Chapter Forty-Three
Sloane
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” I murmured under my breath when we pulled into the driveway of Travis’s beach house.
Fortunately, the only person to hear me was my buddy. Once we touched down at the airport, we’d said our goodbyes to Travis, and he got in one car while we got in Ryan’s.
“I told you this place is nice.”
Nice didn’t begin to describe it.
Starting with the stamped concrete circular drive and lush, green grounds. But it was the Pacific Ocean in the background and the smell of the salty air that really had me in awe.
“I can’t believe I’m going to be living here. I don’t know how Luke ever leaves his house.”
Ryan laughed. “Well, having four kids to feed probably motivates him to go to work.”
“I don’t know, I’m sure he could afford to stay home. I think Cassie makes at least double what he does.”
“Okay, then just having four kids in the house probably motivates him to go to work.”
That made me chuckle.
“They’re good kids, though.”
“Of course they are. You think Luke would let his kids act like hooligans?”
Luke was a former Marine, but he did his time and got out then joined the SDPD. He’d also been Maddie’s sergeant on the SWAT team until recently when he was promoted to Lieutenant. His wife, Cassie was smokin’ hot and took absolutely zero shit.
“I know Cassie wouldn’t.”
“Yeah, I’m not convinced Grace and I aren’t going to be total pushovers with our kids,” Ryan said reflectively.
“Oh yeah?” I asked as he shut the car off outside the white Mediterranean-style house. “Something you need to tell me?”
“Nah, not yet. She says we have to wait. I’m aching to have ‘em though.”
“You guys will be great parents,” I said then quickly opened the car door and swung my legs out before he noticed me choke up. I hated that I was envious of my friends, but I was. Other than the obvious—working and unscarred bodies, they had the women they’d be wifing up soon, and futures that included kids.
I needed to get out of that headspace. I’d worked too fucking hard to get sucked back into feeling sorry for myself again.
The front door opened as Ryan pulled my bags and walker from the trunk.
“Hey!” A kid wearing black joggers and a grey vintage Tom Petty Wildflowers t-shirt, who looked like he’d just graduated bootcamp, called from the porch. “You must be the new guy.”
I took the walker and made my way to the front steps, taking a look at the lengthy wheelchair ramp as I did.
Fuck, that was a long walk for three goddamn steps.
“Sloane Davidson,” I said as I debated whether I wanted to attempt the stairs and risk falling on my ass in front of the kid or take the long way.
“Stu Laughlin,” he replied, then turned his body and held onto the railing with one hand, while holding a phantom walker in the other. “If you turn your walker to the side, you can use it and the railing for support,” he suggested. “Always remember—up with your good leg, down with the bad.”
I remember Judy saying those exact words and attempted the stairs. Fortunately for my ego, I was able to maneuver them easier than I thought while Ryan walked behind me.
“Sorry our PTA isn’t here,” Stu said once we were inside the house. “We weren’t expecting you for another few hours, so she ran to the store to get stuff to make you a cheesecake as a sort of welcome present. She likes to bake.” He patted his flat stomach. “And lucky for us, we get to reap the benefits.”
“She’s making a cheesecake?”
Stu’s revelation almost made me discount the view of the ocean that I could see even from the entry of the house.
I stole a glance at Ryan, who’d narrowed his eyes, so I knew he was thinking what I was thinking. But there’s no way it could be my Ashley.
“It’s sooo fucking good, dude.”
Another guy closer to my age appeared and added, “Ash has quickly learned we’ll do just about anything for her baking or to hold Millie, and she’s not above using that to her advantage.”
“Millie?” Ryan asked.
“Her baby daughter,” the new guy said, then extended his hand. “Crash Davis.”
Unlike Stu, Crash had on a pair of shorts, so I can see he had two artificial legs—one from the hip down, and one just below his knee.
I took his offered hand and shook it. “Sloane Davidson.” After releasing my grip, I said, “So, is there a story behind your name?”
“Not as far my injuries go, no. My given name is Christopher, but the movie, Bull Durham came out when I was just learning to walk, so my dad started calling me Crash, and it stuck. Of course, the guys in paratrooper school had a field day with it. And I guess my accident does add another layer of humor to it.”
“Yeah, if you have a sick sense of humor,” Stu replied.
“Well, we both know the answer to that.”
That boded well for how I was going to get along with these guys, but that still left our PTA.
“So, what do I need to know about Ashley?”
“I mean, she’s funny…” Stu said.
Crash added, “And she won’t hesitate to give you a hard time if she thinks you’re being a pussy, although she’d use much nicer language.”
“And she’s hot, in a MILF kind of way. Not that she’d ever date one of us.”
“But I think she did go out with Dr. Connolly last Friday night.”
