Page 97 of Sloane

Ashley

“Just five more reps, Dan.”

“Slave driver.”

“You can’t say that anymore. Besides, I prefer the term tyrant.”

The bald man grimaced as he did another leg extension, grumbling, “You’re a lot nicer when your ankles aren’t swollen, Ash.”

I didn’t even disguise my grin as I looked at my clipboard while I wrote his day’s stats.

“I don’t think my swollen ankles have anything to do with it. I’ve always been mean.” Sliding the pen into the metal clip, I looked over at him. “But just remember, when you’re walking your daughter down the aisle next month without a cane, there’s a reason for my cruelty.”

He finished his reps and leaned back on the machine’s black vinyl seat to wipe his face with a towel. “I wanna dance with her, too.”

“I think that can be arranged.”

Tapping his metal leg, Dan sighed. “I’m worried I’m not going to have enough time to adjust to the new leg.”

He’d experienced socket rejection with his first permanent prosthetic, and we’d been trying to find the right one ever since.

“I talked to the lab this morning. They’re on schedule to ship it tomorrow; we’ll have it in time for your appointment on Thursday, and we can get started Cha-Cha-ing on Friday.”

The man shook his head as he swung his flesh and bone leg over the bench in preparation to stand. “Aren’t you off this Friday? We’ll get to work on dancing Monday.”

“Nonsense, old man. Unless you need to take Friday off to rest.”

I thought that would piss the Army Master Sergeant off, and he’d take the bait, instead, he replied, “You should take advantage of your time off and rest. When’s your due date again?”

“August fifteenth.”

“You’ve got another month? You’re getting pretty big for having to go until August fifteenth.”

So maybe I had gotten under his skin a little.

“Ouch. Don’t hold back, Dan.”

“When have we ever held back with each other, kid?”

I sighed. “Fair enough.”

“Monday will still give us plenty of time. You need to take it easy.”

“It’s hard. I like to keep busy.”

“You’re going to be plenty busy soon enough. I don’t envy you being a single mom.”

“Well, it wasn’t my first choice, but...” I shrugged my shoulders. “Whaddya gonna do?”

“Find a new man.”

I snorted. “I don’t think that’s in the cards right now.”

“How hard is it to find one these days? Don’t you just have to swipe right?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “How do you know about swiping right?”

“Jesus Christ, how old do you think I am? Plenty of guys my age use dating sites.”

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