“Dad let me ride on the back of his bike!” Penny exclaimed.
Ashleigh needled Alex with a sharp, stern glare. “I thought we talked about this. I don’t want her riding.”
“It was just a short ride,” Alex protested. “Besides, I made her wear a helmet.”
Ashleigh glared at him one last time to let him know that they were going to have a talk later. Then she drew in a deep breath and forced herself to move on. She and Alex didn’t always see eye to eye, but there was no doubt in her mind that they could work past it.
Everything else aside, he was great with Penny. Patient and gentle and so indulgent. She’d had to talk with him more than once about not spoiling her, even if he did have the money sacked away from his days of running drugs.
Eva popped her head through the kitchen door, holding up a white box. “The muffins are ready!” she called.
“Hon, I’m going to have to go,” Nancy told her, accepting the box from Eva.
“But mom!” Katie complained. “Penny got to ride a motorcycle!” Katie turned to Penny. “What was it like? Was it loud?”
Nancy tugged on Katie’s hand. “You can talk all about it tomorrow at school. Bye, Ash. Bye, Penny.”
“Bye,” Alex waved. When Nancy didn’t respond, he grinned smugly at Ashleigh. “I think she’s warming up to me.”
“She showed up to the wedding and put both our names on the card. That’s more than enough.” Ashleigh stooped down to pull Penny into a tight hug. “How was school?”
“Boring.”
Alex clapped Penny lightly on the back. “Better get used to it, kid. You’ve got twelve more years ahead of you.”
“So where are we going?” Ashleigh demanded.
“A restaurant.”
Ashleigh was almost afraid to ask. “But not another bar?”
Alex laughed. “I thought you’d like Sloppy Joe’s. It’s one of my favorite watering holes around here.”
Ashleigh wrinkled her nose at the thought of the grungy biker bar. She didn’t care where Alex went when the Devils were in town; she just didn’t want to be dragged along.
“I’m taking you to a real restaurant. You know, a nice one. With tablecloths.”
“Ooh, tablecloths,” she exclaimed.
“Fancy tablecloths,” Penny added, deadpan.
Ashleigh couldn’t stop herself from chuckling. She felt Alex laughing right alongside her.
It felt so right, she thought. It wasn’t perfect. There were still bills to pay and unresolved arguments and a lot of little details between the three of them that had to be ironed out. But Alex was his, and he was hers, and Penny loved them both. And that was all that Ashleigh could ever ask for.
THE END
Callie Pierce’s Collected Works
TORMENT: A Dark Bad Boy Romance
How delicious is pleasure after torment?
Cobra
I’m not proud of everything in my past.
I’ve done a lot I regret.
Some of those things I did because I had to.
Some of them, because I didn’t know any better.
But that was six years ago. Six years is a long time.
I’m different now.
No longer a boy. I’m a man.
And I’m coming back to claim what’s mine.
Ashleigh
I’ve worked hard to put my life back together.
He left it – left me – in utter chaos.
No money, no job, no future.
Just a baby to feed and long, endless hours to wonder where it all went wrong.
I’d loved him; I really had.
But now every thought of him is a jagged shard I can’t bear to touch.
For six years, I’ve slaved to make a life for myself and my daughter.
But just when things are starting to feel right again, guess who’s back in town?
Him, of course.
He was Alex when he left.
Now, they call him Cobra.
And his bite is a poison I cannot resist.
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BAD INFLUENCE: A Dark Bad Boy Romance Page 52