I checked my email, found the information Willow had sent, and quickly made the call. An hour later, I felt much better about the situation. I buzzed the intercom. “Can you come in here?”
Two seconds later, Willow walked into my office. Every day, I seemed to notice her more and more. She was pretty but not in the usual sense. I had always thought I was attracted to tall blonds with lots of curves in all the right places. Willow was petite and, with her short hair, reminded me of a fairy princess. Her eyes intrigued me. I wished I could stare at them without her seeing me stare. She had dainty features but there was nothing dainty about her. The woman had a spine made of steel and more gumption than any man I had ever met.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“I just got off the phone with that company you recommended,” I told her, gesturing for her to have a seat.
She sat down, crossing her legs and flashing a bit of thigh before she pulled down the skirt with the ruffled hem that was youthful and sexy at the same time. “And? Did they give you a good deal?”
I nodded. “I feel like I got a good deal. It’s going to be an extra cost, but they gave me a huge price break because I’m having the systems installed in all my stores from here down to LA.”
Her bright smile made me feel funny inside. “I’m happy to hear that. I think it will give you peace of mind to know your stores are being watched with an eagle eye.”
“It does. I’ll also get a better insurance rate, so the extra cost isn’t so bad.”
“Good.”
“I’m impressed,” I blurted out.
She raised a brow. “Impressed by?”
“You,” I said, finding it very easy to praise her. “I didn’t know you knew as much about the business as you do. Or security.”
She winked, her perfect lips spreading into a friendly smile. “I know a little about a lot of things. I’m not an expert in any one thing, but I am a fountain of knowledge.”
A small, awkward chuckle erupted from my throat. It was strange. Good, but strange. “I’ll try and keep that in mind during the next crisis.”
“It’s only a crisis if you let it be. You have to take things in small bites. You can’t walk into a scene like that and start thumping your chest and howling at the moon. You’ll find you get a lot farther with honey than vinegar.”
I nodded. “I have heard that before.”
“I am here to remind you then.”
I decided to take a chance. I knew it was risky, but I wanted to get to know her better. She fascinated me. “Would you like to get dinner with me?” I asked.
I saw a small grimace on her face and it immediately made me regret my question. “I can’t. But thank you so much for asking.”
“I see.”
“Trust me, if it was anything different, I would absolutely take you up on the offer, but I work for you. I don’t want things to get messy. It’s never good to blur the lines between professional and personal.”
She was right.
“I understand,” I said, trying to hide my disappointment. “You’re right.”
“I’m going to get back to my desk. I just got the police report. I’m waiting on the inventory list, and then I will match it up with what our records show. I’ve already contacted the insurance company.”
“Wow. You work fast.”
She grinned as she got to her feet. “I told you I’m so much more than a pretty face.”
She was definitely more than a pretty face and a hot body. I sighed against the chair. I had never been shot down before. I didn’t think I liked the feeling. Then again, she may as well have waved a red flag in front of me. I couldn’t help but see her as a challenge. I liked a challenge. I liked doing something I was told I couldn’t.
I’d ask her again after we had spent more time together. She was a tough cookie. I wanted to know her better. I wanted to know why she was the way she was. I knew where I came from and wondered if she had a similar background. She had the attitude of a woman who’d grown up on the wrong side of the tracks—just like me.
She was tough and strong, and yet, she had a soft touch at times. I wanted to know more. I wanted to know what made her tick. What made her tough enough to deal with my shit? I was going to find out, one way or another.
Kyle thought I was a total asshole, but I had game when I wanted to. I could charm the ladies. A lot of them were actually very attracted to my bad side. They liked the bad boy thing until they realized it wasn’t a ruse. I really was that guy. They usually lost my number in a hurry or I lost theirs. I didn’t care about any of that. I had my sights set on Willow.
Chapter 16
Willow
Ashton had let me leave a little early for the day. I had a feeling it was his way of getting rid of me after the somewhat awkward request to have dinner with him. I didn’t mean to shut him down or insult him, but I had a son. I didn’t really have the luxury of dating. I probably would have said yes if things weren’t so dicey with Jake and his school situation.
If he asked me again, I wouldn’t be so quick to shut him down. I would ask him to let me get back to him. That would give me a chance to ask Lilly to babysit. I knew she would jump at the chance if it meant me going out with Ashton.
She would jump at the chance if I went out with anyone.
She was always telling me I needed to get out more. Oddly enough, I never had any real desire to go out. My time with Jake was so limited as it was. I didn’t want to waste a single minute of my free time by dating.
I picked up Jake before he went into the after-school program, surprising him and obviously worrying him. “Why are you picking me up?” he asked for a third time.
“Because I got off work early and it’s payday. I want to party.”
“Party?” he asked, his little nose scrunched up.
“Yep. We are going to have some fun.”
“On a school night?”
I laughed. I was blowing the poor child’s mind. “We aren’t going to stay out all night. What would you like to do?”
“I don’t know.”
