AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ow, I was kidding!”
Her knuckles throbbed. She hadn’t quite expected him to be that muscular. “No, that’s sexual harassment!”
“And you just assaulted me!” he sputtered.
“You’re lucky I didn’t assault you with my heel.”
That grin was back and she held up a finger. “Do. Not. Say. It.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Sinking back into the passenger seat, she sighed. “I should change my clothes too. One wrong breeze and I’ll give everyone a show.”
“I wouldn’t mind,” he said.
She sighed. “I guess I can’t blame you for that one. I walked right into it.”
“Yeah, you did.”
Rylie needed to get them on a safer topic, one less laced with innuendos. “To get to my house, you take Main to—”
“I know where you live, Rylie.”
“How?”
“I’ve seen your personnel file.”
So much for privacy. “Right.”
He made a slight turn onto Highway 88. “I was surprised you didn’t stay in the place you shared with your dad.”
Rylie’s chest hurt, thinking about her dad. Her father had been a good man, the best. She strived to be like him every day—selfless, understanding, and brave.
Nothing like her mother, who had found out that she’d had ovarian cancer and instead of staying and fighting, she’d run off to “experience life.”
Her dad had been heartbroken, but never spoke ill of her, even when Rylie did. She’d hated her mother for hu
rting him.
And me. She left me too.
They’d gotten a call from a hospital in Florida that she’d been admitted and they’d flown down to see her. She’d been so far gone; there was nothing the doctors could do for her.
She’d asked their forgiveness, and her dad had given it readily.
Rylie couldn’t. After sixteen years of being an amazing wife and mother, she’d bailed. She’d gone off and screwed around and who knows what. That’s what she’d wanted to do with the rest of her time instead of being with the people who loved her.
After her mom died, her dad had sold their house to pay for the deductibles from her mother’s medical care and used the rest to pay for culinary school for Rylie. Once she’d finished, she’d wanted to go to Paris and study under one of the top pastry chefs, and eventually, open her own gourmet bakery. It had been her dream since she was eight and got her first Easy-Bake Oven, and her dad had tried to make it happen for her.
It hadn’t though.
She’d been in her last semester when she’d had to drop out and come home. Her dad had experienced a mild heart attack and needed help recovering. She always thought she would go back, but after he didn’t survive his second one, she had been left with more debt….
And Asher.
“Rylie? You all right?” Dustin asked.
“Yeah, sure. I’m just surprised you knew where we lived.”
