn’t have a husband or true co-parent to help.
“Why don’t you get your things together for soccer practice while I say good-bye to Nash?” she suggested.
As soon as Kevin headed into his room, not seeming the least bit dismayed by Nash’s presence, she grabbed Nash’s hand and tugged him out to the front porch.
“I don’t know what came over me today, jumping into bed with you like that,” she said in a low voice, even though she knew exactly what had come over her. “But—”
“Let’s wait to talk about this until we don’t have to whisper,” he cut in. “I’ll call you to find a time that makes sense.”
For a moment, she thought he might kiss her good-bye. Instead, he squeezed her hand, then walked away, leaving her standing there on the porch, her legs barely steady, her skin, her blood, her body still pulsing from the pleasure of being with him.
But then, a beat later, he was back up on the porch, and his mouth was on hers again. Giving her a fast, fierce kiss that stole her breath.
Leaving her breathless long after he walked away.
* * *
Ashley wasn’t exactly sure how she and Kevin got to soccer practice, considering she barely remembered getting into the car and driving to the field. Especially given that Nash both called and texted her to set up a private time to talk immediately after he left her house.
It was unbearably tempting to call him back simply to hear his voice. But she knew better. Knew that she needed to nip her addiction to him in the bud, rather than give in to it. Because it turned out that the more she had of Nash, the more she wanted. More. More. More.
Oh God…she could barely think of anything but him. Barely focus on getting her car between the white lines of the parking space in front of the soccer field.
Once they got out of the car, she realized she’d forgotten that she was in charge of snacks for the day and had left the container of cut-up orange wedges in her fridge. Fortunately, one of the parents had a bag of tangerines from a recent trip to the grocery store, so they planned to pass those out to the kids instead.
Ashley chatted with the other parents like she normally did, but all the while, she felt like she was barely keeping it together. Especially when one of the other moms, a cool blonde named Belinda with whom she had never been particularly close, said, “Is it true that you know Nash Hardwin? My cousin just texted me saying she heard you were with him at the café today. I told her I’d ask you because you’re standing right here.”
This was exactly the kind of gossip that solidified Ashley’s belief that she and Nash could never make a relationship work. Especially not if her son ended up caught in the middle of it all.
Ashley knew she never should have kissed him at the café! But since she had, she needed to put her game face on and figure out how to spin things in a positive way. After all, the sheer fact that Nash was even in Bar Harbor was already big enough news. But the fact that Ashley Sullivan, the single-mom-slash-spinster, had made out in public with an ex-felon rock star?
She couldn’t imagine much bigger news.
And if anyone had known precisely what had gone on between her and Nash in her bedroom after their kiss at the café…
The memories of their lovemaking made her skin heat up, even as she tried to remain calm and collected in front of the other parents.
Focus! She needed to focus on shutting Belinda’s gossipy question down—and quick. But how? Because everything Belinda’s cousin had texted her was true…and then some.