“How about we get dinner at McDonald’s and then go to Magowan’s Infinite Mirror Maze? You have told me you wanted to go. Let’s go.”
I turned to look in the backseat. There was a bright smile on his face. I loved to see him smile. “I want to go,” he said, his voice just above a whisper, like he was afraid to say it and believe it.
“Then we’re going to go,” I said, turning back around to focus on the road. “Maybe after the maze, we’ll go on the carousel.”
“You said that was too expensive for a short ride,” he reminded me.
It really was, but I could afford an extra ten dollars. It was a splurge, but it was something he always asked to do, and I always told him we couldn’t. It felt ridiculous to pay that much for a little ride, but it was one of those things that once he did it, he would have his curiosity satisfied. “We can do it this once.”
He clapped his hands together. “Okay.”
I drove to the public parking garage, took out my debit card, and stuck my purse under the seat. The Pier was a fun place, but it was a tourist magnet, and locals knew that. Purse snatchers and pickpockets were rampant in the area.
“Stay right next to me,” I told him, heading across the street.
I loved hanging out at the Pier, but it could be a little wild. I was hoping it would be slow since it was the middle of the week. It didn’t look too bad. We made it to the maze place, an attraction he had been very anxious to go in for quite some time. I loved that I could finally fulfill his dream, even if it was a small one.
“Ready?” I asked him after paying our entrance fee.
His face was flushed with excitement. I followed behind him as we weaved around the maze. He laughed so hard, he had tears rolling down his face. I did as well. I couldn’t remember having so much fun. I regretted not doing it earlier.
“Can we go on the carousel now?” he asked.
I checked t
he time. “We’ll do the carousel and then we’ll get dinner. Then it’s going to be time to go home and take a bath and get ready for bed.”
He bobbed his head up and down. “Okay.”
I cringed when I bought the tokens. Locals knew it was a total rip off, but what could you do when your son begged? Everyone had been on it numerous times, except him. We headed up to the second level, found our ponies, and enjoyed the whopping three-minute ride before it was all over.
“Was it everything you thought it would be?” I asked him as we strolled back toward the car.
“What does that mean?”
I laughed, forgetting he was only nine. We spent enough time together that I thought of him as a friend. “It means was it as good as you thought it would be?”
He shrugged. “It was okay. I liked the maze better.”
“Me too.”
I drove us to McDonald’s, pulled out my coupon that had come in the local free paper, and ordered us two meals, buy one get one free. We sat down at a table and quickly sorted the food.
“Is it always going to be me and you?” he asked before taking a bite of his cheeseburger.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Everyone else has sisters or brothers or some cousins,” he explained. “Is it just going to be me and you?”
It was a loaded question. He didn’t often ask about his father, and he had not asked me in a long time, but I had a feeling the conversation was headed there now. I knew one day, we would have to have the conversation, but it was still a little much for a nine-year-old to hear. Adult problems were adult problems and I didn’t see any reason to bring little kids into it. He didn’t need to know his father was a jerk. We had been hot and heavy and I was convinced we were in love and the moment he found out I was pregnant, he dumped me. He ghosted me and fell off the face of the earth to never be seen or heard from again. It had hurt, but in the end, I was glad he left. I wouldn’t want him around my son. He wasn’t a great man and he was an even worse influence.
“I don’t know,” I told him honestly. “Why?”
He shrugged. “I like when it’s just me and you, but I would kind of like a little brother.”
I laughed. “A little brother?”
“Yes.”
“Let me see if Amazon has little brothers. We could get free shipping.”
He burst into a fit of giggles. “You can’t buy little brothers on Amazon.”
“Are you sure? Maybe Walmart?”
His sweet little laughter made my heart happy. “Mom, I’m serious.”
I was not going to discuss babies and how they came to be in a family. He was already too mature for his age. “I think we can talk about growing our family one day, but that isn’t going to be today.”
“I’m getting too big to be a big brother,” he said.
I laughed. “You can never be too big to be a big brother.”
“But if I’m a teenager, I’ll be too old to play with a little brother,” he insisted.
It amazed me how smart he was. Most kids couldn’t work out a problem and predict consequences. He sounded so mature. Part of me was proud of him and another part was sad for him. He was growing up way too fast. I didn’t want him to worry about grownup problems.
“We’ll see what happens. I would love to have a couple more little Jakes, but for now, it’s just me and you, pal.”
“Okay,” he said, not sounding too sad about things.
“Are you sure? Maybe we can get a goldfish. You could be a big brother to the fish.”
He groaned. “Mom, you’re being silly.”
“I can’t help it,” I told him, making no excuses.
“I don’t want a fish. The last one died after we had it a couple of days.”
“Fish aren’t always hardy.”
“Hardy?”
I smiled. “You know, tough and strong. Like you. You’re hardy.”
“You’re hardy,” he shot back.
“Yes, I am. We’re both tough.”
“It’s okay, Mom,” he said, unwrapping his other burger.
“What’s okay?”
“I don’t mind it just being you and me,” he said with a thoughtful expression.
