Hustler_A Second Chance Romance Read online

  “You’re a sucker for that move,” she said.

  “I’m a sucker for that move. But the moment I caved, he caved with me. Grabbed my hair, tilted my head. Pushing me back into the damn railing while grabbing my ass.”

  “Holy shit. Did he accost you on your damn porch?”

  “Yes. He did. And I loved every second of it.”

  “How do you feel about that?”

  “Feel about what, Mommy?”

  We both looked down at Harper as I brushed my teeth. Harper had on her unicorn top with her rainbow tutu and her favorite pair of jelly shoes. She had her tiara in her hair and her purse slung across her shoulder and looked like she was ready go to.

  “Well, aren’t you nice and festive,” Amy said.

  “Only the best for the best,” Harper said.

  I threw my head back and laughed before I spit into the sink.

  “What are you feeding this child?” Amy asked.

  “Unicorn tarts, apparently,” I said.

  “Ready to go?” Harper asked.

  “Let Mommy put some clothes on,” I said. “And to answer your question, Amy—I’m not sure.”

  I rifled through my closet and found a romper that would be perfect with my daughter’s outfit. It was black and had a sparkling purple belt around it that glittered when the sun hit it. I slipped into my sparkling flip flops to match her shoes and grabbed my purse, then the three of us headed to my car.

  First, it was pizza time.

  Harper ate three whole slices of pizza and I had no idea where she put it. I could hardly put down two sometimes, but I was also a soda guzzler. We ordered a large pepperoni pizza for the three of us, and Harper still wanted ice cream after we put an end to the greasy round in front of us.

  “She must be growing,” Amy said. “You know what I gave her for breakfast?”

  “Besides the popsicle?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Besides that. A bowl of cereal, a banana, and two slices of peanut butter toast.”

  “Yep. She’s growing,” I said.

  Amy refused to let me pay for lunch, so I told her the shopping was on me. I wasn’t sure if that was the best idea, but I sucked it up anyway. We went to the strip mall on the other side of town and walked through the stores with Harper holding both of our hands. She loved running through the racks of clothes and playing hide-and-seek.

  After our shopping adventure came to a halt, Harper had three new outfits, two new toys, and a craft box Amy had created simply to make my life a living nightmare. Non-toxic watercolor paints, glitter glue in all sorts of colors, markers, crayons with a sharpener, colored paper, and kid-friendly scissors.

  My house was never going to be clean again.

  “Can we go to the library now? I wanna see Lyle Crotchodile.”

  “What did you say?” Amy asked.

  “Crocodile, Harper. Crock-oh-dial.”

  “Crotch-oh-dial.”

  Amy threw her head back and laughed hysterically as I put everything in the trunk.

  “I love your daughter,” she said.

  “Well I hate you for this craft box. Are you paying for someone to clean my house twice a week?” I asked.

  “You’ll be okay. You’ll survive. It’s a mother’s right of passage with this stuff.”

  “And what do you know about that?” I asked.

  “Nothing, if I’m lucky. Could you see me as a mom? I’d much rather spoil them and send them back then have to teach a toddler not to be a terrible sh—”

  “Language,” I said.

  “Doo doo face,” Amy said.

  “Thanks.”

  “My child’s first word would be a cuss word.”

  “I have no doubt about that.”

  We got into the car and headed to the library as my phone rang. Picking it up from the cup holder, I answered the call, not taking my eyes off the road.

  “Hello?” I asked.

  “Are you smiling, beautiful?”

  I felt my cheeks flush as a smile spread across my face.

  “Hey there, Ryan,” I said. “How are you?”

  “I’m good. Thinking about you.”

  Amy’s jaw was hanging in her lap as she slapped my thigh.

  “Put him on speaker,” she said, with a whisper.

  “No,” I said.

  She yanked the phone from my hand and I tried to fight her for it. The light turned green and I had to pay attention to the road. The call got put on speakerphone and I looked back to see what Harper was doing.

