Read Online After All by Jolene Betty Perry - Free Book Online

she’d come for Trevor instead of me.
    This was all happening backward. I figured that if I met someone I was interested in, we’d spend a lot of time together before bringing the kids into it. But here… It was like she was closer with them than to me, and maybe that’s how it should be. Maybe by living next door and enjoying their company, she’d be a part of our lives…just maybe not as much a part of mine.
    Trevor grabbed Ashley in a hug when she hit the bottom of the bleachers. He’d made it out of the lockers in record time, and I had no doubt Ashley had something to do with that. “It was really cool of you to come.”
    “Thanks.” She gave him a mock punch to the chest. “You were pretty awesome. Want your sweatshirt back?”
    “Nah.” He shook his head. “You can bring it next time you come for dinner. Maybe in a few days?”
    Trevor glanced up at me just long enough that I knew he was pushing this—it was such a Marie thing to do.
    Oh, no. Where were Ree and Alex? I jogged down the bleachers trying to figure out the most likely place he dragged her off to so he could stick his tongue in her mouth. Or worse… I wasn’t ready to be dealing with this.
    “You can’t invite me to your house, Trevor. Not without talking to your dad.” Ashley glanced my way with enough of a smile to stop me for a moment.
    I touched Ashley’s shoulder on my way around her to find Marie. “We’d love to have your for dinner.”
    Where was my daughter?
    “Ash!” Marie called as she ran toward us—thankfully no Alex in tow. “Can I ride with you? Trevor’s always smelly after a game.” She wrinkled up her nose.
    “No, Marie…” I started.
    “It’s fine,” she said. “We’re headed to the same place. And it can’t possibly take more than three minutes to get there.”
    I braced myself for the protests I knew would come. “I walked."
    “ Dad .” Trevor’s voice had the same exasperated tone that Marie had down so well.
    Ashley raised a brow and looked at each of us in turn. “I’ll give everyone a ride home as long as no one makes fun of my car.”
    “The old focus is a classic.” I held in my smile. Terribly.
    She slugged me lightly on the arm. “Be nice or you’ll be walking.”
    And a gesture that should have been friendly, made me want more. Made me feel like I did when I was sixteen.
    Marie’s age.
    And that stopped me from saying anything in return.
    In what felt like seconds we were in her car, and Trevor was giving us a play by play of the game we just watched. Then we were parked and climbing out, and I still didn’t know how to make sure Ashley feel okay about coming to dinner.
    “Thanks, Ash!” The kids called over their shoulders as they ran into the house. It had all happened way too fast. We got here too fast. They disappeared too fast…
    “Oh, hey.” She closed her eyes quickly. “Brandt?”
    I did my best relaxed stance, though I was so strung up I was sure I was completely failing. “Yeah?”
    She shoved her hands deeper into Trevor’s sweatshirt.  “I hope it wasn’t weird. That I came.”
    I started toward her to tell her how amazing it was. How Trevor will be harassing me tonight, or worse, giving me pointers on how to spend more time with her. If there was a way for me to kiss her on the cheek without it being strange. I settled for, “Not at all.”
    “Night then.” She started toward her house.
    I had to tell her it was good. That she should come over. But keep my voice light. No big deal. No expectations. “Any night next week for dinner. We’d love to have you.”
    Ashley kept walking but turned around to face me, her relaxed smile back. “I don’t cook. At all. But I can wash a dish.”
    “Sounds like a plan.”
    A plan. With Ashley and my kids. Oh-kay… There were a million reasons why it wasn’t a good idea, but with Ashley smiling widely at me, her hands tucked in Trevor’s sweatshirt pockets, and the soft skin of her neck and collarbone exposed,