Stu turned to look at Crash. “Do you think so?”
“I’m pretty sure. I heard her talking to her friend Tammy about it.”
Her friend Tammy ?!
I felt Ryan clutch my shoulder.
“What about Millie’s dad?” I asked, my tone a little more urgent than a normal person’s probably would be.
“She hasn’t talked about him, but from what I’ve gathered, he’s not in the picture.”
“Does Ashley have a port-wine stain on her face?” Ryan asked.
“No,” both men replied at the same time, then Stu said, “Let me show you to your room.”
“See? It’s not her,” Ryan murmured quietly.
He didn’t know that she’d made an appointment to discuss having it removed.
As we walked toward the back of the house, Stu explained, “We’ve got the main living area here.” The kitchen and family rooms were one great room with floor to ceiling windows that looked out at the beach.
“There’s a workout-slash-therapy room off the kitchen,” he gestured to a doorway off the kitchen, then stopped at a room left of the family room. “This is you.”
He pointed to a hallway on the opposite side of the family room, past the kitchen. “My and Crash’s rooms are down there, and Ashley’s quarters are up there.” He gestured to a staircase by my door.
Chimes rang out, and Crash said, “Speaking of Ash. She’s home.”
I tilted my head in confusion and Stu said, “The driveway camera just went off.” He then flashed his phone screen that showed a white Camry pulling up next to Ryan’s Audi.
I wanted to grab the phone and watch who got out, but he tucked it back in the pocket of his joggers.
“We can get you the code so you have access to the cameras, too.”
There are millions of white Camrys on the road , I reminded myself, but I glanced nervously at Ryan when we heard the front door open.
It felt like it took an hour for this Ashley-person to go from the front door to the living room entry. But when she did finally make an appearance, it felt like all the air was instantly sucked from my lungs.
It was her. My dulzura.
I stood there quietly, staring at her — t he woman who’d haunted my dreams for the last year. She was more beautiful than ever, but there was something different about her. Probably because she’d just had a baby.
My baby.
I knew the second I looked at the little girl in the carrier that she was mine . She was so small. And beautiful.
Meanwhile, I’d never been more aware of my appearance, and I shifted my body, so my left side was away from her view.
Ryan leaned over to murmur, “It looks like Schr?dinger's cat is not only alive, but it had a kitten.”
Ashley’s eyes got wide when she recognized me, and the bags she’d been holding with her free hand dropped with a thud onto the wood floor, causing the contents to spill out.
Ryan’s hand clutched my shoulder, and he continued softly, “I think you’re a daddy, buddy.”
Yeah, no shit.
“You okay, Ash?” Crash asked as he moved closer, like he was going to help her pick up the grocery items now rolling around on the floor.
I dropped my head and closed my eyes. I knew what was coming—the gasp that she wouldn’t be able to hide when she noticed the left side of my face when I turned to face her squarely, quickly disguised by a disingenuous smile as she looked at me with pity. I’d seen it countless times.
Slowly, I turned. But instead of the gasp and fake smile, she glowered at me, while telling Crash, “No, I’m not.”
“This is the new guy, Slo—”
She interrupted him with a terse, “I know who he is.”
With that, she took the baby carrier and disappeared up the stairs, leaving the grocery bags on the floor. I heard the lock turn on her door once she closed it.
What the hell?
I was glad Ryan was there when Stu and Crash both turned to me glaring, and Stu growled, “Who the fuck are you?”
****
Ashley
My hackles had gone up when I pulled into the driveway and saw a white Audi that looked exactly like Ryan’s, sitting next to the garage.
As I got Millie from the backseat and the grocery bags from the trunk, I reasoned with myself that the Universe had my back, there was no way it had that sick a sense of humor and the new guy was Sloane.
Then I saw Sloane and Ryan standing in the doorway of Scotty’s old room, and realized, oh yes it did.
He actually looked better than I’d thought he would. I’d imagined his injuries would be far more extensive. Not that they weren’t debilitating, I guess I just assumed they’d have to be more horrific to warrant not wanting anything to do with his daughter.
Like I’d said months ago, his loss.
I wasn’t about to give him even one more glimpse at the perfect being he’d helped create because, fuck him. He didn’t deserve that privilege.
I sent Tammy and my mom a text.
Me: I have a huge favor to ask. Can one of you take Millie tonight? There’s been an emergency here at the beach house.
My BFF replied immediately.
Tammy: On my way.
I was glad it was Tammy coming. I didn’t have the energy to explain to my mom what the emergency was. Tam would know the minute she saw Sloane.
Until then, I needed to stay in problem-solving mode because I knew if I stopped for even just a second to contemplate Sloane being downstairs, I’d come undone.