  She was fast asleep in her car seat.

  “Grace?”

  “I’m here. Sorry, I’m driving.”

  “Do you want me to call back?” he asked.

  “No, no, no. I’m okay. What’s up?”

  “I was wondering what you were doing tomorrow? You know, since the bank closes early on Sundays,” he said.

  Amy was furiously nodding her head as I stumbled over my words.

  “I mean, I um—get off work around four.”

  “So, can I pick you up after you get off and take you somewhere?”

  “I, uh, I’m, I mean, hold please,” I stammered like an idiot. Ryan chuckled, and I felt a warmth spread through my veins. Amy hit the mute button and I gawked at her as we sat at another red light.

  “I’ll watch Harper,” she said.

  “Amy, no you don’t have to do that.”

  “I haven’t seen you this giggly since Grant. I’ll watch Harper. Go on the damn date,” she said.

  Then she unmuted the call before I could protest. I blew out a breath, trying to regain my composure.

  “I should be free around five thirty. What did you have in mind?” I asked.

  “Dinner. But not at the buffet,” Ryan said.

  “Ooh. A ‘not a buffet’ dinner. Sounds fancy,” I said.

  “You wear whatever makes you feel beautiful, Grace.”

  I melted at my name falling from his lips.

  “So, what do you say?” he asked. “Pick you up around six?”

  “Sure. That sounds like fun. I’ll see you then,” I said.

  The call cut off and Amy squealed in her seat. We pulled into the parking lot of the library as Harper’s head whipped up. She was ready for a nap but her eyes lit up when she saw where we were. I couldn't deny her curious mind wanting to take an adventure in a place full of books and educational videos.

  “Lyle Crotchodile!” Harper said.

  “I really have to fix that,” I said.

  “No. No you don’t,” Amy said with a smile.

  “You ready to go inside?” I asked.

  “Yeah, Mommy!”

  “I have one question though,” Amy said.

  “Can it wait?” I asked.

  “No. Are you going to introduce you-know-who to—?”

  Amy nodded her head back to Harper as she struggled to unbuckle her seatbelt.

  “No. Not yet. It’s way too soon. It’s only our second—you know,” I said.

  “But you’ve known him for a long time.”

  “I knew him back in high school. We haven’t talked in seven or eight years,” I said.

  “You said it felt like old times. I was only wondering.”

  “That doesn’t mean he’s the same person. This might just be a—fun thing,” I said. “And the last thing Harper needs is a revolving door of men who don’t stick around.”

  “Well considering that you never actually do anything, that seems highly unlikely,” Amy said.

  “What’s unlikey mean?” Harper piped up from the back seat.

  “Nothing,” Amy and I said in unison.

  We all got out of the car and I couldn’t stop smiling. We went and found Lyle, Lyle Crocodile for Harper to check out, then we walked over to the children’s book section. Amy read a book to her before Harper tried to read it back, and I picked out a couple of books to take home and read to her over the course of the next week.

  I was trying to get Harper into chapter books like Grant used to enj
oy.

  She needed some part of her father in her life.

  “Ready to go?” I asked.

  “Do we have to, Mom?”

  Harper’s eyes were fluttering closed even as she protested.

  “How about this? We’ll lay you on the couch with your favorite blanket and you can watch Lyle, Lyle Crocodile on the television,” I said.

  “Will Auntie Amy stay, too?” Harper asked.

  “Dinner’s on me?” Amy asked.

  “You got lunch,” I said.

  “And you got the shopping trip. Dinner’s on me. We can talk over wine while Harper snoozes,” she said.

  “I like the sound of that,” I said with a grin.

  CHAPTER 5

  RYAN

  I couldn’t get Grace out of my mind.

  I had to see her again.

  It was unlike me to play with fire when a heist was involved, but Grace had that effect on me.

  “Ryan, it’s almost dark outside. Why are we at the park?”

  “Didn’t you want to be a writer, Grace? Use that imagination of yours.”