His words were sweet, if a little harsh. I knew what he meant. I wished other kids could see what I saw. He would be the best friend another kid had if they would just give him a chance. I wished they could see past his slightly awkward personality and clothes that weren’t trendy. I couldn’t remember having to worry about what I wore when I was his age, but nowadays, it was like nine was the new fifteen.
“I love hanging out with you. No matter what happens, it will always be you and me. We might have an extra face or three sitting at the dinner table, but you are always going to be my very special guy.”
He grinned. “Okay. And you’ll always be my mom.”
I laughed. His sense of humor was all me. “Yes, I will. You can’t get rid of me.”
We finished our meals before heading to our apartment. Jake got into the tub without any fight. I kicked off my shoes and settled in on the couch. It had been a really good day, even if it had not started off on the best foot. I had gone to work with a heavy heart, thinking about Jake at school. When I had dropped him off, he acted like I was sending him into prison.
Then the break-in and Ashton’s horrible behavior. The day certainly finished on a high note. And I was confident Ashton and I had finally broken the ice. He had actually asked me out. I wasn’t sure how to take that. I didn’t want to be a work fling. I didn’t want to be the cliché secretary banging her rich boss on the desk in his office.
“I’m all done,” Jake said, coming into the living room.
“Did you clean your ears?”
“Yes, Mom,” he said.
“Want to read for a while?”
He sighed. “No. I’m tired. I want to go to bed.”
I slapped a hand over my chest. “Well, will miracles never cease.”
He laughed before giving me a kiss on my cheek. “Goodnight, Mom. Thank you for taking me to the Pier today. I had a lot of fun.”
“I’m glad you did. I hope we can do it again sometime. Maybe we’ll check out the aquarium on my day off.”
His eyes widened. “But you said it cost a lot of money.”
I shrugged. “It’ll be okay. Like I said, things are better now. We’re going to be okay.”
He nodded and walked away to his room. I couldn’t stop smiling. It felt good to spoil him just a little bit. It was only my first paycheck and I was already planning on how to spend my next ten checks. I had so much hope for the future. I was inspired to do better. It was crazy to believe one chance encounter could change my life. At least, I hoped it would continue to be a positive change.
I had learned never to put the cart before the horse, but I was confident things were going to be different. The job felt right. Ashton was difficult, but I knew how to handle him. He was slowly wearing down a little every day. I had a feeling we would be friends in a couple of months. Or at least friendlier. I wasn’t sure he knew how to be a friend.
I decided to call it an early night as well. It had been a long day and I wanted to go to bed on a high note. When I crawled into bed, it was Ashton I thought about. His stern gaze and the chiseled jaw. He was a hard man, but I had caught a tiny glimpse of what was under that hard shell, and I wanted to see more.
Chapter 17
Ashton
I could hear her singing the moment I stepped through the doors. It was an odd sound in my normally quiet office. Kyle had told me we needed to get some Muzak or something to make visitors feel more comfortable. It seemed we didn’t need the sound system anymore—we had our own personal singer on staff. Although her voice wasn’t exactly something many would call soothing or comforting.
The receptionist out front rolled her eyes. “I didn’t know I was working at the Grand Ole Opry,” she complained.
“It’s nice to have a little singing,”
I defended.
“It would be even nicer if it was in tune.”
I smirked. She had a point. Willow was not going to be a singer. Ever. At least, not the kind that made money. “She’s happy,” I said and walked down the hall. I was happy she was happy. Yesterday, the silence had been deafening. I had missed her off-key singing.
“Good morning,” she greeted, handing me a sheet of paper that I knew would be my schedule. She was very serious about her paperwork.
“Good morning. What’s on the schedule today?”
“You have a meeting with the security guy at ten.”
I looked down at the paper. “I thought it was set up yesterday.”
“It was, but he’s a hands-on guy. He doesn’t just sell you a piece of equipment and fall off the face of the earth. He’s probably going to bring you some paperwork and go over every little detail about the system.”
That didn’t mean shit to me. “It’s my managers who will need to be trained on the system. Not me. I don’t see why I need to be involved.”
She got to her feet, and her hands went to her hips, accentuated by the slacks she wore. They were very trim and showed off her perfectly rounded hips and tiny waist. I could see by the look on her face she was about to lecture me. I sighed with resignation, knowing there was no escaping it. If I walked away, she would only follow. It was best to just get it over with.
“Ashton,” she started, her voice taking on the tone I had become very familiar with.
“Willow,” I said, using the same tone and earning a frown from her.
“He is a friend of mine. You better be nice.”
“A friend of yours?” I questioned, jealousy running through my veins.
“Yes, he’s nice.”
I shook my head. “Nope. I don’t mix friends with business. I’ll call another company.” She didn’t need to know I didn’t have any friends to mix business with.
“Stop it,” she scolded. “He’s not really a friend, more like an acquaintance. He put in the alarm system at one of my old jobs. We talked a little, but that was it. He’s a nice guy. A family man that seems to have a real interest in protecting people.”
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