Page 119 of Sloane

Crash said, “Well, you know now. So, what are you going to do about it?”

“I—” My words faltered. “I have no idea. Ashley obviously has every reason to hate me.”

“Bzzzt! Wrong answer!” Stu declared.

“What do you mean, wrong answer?”

“I mean, man the fuck up, dude. You have a daughter!”

His words made me feel lightheaded.

I have a daughter.

“I want to respect Ashley. It’s going to be up to her what happens next.”

“You better make this right, jackass. I swear to God, if she leaves and takes Millie, I’m going to beat you in your bed with a sock filled with bars of soap.”

By the look on Crash’s face, he was serious.

Ryan nudged my arm. “Maybe you should bunk at my place until you have a chance to talk to Ash.”

A smart man would probably take my friend up on his offer. Obviously, I was not a smart man, because I shook my head and said, “No, I think I need to stay.”

He glanced at the two guys ready to take my head off.

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I’ll help you unpack.”

I knew Ryan was thinking the same thing I was thinking—I needed to open that letter.

****

Ashley

“I’m sorry, Sloane’s where?” Tammy asked as she sat at my kitchenette table.

She’d come directly up the stairs from the garage instead of entering through the house itself, so she hadn’t run into Sloane like I had. “Downstairs. He took Scotty’s place.”

She shook her head, like she was trying to clear something in her brain. “He what? He’s going to be living here?”

“Yeahhh.”

“Did he see you?”

I nodded my head slowly. “And Millie.”

Tam chewed the inside of her cheek as she stewed. Finally, she asked, “What are you going to do?”

“Obviously, I need to move out, but I can’t just leave until they find a replacement for me. Hopefully, I can get my job back at the VA. In the meantime, I’ll keep Millie out of the main house. I think I can put her in the VA’s daycare during the day when I’m doing therapy sessions here with the guys, and maybe my mom can watch her on the weekends.”

“I can help, too. But what if Sloane wants to spend time with her?”

“Why would he want to do that now? He already decided he didn’t want anything to do with her.”

“What if he changes his mind?”

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