  I got out of my car and popped the trunk. My plan was a moonlit picnic in the local park. The play area of the park was closed after dusk, but parts of it were open to the public all throughout the day and night. I pulled out a few blankets and grabbed the picnic basket, then held out my arm for Grace to take.

  “Follow me,” I said.

  We started up a small hill before I dropped our things. I spread out a wide blanket and helped her sit down. Then, I pulled four battery-powered lanterns from a bag I was carrying and set them on either side of the blanket. The lightning bugs were beginning to come out, the stars were twinkling above us, and the food was ready to eat.

  “Ryan, this is so romantic,” Grace said.

  “I remember you used to love laying out after the football games and watching the stars,” I said.

  “Well that was just so we could make out. You always looked so good when you were sweaty after a game,” she giggled.

  I smiled at her, trying to will my dick not to respond.

  I pulled out some grapes and handed her a container of food. She took it as I watched her eyes reflect the starry sky. I knew I was nailing it and that she loved every bit of this. I could see it written all over her face.

  “I’m surprised you remembered that I enjoy writing,” she said.

  “Do you still write?” I asked.

  “In my spare time. I’m mostly working at the bank and taking care of Harper these days, but one day I’d like to make a living writing and publishing children’s books.”

  “What would you write them about?”

  “After Grant died, I wanted to find books Harper could read to cope with the loss of a parent, or more specifically, growing up with a parent they’d never met,” she said.

  “I take it there aren’t many?” I asked.

  “Very few. And most of them are terrible. ‘Talk to the stars and they’ll listen’ and crap like that.”

  “You don’t believe that?”

  “I think it’s a bad idea to plant in a moldable child’s mind. If I were to look at Harper and tell her that if she talked to the stars, her father would hear her every plea, then she’d start asking me why he isn’t talking back. Then that snowballs into a whole other discussion that isn’t in the book.”

  “The permanence of death,” I said.

  “Yep. With a children’s book, you want the lesson and the outcome to be self-contained. You don’t want to have to pick up another book to explain a concept left over from the one you just read.”

  “So, why don’t you do it? The writing, I mean,” I asked.

  “Well, I got my promotion at work a few weeks ago, so it’s still fresh. The pay is better and gives me more paid vacation and schedule flexibility. It’s a good job for being a single mother at this point in Harper’s life. But I’m hoping the extra money I’m socking away into a savings account will help with bills and such when I do decide to take that plunge.”

  “I admire that. Planning ahead.”

  “Do you plan ahead?”

  I took a bite of my sandwich as I gathered my thoughts. What was I going to say? ‘Yes, I plan ahead on all the bank jobs I do so that I can live my life in financial and physical freedom from jail for all of the crimes I’ve committed.’

  Probably a buzzkill.

  “Not really a planner, unless you count my work schedule.” That wasn’t a full-out lie.

  “Ah, construction. Have you found work in town?” she asked.

  “There’s a new subdivision being built a little ways outside of town. They’re trying to develop this pretty barren area. The project got okayed a few months ago, but they’ve been struggling to find people to help with it.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “They aren’t putting up accommodations for anyone. With projects like this that are open for anyone to bid on them, there are usually housing accommodations for people who come from out of town. This project doesn’t have it. I don’t need the housing, but others do. They filled the last few slots a couple of weeks ago and I got the call that the project was underway.”

  “So here you are.”

  “Here I am,” I said with a grin.

  I felt bad for lying to Grace. I’d gotten used to lying to my father but lying to her was a different ballgame. I knew I had to lie if I was going to keep her around, so I could keep her safe from this job. The construction story was already built and centered around the reason I was back in town, so it meshed better with the stories I already had strung together in my head.

  But I wished I didn’t have to lie to Grace.

  I wished I had a life I could talk with her about. Honestly.

  “Do you think you’ll do construction for the rest of your life?” she asked.

  “I think so. I mean, I don’t hate it. I’d like to find a more permanent job somewhere though, instead of hopping around and dragging Jason with me. Maybe this opportunity will lead to a more stable position.”

  “You could go to college. Maybe get a two-year degree or something.”

  “You got something against construction?” I asked.

  “No. But I know how much you enjoyed drawing in high school. You were really good. Graphic design or something might suit you.”

  “Haven’t picked up that shit in ages,” I said, a ping of sadness at my core. I missed drawing, but my life right now just didn’t allow it.

  “That’s a shame. I loved all the drawings you did for me.”

  We picked at the food I brought for us as a comfortable silence fell on our conversation. It was nice, sitting with her again. It brought make memories of some of the happiest times of my life.

  Times before it all went to shit.

  And she looked vibrant in the pale moonlight. Her navy blue dress hugged every curve and accented her bright green eyes. It was nice, seeing her brown hair down more.

  She’d always wore it up in high school.

  A swift chill barreled over the hill and I saw Grace beginning to shiver. I wrapped a blanket around her and led her back to the car, then ran to grab everything up on top of the hill. I stuffed it all back in the trunk and went to start the car, but I saw she wasn’t in the passenger seat.

  She was in the back. I loaded the car up and joined her.

  “Remember how we used to always sit back here and talk after the games?” she asked.

  “I don’t remember much talking,” I said with a grin.

  “We talked. We did other things, too. But we talked,” she said, a sly grin crossing her face.

  “You know what conversation I remember?”

  “Which one?”

  “The one where I told you I aced my History exam and you didn’t believe me.”

  “Oh my gosh, I forgot about your nerd side!”

  “My nerd side. Thanks,” I said.

  “No, no, no. Do you still indulge in, you know—history stuff?”

  “
You mean, do I still go to museums and bore beautiful women with pointless facts?” I asked.

  “Come on. Do you?”

  “Yes to the museums, no to the boring of beautiful women.”

  “I never found those facts boring,” she said.

  “Good. Because I enjoyed sharing them with you.”

  I looked over at Grace as desire overcame us.

  Our faces were moving closer together, and soon her body was in my lap. I ran my hands up her back and tugged at her hair. Our tongues collided and wrapped around one another as my cock grew against her thighs. She was rolling into me, pressing her sweet curves into my strong frame. She ran her hands through my hair as my lips kissed down her neck, biting and sucking and lapping at the dip in her collar bone.

  The windows quickly fogged as I lay the two of us down. Her legs were spread for me as my lips met hers again. She forced my jacket off my shoulders and ran her hands up my shirt. I could feel her fingertips dancing along the chiseled marks of my abs.

  “Wow,” she said, with a whisper. “Fuck, Ryan.”

  I grinned into her neck before I kissed down her chest. I pulled her dress down just a smidge, allowing one of her breasts to pop out. I wrapped my lips around her nipple, stroking it to life until it was puckered to a luscious peak.

  But before I could taste anymore of her, I heard something vibrating.

  “That’s Amy. That’s— Amy. Hold on,” Grace said.

  I sat up as sweat began to break out on my forehead.

  “Sorry. Just—hold on,” she said.

  “Amy? Your—um—Anvil Amy?” I asked, breathlessly.

  “She’ll kill you if you call her that. Hold on. Yes, Amy? Harper?”

  I sat back in the seat as I raked my hand through my hair.

  “Yes, no. Are you okay? Where’s Amy? Mommy’s just out with a friend, sweetie. When am I coming home?”

  Grace looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders.

  “Um—I’ll head out in a few minutes, honey. Are you sure you’re okay? You miss Mommy? I miss you too, kiddo. It’s okay. No, no, don’t be sorry. Yes, Mommy’s friend understands.”

  I grinned as I pulled my jacket back over my shoulders.

  “Yes. I’m heading home now. I’ll be there soon, I promise.”

  Walking around to the other side of the car, I opened the door. I offered Grace my hand before I helped her out of the car. She was about to apologize with her doe eyes and her sorrowful look, but I silenced her with a small kiss to her lips.